Chapter 31 - Revelations

Floor Sixty, The Great Labyrinth

Renji woke to the dim glow of lanternlight. He tried to lift his head, but grimaced as a sharp pain bloomed in his left shoulder and chest.

“That’s right,” he muttered hoarsely, voice rough from thirst. “I was… impaled.” He let out a low groan and sank back into the pillow.

“Good. You’re awake.”

He turned his head slightly. Celia stood in the doorway, her usual calm smile absent.

“Celia…” His voice cracked and a cough shook him.

“Don’t try to move just yet.” She stepped closer, her tone firm but not unkind. “Rikka filled me in on what happened.”

Renji’s throat tightened. “Alina?”

Celia’s eyes softened, and she shook her head gently.

“Where is she?”

“Vaerina has taken her. Likely to Floor Twenty.”

Renji clenched his jaw and tried to rise. Pain flared white-hot through his wounds, forcing him back down with a hiss.

“You need rest,” Celia said firmly. “You’ve already reached the safe limit for healing potions. Any more and your body will collapse before it recovers.”

Renji stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then turned his gaze to her. “Celia.” His eyes sharpened, locking with hers. “Who… or what is she?”

Celia hesitated. Her lips parted, then closed again. The flicker of uncertainty in her eyes told him more than words.

“She is… more than she realises,” Celia said at last, her voice low. “And that truth may break her before it saves her.”

***

Beneath the Duke’s mansion, Floor Twenty, The Great Labyrinth

Alina stared down. Her reflection shimmered across a dark surface. She realised she was hovering a few inches above water; a cool breeze lifted her hair. She glanced frantically around. No shore. No horizon.

“Where am I?” she whispered.

A figure slid up from the watery mirror and floated opposite her. It looked like Alina — same face, same eyes — except that its skin was pale blue, with luminous lines across its throat and cheeks. Its pale-blue hair fluttered.

“W-who are you?” Alina stammered.

The figure’s smile was soft. “I am you, as much as you are me.”

“I don’t understand.” She brought both hands to her temples. “Where are we?”

“We are inside you.” The other’s voice was like an echo from deep water. “This is your mind.”

Alina’s hands trembled. She grimaced as a searing pain shot through her ribs; it disappeared as quickly as it had come. The echo of Vaerina’s voice carried faintly, distorted, as if from deep underwater. Alina’s pulse raced. Whatever was happening to her body outside, it was bleeding into this place too.

“So we’re… in my mind?” she breathed. “I’ve read about telepathy, but never — nothing like this.”

“It’s not telepathy, as we are one and the same.” Its voice grew clearer. “I am the part of you that lay quiet for the longest time.”

She sounds like me. She even looks like me. (Alina thought.)

“If you are me, why are we speaking like this?” Alina asked, still apprehensive.

“That’s because you haven’t fully accepted that part of you that is me.” Its smile grew thin. “You are an Undine spirit. That’s what I represent.”

“Undine spirit?” she blurted out in disbelief. “But I’m human. What are you talking about?”

“We were human then,” the Undine answered, chuckling. “You are the human part. I am the Undine part. I have been locked away for a long time, slumbering.”

“Huh — slumbering? So what woke you?”

“I believe it was Elith who sensed me sleeping inside you,” the Undine said. “Her lessons, in part, allowed you to ‘touch’ — to wake me.”

“So am I still… me? Still human?” Panic edged the question.

The Undine laughed — not cruelly, but amused, like an adult watching the innocence of a child. “Yes, you are — or should I say… ‘we’ are human… and more.” The Undine stepped closer; the reflected water shivered underfoot. “The choice is yours.”

Alina recalled the fight with Vaerina: that surge of power that felt foreign and natural at the same time. “So that… new power… that was you?”

“Yes. That power has always been within you.”

The Undine began to fade, turning translucent, ethereal. “Accept it, or it will be torn from you,” the spirit warned, her voice rippling like waves. “Better to claim it as yours than let others rip it free.” She thinned and vanished.

Alina swallowed. The mirror-face stared back, steady and ancient, and for the first time she felt the pull of something in her chest — something new, and yet familiar.

***

Alina’s eyes snapped open. Cold air filled her lungs, but her body refused to move. Her limbs were shackled to a stone bed carved into the centre of a windowless chamber.

“Nice of you to join us, Princess.” Vaerina purred, stepping from the shadows. The Verdant Sceptre glowed faintly in her hand, its embedded Orb pulsing in rhythm with Alina’s heartbeat. “Good. The spirit within you stirs more strongly now. We’ll coax it out, one scream at a time.”

Alina tugged weakly at her restraints. “What did you mean… Undine spirit? Who—who were my parents?”

Rovan’s eyes flickered at the question. His lips pressed thin, but he said nothing. His knuckles tightened around his staff, then slackened. He willed himself to stay silent.

Vaerina’s cruel smile widened. “Ah, so the little princess doesn’t know. How quaint.” She tilted her head toward Rovan. “Did you never tell her?”

His jaw tightened. For a fraction of a second his face cracked with something like regret. He said nothing.

Alina’s voice broke. “Rovan… please. Tell me.”

Silence. Vaerina let out a low laugh. “Perhaps another time. For now, all you need to understand is this — your body was only ever a vessel. And what lies inside you belongs to me.”

The sceptre’s green light flared. The chains constricted, drawing a surge of blue essence from Alina’s chest. Agony lanced through her ribs as her vision blurred.

Rovan’s knuckles turned white on his staff, but still he said nothing.

Inside Alina’s mind, the mirrored surface rippled again. The faint outline of her Undine self shimmered at the edges of her thoughts.

Her heart pounded. What am I really? The thought echoed as her consciousness began to fade.

Vaerina hissed, frustration edging her voice. “There is too much resistance. Only a trickle is being extracted.”

“My Lady.” A hooded aide approached.

“What is it?”

“She had this in her belongings.” The aide held out the teleportation stone Alina had received from Elith.

Vaerina smirked as she took the stone, the aide retreating into the shadows. “The elves on Elaron were helping her?” She gave a chilling chuckle. “Most intriguing.”

***

Renji’s room, Floor Sixty, The Great Labyrinth

Renji propped himself up on an elbow, wincing as a dull ache flared in his shoulder. “So she’s human, but with an Undine spirit inside her?” He still had a hard time wrapping his head around Celia’s earlier explanation.

Celia, seated beside the bed, folded her hands. “Yes. Physically she’s human.” She paused, choosing her words carefully. “She isn’t possessed, and it isn’t a parasite. Think of it like this: the spirit and the body are two aspects of the same being. She is an Undine spirit given a human form.”

Renji blinked. “When did you know?”

“I suspected when you both came to me months ago,” Celia said. “Which is why I sent you to Elith.” Her voice was steady but not unfeeling.

“Alina didn’t know?”

“I doubt it.” Celia shook her head gently. “I sensed an ancient power lying dormant in her.”

Renji lay back down as the strain on his wounds became too much. “What does Vaerina want with her?” he asked, his breath ragged.

Celia’s expression hardened. “Power. Control. Vaerina will use any means to obtain ancient forces. She intends to challenge the Great Spirit and destroy the World Tree.”

“How?”

“The Verdant Orb,” Celia said flatly. “Vaerina will try to extract the spirit into the Orb — trap it there and bend it to her purpose.” She rubbed her chin. “At least, that’s what I’d attempt in her position.”

“And Alina? What happens to her if Vaerina succeeds?”

Celia’s eyes never left his. “What do you think would happen to you if I pulled your soul from your body right now?” Her question hung in the air, blunt and final.

Renji had no answer.