Val clambered to unsteady feet, blood rushing to her head and setting her senses in disarray. Stumbling through inky, near-viscous darkness, she headed over to the closed-off entrance and pounded on it with clenched fists. "I can't be stuck, not now of all times."
A low rumble crashed against the barrier of boulders and she jumped backwards, away from the ongoing scuffle outside. A damp object stabbed her back. Val whirled around, heart rate at unhealthy heights as she stretched a probing hand, hitting nothing except the stone walls of the cave. Crouching and sinking her head into her arms, she took a lungful of air. 'Get a grip,' she told herself. 'You're fine, just breathe.'
In. Hold. Out.
Her jitters slowed to nerves and her nerves to desperate questions. Were all rift dives a long string of uncomfortable endeavours and hours of worry, needing to glance backwards for aether creatures and humans alike? 'And Dad did this for months on end.'
Just how?
He had always grinned like a fool before he went off to meet up with teammates, as if the occurrence was a rare treat. Mom had—no. Thinking about her mother in the past tense tied a bow on a closed chapter, a chapter not finished on Val's terms by any means.
The tightly closed bottle of Dad seemed to push mercilessly, however, harder than the first day of the third trial, splurging longing, hurt, and reminders of what could never be in the mix of her trepidation. One memory rushed to the forefront of her mind, back when real darkness was the equivalent of the scariest of aether creatures.
A bright bulb had to be brightening every lick of her bedroom, eradicating all the shadows that often formed into monsters in her imagination. She remembered Dad leaning on the doorframe, sighing as he looked at her. He would glance around, almost wistfully, the glowing tattoo of a phoenix contorting as his neck twisted. His eyes would trace the room, taking in the dark lavender paint and the stick-on animals.
Then, he'd flicked the lights off.
"Dad!" Eleven-year-old Val tugged her bedsheets above her and curled into a ball, where the shadow monsters couldn't get her. The bed leaned towards one end as her father sat, the creak sending a shiver of fright down her spine. As he attempted to pull the covers down, she tightened her grip, her knuckles white.
"Valpal, let me in," Dad begged. "I'm right here."
Val hesitated, a sliver of her head peeking out. She stared, doe-eyed, at Dad and he smiled, prying her clamp-like fingers one by one. . Relenting and letting go, the blankets went down the next second, warmth and protection stripped at once.
A car passed their house outside, headlights affecting the curtain's shadows, stretching it into limbs lurking for prey. Val scooched backwards and pointed. "Dad, the shadows, the dark it—"
"It's okay," he cooed gently, his head leaning against an open palm as his golden eyes focused on her. "The dark's not so scary. In fact, in a way, it protects you. Keeps you from seeing the monsters beneath your nose." He tickled her with a finger, and she gave into giggles. "However, sometimes, you need to see the problems lying before you. Like all those times you've been stumbling through the dark to grab the last cookies in the fridge."
"Er..." Val got out. She'd been super sneaky!
"Oh yeah." Dad grinned. "Caught red-handed."
While Val was stuttering an excuse out about her cookie dilemma, he ruffled her hair, resting his head on the pillow next to hers. "Occasionally we find ourselves stuck where there are no outs. A dark place. For me, that place is a rift teeming with aether creatures. For you," he planted a finger on her guitar-patterned bedsheets. "It's this room. For now, you can flip a light and bam! Problem solved. But it won't always be that way."
Val sulked, a small frown forming on her lips. "How do you fix that?"
"Well, you don't try to fix it, you try to adapt—accustom."
"Ah-cos-tum?" she tried to echo.
"Yes," Dad smiled, "and while it might be hard now, you'll find it easier if you think of what's twinkling above you."
Her eyes slid to her lightbulb and he chuckled. "Not literally, Val."
"Uh…" she turned to face the other side. "I knew that."
With a strained grunt, Dad got up and moved to the nearby outlet, flicking a nightlight on. It was tiny. Small. Insignificant. Yet it made all the difference.
"Remember," he murmured, leaning in to give a forehead kiss."When it's dark out, look for stars."
"Look for stars," Val muttered, now tethered in the present.
She inhaled sharply and raised her head, giving her arm a pinch. 'Snap out of it,' she berated herself. She was fine. Alone in the dark, yes, but for now she was out of harm's way. It wouldn't stay that way, though. There was no telling how deep the cave ran.
On the flip side, it also meant that there had to be a way out somewhere.
Val patted her left where the pack should have been, her fingers grabbing air. She reached further, yet something within her told her she wouldn't find it. The voices guiding her actions, the trail of water, a pack left in the perfect place—it was all connected.
When a sensation not unlike wearing a pair of wrongly prescribed glasses overcame her eyes, it all became clear. She experienced an identical feeling after the second trial, albeit in a different location. Still, phantom pains originated from the same thing.
A mind trap.
Val cursed under her breath. 'I was an idiot following that trail of water. All for nothing too.'
Pushing herself upright, Val's brain clocked into overtime. She had no food, no water, and for the better part of the day, no help. Either she was rescued by Tripartite Trial admin—which would kick her out—or she escaped.
"Stars," Val muttered again, the memory flashing by. That was right, she needed light of some kind if she planned on doing anything. 'Think,' Val thought, 'anything. Something.'
The pond outside held a hallucinatory effect on those near and far, but the wall of rocks seemed to be doing an excellent job of shutting it out. Which was great, honestly. Having her thoughts controlled... a shiver ran through her body at the idea.
Then there was the Lushgreen. If she assumed this section of the cave belonged to the green aether creature, she could use it as a beacon. Val focused, going through what knowledge she recalled from the CAU's guidebook.
They kept the tier, stars, and habits of aether creatures within the Novice Edition—the only edition allowed outside the Laws of Secrecy. Lushgreen snakes routinely picked habitats where it was dim, nearby water, and some form of sparklet bushes to leave their eggs in.
With the former two checked off the list, chances were, sparklet bushes were near. Sparklet leaves, true to their name, emit a short burst of light when torn. Val cracked a smile. 'That's it!'
Picking up her sword in a rush, Val started feeling for low shrubs. She worked her way around the cavern boundaries, using her sword and the walls to keep her steady in the darkness.
Val swore when something jabbed her finger. Attempting to rub the wounded spot, she came in contact with something else. It was jagged—sharp even—and there were multiple. Could it be?
She picked up one of them, hoping with all her strength she was right, and tore it. If she didn't know better, she would've thought a radiance spell was cast as the leaf blazed a pale yellow.
"Heavens!" As if it were a lump of hot coal, she dropped the sparklet leaf and massaged her eyes with the heels of her hands. Her lips, torn between a smile and a wince, formed a wobble of a line. 'Found you.'
Snatching the branch full of sparklet leaves, she paced across the grotto. Marking her path with a scratch of her sword and focusing on the faint breeze that flowed in every other minute, Val journeyed through the caves.
Riddled with knee-deep holes, she wouldn't have made it three steps without snapping her ankle in some kind of way. In a short matter of fifteen minutes, Val seemed to have turned the right corner.
A stream of light poured in, and she couldn't help the grin that spread wide across her face. 'I'm out.'
The exit led her right back to the stone forest, and it was thankfully a part they'd already marked. Following the directions made, it wasn't long until she reached Blue Cave, teal veins thrumming rhythmically, casting a blue sheen throughout the underground chamber.
"Oh hey." Caro yawned, sitting in her previous spot outside the cave entrance. "Came out fifteen minutes ago hoping to give you some company, where'd you go?"
Val could only sigh. "On a long stroll."