Let the depths have what’s owed...
They hated her, she could feel it in the way they grabbed at her—her arms, her throat, her hair. They especially clawed at the mark on her arm, their touches burning worse than flame.
She kicked at the nearest one, her foot connecting with something that gave way like rotted fruit. It didn't even slow them.
The green glow intensified as more rose from below. In the ghastly light, she could see the full horror of what she faced: bodies that stretched too long, ribs that opened like gills. One wrapped its hand around her throat, and she saw its face clearly, hauntingly beautiful until it opened its mouth, revealing a throat that descended into black nothing, lined with teeth all the way down.
She opened her mouth to scream and felt water rush in. Fire seared up her arm, the mark pulsing so hot that the creatures touching it recoiled slightly, but they always came back, pulling harder.
They were dragging her down to the deep places, where the water turned black and the pressure would crush her long before she drowned. The green glow began to fade as her vision darkened, the last thing she saw was one of them bringing its terrible mouth close to her face, as if to taste her final breath…
Then an explosion.
The water itself seemed to scream as something crashed into the mass of twisted bodies. The creatures scattered, their iridescent glow swirling in chaotic patterns.
"Hold on, Briar!"
Sian's voice reached her, but that couldn't be right. Why would she hear the water sprite in her final moments? Drowning must bring hallucinations of rescue, the mind's last kindness before the dark. Her lungs were full of river. This was just death playing tricks on her.
Through her fading vision, Briar saw her, Sian had become the water itself, her form huge and terrible, hair streaming in violent currents. Not a hallucination but real,impossiblyreal. Sian grabbed one of the creatures and tore it apart, the thing dissolving into foam with a shriek that made the water itself recoil.
"Get back!" Sian snarled, forming whips of current that sliced through the glowing bodies.
The creatures retreated but didn't flee entirely, circling at a distance, their green glow creating a ring of hostile light. Sian spun, creating a vortex that pushed them away, then grabbed Briar with arms that were somehow solid despite being made of water.
One of the things made a final lunge, its too-long arms reaching. Sian caught it by the throat, her watery hand solidifying into ice. She squeezed and the creature burst into luminous fragments that dissolved into nothing.
The others finally fled, their glow descending back to whatever deep places they'd risen from, taking their ancient hate with them.
Briar was teetering on the cusp of unconsciousness when arms encircled her again, different arms, warm despite the water. They pulled her up, following Sian's path of fury through the current.
When they broke the surface, Briar tried to breathe but couldn't. Water poured from her mouth, her nose, but her lungs wouldn't work.
"Shore!" Sian said, desperate now. "Get her to shore!"
More hands grabbed her, dragging her onto solid stone. Someone turned her on her side and she immediately vomited river water. But mixed with the water came something impossible and golden—flower petals. Delicate blooms that had no business being in her lungs spilled onto the dark stone where they glowed faintly before dissolving.
"Breathe!" A voice demanded. It was Arion. His hands pressed against her back, pushing more water out. "Come on, breathe!"
She gasped, choked, then gasped again. Air burned in her throat but she'd never tasted anything sweeter. More petals came with the second wave of water, golden light fading as they touched stone.
"What in the deep waters—" Sian crouched beside them, water still streaming from her hair. "Are those...?"
"Golden flowers," Arion murmured.
Briar coughed up one last petal and watched it pulse once with failing light.
“How…” she rasped, mind whirling. How had they found her, that’s what she had intended to ask.
"The flowers," Arion said, but his voice sounded distant, as though he were trying to recall something he had forgotten. "We were... I saw one bloom near the border. Then another. They kept appearing. I don’t know why we followed them but they kept leading us down and down until…"
"Until we reached the underground river just as you jumped," Sian finished. "I’ve never seen anything like it, you didn’t even hesitate! I admit the timing was—"
"Impossible," Arion interrupted quietly. "Those looked like court flowers, throne flowers."
"But those only bloom—" Sian stopped, her eyes widening.
"What?" Briar asked between chattering teeth.
