Violet

The tingling sensation swept across my skin as I submerged, first my ankles, then my calves, then my thighs. It was more intense than when I had just dipped my hand in, covering more surface area, but it still didn’t hurt.

When the water reached my waist, I paused, giving my body time to adjust.

The tingling was already beginning to fade.

"Violet?" Bei stood in front of me, her voice strained.

"I’m okay," I told her. "It tingles, but it’s fading. Just like before."

I took a breath and submerged myself completely.

The water closed over my head, and I kept my eyes squeezed shut at first. This was the real test. If the water was going to hurt me, if it was going to burn my eyes or damage something vital, it would happen now.

I waited for a few moments before slowly opening my eyes.

I had expected pain, either from the sting of the minerals or from the burning sensation that came from opening your eyes in harsh water. But there was nothing. The water was clear around me, tinted faintly pink, and I could see perfectly well.

I surfaced with a gasp, pushing my wet hair back from my face.

Bei was at the water’s edge, looking like she was about to wade in after me despite knowing what it would do to her.

"I’m fine," I said quickly. "Bei, I’m fine. It didn’t hurt at all. I opened my eyes and everything."

"You opened your—" Bei made a strangled sound. "Violet, you can’t just—"

"I know, I know. But I had to test it." I said quickly as I climbed out of the water.

Bei wanted to grab my arm but she snatched her hand back to herself as if remembering what the water had done to her previously. She took a few steps back and waved her finger. "Turn around. I want to check."

I sighed and did as she said. She examined every inch of my skin.

"Hmm..."

"I’m fine. The water doesn’t seem to hurt me," I confirmed.

Bei sat back on her heels, looking shaken. "You really are different."

"Surprisingly," I whispered.

Bei was quiet for a long moment. Then she looked out at the lake, at the dark depths where the pull was guiding me.

"You still can’t breathe underwater," she said quietly. "Even if the water doesn’t hurt you, you’ll drown if you go too deep."

She was right. That was the problem I had been trying not to think about. Whatever waited at the bottom of this lake, I wouldn’t be able to reach it if I couldn’t even breathe.

Unless...

I looked down at my hands, at the faint shimmer of syzygy beneath my skin.

"I have an idea," I said slowly.

I waded back into the water, ignoring Bei’s noise of protest. Once I was waist-deep again, I focused on my syzygy, drawing it up from that deep well inside me.

Air. I needed to bring air with me.

I cupped my hands and concentrated, trying to shape my syzygy into something that could hold air. A bubble, maybe. Something I could take beneath the surface and breathe from.

The energy flickered and sparked, but it wouldn’t hold the shape I wanted. Every time I tried to form it around a pocket of air, it slipped away, dissolving back into nothing.

I tried again. And again. And again.

If only I could just encase some of it using my syzygy.

Minutes turned to hours as Bei sat a few steps away, watching me and taking notes as I tried to encase air into a bubble.

I couldn’t get it to work.

I had improved a lot since I first discovered this force within me, and I had used it to sense things from miles away, to lift objects, to push energy into others. But this was different.

I was trying to do something so precise and delicate that it kept slipping through my mental fingers like water.

By the time the sun began to set, I was exhausted, frustrated and no closer to solving the problem.

"Violet," Bei called softly. "Come rest. You can try again tomorrow."

I wanted to argue. I was so close. The pull was right there, thrumming in my chest, calling me down into the depths. But my body was tired and my mind was foggy, and I knew Bei was right.

I dragged myself out of the water and collapsed onto the sand.

[ - ]

I spent the next day in the water, practicing.

The air bubble concept was right, I was sure of it. I just needed to figure out how to make it work. So, I experimented, trying different approaches, different shapes, different ways of weaving my syzygy into something that could hold air.

By midday, I managed to form a small bubble. It shimmered in my hands, a sphere of air encased in a thin shell of syzygy energy. I stared at it triumphantly.

Then I tried to pull it underwater, and it burst immediately.

I surfaced, sputtering and frustrated.

"What happened?" Bei called.

"It popped," I grumbled. "The pressure, I think. As soon as I took it under, it just..." I made an explosive gesture with my hands.

Bei was quiet for a moment, her head tilted thoughtfully. "Maybe you need to reinforce it? Make the shell thicker?"

I tried that. The bubble lasted slightly longer, but still burst within seconds of being submerged.

I didn’t fully understand what was happening or why it was even doing that. So, I spent the rest of the day working on it, failing over and over again. By nightfall, I was tired again and thoroughly annoyed.

But I was also making progress.

The bubbles were lasting longer now. Not long enough, but longer. I was starting to understand how the pressure worked, how I needed to adjust my syzygy to compensate for the change in environment.

I fell asleep that night still thinking about it, my mind turning the problem over and over.

The next morning, I woke with a new idea.

Instead of trying to maintain a static bubble, I would create one that breathed. One that constantly adjusted itself, responding to the pressure changes in real-time. It would require more concentration, more sustained effort, but it might actually work.

I waded back into the lake and tried.

The first attempt failed. So did the second, and the third.

I tried again, and again and again, and just as the day was ending, I was on my last bubble.

I pulled the pocket of air underwater and even though it compressed slightly, it still held. I could feel the pressure pushing against it, and I could feel my syzygy pushing back, maintaining the shape through constant tiny adjustments.

I brought it toward my face and carefully pushed my head inside it.