--- Kat ---
The room felt oddly silent. It wasn’t of course. Not only was there the sound of water constantly moving but the platforms they were walking across were subrged so every step produced at least a small splash. If your balance wasn’t perfect it produced a much larger one too... but the room still felt silent in a way that the outdoors never did. Nor the city. It felt like this room was all there was.
Kat didn’t really mind it. The room reminded her of ditation and wasn’t all that different in a lot of ways. Even with Furen’s added weight it wasn’t too hard to move across the platforms. How they worked was a mystery... but the answer had to be enchantnts of so kind. They didn’t act as they should. Either they were light enough to float easily, or they were too heavy and should sink. Especially because the ’railings’ were closer to rope fixtures and were able to bend and sway.
Yet the supports were able to keep up with the extra weight. Even weirder, the difference between Lily’s steps and Kat’s was negligible. Which really shouldn’t be the case. Not only was Kat taller then Lily, she was a heck of a let denser as well and weighed close to twice as much as her girlfriend. That was before you got into the fact she was carrying an entire person on her back and Lily simply wasn’t.
Yet, when Kat stepped onto the platform and it sunk to the halfway point between her ankles and her knees... the sa happened to Lily. Well, in truth it was a bit closer to Lily’s knees because she was shorter but the distance the platforms sunk was essentially identical. If you wanted to nitpick there was a slight dip for Kat but it wasn’t large enough to make sense. It simply... existed. Perhaps the enchantnts on the bridge thing only softened the differences instead of eliminating them entirely?
Regardless it was hard to know how deep into the ’room’ they needed to go. The pathway was a winding one with splits that took off and rejoined barely a few steps later. There were ladders that descended downwards to a ground floor now completely flooded and more than one waterfall scattered around that blocked lines of sight making it hard to tell where the ultimate destination for the group needed to be.
The goal was to find whatever was generating the water... but the fact so of it ca from the ceiling, the currents seed to contradict each other and the platforms went everywhere without a clear destination ant that finding that spot was difficult. Worse... for as good as Kat and Lily’s hearing could be, and even Furen’s... none of them really knew what ’generating water from nothing’ sounds like.
If the water was generated up in the ceiling... it would likely just sound the sa as all the rest of the waterfalls. If it was sowhere deep into the ’lake’ they were making their way across... how would it sound different to the rest of the area? Even if Lily knew a good deal about natural waterways from random research she did once upon a ti that didn’t an she could track them by sounds.
The best they could do was pick out where waterfalls were more or less prevalent because of their rather distinct sounds... but did that help at all? They could easily tell that so of those waterfalls were fuelled by pipes, and others were simply sucking in the surrounding water using an enchantnt and then spitting it back out... but moisture collecting enchantnts worked really well in a flooded room and it was hard to tell them from true water generation.
This also wasn’t entirely a closed system. Despite the large amounts of water that might seem stuck, plenty of it was constantly being siphoned away by thick pipes. You could see the effect that had on the water, bit whirlpools that took in large gulps of the surrounding waters... often surrounded by waterfalls that helped dampen the effect that sucking had on the rest of the water level.
In the end, the best answer they could co up with was further away from the door. So that’s where they were heading and hoping for the best. Just... one small problem. "Did you see that?" Lily asked as her eyes glanced over a seemingly blank area of water.
Kat looked to the side, following Lily’s gaze but seeing nothing. Checking Lily’s mories... even then it was hard to say. Lily could see through the water better then Kat could, even with theoretically weaker eyes. Lily’s just seed to be better adjusted for it. Perhaps with so demonic energy that would change... regardless, the point was that even reviewing Lily’s mory of the incident made it hard to say.
There was a sowhat distinct shape that seed to appear for a few monts before dipping further underwater... or maybe it was just the water shifting around as it did. There was a bunch of waterfalls nearby keeping the area churning and obstructing their view of things.
Lily shivered. While Kat was fine with the room and its ’calming’ atmosphere Lily found her own instincts didn’t agree. She was constantly on alert for sothing in the water and it was like her instincts couldn’t decide if she was ant to catch the thing, or the thing was ant to be sothing trying to catch her. Even if whatever that was before had been shadows... Lily couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing was wrong with this room.
Perhaps it was that her shadows didn’t respond well to it. The room wasn’t all that well lit but the water here was all rather potent magically and it was a bit too pure for her shadows to operate smoothly. She could still move it around of course, the water wasn’t acting against her... but it slowed them down. Where before Lily could move them in a swift strike now they acted... well closer to real. If anything, her shadowy appendages were forced to treat the water as if they were real hands and it was... well, water.
So a weird shadow that might be a fish? Might be a monster? That was setting her instincts off like crazy and Lily couldn’t help but strain her ears to try and find so sort of tell that there was things swimming around in the water... but what did that even sound like?!
*You need to relax a little Lily. With you so tensed up your either going to slip and fall into the water or you’re going to miss sothing important because you’re too focused on focusing. Just take a deep breath and relax a bit.*
[I guess you’re right. This place is just HELL on my instincts. I know it’s relaxing for you, and I can even get why. Heck, I sort of find your ditation relaxing as well... but this? This is hell. I feel like I’m both under water and not. That I’m at the edge of the water and not. That I should be attacking and that I should be scared. It’s ssing with my head HARD.]
*Wait why does it feel like you’re underwater?*
[It’s way too damp here. The constant waterfalls are sending a spray of water everywhere and if you haven’t noticed, we’re already soaked. It’s just so humid. I feel like I’m swimming through the air, but obviously I can still breathe. Maybe my instincts think I’m in an underwater cave or sothing? I don’t know but I really don’t love this.]
*Would you prefer that we leave?*
[No, no it’s fine. It’s just annoying. It was honestly less of an annoyance to just BE underwater. If I wanted my instincts to stop freaking out I could probably just go swim around but I haven’t done it yet and it almost feels like giving up if I duck into the water now.]
*I an... I don’t disagree in principal but I’ve got no idea how large this room is. I’m also not even sure if we’re still going the sa direction because I haven’t been paying too much attention, just following you. In practice though? We might end up in the water anyway because I’ve seen a few different bits of machinery and storage sections. The core, assuming its here, has to be underwater.*
Lily whipped her head off to the side as she heard a splash... a splash Kat notably didn’t hear despite the volu. "There, that was sothing," hissed Lily as she pointed off to the side. Furen nodded along in agreent but Kat frowned. *Are you sure? I think it might just be an illusion. I didn’t hear anything.*
[It... hmm... it was a bit buried under the sound of the waterfalls over that way but I THINK you should’ve heard it...]
See, then that ans it’s probably fine.
[Not necessarily. It might have been an illusion, but those can be cast by monsters as well! It could be one with illusion powers.]
*Alright Lily I’ll keep my eyes and ears out. Just don’t go jumping off without checking my mories of the event. Even a quick glance alright?*
[Alright.]
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