A little god ray catches her eye. The sound of a river rushes to her ears. The smell of wet rock and dirt reaches her nose.

In her mind, everything is blank. Feeling like she is floating on the surface of the lake Butterfly one moment, next moment like she is sinking into its waters. How long has it been since she has felt like this, sleeping like a child without worry, she did not know.

Worry? Tomoe searches in her mind, but it comes completely blank. What is there to think about? To worry about? Wouldn’t be better to slip back into the darkness, lulled by song of the flowing river?

Water… flowing water… maybe after this nap, I’ll take Amelia and Titania and Bran and Lacus, and the five of us will have a nice evening riding the rivers… yeah, that sounds nice. I hope it doesn’t rain…

Tomoe stays in this thought. Rain. Yet the flowing river is everything she can hear. Something is not right.

Then, like a thunderbolt, the memories of everything that has just happened these last two days came back to her. Starting to fight the sinking waters of the lake, she struggles to stay on top. Delivering a jolt to her brain is also the fact that her throat feels completely dry, that she is unable to make a sound.

Pushing with both her hands, she grabs the shore of the lake, and immediately coughs up water that was still in her lungs.

Opening her eyes, she is greeted again by the little god ray, as little and thin as a thread of silk, hitting her in the eye.

The girl with the blonde-wavy hair tries to move her body, only to find that it is as if the ground started to embrace her, sinking into its arms.

“Looks like you’re awake.”

Tomoe turns her eyes in the direction that these words came from, only to find a familiar figure covered by a light shadow: Sophia, on her knees, and in front of her, Titania, also on the ground.

A rush of emotion raises through Tomoe throat, a tear starts overflowing her left eye, but when she tries to speak a word it only sends her into a coughing fit.

“Good to see you too” Sophia says, as a smile is drawn on her face. The shadow reveals that she doesn’t have any type of armor on.

Tomoe opens her mouth, only to find that incoherent mumbles came out of it.

“Don’t force it. Your body is numb now. You were struck by a force that far exceeded your Aura, and faster than your Aura could react. Whatever happened to you up there… I could feel it even way down here.”

Tomoe’s eyes open wide.

Sophia raises a hand “No, you’re not in danger, but take one step at a time. You have a blue Aura, bring out what is left and move little by little.”

It is true. I need to remember what I have.

Tomoe starts taking deep breaths and focusing only on the sound of the river going by. Closing her eyes, she brings her attention to her right hand, to her fingers.

Deep breaths, deep breaths, and now, my Aura.

Her blue Aura comes out, surrounding her body. She then retracts it, infusing her own body with it.

Focus… focus… as she keeps the fingers of her right hand on her mind feels the movements of my body, work with it.

The fingers of her right-hand twitch.

I see. I’m sunk a bit into the ground, it is making it harder for me to move.

Tomoe focuses on her left hand, and soon enough she liberates both.

She then takes a couple more deep breaths and starts saying “H-ho-ho…”

Sophia answers with a chuckle “weird time to start laughing, and whoever laughs like that?”

Tomoe lets a chuckle escape too, and taking another deep breath, she slowly says “how… is… Titania?”

“Ugh… seen better days for sure.” Tomoe can hear, although very faintly.

“You heard her” says Sophia.

“Good” says Tomoe, followed by a chuckle.

Need to be on my feet, right now.

She starts moving her entire body, imitating every time she has seen Brutus brace himself against the floor, although she still doesn’t know why he does that and has never bothered to ask.

I can feel my entire body now.

Stopping moving, she says “One, two… and!” as she struggles to escape the ground, in its entirety. She falls back.

Again!

She once again tries to get up. She fails again.

“Good, good, don’t stop now” She can hear Sophia say.

Again!

And finally breaks free from the floor, managing to move to the side and sit.

“Well done” says Sophia, seeing her and then turning to the spot where she was a moment ago, adding “Woah, look at that space were you butt was! Did it grow again?!”

Tomoe lets a slight chuckle escape, and then, recovering the serious expression on her face, she asks “how long has it been?”

“Since I found you? I would wager around an hour.”

Casting down her eyes, Tomoe says “So long” as a chilling feeling runs through her body.

“We need to go” Titania says.

“We? I can barely breathe, and you can barely move. Your Aura is just right now coming back” says Sophia.

“It doesn’t matter” says Titania, as she incorporates herself in position, and sits “we need to ring the disk that the statue is holding at lake Butterfly. Tomoe, do you have the bong?”

As she searches for it on her attire, Sophia brings the bong out, having had it on her side all along.

“Thought it was important, so I took it right away so it wouldn’t be taken away by the river.”

Titania sighs, and says “Thanks, it would have been a problem for everyone if we lost it.”

“Can you move Titania?” Tomoe asks.

“I can, but I can’t ride the river down to lake Butterfly. I have barely enough to make a bubble around me, it is going to be impossible for me right now to actually move the waters, the consumption of Aura is just too high.”

“I’ll need to carry you then” says Tomoe.

“That will not be a problem for you, our best river rider” Titania says with a smirk on her face.

“You girls will have to go ahead” says Sophia.

“Not enough Aura?” says Titania.

“Can barely breath. I had enough to forcefully engage your Aura Titania, so you would recover it faster and heal, but I’ll take a long while before actually being able to move again” as she says this, she puts herself against the wall, facing both girls, revealing her stomach, were a lot of dried blood can be seen, and the traces of a savage injury.

Titania and Tomoe’s eyes open wide, and Tomoe says “Are you holding well? This injury… was it a magic beast?”

“No, no. We were…” says Sophia, as she takes a moment to stop, take a deep breath, and continues “we were ambushed by the enemy inside the temple. They swapped in an instant and got the drop on us.”

“Is your life still in danger?” says Tomoe.

“I’m finally out of danger girl, but the state is delicate, I’m recovering Aura at a slower pace thanks to this, and getting the entirety of what I recover focused into healing. I’ll be fine, but I can’t move from here.”

Tomoe stands and stretches her right arm towards Sophia. At that moment, Titania also manages to stand, stumbling a bit and reaches Tomoe’s hand first.

“Don’t.”

“What?, but-” Starts saying Tomoe.

“She’s right Tomoe” Sophia says, interrupting her “my life isn’t on danger, not anymore.”

“We need every ounce of your Aura in order to get back” says Titania “I can fight, but I can’t ride the river towards the lake. Think of the big picture here Tomoe” she adds while breathing heavily.

“Don’t worry about me. You have the bong, you need to sound the disk, that is your mission, the best for all of us… I may find Lady Aquamarine to be a strange woman, but at least she is one on which I can put my faith on. If she says to sound the disk, go and do exactly that.”

Tomoe’s hand flinches, then stops. Sophia handles the bong to her, and says “though, if we get technical, I have the bong.”

Tomoe gives a wry smile and takes it, saying “Take good care of yourself, master.”

“I will. Now, go” Sophia says.

Turning to Titania, she sees her holding her hand forward, and Titania says “Come on, I need your help here.”

Taking her hand, Titania says “Thanks” as both come closer to the river. Both engaging their Auras, Titania infuses the water of the river, forming a stationary water bubble around her. Tomoe infuses the water too and tames the water of the river into giving her space to enter without the risk of being taken away by it. Titania enters too in this dried space, still holding Tomoe’s hand.

“Good luck girls!” Sophia says, waving at both of them.

“Good luck to you too” says Tomoe, as Titania embraces her by the waist and both enter into the underground river.

Shadows cover her eyes.

The lake isn’t far, but my head isn't still working well... better to take it slow and sure.

Using her own Aura and Water Taming, she rides the underground river slowly, letting the light of her Aura uncover her way. The rush of water pushes her, and with Water Taming, she lets the excess go by, around the bubble that Titania is holding up. Moss covers the walls of the underground river. No fish on sight.

"Need to avoid those” She whispers, as she sees the edged edges of the walls.

Sooner than she expected, a rush suddenly pushes them both forward.

This is it, the final stretch, the end of this river!

The bubble is getting smaller and smaller. Tomoe notices that she is breathing heavily, and Titania’s embrace is getting lose. She holds both of her arms tightly.

“Need to get soon out of here” she murmurs, as sweat comes falling from her forehead, while she keeps navigating the intricate cave the river runs through, going faster before they both end up without air.

She makes another turn and sees what she wanted to see, a sight that she has seen many times before: Light, at the end of the tunnel. Taking speed, she jumps right at it, finally getting to lake Butterfly.

As Tomoe swims at the bottom of the lake, the light comes through from the surface. She can see that the clouds from before have already covered the entire place, coming to the conclusion that they should be also covering the city below.

Seeing how the bubble is getting smaller, reaching their bodies, and Titania keeps loosing strength, Tomoe water tames a hole from the surface all the way to their position, letting air get through.

“Aaaah, sweet, sweet air” Titania says, as she takes a couple of deep breaths, and strength comes back to her arms.

“How are you holding up?”

“For a moment I thought I was a goner. Thanks for holding me back there” Titania says, as she rests her head in Tomoe’s stomach for a moment, adding “What the, how did you get these abs?!”

Tomoe chuckles, replying “I awakened my Aura late in my teens, guess that had to do with me having more muscle than the average.”

Titania snickers. She looks up, and suddenly she puts a hand on Tomoe’s shoulder, whispering “Close the hole, fast!”

Tomoe does so, and after that, Titania points towards the surface. Looking in that direction, Tomoe sees the shore of the lake, and a couple of figures shadowed by the light coming in.

“As expected” says Titania.

“The army we saw from the belfry.”

Titania, looking to the sides, then points to another direction, and says “We need to still ring that disk, so we better stay around instead of taking the river back to the city.”

Tomoe turns, seeing the space from was the second river goes off into the forest.

“Let's go” she says, pointing towards it.

“Keep it to the ground, the closer we are to the shadows of the deep, the better” Titania says as she nods and both move into a better position.