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“So,” Isabeau said, sitting down on the nearest rock. “We searched all around the lake, but Mira’s sense never really turned away from it.”
“It must’ve landed somewhere in there.” Mirabelle agreed, nervously wringing her fingers as she stared out at the wide expanse of the lake. “I’m worried. How are we supposed to get it out?”
“Clearly we need to go in.” Odile said, slowly beginning to shuck off her shawl. “Swimming is really the only feasible way to get it out, isn’t it? The water’s clear, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.”
“But we shouldn’t all go down there,” Mirabelle fretted, turning back to the group. “How strong of a swimmer are you, Madame Odile?”
Odile hesitated, brow and lips clenched similarly. She glanced down at her legs, and then back towards Mirabelle. “Not very, admittedly. I was unsure if the rest of you knew how to.”
“No, I know how.” Isabeau reassured. “I was taught as a kid, and we went over it again for Defender training. You know, in case someone is drowning and we’ve got to save them!”
“And I took a swimming class at the house.” Mirabelle offered. “Or. . . It was more like a two week trip to the nearest body of water and they taught us a bit. I’m not. . . Very good, admittedly.”
“I was raised next to water.” Bonnie bragged. “I’m the bestest swimmer around! I used to try to swim to an old isle. . . Um. I swimmed a lot!”
“Swam.” Odile corrected, not picking her shawl off the ground. “And you’re definitely not going. Isabeau might have more practice then all of us, then.”
“No, I’m the best swimmer.” Siffrin murmured, and four heads whipped around to face their quiet rogue. He barely blinked. “I was also raised by the coast, for longer than Bonnie was. I’ve been swimming since before I could walk.”
The rest of the party blinked at him, worried eyebrows and shifting glances.
And then Mirabelle smiled, relaxing. “Oh, that’s good to hear! I didn’t know you were raised near the water, Siffrin!”
Siffrin blinked at her, once, twice, and then nervously ducked his head. “You know me, I’m just full of secrets. . . So, the orb, right?”
“Yes! Yes, the orb.” Mirabelle turned around to grab her bag off of the shoreline, digging through it until she could pull out her own. “It should look like this, Siffrin! Which, you, um. Already know. But in case you forgot. . . ?”
“Do the orbs float?” Siffrin asked.
“Huh.” Isabeau balked. “I mean, they’re decently light, but we’ve never tested to see if–”
Siffrin stole the orb from Mirabelle. She blinked, mouth agape, as he pivoted on his heel and marched right into the water with the orb in hand.
“Siffrin, don’t lose it!” Mirabelle squeaked, but in hindsight, the better thing would’ve been to ask them not to drop it, because as soon as they got far enough that even their cloak was starting to be soaked, they dropped the orb.
It splashed into the water, but Siffrin didn’t even flinch, eyes locked on it intently as it moved through the water. After a moment, he chased it a few steps into the water and picked it up again.
“Too heavy to even halfway float.” He announced, walking back towards them as his cloak was freed from the water and began to drip. “But light enough to be moved by currents. I’ll be back soon.”
“W-wait!” Mirabelle squeaked. “Are you really going to go into the water w–with your cloak on? That’s kind of dangerous! It could weigh you down, or– or when you get out, you’ll be all wet and you should have something dry to change into! Or. . .” she looked down at the edges of his soaked cloak. “. . . somewhat dry, anyway.”
“Oh.” Siffrin blinked. “Alright.”
“Ah, the dangers of hypothermia.” Odile muttered, shielding her eyes to look up at the sun. “Even in the middle of summer, not drying yourself off properly can be an issue. If you were raised by the water, you should know that.”
Siffrin didn’t respond to that as they slowly removed their hat from their head, like doing so would kill them. They hung it on a nearby tree branch, and then undid their cloak fasteners enough that they could slide it over their head. That, too, was draped over the branch.
Their belts and spare pouches were all set in a somewhat messy bundle underneath both, with their boots, gloves, and socks joining them shortly after.
Siffrin grabbed the hat from its perch and turned around, squishing it on top of Bonnie’s other hat, eliciting a small giggle from the kid. “Take care of my stuff, will you?”
“Duh! ‘Course I will, Frin! I’ll make sure nobody does any sab-a-tourin!”
“Aw,” Isabeau pouted. “I could keep the stuff safe, too. You don’t trust me, Sif?”
Siffrin gave Bonnie a look.
“I’ll make sure Za, spec-ific-ally, does not mess with it.” Bonnie swore loyally, brow pinched, mouth pursed with farce seriousness.
After a shared nod with Bonnie, Siffrin turned back to Mirabelle. “Be back soon.”
“Okay. . . Be careful, Siffrin. . .” Mirabelle fretted, but Siffrin had already turned away to approach the water. It only took him ten seconds to get far enough away to get swimming, and within the next minute, he was diving into the water.
The group exchanged a look, awkwardly shuffling around to wait for Siffrin.
Odile dusted off her shawl and put it back on as Mirabelle joined Isabeau on the rock. After a few minutes of waiting – he should be coming up for air, shouldn’t he? – Bonnie wandered off to try to find some pretty rocks along the beach.
“Don’t skip any,” Isabeau warned. “We don’t want one to hit Sif when they come back up for air.”
“Duh,” Bonnie scowled, despite looking incredibly confused. “I would never hurt Frin.”
“Bonbon,” Isabeau said in fond exasperation. “Do you even know how to skip rocks?”
Bonnie bristled, opening their mouth to retort, and then upon realizing they had nothing, closed it again. They grumbled furiously under their breath and turned away from Isabeau.
“That’s. . . so sad!” Isabeau bemoaned, reaching out to seize Mirabelle and hug her in the height of his grief. Mirabelle giggled, and hugged him right back. “I can’t believe this! And I can’t even teach them right now! Because! We can’t hit Sif!”
“You can teach them as soon as Siffrin comes back,” Mirabelle sympathized, grinning at Isabeau's antics. “Maybe we can have a beach day after this, don’t you think?”
“Oh, man, that’d be so nice!” Isabeau agreed, looking back the way they came. “. . . the curse is still a couple days out, isn’t it? We have a little bit of time to hang out.”
“Not too long, though, or else we risk–” Odile cut off suddenly, snapping her book closed. “What in the Expressions is that?!”
The rest of the group snapped to attention, looking out over the lake. Nothing looked different, ripples radiating across the surface, typical tug and pull of the waves–
And then they saw it.
A splash, near the center of the lake, like someone had just dropped a boulder in. It stabilized, the surface layer calming, and then there was another. Less time passed before the next, and then even less before the next–
“Gems,” Odile cursed. “What is Siffrin– No, no, Siffrin’s in trouble, we have to move.”
Isabeau cursed, letting go of Mirabelle to launch himself off the rock, grabbing his own shirt to yank off as Mirabelle fumbled with her brooches. Nobody was wasting time with being as meticulous as Siffrin had been, desperate with the urge to get to them.
By the time Isabeau and Mirabelle were done removing the bare minimum, Odile was already done. Her cloak and shoes were off, and she had left her book and glasses behind as well.
Odile was already stepping into the water when they saw it–
A head broke the surface surprisingly close to the shore, just a little ahead of the next splash. Siffrin floundered for a moment before he found them, and then he was kicking towards them, only using one arm.
“Siffrin!” Mirabelle cried, running into the water. “Siffrin, are you–”
“No!” Siffrin screamed, barely heard over his own paddles and the reckless water behind him. “No, go back! Get out of the water!”
Mirabelle froze, but obediently took a few steps back. “What’s going on, Siffrin?!”
Siffrin lurched to a clumsy stop, treading water for a few seconds. The next splash was far too close, but he didn’t look behind him. Instead he shuffled until the party could see what had occupied his untreading hand.
The orb sat, still covered in water, glistening in the sun, and they drew it up behind them, mouth opening before they even threw it. “ R U N ! ”
Isabeau ran past Mirabelle, splashing into the water to grab the flying orb in his arms, and then Siffrin was gone, disappearing underneath what should’ve been still water.
Mirabelle was screaming before she even realized it, running into the water before Isabeau could get any further. Isabeau pivoted on his heel, throwing the orb behind him without a word. Bonnie caught it before it could hit the sand, backing up rapidly to go place it with the rest of their supplies.
“Mirabelle!” Odile barked out, and Mirabelle froze, already up to her knees in the water. “Do not go any further, we don’t know what’s attacking him in there. Let me examine first!”
“Quickly, Madame!” Mirabelle agreed, drawing her rapier, ready to burst forward in an instant.
As Odile flipped open her book to have something to direct the Skill through, a horrific thought occurred to her. Whatever was in the water, Siffrin was defenseless. He hadn’t gone in with his dagger. Had he even gotten a breath in?
If he. . . drowned, would they even see his body, or would whatever sadness or Kingsmen or kelpie that had his body keep it underneath the water forever? The uncertainty of ever knowing if he survived. . .
They had to get him out of the water, fast. Mirabelle could never live with herself if someone who had volunteered their own life to follow her on a hopeless quest actually died on it!
“I’m not detecting anything?!” Odile spluttered. “It’s just– water? But it’s moving wrong, I can tell there’s energy emanating from it, but I’m not sensing a puppeteer.”
“Can we go now?!” Isabeau asked, bursting with energy, one second away from running forward and abandoning the safety of the shoreline.
“Someone’s Crafting the water?” Mirabelle repeated, voice twisting along with the fabric of her tights as she balled the edges of them up in her fists. “What beats water?!”
“There’s no time!” Isabeau yelled, and didn’t wait another moment, dashing into the water and away from the rest of them.
“W-what?! Isabeau!” Mirabelle cried, hurrying to catch up. It took no time for the water to grow too tall for her to no longer be able to keep her footing, and it became easier to swim than try to keep her feet on the ground.
Odile was slower into the water, but she moved as quickly as she could too, yelling over her shoulder a quick “Boniface, stay there!”
Isabeau reached the spot Siffrin had disappeared into first, paddling around as he turned around, squinting at the water and trying to find the lightless body through the clear but stilted water. “Where are they, where are they, where are they–”
Before he could start diving, the water spiked a few dozen meters away. A blur of lightlessness burst into the air, limbs flailing, not a single noise torn through their lips. Three pairs of eyes locked onto it at once, the fourth on the shore following a beat later.
“Mi–!” was all Isabeau managed to get out before Mirabelle channeled Paper Craft into her rapier, slashing it through the water with one solid strike.
The wave it caused was enough to burst Isabeau forward, arms out to catch Siffrin as they fell, the timing perfect as Isabeau made contact right before they hit the water. Siffrin startled, wide eyes landing on Isabeau, blinking rapidly like they couldn’t quite make him out through the hair in their eyes.
And then– “I told you,” Siffrin spat, expression growing dark, “to run–!”
“We couldn’t leave you. . . ” Isabeau trailed off, feeling something like water but not curling around his ankle. He felt his expression widen, Siffrin’s own jolting in response, and then it gave a solid yank.
At the same time as Isabeau’s head completely went under, he caught the blurry visage of Siffrin snapping his fingers right before he was forced to close his eyes against the sting of the water.
Scrambling to get Siffrin back in his grasp with one hand, Isabeau launched a Rock Craft with his other, pointlessly out into the water with no direction.
The grip on his leg loosened, and Isabeau kicked up desperately, feeling one of Siffrin’s arms extend to shove too.
Their heads broke the surface, and both sucked in greedy gasps.
“The water can get hurt!” Isabeau yelled, in case Siffrin hadn’t been able to tell. “Something’s definitely controlling it, M’dame Odile was right!”
“We can’t beat it up,” Siffrin hissed, struggling out of Isabeau’s arms. Isabeau gasped and dropped them, feeling guilty for forgetting that they hated touch. He just hadn’t wanted to lose Siffrin again. He kept his hand hovering close to them even as they floated on their own. “And I can’t really help without a conduct.”
“You didn’t bring your dagger?!” Isabeau gaped, and Siffrin leveled him with a deadpan look. “Right, right, of course you didn’t, where would you even carry it, but– You didn’t see anything down there? Nothing at all?”
Siffrin shook his head.
“Okay, okay, so we need to defeat it–”
“We don’t.” Siffrin snapped. “You got the orb, didn’t you?”
“Yes–”
Mirabelle appeared beside them, gasping, her own hair soaked. “Are you both okay?! You went under, what was it like–”
“M’dame was right, it’s enchanted water or something, but it reacts–”
Siffrin exclaimed something in a language neither recognized, expression narrowing. “I told you all to run! Why are you still here?!”
“Huh?! We aren’t going to leave you behind!” Mirabelle gasped, paddling towards him. “Siffrin. . . You’re a valuable member of this team. We’re not letting you fight whatever this is by yourself.”
Siffrin’s expression did something funny. “That’s–”
The water level bobbed, and then shrunk back underneath them, the lakebed nearing and distorting.
“What the–?” Mirabelle muttered to herself.
Siffrin inhaled very loudly.
Both Mirabelle and Isabeau waited for the usual, familiar exhale, but it never came.
A shadow fell over them, and both of the youngers' heads turned up in confusion. A wave, double the depth of the lake, descended upon them.
Mirabelle, ears decisively not full of water, was the only of the three who heard Odile scream for them, somewhere too far away to help but still close enough to get caught as well. She started to turn towards Odile, but Isabeau grabbed her arm and yanked her close to him, Siffrin trapped against Isabeau’s other side.
They both latched onto Isabeau, holding him tight as the former Defender raised his arms and cast his guard Skill to brace himself.
Mirabelle squeezed Isabeau as much as she could as the wave crashed into them, and even despite his Skill, all three of them were sent spiraling underneath the water.
Mirabelle was halfway squished beneath Isabeau with the torrents, doing her best not to squeak and hold her breath.
She felt unfamiliar fingers grab her wrist and she startled, eyes widening–
It was just Siffrin, trying not to be knocked away but the water still crashing into them. Mirabelle wrangled her hand around to hold his hand back, squishing her eyes closed again.
She felt Isabeau’s strong arm wrap around her, clutching her tightly to his chest as he kicked up again.
Siffrin spluttered against the water the moment their heads broke the surface, and Mirabelle wiped at her eyes until she could hazily make him out. “Siffrin– Siffrin! Are you okay?!”
“We don’t– hh– need to– to beat it!” Siffrin gasped between gasps of air. “We have– have the orb! We c-can–!” He paused, taking a struggling breath, and then pointed towards the shore, far behind them. “–We can run!”
Oh. Oh, right. He wasn’t wrong.
Mirabelle didn’t love it. She hated leaving a threat in Vaugarde at all, even if it was in a fairly isolated lake. But if they didn’t know how to beat it, and the King was certainly the more powerful threat, then. . .
“Kids!” Odile cried behind them, splashing nearing. All three heads twisted towards her, and Siffrin bit out yet another groan. “Are you all okay?”
“We’re fine,” Isabeau promised, voice biting with disappointment. “But, um, Sif’s right. We need to go! We can come back to defeat whatever this is later, once we’re done with the King!”
Odile nodded, reaching up to smooth her sopping bangs out of her eyes. “Fine, fine– we need to go, then! We won’t have long until it comes back–”
“Crafts disrupt it,” Isabeau hurriedly explained. “I don’t think it hurts it, but it’s– it’s enough to get an advantage.”
Siffrin kicked off from them with a scoff, one arm over the other as he started to swim back to the shore, where Bonnie was still waiting.
“They’re right,” Odile grouched. “We’re wasting time talking.”
Mirabelle turned around, aiming Paper Craft against the water again. She could sense the water starting to move again, almost hardening and threatening to yank and pull. As dangerous as it was, she flared out with her rapier again.
The resulting burst sent a wave in either direction, propelling her and the rest of her team towards the shore, putting distance between them and the haunted water.
Mirabelle twisted around, sliding her rapier back into its scabbard as she hastened to paddle after her friends, allowing the terror to carry her across the waves. Odile was already starting to lag behind Isabeau again, and Mirabelle slowed her own paddling to be at the older’s side. She wasn’t leaving anyone else behind ever again, if she had anything to say about it.
Odile cast her a glance that Mirabelle pretended was grateful.
“Bonnie!” Siffrin yelled once they were within earshot of the shore. “Dagger!”
Bonnie’s figure turned away from them immediately, shooting right for where Siffrin’s belts were still laid discarded across the ground.
The water picked up beneath them, and they could all hear the splashes like the ones earlier ripping apart the water behind them. Waves began to lift, the water level retreating.
With the retreating water, Siffrin was finally able to dig their feet onto the sand and snapped their fingers again, bursting into a run. Their friends’ speed picked up, Isabeau managing to dig his feet into the sand before the wave crashed down on them again.
Bonnie pressed Siffrin’s dagger into their hands, and they whipped around, channeling Craft through their dagger. Their eyes raked over the tumultuous surface, trying to find the splotches of their party.
With careful aim, Siffrin unleashed a Scissors Craft into the water, watching it bite and slam through the water, praying to whatever deity that would listen that it would give their allies enough opportunity to escape.
This time, Odile’s head was the first to break the surface, and they whistled, sheer and loud, to attract her attention to them. She scrambled to get to the shore as Mirabelle scrambled upright behind her and splashed after.
Isabeau emerged with enough of a chance to grab both women – and eliciting an irritated scoff from the elder – and ran towards him, retreating from the edge of the water.
“That looked freaky!” Bonnie exploded, reaching out to hug Siffrin’s side the moment it didn’t seem like they were going to attack again, and then ripped away before Siffrin could step away themselves, running to tackle Isabeau. “And you’re all okay?!”
“Mostly!” Isabeau grinned, though it was strained and nervous. “Nice thing about water is that it can’t cut you or hurt you much.”
“But it can drown you,” Odile hissed, grabbing her glasses and then shoes again. “And I’d rather not go through that again.”
Siffrin hissed through his teeth. “Run next time.”
“We’re not going to leave you to go fight a crazy water monster by yourself!” Mirabelle scoffed at him. “What’s the point in saving Vaugarde if we can’t even save each other.”
Siiffrin grunted underneath his breath, fumbling for his belts and cloak again. He wasn’t able to get them all on before his attention was caught by the water, and he squinted at it intently for a long beat. “. . . Let’s go further inland. I don’t trust it to stay confined to the lake.”
Odile nodded, grabbing her jacket and draping it over her arm and then hastening to grab her and Mirabelle’s packs. “Good thought. Boniface, you still have the orb?”
The water began to climb up the shores as Bonnie held it up to Odile, and Mirabelle sucked in a harsh breath at the sight of it.
“Oh, that’s great,” Mirabelle said quickly. “That’s good news. Let’s all go, huh? Siffrin’s right, no time to dilly dally!”
Isabeau grabbed the last packs and hoisted them on one shoulder and Bonnie and the other, and set off at a very brisk walk into the forest.
Siffrin took a breath, in and out, and then flashed them a smile that was still a little too shaky to be completely calm. He was still clearly irritated at them, but he rolled his shoulders back with practiced cheer. “Well. That was certainly a high-tide adventure, wasn’t it?”
The party’s boos shrieked through the trees, and even Isabeau put his face in his hands.
“Man, no laugh?” Siffrin teased, finally adjusting his things in his arms to start clipping on belts so he could shrug on his cloak. “How aqua-ward!”
“Sif,” Isabeau said merrily, hurrying to catch up with their rogue. “Never change.”
“As nice as it is to have our happy Siffrin again,” Mirabelle sighed, “We really need to work on your timing.”
“If this is revenge for not listening to you, please accept my humblest apologies.” Odile begged.
“An apology from you, Odile? How n-ice!”
Mirabelle threw her boot at him.