Darkness had finally finished clouding the dusk of a brand new night. With night full upon them, Kori and Fiona began their approach to the Diamond Falls.

Unfortunately, having been all business this trip, Kori hadn’t found any opportunity to hold a discussion with their pilot. Instead, they were left in the viewing bay in the upper level of the small shuttle, giving the pilot a quiet sanctuary in the level below. The guy would be back in around two hours to pick them up, enough time to shuttle another passenger. In addition to their pilot, even Fiona had been especially quiet the entire flight, visibly captured by her own thoughts. The combined silence made the trip feel generally awkward for Kori, who was generally hoping to work on a plan together while they travelled. She was honestly worried that Fiona might have still been a little sleepy, considering how much she was spacing out like this. From a distance, she could see exactly how much of the falls they had to work with, it wasn’t even a surprise. Diamond Falls was one of the most important sources of Serenity lakes, a lake which got a lot of usage around here during the Diatal solar season. However, during the Noctal solar season, the entire river itself was frozen solid in a gradual freeze in sheets at the falls as the river struggled between its own water pressure and the growing intensity of the cold, leaving a frozen scene of falling water suspended in midair. Such was how the falls had earned their name too, the scene of glistening water captured in solid shimmering ice looking akin to diamonds, a detail they could see in all intensity once they started to walk around the basin of the falls..

“My word, now that’s something. Can we get a closer look?” “Sure, but make sure you stay bundled up tight. We’re going to be here for a couple hours, wouldn’t want you to catch a cold or something.” “Oh of course, I’m the only one that has to worry about getting sick here. You conduits really are lucky, I hope you know that.” Fiona was making reference to how Kori wasn’t actually human. The people of earth, those were humans, but the people of Aestus were something else. Sure, Kori appeared mostly humanoid, it was sometimes easy for her to hold herself as another human, but the biggest distinction remained the special plasma network going through her body, a second kind of blood. This azure blue left faint patterns in a few distinct locations on her body, mostly on the back of her hands and the top of her feet. She even had a slight protrusion on her forehead from the plasma core that protruded slightly as a tiny crystalline shape, itself made mostly of crystallized oxygen. She could hide her cortex easily with the right hairstyle, or even a headband, though such features were more than just decoration. This special plasma system provided her with considerably better resistance to harsh conditions, including both the diatal heat and the noctal chill, while supposedly keeping her extra safe from catching a variety of illnesses. However, it wasn’t to say that such a system came without flaws, the much more pure plasma system of humans did what such blood did best much easier in their case. Humans were remarkable in how quickly they could heal injuries or how easily they could endure climates with low oxygen levels. As is, her glasses were quickly fogging up due to the intensity of her own breathing in the stagnant air.

With a quick motion, a holo panel appeared in front of Kori, and a flurry of motions after that had landed her with some basic survival equipment that had almost materialized out of the air. That done, she carried the light heat lamp over to Fiona, letting the human share in the warmth. Sure, being called conduits was a sort of slang name for her otherwise alien species, but it was actually better than the more scientific name. Homo Caeli, like Homo Sapien, but actually stupid. Literally too, it meant she was an airhead. Such probably originated by that small detail about having crystalized oxygen on her forehead, but society really took that idea on a very different angle. Getting called an airhead was actually normal for her people, making the alternative of Conduit at least garnish much more respect. If it was anyone other than Fiona, she would probably hear stupid jokes about her glasses being so fogged up cause she was such an airhead, it wouldn’t have been the first time. Instead, Fiona was captivated by the still image before her, taking artistic notes of every detail for future reference, hardly even noticing the sudden warmth provided for her benefit. After a few quick notes, she would suddenly go searching for another spot even closer, providing a new and fresh perspective.

At a point, Kori discovered that the day would include balancing practice, Fiona having gone right out onto the ice to get the most up close view possible. At this point, there were standing among the cascades of water sheets frozen all over. The waterfall itself was still sheets suspended in layers in the air, but a number of splashes around them had frozen into very complicated piles in the most spontaneous arrangement of tiny white ice towers. Fiona went straight up to the water sheets itself, looking carefully at the decorative white mist patterns captured within the ice, taking even more notes. However, in all her excitement, she had found herself in a position of precarious footing without the right precautions against slipping. The inevitable happened, causing Fiona to tumble into the waterfall barrier itself. Kori however was right there beside her, grasping her hand for balance even as she started to stumble. However, such wasn’t enough to save the day, the two girls both getting carried in the momentum. Slamming hard against the ice fall together shattered it, causing them to slide into a small alcove on the other side. There, they found themselves on a slope coated with pure ice leading into an underground cavern, with inertia still working against them.

Kori had seen that there was a much more shallow slope in the cavern, effectively devoid of ice in the process, but the water flow from the falls had painted off a side path that went downwards at a much more dramatic angle. Sliding down the icy path in a rapid descent, the two girls quickly found themselves in a snowbank at the bottom. The walls of the cavern shimmered with the reflection of light on ice, but otherwise remained conspicuously dark. To address such a problem, Kori made a quick motion to call upon some Nanite support.. but there was no response. She personally hadn’t known there was a cavern here at all, and was pretty sure no one else knew of its existence either, this was quite the accidental discovery.. but that did mean that her nanites weren’t designed to be responsive in this area, and probably weren’t even present. The two of them really were on their own. Help might come in about two hours, but help wouldn’t even know where to look for them, and certainly wouldn’t have the equipment to brave such a path too. Organizing a practical search party would take several more hours. Meanwhile, she was already starting to feel really cold, something which would have been far and all worse for Fiona. Something was keeping this cave at such a low temperature to make even the surface look warm and cozy. They simply couldn’t afford to simply wait for a rescue, they would freeze far quicker than that. Instead, they would have to keep moving, to try and locate another path back to the upper levels of the cave.

“Are you doing okay?” “My word I’m dizzy. Also, it really got cold real quick, didn’t it?” “It did, so we need to keep moving. Can you stand?” “Oh, yeah, makes sense. Sounds like you already have an idea for getting out of here.” “Close to nothing, why?” “Oh, so it’s that bad, huh? Oh well, no helping things then. Complaining won’t get us out of here any faster, so lead the way.” Kori did exactly as Fiona requested, taking the lead in what was initially their only way forward. After hardly any travel at all, they found their first fork in the path, quickly followed by even more forks. The caverns almost appeared to divide indefinitely, going everywhere and nowhere at both the same time. Without any guide to measure from, it was also difficult to determine if they were even going in circles as the trail took them up and down through a complex network.

“This is clearly nature’s way of saying we don’t belong here.” “I’m sorry my planet seems to have taken offense like this, alright?” “Don’t worry, this isn’t your fault. I’m the one that slipped back there. Really though, I’ll figure this out, don’t you worry about it.” Fiona was so obviously trying to hide her concerns, Kori could tell very easily. Even so, she wasn’t about to bring it up, it would be important to remain strong and provide an unending resolve in the face of such danger. If Fiona was going to work so hard to pick up the slack in that area, Kori wasn’t about to be left behind in that either. The two of them continued on their path all while Fiona visibly got colder and colder, coughing slightly as they travelled. At a notable point though, the path began to narrow rapidly and simply ascend upwards. However, this path which held so much potential suddenly swiftly ended in a cave in, rocks having tumbled in their way to suddenly block their path. This was the point where Fiona’s determination was all but spent, the cold having taken its toll on her as is. She found a spot to sit at the side of the path, visibly looking to have given up wordlessly.

With Fiona having stepped aside, Kori decided that it was her turn to step forward. Kori simply refused to give up so easily, she wasn’t about to let them down after having come so far. She took a glance over the pile of stones, quickly determining that this was a point of slope from the area above that had settled rocks onto the path, and the rocks had gotten stuck trying to slide down to the right. Of course, just like Fiona, if the problem was in the inability to keep going, Kori would just need to lend a hand in keeping things moving. Bashing hard against the barrier from the right angle, she managed to set loose the collection of rocks, resulting in a cascade reaction of falling rocks. An opening formed before them, so Kori swiftly grabbed Fiona’s hand and brought her through it. Soon after they passed through, their retreat was quickly blocked off with new rocks having taken the place of the old. Not just that, but every step felt like a rumble, like the cavern was getting ready to drop even more rocks upon them.

“Okay, we’re doomed.” “Why are you giving up so soon, we made it past that barrier?” “Don’t you hear that rumbling? All that rock came from somewhere, it was perfectly content to sit there.. and now it isn’t. We’re going to have a landslide on our head any moment now, it’s just inevitable at this point. Stuff like this is always a chain reaction. Worse, all that rock probably came from the way out, meaning that we just lost our path. We are officially stuck between a rock and a hard place.” “We aren’t stuck until we can prove there is no more path. Rocks falling change nothing either, this has been a race against the cold already, now we just have even more reasons to not stop. We’ve made it this far already, so certainly we just need to keep up the pace and we’ll be out of here no problem.” Fiona was looking at Kori like she had gone insane. Kori however honestly saw no reason to call it quits until they either made it or perished. While a path still existed, she would walk it. Fiona had sparked that feeling of inspiration within Kori, Kori was determined to not let such a spark just fade away. Fueled by such resolve, Kori took to the lead and guided them to an underground plateau way high above a cold chasm depth. A swift chilling air current passed over the plateau from below, the latest threat that tried to invite them to an even swifter of a death.

Set into the ground in the center of the plateau was some kind of naturally-formed altar, a haze of sparks forming with the arch of the altar. Visibly curious at this point, Fiona stepped forward to get a closer look at the strange anomaly. Once close enough, the subtle haze started to fizzle away, revealing something decidedly not natural that had been hidden within. There, sitting upon the altar was something akin to a strange jigsaw cube.. except for being golden and a sphere. The entire contraption looked decidedly mechanical at that too, though it looked like whatever task it might have had had long ceased, the multitude of blank panels spanning the device having long ago lost whatever purpose they might have had. At that moment, Fiona reached towards the strange novel, ready to pick it up.. and then hesitated. With a firm step backwards, she turned to observe the anomaly once again.. and then stumbled as the wind returned with a refreshed vengeance. Kori then rushed forwards, grabbing Fiona’s hand with her right hand and grasping the altar for support with her left. Her left hand stumbled slightly, but such winds were short lived, so when she stumbled, grasping the strange anomaly instead, the winds had already dissipated.

Quickly, Kori found her hand freezing around the anomaly, coating in a pure white frost. Being so perfectly frozen, she found herself unable to drop the strange anomaly, and the frost was rapidly climbing up her arm. Fiona rushed over to help pry the thing out of Kori’s grasp, but it just turned on her instead with an even more intense vigor. In the blink of an eye, Kori found herself standing beside a white ice sculpture of her best friend, the anomaly itself having slipped away in the chaos. Seconds later, that same sculpture shattered into tiny flakes of frost, leaving all of Fiona’s possessions behind.

In a faint desperation, her resolve finally broken, Kori rushed to pick up the remains of her childhood friend, setting her possessions into a safe alcove of the altar like it was some kind of burial monument. That simply could not have just happened, it was impossible. Her own left arm, however, drew attention to the reality of her circumstances, itself still frozen in the same ice frame. It was exceptionally pale right now, bleach white well up her sleeve, but she could move it again. If this was the impossible, then the impossible had just happened, there was no way she could deny it. Breaking down, she collapsed against the altar, tears of grief scouring her face.

It felt like an instant suspended in time, where in one instant her best friend was still there beside her.. and in the next she was gone. In that instant, Kori fervently wished for an escape, to be able to face any other reality that was not this one.