I slowly push myself to my feet, shaking my head to dislodge the sudden grogginess I feel. It’s as though I’d been lying in the water for hours, but I’m certain I just crashed through…

The rage is gone, burned out in my brief, destructive rampage. All that’s left is a dull sense of tranquility… which is odd, considering it should probably be guilt.

Something warm and wet hits the top of my head, and I look up to see rain has started falling. Warm, soothing rain. Quite the contrast to the cold and lightning that accompanied rain in the rolling hills. Maybe it would be worth having a permanent fort here…

The soft plinking of water into water accompanies me while I look around. The lake itself is very clear, and I can see all the way across to the other side despite the near pitch darkness. Beyond the edges of the lake, a calm fog blankets the land… even the way I just came from is almost completely obfuscated. It strikes me as odd that neither of these strange occurrences bother me in any way.

In the center of the lake, deep underwater, something starts to glow. A deep blue light pervades the water, growing brighter as it nears and finally breaches the surface. A wall of water rises with it, shielding it from all sides except the one facing me. As I watch, the water around the wall seems to pull away, creating a circular waterfall flowing into a moat of air, with this strange water structure in the center.

The motion stops, and I blink with a start, as if broken from a trance. I wait, curious to see if it will continue, but nothing changes. The water from the lake continues to flow into the strange void, and although the wall is open for my side, the distance across the air moat is… large. I would never be able to get across submerged in water, and I have this… instinctual knowledge that I don’t want to fall into that air moat.

I take a step forward, turning my eyes downward so I can check the depth, only to find that I’m already standing in water at least five feet deep… but the water only comes up to my ankles. I press down with one foot, and the layer of seemingly stronger water gives slightly, but flows back into place when I remove the pressure.

My footsteps join the gentle plinking of rain on water. Unwilling to disturb the beautiful ambiance, I carefully take each step to avoid making any undue noise. The feeling of warm water on my feet, and the constant rain from above reminds me how long it’s been since I got to just relax and let a downpour take away my suffering. Even my dance with the water elementals can’t compare to the comfort of steaming water under a rainy night sky. Looking up, I can see the stars overhead… the gleaming lights from some alien rings. I close my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and enjoy the sensation. Everything falls away in the face of tranquility.

*Thump*...*Thump*... I release the breath I was holding in, brought back to reality by the sure beating of my heart.

The rest of the walk to the edge of the moat passes too quickly. I wish I could linger.

Peering over the edge, I see not the lake floor, but an inky darkness that sends an involuntary shiver down my spine. But… it isn’t the same darkness. This is rejection. Denial. There’s much less to be feared.

Raising my head, I note that the gap is at least ten feet wide, and although the water flows down, into the moat of air, it disappears shortly after going over the edge. The light glimmers in the center, beckoning with its alluring color.

Greeting. Question.

The thoughts suddenly appear in my head, though I’m certain I didn’t think them.

Healing. Growth. Life.

It’s… communicating with concepts. Similar to how Kaythe first talked to me, but with no aural component. I lift my hand and lightly prick my finger on a newly formed thorn on my bracelet. Holding out the wound to the light, I quickly heal it with Energy. Oddly, a soft, green light emanates from the wound as I do it.

Interested, I combust some Energy, and find that my entire body glows a dull gold. I raise burn rate more, and the golden light grows in equal measure. I can’t rival the deep blue, but in a small radius around me, our colors combine to be a brilliant white.

I let the burn grow cool again, letting blue become the dominant color again.

Joy. Healing. Ecstasy. Growth. Curiosity. Life.

Ah, it agrees with my demonstrations of healing and growth, but although I can put pieces of myself into nonliving things, like my sword, I’m not creating life like Thetzeke. I shake my head.

Satisfaction.

From the depths in front of me, stone steps rise up, sequentially falling into place to create a path across. Although I’m sure I could have jumped it by burning Energy, I feel like that would have been considered cheating, and I would have automatically failed. The stone steps feel cool on my soles, and though they’re covered in water, my feet grip well against them and I have no fear of falling.

The water is warmer still when I reach the other side, and I’m certain that isn’t just because of the cool stone contrasting it. Where there was only a minor temperature gradient on the way to the edge of the moat, it suddenly jumped substantially now that I’m within the walls.

Healing. New. Unseen. Growth. New. Unseen. Curiosity. Companionship.

“You… want to join me?”

Healing. Experience. Growth. Experience. Agreement.

Something inside me… my Water Affinity… lights up like a bonfire, pushing me forward, but I force my hand not to reach out and grasp the light like I so badly want to. I don’t trust it.

Instead, a compromise. I don’t know what it intends to do, but if I have a torrent of Energy ready in my hand, there’s little that can harm me.

With my hand burgeoning with as much Energy as it can hold, I reach out and touch the light.

Searing pain shoots through my hand, destroying a substantial chunk of the Energy I had there, but whatever it was failed to pass through. The light affixes to my palm when I snatch it back, still blinding in its brilliance. All around, the lake starts to fall away into the void, starting with the shore and moving rapidly in. I shake my hand, shoving more and more Energy into it to try and stop the burning, but it doesn’t work. The water floor beneath me breaks, and the light falls with me into the abyss.