Fifteen ters of slow, controlled ascent, every muscle in Eastiel’s body screaming, every instinct howling at him to move faster, get out, get out now.
The darkness below them was no longer dormant. It was stirring. The crackling sound had faded into sothing worse, a low, resonant hum that vibrated through the water like the warning growl of a beast about to strike.
CRACKLE—
Another rumble, like a distant thunder.
"East..." Reyes’s small voice whispered through the comms.
"I got you. Co on." Eastiel said, "Five ters. Four. Three."
Slowly, agonizingly, they broke the surface.
The dive platform erupted into controlled chaos. Swanson was already there, his massive arms reaching down to grab Reyes by the shoulders of his dive suit and haul him out of the water.
Reyes was gasping, his limbs shaking, his suit dripping with water that was just slightly too dark
Swanson didn’t wait for him to catch his breath. He practically dragged the younger diver across the platform toward the decompression chamber, his boots slamming against the tal grating as he rumbled reassurance.
"Boss, co on." One of the other team mbers reached for Eastiel, his hand extended, ready to help him up onto the platform.
But Eastiel pushed him away.
"Listen." Eastiel just made a decision. "I’m diving back down. I will inject my mana into the concrete and feel up the location of the rift inside while strengthening it. You guys tell them to get the pumps to take away all this water safely and evacuate. Go."
Swanson was already back at the platform’s edge, his helt on, his suit sealed. "Okay. I will get in with you. I will use my water magic to contain so of the corruption away from you."
"Alright. I will wait for you down the—WU—"
SPLASH!
Eastiel gasped as his body was yanked out of the water by the scruff of his dive suit, his limbs flailing, his helt whipping back and forth. He dangled in the air like a fish on a line, water streaming from his suit, his brain struggling to process what had just happened.
He twisted in the grip, craning his neck, and found himself staring into the black eyes of a very, very angry werewolf.
Arkai’s face was contorted into fury. His wolf ears were pinned flat against his skull and his fangs were showing.
His grip on Eastiel’s dive suit didn’t waver in the slightest, the massive wolf holding him aloft like a misbehaving kitty who had been caught trying to eat sothing off the floor.
"You little shit—" Arkai snapped, voice cracking through the air like a whip, loud enough that several mbers of the dive team instinctively took a step back. "Trying to be reckless again?!"
...Eastiel coughed.
"P-put down!"
***
The evacuation effort downstream had descended into controlled chaos.
The tailwater channel stretched into the distance, a concrete-lined artery that normally carried excess flow away from the dam, now buzzing with ergency personnel in high-visibility vests and hard hats, their voices overlapped in bursts.
"Move, move, move! Get those barricades up! I want a two-kiloter exclusion zone from the spillway, no exceptions!"
"Evacuation orders are live! Soone get on the horn with County Ergency Services and tell them we need the downstream alert pushed to every phone in the valley!"
"Where are the pumps?! We needed them here five minutes ago!"
"Containnt barriers are up on the lower channel, but if that corruption hits the water table before we can divert—"
"Then divert faster, Johnson, what do you want to say?!"
The dam’s ergency klaxon wailed in the distance. Workers in hazmat gear were already laying down containnt booms along the water’s edge, their bright yellow suits standing out against the grey concrete like warning signs.
Sowhere upstream, the faint, ominous contrast of black corruption was visible on the water’s surface. The pressure behind the sealed sluice gate was building, and everyone knew it.
Back on the dive platform, Eastiel was stripping out of his contaminated suit. The neoprene hit the tal grating with a wet slap, and he was already reaching for the backup, a fresh suit with 100% integrity, still sealed in its protective wrapping.
"Like it or not, it’s true that it’s the best strategy we have right now," he said calmly, done making his decision and was simply waiting for everyone else to catch up.
"The pump won’t make it in ti. We just sealed the leak, and the pressure is building behind it. At the sa ti, we can’t open the gate either," he yanked the fresh suit up over his shoulders with a sharp, irritated motion, "because why were we repairing the seal in the first place? Because we cannot let this contaminated water go downstream."
"We don’t know anything yet," Arkai said, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes helpless and frustrated. "What kind of risk you are taking is still unknown. At least let us find out the shape and orientation of the rift inside first. I will use my sound magic and determine it from the spillway."
Eastiel’s head snapped up, his golden eyes narrowing dangerously. "Is that not more dangerous than what I am trying to do? You are trying to howl down there and hope the soundwave will not wake whatever is beyond that rift?"
"Then what are we doing? Can’t you just inject your mana from here to strengthen it?" Arkai stepped closer. "Just do whatever you can to avoid jumping back down there."
"What do you think I am?" Eastiel glared back at him, his tail lashing behind him with barely contained frustration.
"That is concrete. Even with my earth magic, whatever aggregate they put in it will complicate my control. My skill is not that miraculous. I can’t inject my mana effectively through sothing I’m not fully familiar with." He pulled his gloves on, flexing his fingers. "I need to be as close as possible to the source so I can reinforce the weak spot with my mana."
"Fuck." Arkai’s hand flew to his temple, his claws pressing against his skin as though he could physically squeeze a better solution out of his own skull. "Let’s call him."
He was cursing himself. He was a wolf. His magic was scent, sound, and wind, useful for many, but not for this. Not for reinforcing concrete and sealing rifts and pulling corruption out of the water.
"I bet he’s with her now," Eastiel’s voice softened, the anger bleeding out of it. "He doesn’t have a shift today. She will get worried if you call him."
Arkai’s claws digging into his hair. "Fucking—"
"Hello."
The two n, and everyone surrounding them on the dive platform, fell silent. They turned, almost in unison, toward the source of the small, bright voice.
Eight-year-old Lilyca Celeste was walking toward them. Her silver-white eyes were bright and cheerful, her small hands clasped in front of her.
"I just got permission to help! Mr. Iondora just finished his phone call." She smiled, seemingly oblivious to the chaos unfolding around her. "But I can only help purify the water as it is being pumped away. Don’t tell anyone, though," she whispered, "I will extend the purification as much as I can."
...Silence.
Eastiel’s hand shot out and grabbed Arkai’s shoulder, desperately gripping him after realizing they were both in very, very deep trouble. "Call him."
They will both be screwed if sothing happened to this little girl!
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