Escape to the surface

She falls deep before she’s able to get control of her body, her torso still sore from the binding tentacles.

Morgause kicks out with her legs, ankles pumping as she tries to swim back to the open pool.

But she’s sunk too deep, and the glow from above is gone. In the murk of the water she can see swirling, writhing shapes all around.

Panicked, she twists in the water, heart thundering, lungs…

Her lungs are fine.

She touches her chest and looks down. And sees the Sea Shroud glow with faint light.

It’s letting me breathe? Am I even breathing?

She doesn’t stop to interrogate the magic of the gem further. Whatever is happening, she isn’t drowning. She throws her arms wide in a breaststroke, cutting through the water with greater ease than before.

It’s impossible to tell which way to go - or it should be, but she powers ahead all the same, guided by a force she cannot understand, and doesn’t want to.

She feels a chill run down her back and through her legs, convinced that at any moment, powerful and writhing limbs will seize her and drag her deeper. She can feel the creatures of the deep touching, grabbing, pulling.

A glow from above and ahead heralds the return of the blue algae, and she swims faster, feet wriggling, arms flailing now, heart pounding fit to burst.

When her head crashes through the surface of the water she gasps instinctively, and finds that now, she is breathing again.

With a wet sob, she grips the stone walkway of the original Sanctum chamber, and drags herself out of the water, chest rising and falling heavily. She absolutely has to get out of these clothes.

She lays there for as long as she thinks she can spare, then rolls onto her front, clambering unsteadily to her feet. She glances down at the water, and doesn’t believe her mind is playing tricks on her when she sees a large dark shape powering up from the depths.

Time to go time to go time to GO

Morgause catches herself before she slips again, limping back towards the Temple doors, the Sea Shroud still clutched in a white-knuckle grip.