The sky looked wrong. It moved, casting light. Or is it me? Did the pain break my mind? It was possible. While Giliad traveled through the Fourth Region he heard stories of Aka Manahi and their unmatched brutality. These were the people who broke the minds of others. If they can be called people…

“I see that you awoke.”

That voice… Giliad shot to his feet and instantly regretted it. The wound inflicted by the water woman wasn’t healed yet. This means not much time has passed since the attack. Good.

Giliad sat down on the edge of a real bed and looked around. The place was spacious like a common room of a tavern but with a much higher … ceiling. The ceiling was a problem. It wasn’t a sky as Giliad wrongly had guessed before. It was water. He stood beneath the lake and there was nothing between him and the liquid.

“What kind of alchemy does it?”

The woman grimaced. She wore a milky dress that badly covered her milky, smooth skin. Unlike before, this time her body seemed solid. No water was dripping on the tiled floor. Giliad made a note of this but didn’t mention it. Her back leaned against the counter of a wooden worktop. The room looked like a combination of a kitchen and a common room.

“I don’t think alchemy is capable of this. I told you. I am an Awakened Spirit of Water. I’m in command of all the water around us. Including the one I put inside you.”

It took Giliad a titanic effort to not shiver at hearing her words. He remembered vaguely that her name started with ‘A’ and she was awakened something, but this was right before he’d lost his consciousness. Hearing it now, sent a chill into his bones. And this stuff inside me. Seeing what Giliad had seen didn’t offer too much optimism, so there was a tiny chance that she lied.

“You guys are a myth now.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, leaning on the worktop and exposing her half-naked bust. It looked like those Awakened Spirits didn’t care much for modesty but neither did Giliad. He stood up and got a better look at the surroundings. The sturdy tiles on the ground were cut in large squares with minimal gloss, but the walls had much smaller grey tiles with a mirror-like reflective quality. If Giliad wasn’t mistaken, then to keep such a tidiness, would require a hard work. She couldn’t live here just by herself.

“Two thousand years…” she mused, tapping her index finger against her lips. “Do you understand that I was … tricked? Betrayed.”

“If you’re a part of the water, why do you keep this place so pristine?” Giliad decided to not take the bait and force his subject. Whatever schemes she’d been a part of, they had nothing to do with him.

“You’re a rude one, aren’t you?”

Giliad almost spread his arms but that gesture was meant to offend and he didn’t wish to offend this creature. No matter how hard he thought about his situation, he was trapped beneath the lake with water she could control inside his body. Fighting his way out of here was impossible. And I stupidly wanted to go against the empire.

“A nasty habit of mine.”

“Killing you now would take less than a snap of my fingers. A single mental command and your life would drain away.”

“And yet you keep me alive, woman.”

It was a gamble on Giliad’s part. He didn’t like it as he wasn’t a gambler but being nice would save his neck. He’d seen people shedding away their dignity to save their families and how little it’d aided them.

She tsked, visibly annoyed. Giliad withstood her stare and waited. It lasted maybe twenty heartbeats but she finally said, “Yes. I’d planned to kill you when you had entered the village, but everything changed. Somehow, your kind managed to steal the Awakened Power from us.”

Her words left much unsaid. If Giliad relied on his instinct it’d tell him that it wouldn’t end well for him. He gave a good look at the floating ceiling. If the light got through, it couldn’t be that deep. Maybe ten paces deep. The ceiling itself was not higher than four paces. Giliad could easily reach it. The Royalbloods possessed strong legs and he’d jumped over much higher obstacles in the past.

“The last thing I’d like to steal was some mythological power.”

“Were you born with it?” Akame’ye Accia inquired.

“First of all, I don’t feel like I have some power inside me. Secondly, if I do, then I guess, I caught it somewhere. This region is full of strange plants.”

Her laugh that followed his words was bitter and hollow. She was not amused. Eventually, she moved away from the worktop, beckoning Giliad to follow her. He would rather not, but he wasn’t in a position to be fussy. The room ended with a door. Beyond it was a narrow corridor with bare walls. It led them into another, more intimate room with a hearth and comfortable-looking armchairs. He kept reminding himself that they were beneath the lake. How someone managed to build it all with all the water above? Even with the Awakened Power, this seemed farfetched.

“What’s this place?”

She took one armchair and pointed at the other one.

“Before you sit down, start a fire. I hate it.”

The place was very dry. A plan started formulating in his mind. A few seconds later, a fire began happily cracking in the hearth. The wood next to it had not seen water in ages. Why was that? What kept her from using her power here? Once finished with the task, Giliad claimed the second armchair. Its softness spooked him which evoked a shadow of a smile on the woman’s face.

“As for your question, boy, this place is called Hygia Salia. The last residence of Ull Ghis and the vault of his impressive knowledge.”