My fingers closed around nothing and opened again and the sensation felt unremarkable.
I was breathing now, at an even pace, unlike someone who had been without air. I was very much still underwater.
Looking down at my arms I noticed there was a thin, barely visible layer of air around me, nothing but a faint distortion between my skin and the water pressing in on every side.
The surface was above me, the green-gold light still doing its work. I moved my arms and kicked and swam up toward the light.
Breaking the surface had an ordinary transition, my hands found the bank grass immediately, I gripped it and pulled myself up onto the earth.
"Oh good, you're back."
Said Karelos as I sat on the bank, breathing the open air and looking back at the pond.
He was sitting on the root where I had been sitting before, a small leather pouch on his lap, watching me with an oddly calm expression.
I looked down at myself and notice I was completely dry, water hadn't clung onto my skin or clothing at all.
"How long was I there for?"
"About an hour, I'd say. I found the berries, they won't make your skin fall off."
"I was underwater... for an hour?"
"Yeah."
"And you didn't even try to rescue me?"
"Well, you're fine now, although, I did think about doing that, about... fourty minutes ago."
"And you didn't do anything?"
"The deer suggested I wait."
I looked at the waterline where they had been standing, it was empty now, like if it hadn't happened at all.
"You talked to it?"
"We," Karelos said with stronger intonation, "talked to it. Plus, you survived an hour underwater without a damp spot in your clothes. Nothing about this is normal you see."
"The deer said something about Kunzai, a catastrophe coming upon Bambularia, everything is just so hard to wrap my head around..."
"You're the vessel of Kunzai now, by the way."
"I'M WHAT-"
- - -
The berries were refreshing, small and dark with a slightly tart texture to them.
"Why are you so calm about everything?"
"I've had years to process this."
"Years? Do you know something I don't?"
"Would you prefer I panic? I can start screaming and running around the place asking if you're fine."
I let out a soft laugh. "You're insane."
I ate another berry and looked at the pond, the atmosphere was unreasonably peaceful at the moment. The flowers at the bank were closing slowly, their violet edges drawing inward.
"What did the deer tell you?"
Karelos was quiet for a moment, turning the berry between his fingers before speaking. "It was oddly vague about the catastrophe, it also said there are other vessels, you'll find them when the time comes."
"Now you're the vague one."
"I'm just repeating what it said!"
I sat with that for a moment, it probably just repeated what it said to me to Karelos, with the added fact that I'd come out of the water at any moment.
"It also said I should stop being so secretive."
"About what?" I turned to look at him. Karelos was now staring at the pond instead of me.
"I've had Myrn for a while."
"Y-you-" Myrn, it was something out of a fairy tale, most don't even dare utter such name, he must be lying, right? But with everything that's happened, whatever oddities are going on right now, the people at the castle, the blood trail. Myrn must be behind it. "How come? For how long?"
"Even since I was sixteen."
So for three years, Karelos has existed around me acting like nothing was wrong with him. For three years we shared meals, he slept down the hall, we rode carriages together. And he never intended to share such a thing?
"You know how it is when people awaken Myrn, don't you remember the Rodia family?"
"Their mother was exiled... for having Myrn."
"It has been difficult to keep it hidden for so long, did you know it accumulates over time if you don't use it? Its painful."
"Everyone, mother, father, the citizens... they would all forget you, you'd stop existing if they found out."
"I wasn't willing to stop existing for you."
"But you could've told me, I don't mind."
"Yeah, but now we're in this together, as the vessel of Kunzai, you now have Myrn too. So don't throw me under the bus because I'll drag you along."
"That isn't reassuring at all, but thanks, Karelos."
Karelos leaned back, we remained silent for a couple seconds. "Yesterday, the council mentioned the massacre was the result of someone with a Myrn output beyond anything documented."
"I reached the same conclusion. The black borders and the chunks of flesh missing gave it away."
"That wasn't the spoon-bending, glass-cracking we recognize as Myrn... I've spent the past three years reading everything I could about Myrn without making it obvious. Did you know Rodan and Gal-"
"Rodan and Galyscia are the only two countries where Myrn usage isn't outlawed or taboo, yes. I have to learn geopolitics to keep our trade stable."
"Well, I took advantage of my travels to talk to several Myrn users. And I learned that such Myrn output should only be possible to those who've trained for decades."
"So we're dealing with a Myrn veteran?"
"Most likely."
He held the leather pouch out toward me and I took another berry.
- - -
The forest path felt quieter now than it had been on the way through, the birds settled into their evening arrangements somewhere above the canopy.
"So what should I do now?"
"About what?"
"The Myrn, what do I do about it?"
"Nothing for now, just let it sit there. You don't know how to use it, and I don't want you or me to get injured. So for now you'll let it flow around your body."
"How did you learn to use your Myrn?"
"Trial and error, I broke my elbow using it."
"Ah, that's reassuring."
"When we're home and the scavenge mission is wrapped up, we'll head to Galyscia on boat, there I'll teach you anything I can on Myrn, in a safe space."
We had been walking for about ten minutes before I saw a single dark drop in the path's edge, almost black in the low light.
One after another, every couple meters.
"Karelos, the trail is back."
He was beside me in a second, crouching at the same level, following my eyeline.
"It went through the border, the desert, and into the forest."
"The blood seems kinda fresh. If we follow the trail we'll most certainly catch up at our current pace."
It was nothing like the trail in the castle, that had been a clear path, this was what remained after a long crossing on foot. The person was still losing blood and somewhere ahead of us.
The drops were easier to follow at pace than I expected. Karelos and I started running. Each was always within a meter of the path's left edge at roughly the same interval.
Whoever this was wasn't stumbling.
The trees thickened on either side as we went deeper, the canopy closing overhead reduced the remaining light to something more dim and filtered.
My boots found roots occasionally as the ground became less predictable. Beside me, Karelos moved without difficulty, his knight training had turned out useful.
"There!"
I looked up. Between the trees, perhaps sixty meters ahead where the path curved and the forest opened into a slightly wider channel, a figure moved.
It was dark, a black cape that absorbed the low light, moving with a long stride, its lower edge bordered with color. I couldn't make out the specific pattern from this distance, the light was too poor and the trees between us broke the image into fragments.
Tall, from what I could see, sort of broad-shouldered. And in their arms, cradled against their chest with a careful grip, the unmistakable shape of a body.
I grabbed Karelos by the sleeve and pulled us both sideways off the path and behind the wide trunk of one of the trees. We pressed against it, looking at each other.
"Did you see that? However that was, they were carrying someone in their arms."
"I could see that."
"The shadow was so dark, and the faint colors, was that a cloak?"
He looked back around the trunk carefully. I watched his expression process what he was seeing.
"Indeed, that's a cloak."
I looked back around the trunk myself.
The figure had slowed down its pace, perhaps sensing something. For a moment they were still between the trees, the body in their arms motionless.
"What do we do?"
"I doubt they'll be dangerous, but for the moment, we'll follow, carefully."