Chapter 53 - Escaping the Trap

As the water rushed into the room, the torrent shifted and swirled around the lever and the upturned chest. Violetta realized as the floor began the buckle, the stone flooring was in fact part of another trap or mechanism. Throwing herself on to the lever, she pushed it forward and grunted as it drove itself into her chest.

“Violetta!?” Raeyn gasped and fell into the swirling water.

As fast as the water poured down from the ceiling, the water was pushed down the narrower corridor so that the room would not flood at all. It was then that Cake realized the real purpose of the room and yelled out, “We have been deceived. Cookie. Stop it from breaking if you can!”

The brown haired Kithe pulled her hood back and snapped, “It is too late! We are going down.”

As she said that the stone floor buckled and gave way in uneven chunks, Sig and Lock snatched up Cake and Cookie to protect them in the fall. Violetta rushed to Raeyn, but she was unable to reach her as the floor fell away. Stuck in free fall they fell in unison down into the depths. The fall was short, but the six of them slammed into the floor as the water poured down from above.

Cake uttered a strange cryptic command, and a purple, blue light flashed from her body. The light filled the room, and she explained what she knew from the spell as a harsh command, “Cookie, Raeyn and Locke are down. Violetta get them up now!”

Violetta grunted and struggled as the water began to quickly rise in the room, the previous hallway had allowed it to drain, but now in the presumed garbage pit there was no escape. The smell of decay and strange grayish mass swirled about in the water. Being able to see in total darkness was useful, but she did not know if that was blood or something else. She was closest to Raeyn and pulled her close with her left arm and sought out Cookie, whose body was floating upside down on the water. Sig had rushed to Locke and struggled to swim while propping his head above the water as the torrential stream continued.

Violetta looked above, her eyes, mouth and nose forced full of water as the powerful jets of water emptied what seemed like a brook into the room. Struggling for a moment to position herself out of the direct line of the hole, she saw that they had fallen ten or more paces and that more than accounted for the severe pain she found herself in. It was no different than leaping out of a two or three-story building and hitting the street below.

“I can’t heal them like this. Maelyn’s mark is on the tongue.” She called out.

“You Mahn and your useless gods!” Cake sputtered as she took in a mouthful of water, “Cookie! Cookie, wake up!”

The Kithe was not roused by the cold water that poured into the room, slowly filling it and bringing them higher and higher towards the narrow hallway. Aiming simply to survive, Cake called out to Sig, “Let me climb on your back.”

Sig did not have much choice as the Kithe swam over towards him and climbed on his back, pushing him further into the water and risking his grip on Locke, “What are you doing!?”

“Going to break us out of here if I can.” Cake said as she pulled out her golden staff, “I can get us to the top of the hallway. I am going to break the sight to do it.”

Violetta realized what she meant and said, “Go for it! I got Raeyn.”

“Clear headed in this situation.” Cake grinned as she began to utter another cryptic spell.

In a flash the spell granting the sight was lost, plunging Violetta into the confusing darkness, but she already knew the general layout of the room and where the hallway was. At the rate of the water pouring in, it would only be a minute or two before the water rose up to pour out of the hall. That was assuming the torrent above continued to last. How much water could the trap hold? It seemed excessive. Had something gone wrong even before Cookie collapsed the floor?

Cake’s voice called out from above a moment later, but the torrent had the effect of muffling her words at this distance “Okay, the four of us are safe. Can you hold on while it rises?”

“Yes.” Violetta shouted back, clutching Raeyn close to her chest, “How do we stop it?”

“It is not just the water we have to deal with, but the slime itself.” Cake announced, “I’m going to try to kill it from here, but we are in its element now.”

Violetta realized that the shifting blur from before was actually a slime and she instinctively looked around in the darkness but could see nothing. Cake uttered another spell, and the water splashed and shifted around her. Cake grunted and uttered a curse under her breath. An obvious miss. Then another splash and a curse.

A pulse of energy suddenly struck Violetta’s right arm and cut through her armor and flesh with the swiftness of a blade. Her blood spilled into the water, but the general numbness spoke of the shock her body was in. Violetta yelled up at Cake, “That hit me!”

“And you are still alive. For now.” Cake shouted back, “You need that Gobbo. Use your tongue for something other than complaining already.”

Violetta let out a laugh at how obvious it was now, and she pulled Raeyn’s forehead up and gave it a kiss while uttering her divine word. In a start, Raeyn surged to life and struggled to swim in confusion.

“Violetta!? Violetta? You… you kissed my forehead!?” She caught herself and asked, “What is happening?”

“You were knocked unconscious when we fell, but now I need you. There is a slime in this water, and it is going to attack us. Can you get us out of here or kill it?”

“I see it.” She said a moment later and raised her hand, but the fire would not manifest itself in the water, “My fire… it is not working!”

“Raise your hand above the water and try again.” Violetta held her up higher, “Kill it quickly.”

Following Violetta’s instruction, she snapped her right hand above the waterline and a weak flame appeared, she kindled it and the fire became a raging blaze threatening to engulf the whole of her hand, “I got it! I got it.”

The torrential jets shifted and moved, but Raeyn carefully maneuvered her hand away from the columns. Light filled the space and Violetta and Cake shouted in unison, “There it is!”

Under the floor was a service crawl space that was built into the room in its earliest construction, allowing for a drain system and whatever now destroyed controls to be built or operated. Cookie in her ridiculous divine-borrowed strength had smashed through the whole of the room and dropped them into the garbage pit trap. Against the odds, or perhaps because it was by its slimy nature, the green-gray streaked mass sharing the rising water with Violetta and Rayne had been confused and unable to attack. The light itself changed it, and the blob shifted closer, neither moving on its own power or darting, but instead spreading out to envelope the two of them in its massive body.

The membrane pushed and began to envelope Violetta’s legs just before Raeyn pointed her hand down into the water, a surge of steam and boiling water violently erupted as Raeyn put her full power into roasting the creature in the water. The water turned hot in moments and Violetta let out a scream, “Stop! STOP!”

Raeyn’s body seemed immune to the scalding water that she generated, but the gelatinous creature’s body had already been fatally compromised, and it oozed a massive bladder of sludge into the pit. The contents of its acidic stomach poured into the water all around Violetta.

“Stay there, I am coming!” Cake threw herself into the water, almost landing on Violetta. The little Kithe’s body and robes were instantly enveloped in the slime’s acid, but a moment later with a rough and desperate cry the three of themselves were teleported into the crawlspace with Violetta’s body squished and cramped. Cake ran down the hall before Raeyn could chase after her, tripping over Violetta’s tangled arms and legs, trying to free herself. Cake disappeared down a corridor and a few moments later the water was shut off, but Raeyn stayed with Violetta who had not said or moved since the teleporting.

“Violetta?” She nudged her friend, “Oh… no… What happened.”

Blood poured out of her right arm and her flesh practically glowed to her eyes, “I… hurt you so much.”

Sig yelled from the other side of the room, from the higher platform, “It is shut off! She did it!?”

“Yes.” Raeyn responded and she decided to mimic Violetta’s healing kiss and divine word on the missing chunk of the woman’s arm, “Please. Maelyn. Let this work.”

With the divine healing word, the flesh reacted and spewed blood and pus, filling itself in and scabbing over. The wound itself sped through the healing process with a putrid scent of decay, but it was closed and healed just as quickly as Violetta had restored her burned hand all those days ago.

Cake reappeared at the end of the tunnel and said proudly, “This is a fine mess, but we found our way in. My body is burning from the acid. The slime’s stomach ruptured. Hurry, we need to get this acid off of us before it is too late.”

“Will the water be safe?” Raeyn asked, “There is enough water in there to make it safe?”

“In the next room.” Cake grinned, “Pull her along, quickly. Before her skin starts to melt. Hurry up!”