[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

While the food cooked and everyone waited, Arath was done eating and decided to focus on the tanning process. The work continued until midnight when Hyacinth prepared protective sigils and everyone fell asleep in separate sub-grottoes... but it wasn't for long.

Noemi woke up, unbelievably hot and sweating. Her blood flow was increased, hormones were going crazy and it was like a fire was burning in her veins. Her head was dizzy and she couldn't think properly. The girl understood many of the symptoms, but their surging intensity and uncontrollable side effects were atypical.

Noemi was sure it had to be the food, she just didn't expect the sickness to be 'of this type'. She recalled how Hyacinth mentioned his miraculous powers and walked up to the place where he should be sleeping, but didn't find him.

“I will not endure it.” - The girl whispered to herself in pain. The impulses were growing too strong and If she decided to take an extra step to prevent it, she would break the village taboo. She wanted to hold back. - “Maybe Pavaja knows where he is...” - Noemi moved to the leftmost cave and peeked, but it was her mistake. Her face instantly flushed red.

She wouldn't find help there. Not for a long while. It actually made the matters worse. Noemi moved away. She needed somewhere cold, very, very cold.

The girl recalled a water basin at the crossroads.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

Noemi's extended arms were resting at the edges of the basin, her armor, shield, weapons, and clothes were on the left. Everything below her neck was concealed below the water. Noemi's long, usually pinned up hairs were now spread on the surface of the water.

Noemi closed her eyes and rested. The dim lights of flora accentuated the slender features of the girl's silhouette. She had a blissful, relaxed expression, but it didn't last long. Her hands moved to the knees. - “Damn it!” - The strength of malady was unnatural and hard to withstand. The girl's talons dug deep into her flesh, to the point of bleeding, but they soon let go and moved away, to the thighs...

...that's when unannounced intruded barged in.

“WHAT THE HELL!!!?” - Noemi shouted and blushed at an instant. Her hands moved back to the sides of her legs. She looked in front of her, it was Arath, carrying two drinks. - “What are you doing here!?”

“There is a way to relieve your ailment... so I'm here to help.”

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND!?” - Noemi yelled aggressively, her cheeks were flushed fully red.

“Calm down, our condition requires a treatment.” - Arath responded, in a perfectly calm voice.

“GET OUT OF HERE, CREEP!” - Without revealing herself, Noemi grabbed a spear with both hands, then pointed it at the man.

“Whatever.” - Arath didn't care, he put down one of the drinks... - “Remember to take the medicine.” - ...and left.

“Medicine?” - Noemi whispered out, embarrassed, and facepalmed. - “Noemi, you're a dumb-dumb...”

[ ––––––––– ֎ Day 89 ––––––––– ]

Noemi woke up quite late, fatigued and irritated. She checked surroundings, Arath was sleeping like a log, unbothered by her noise.

Pavaja and Hyacinth weren't there.

“Arath!” - Noemi shook Arath gently, waking him up.

“What?”

“Where did Hyacinth and Pavaja go?”

“They went to take a bath and find stuff to eat.”

“Ah, okay...” - Noemi kept a poker face.

Arath yawned. - “I'm not waiting, do you want some of the leftovers?”

Noemi's eye twitched, she looked at Arath like a crazy person. - “Don't you have enough after yesterday?”

“It's not an issue. Nectar of that weed...” - He took the bioluminescent white plant out of his backpack. - “...cures and prevents the aftereffects. It should be used as the base of the sauce.”

“No! Forget it. Just throw these away.”

“Fine, I'll eat these alone.”

“Arath!” - The girl gave the man a grave look. - “Don't make me repeat myself. Don't dare to touch it. Dump it to water.”

Arath looked at the girl and didn't respond, he just picked oysters and moved to the tunnel. Noemi joined to keep an eye on him.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

While Arath and Noemi returned, they met Pavaja and Hyacinth just at the crossroads. They were carrying plenty of unknown, colorful fishes, chatting cheerfully, and holding hands.

Noemi smiled awkwardly and waved to welcome them. She promised herself to never mention yesterday's incident.

“Nice catch.” - Arath came closer and commented after examining the fishes. There was a massive rainbow carp, a couple of trouts, a variety of algae, and a dozen deep-water fruits. - “Where did you find it?”

“We stole it from a tripod fisher!” - Hyacinth replied.

Noemi moved closer to Pavaja. The elf smiled and Noemi smiled back, lightly, then helped to carry the fish. The group moved back to hydra lair.

“What's in the plans for today, chief?” - Hyacinth asked, his voice appeared more confident.

“A light soup. I'll marinate the carp for a dinner.” - Arath responded. - “It should be ready by the time I finish the tailoring.”

“Are you saying that we've to stay here longer?” - Noemi asked.

“Yes.” - Arath confirmed and moved to cut hydra's leather. - “About half of a day.”

“Excellent, a lot of time for an after-breakfast siesta...” - Noemi commented, covered her mouth and yawned, then stretched her arms behind her back.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

After finishing Noemi's satchel, Arath used the larger remaining portion of the creature's hide to strengthen the durability of his adventurer outfit by padding the interior. The protective layer of scaly hide could be well seen through gaps in clothing or torn parts.

The party was on the move once again, they returned to the oyster cave and traveled through the chambers, following the path where the wind was coming from, until arriving at a stone bridge that formed an exit to outside waters. The second end of the bridge led to another cave, where two engraved columns had been erected. On their surface was an inscription in bluish, glowing runes, typical for the ancient language. Between the columns was an entrance in the shape of an arc, its top also had enigmatic sentences written all over it.

In the front of a hollowed doorway stood a guardian spirit. It was a filly of a water horse. Its frontal legs had hoofs and fins, while rear legs were replaced by a long and magnificent tail with a fin-like mane. The horse's scaly, reflective skin was glistering brightly, in all colors of blue and silver.

The animal was asleep, but it clearly posed a problem, since it blocked the passage.

Noemi read the only part of the inscription that she was able to understand.

“Shrine of...” - She looked at the symbol of name indicator - “I s-s a n d r e.”

Pavaja was in shock, she abruptly knelt and started a prayer in form of a eulogy.

Noemi didn't dare to interrupt, but she was clearly confused, so Hyacinth started explaining.

“Issandre is supposed to be a dead elven deity, patroness of rains. A goddess that was frozen, shattered to thousand pieces, and made into the stars, when the 'Sky Fall', that is the creation of labyrinth, happened. Dead gods don't have guardians... I have no idea what's going on here.”

Pavaja stood up. She was done with the prayer, but she had a request. - “Each of us should give a guardian an offering. According to chronicles, it'll grant us passage If our relationship with Issandre isn't unfriendly.”

The elven girl took out a pouch with golden powder and put it in the middle of a bridge. Hyacinth offered a mahogany scarf, while Noemi offered her new satchel. Arath had nothing to give, so he just put some leftover fruits.

The Kelpie slowly opened its eyes, rose its body, and moved to sniff the items.

In a single elegant hop, half-horse reduced the distance between her and the party, who awaited the verdict. The animal glanced at the adventurers for a moment, then revealed rows of its dark and uneven, curved, spike teeth. Kelpie's third eyelid blinked and the sclera of its eyes turned black. Eight glowing runes on both sides of the animal's ribs began to glow with white light.

The beast leaped at the nearest person, that is Pavaja, and directed its barbed jaw at her, but was stopped by Noemi's javelin and dropped dead.

“I don't understand...” - Pavaja was in a state of shock, cold sweat was running down her face. - “It's... like it got possessed.”

Hyacinth moved to examine the body. - “It could've been drugged.”

“Blasphemy... who could've done it?” - Pavaja wondered. - “If that's the case, we would not be alone here.”

“Yeah, it might be getting dangerous.” - Hyacinth responded and readied his scepter.

Noemi prepared her spear too. - “I will lead the way inside.”

Arath moved behind the group, making sure he'll not participate in any possible incoming combat.

[ ––––––––– ЖЖ ––––––––– ]

Noemi crossed the archway, the interior of the cave was covered in primitive drawings made of dried blood and otherwise empty. On the left was a path to a corridor, so Noemi called her team to follow.

As the group traveled, the walls and ceiling of the corridor gradually disappeared, revealing the outside lake. At its opposite side was a long row of waterfalls with origin high at the ceiling of the main cave that contained the whole third layer.

It was possible to spot ruins of numerous ancient structures from up close now and a familiar colossal fallen column could be spotted far in the distance, signaling that the party isn't yet even halfway through the cave.

When looking underwater, it was possible to notice new flora and fauna, with main representatives being half-meter wide jellyfishes of pink and purple color.

The uneventful travel through a narrow path ended in a crescent corridor, whose ceiling and wall sealed in a similar way to the start of the passage. Similarly, the path led to a chamber nigh mirror to the last one.

Inside it, to the right, right under the wall, was a hemispherical, underwater tunnel.

In the center, there was an altar with a rotting head of decapitated nautilus, pierced by a ritual bone dagger and with its eyes gouged out.

At the rear, another small lair was located with nothing inside other than a single oval puddle.

Everyone, excluding Arath who just sat down in the nearest corner, began exploring the surroundings.

Noemi examined the submerged tunnel to figure out its depth and where it might be heading. She crouched next to a hole, then tilted her head to get a better angle. There was a narrow beam of light indicating that the underwater pathway might be connected to a different section of the dungeon.

In the meantime, after clearing the defiled altar, Pavaja cleaned it thoroughly and offered a silent prayer to Issandre.

Hyacinth on the other hand approached the puddle. Its bottom had a slightly creamy color, in a lighter shade of surrounding stone. Under the surface of the water was a large, white pearl as large as a fist.

“What a nice find, Pavaja will love it.” - Hyacinth reached for the gemstone.

A split second has passed, Hyacinth heard two loud cracks and looked at his hands.

They were trapped between shells of a large clam that mimicked a puddle. The bones of his forearms were crushed into a fine dust when clam slammed shut and his arms were trapped.

After an initial second of shock, cantor's brain processed what happened and his agonizing scream echoed throughout the cave, altering everyone.

Noemi and Pavaja rushed to help, there was no delay, only Arath marched inside slowly to make sure that the girls are handling the potential danger instead of him.

In terror, Pavaja covered her lips with both palms, her eyes teared.

On the contrary, Noemi wasted no time, dropped her equipment, and forced her fingers into a centimeter wide crevice, in an attempt to prey the clam open. She couldn't open it.

“Pavaja, please help me!” - She called.

Pavaja nodded twice, crying, and joined, but joint efforts were useless, the shell didn't even budge.

“Do you want to lose your fingers too?” - Arath commented from behind, totally unbothered by the critical situation.

“Shut up and help us!” - Noemi rebuked him.

Arath refused. - “Purposeless. Freeing his arms won't heal them.”

Pavaja's cry became more hysterical.

“Arath, don't make me angry.” - Noemi shouted in a furious voice.

“There's only one proper way to do this.” - Arath coldly stated. - “Amputation.”

Noemi was silent. She knew Arath had a medical background, but still tried to force the clam open.

“Gods, please, not his hands...” - Pavaja stuttered, her cheeks were wet from tears. - “....save them.”

Arath felt like he needs to take control of the situation. He approached Hyacinth, then asked calmly. - “Do you agree on the procedure. It'll hurt, I've no anesthetics.”

Cantor's sweaty face was deadly pale, his eyes rolled to the side, to look at Arath's dispassionate expression. - “Yes.” - He whispered out, in an awfully faint voice.

Pavaja overheard it, covered her face, and cried.

“Noemi, I've one request.” - Arath spoke. - “Take Pavaja away and tell her to wait outside, then return here to assists me.” - He said in a low voice after the lizard came closer, so the elf wouldn't hear.