Violet

As I descended deeper into the chasm, the light from the surface dimmed gradually. The pale pink glow of the mineral water shifted to deeper shades of rose, then to something darker still.

I kept my syzygy spread wide around me, sensing the rocky walls that enclosed this vast underwater space. The lake was deeper than I had imagined, and it got a point I started to wonder if it really had an end.

The water grew colder and the light continued to fade.

I swam past rock formations that jutted from the walls like grasping fingers, past crevices and openings that branched off into darkness. The pull in my chest guided me downward, always downward.

The last traces of light disappeared, and I was swimming through absolute blackness.

I couldn’t see my own hands in front of my face. Only my syzygy told me the walls were still there, and that I wasn’t floating in an endless void.

I kept descending.

The cold intensified, seeping through my clothes and into my bones.

I finally sensed the coarse bottom of the lake.

I slowed my descent.

The floor was rough and uneven, covered in rocks and sediment that had settled over countless years. I drifted lower until my feet brushed against stone, sending up small clouds of silt that I couldn’t see but could feel swirling around my ankles.

I spread my syzygy outward, mapping the space.

The bottom of the lake stretched in all directions, a vast expanse of rocky terrain. But what caught my attention were the tunnel openings.

Several of them led into unknown passages. Some were small, barely large enough for me to fit through, and others were wider.

The pull tugged at my chest, sharper now.

I turned slowly in the darkness, noticing the tunnel it was guiding me towards.

I swam towards the tunnel, my syzygy probing the entrance. The passage seemed to go on for a long way, twisting and turning through the rock. I couldn’t sense what lay at the other end.

I immediately thought of pausing here and heading back up.

Before I continue, at the very least, I should notify Bei of what I had found. I had most likely been down here for a long time and she would be worried.

I turned away from the dark opening and began to swim upward.

The current hit me without warning. It seized me with a sudden violent force that nearly wrenched the breath from my lungs.

I tumbled and was dragged sideways into the tunnel. My arms flailed as I tried to hold on to the walls for a solid grip but the darkness spun around me until I lost all sense of direction.

The bubble!

Panicked, I slammed my full focus into maintaining the syzygy shell holding the oxygen around my head. The current was battering me from all sides, and I was worried it would rip it apart.

Different parts of my body struck the walls, at times injuring me, but I ignored the slight pain as I was dragged deeper with terrifying speed.

I put all my focus on protecting my only source of air.

I could take a few bruises, tears and solid hits, but I was done for if I drowned.

I curled into myself, arms protecting the bubble, and let the current take me. Every impact sent fresh jolts of agony through my body, but I kept my focus locked on one thing only.

Hold. Hold. Hold.

The battering seemed to go on forever.

And then, suddenly, it stopped.

The current released me, spitting me out into stillness.

I floated in perfect silence, my heart slamming against my ribs, my breath coming in ragged gasps that fogged the inside of my bubble. Every part of my body tingled with pain as it slowly healed. But the bubble had held.

I was alive.

For a long moment, I just hung there in the darkness. The water around me was still and cold, utterly different from the violent passage I had just been dragged through.

Where was I?

I spread my syzygy outward, and my blood turned to ice.

The tunnel the current had just dragged me through stretched for a vast distance that made my stomach tighten. I could barely even sense the original lake, neither could I even sense the surface or Bei.

Just how long had I spent in those currents.

The realisation that I was so far from the surface made my stomach sink, but I tried very hard not to dwell on it. I would need to find another way out.

I had no choice but to keep following the pull at this point.

I wanted to focus on it when I sensed movement.

Things were shifting in the water all around me.

I couldn’t see anything, but I could sense and feel the shapes moving through the darkness.

They were so many.

My chest seized with terror. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t run. I didn’t even know which direction was safe.

What are they? What—

Something warm touched my chest.

I looked down, and through the dark water, I saw my grandmother’s pendant starting to glow softly.

It was faint at first, barely more than a flicker of light against the absolute blackness. But the glow grew, spreading outward from the silver surface, and pushing back the darkness inch by inch until I could see the water immediately around me illuminated in soft pale radiance. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

My breath caught in my throat as the things around me started to slow too.

Points of light appeared in the darkness in response to my pendant’s glow. There were so many of them, and when the lights grew brighter, my mouth hung open.

They were plants.

Massive plants, rising from the rocky floor far below like underwater trees. They didn’t seem to have trunks or stalks, but they grew directly from the ground, layers of leaves nestling the base of blowing bulbs.

They were gigantic.

They each cast pale light through the water until everywhere was bright, and the scenery left me speechless.

The orbs were enormous. Each one as large as a building, maybe larger. Their surfaces were smooth and pearlescent, shimmering with an inner radiance that pulsed gently, like a slow heartbeat.

The dark leaves beneath the orbs were large. They swayed and rippled lightly.

That was what I had sensed earlier.

I floated among them, surrounded by their gentle light, unable to move.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

The glowing orbs stretched in every direction, creating a forest of light in the underwater darkness.

I never thought I would actually see a glowing forest down here.

I drifted closer to the nearest plant, my fear forgotten. The orb towered above me, its surface smooth and strange. I reached out and pressed my hand against it, feeling the cool membrane beneath my palm.

Something moved inside.