Water Affinity +5!

  You have learned the skill Water Dance!

  James blinked away the notifications. What kind of crazy mindfuck was this place? In some ways, the mermaid had been so similar to the Silken Siren, the way a cartoon is similar to its live-action remake.

  He felt a pang of longing for her and the grotto and the perpetual sunset. Was she even real? Or were the Novice textbooks like a virtual reality classroom?

  The Hero collapsed to his knees and clutched his head in his hands. He had to stop thinking like that. The mermaid had told him it was good to ask questions, but she’d also taught him that he wouldn’t always get answers. These questions in particular were on the level of meaning of life bullshit. He was not going to get any answers, and it was time to make a decision to believe, blindly, one way or another.

  If none of it was real and that nobody here was alive in a way that mattered, how would that affect his actions? If he believed that none of it meant anything, what would he be willing to do? Would it make him a stronger warrior if he wasn’t held back by a little thing like morality? Was that why Heroes were chosen from other worlds, so they could be molded into murderhobos?

  It would certainly make things easier. The only problem was, James didn’t want to live that way. He didn’t want to live like nothing mattered. He wanted things to matter. He wanted to matter.

  Inara knelt beside him and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. Her eyes were wide and beautiful and so concerned and so, so real.

  James choked on a bitter laugh. She had to be real. If she wasn’t, she ought to be, so why not live as though she was? He’d been going through the motions of all the magic mumbo jumbo, but what if he actually believed it? What if he dove right in and treated it all like it mattered?

  He pressed the backs of his hands against his eyes for a moment, then stood. He pulled up the System description of Water Dance.

  Water Dance

  The flowing combat art of the mermaid. Move like a riddle in motion.

  James activated the skill and shot up through the water like a corkscrew. He danced through the garden and wished with all his heart that he’d been able to do that before it was all destroyed. How beautiful must that have been?

  It would have been better if they hadn’t had to destroy it, but the nature of the dungeon had given them no choice. He could accept that.

  James solidified a section of water by his foot and kicked off of it. He twirled into a forward flip and returned to the party.

  He felt good. For the first time in what could only have been days but felt like months, he felt certain of what he needed to do next.

  He was going to stop the Demon King. He was going to keep asking questions and paying attention to the things that didn’t quite make sense. Most of all, he was going to keep Inara and Desiree safe.

  Desiree clapped wildly at James’s acrobatic display and pursed her lips like she was whistling. Inara wobbled her hand back and forth like his antics were a five out of ten, but the humor in her eyes let on that she was at least somewhat impressed by the display.

  James motioned for them to follow him. From above, he’d finally gotten the vantage point he’d needed to see the exit; about twenty feet up, there was a ridge in the cliff with a tunnel opening that was suspiciously similar to the tunnel he’d seen in the mermaid’s cavern.

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  The others swam up after him. Virgil seemed surprised that he could swim against the weight of his own clothing rather than just trudging across the cavern floor.

  One by one, they entered the tunnel. It curled around and upward and back in on itself, twisting so many times that James lost track of where it went. Occasional spots of color marked the growth of oceanic life, and James took every opportunity to harvest a little more EXP.

  He was done feeling sorry. If a little property destruction was going to make his final battle a little easier, then destroy it he would. Twisting himself up in knots wouldn’t be helpful to anyone.

  Finally, the tunnel brightened. It straightened, and James swam directly upward until he finally emerged in an expansive grotto. He crawled up onto a rocky ledge, which was made up of obsidian so sheer and dark it glittered with reflected light. The ridged expanse was encircled by water, and the walls were so flat and polished they were like funhouse mirrors. Everywhere he turned, James saw his distorted reflection.

  Inara and Desiree pulled themselves gasping onto the obsidian platform. Desiree was the first to her feet, and as soon as she caught her breath, she came up laughing.

  “That was amazing!” she called out. “We tore straight through that garden! And then the Siren— whoo, she was tough! But we nailed her!” She reached down to pull Virgil out of the water. “That Silence spell of yours is nuts! I need to learn something like that!”

  James and Inara shared a look. Inara shook her head, but James’s jaw only tightened.

  What they had done wasn’t noble. It wasn’t fun. What was necessary should not necessarily be glorified.

  “Hey Desiree,” he said, his voice ringing clear in the small space. “Did you get a healing spell yet?”

  Her chattering came to an abrupt halt. “No, I— I needed another offensive spell,” she said. “I didn’t know what the Siren was going to do next, I wanted to make sure we got her.”

  “If you could heal, we wouldn’t be in so much danger.” His voice was tight. “Even if we got hurt, you could undo the damage. That’s worth more in the long run than a little more offense on your turn.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Desiree’s voice took on a hard edge. “Because it’s not like mom’s doing any damage.”

  James took a step forward. “She’s doing the best she can under the circumstances.”

  Inara put herself between the two of them. “Cool it,” she said to both of them, with a look in her eyes that brooked no argument. “We’re all on the same team, and we’re all doing the best we can.”

  Desiree and James broke eye contact, both of them feeling abruptly embarrassed by their outbursts.

  “Did you get the water spell you wanted?” Desiree asked, by way of apology.

  “Sure did,” he replied, a little too cheerfully. He dialed it back. “Now I’ve got an affinity for Fire, Earth, and Water. The only element I’m missing is air.”

  Desiree blinked. “You what?”

  “I’ve almost got the four elements,” he repeated. “Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. I’ve got everything but Air.”

  Inara burst out laughing, then quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Still, her eyes danced with amusement.

  “What?” James asked. “What’s so funny?”

  “Air’s not an element!” Desiree giggled. “What would you even do with air?”

  James flushed. He was thinking of stories like Avatar: the Last Airbender, where air could be channeled into devastating gusts of wind or into a sphere that he could ride.

  “I dunno,” he said, “Like a wind scythe or something. You can blow air at people and knock them off balance.”

  Desiree laughed even harder. “Watch out mom, James might blow on you!” She puffed her cheeks and blew as hard as she could before doubling over in laughter once again.

  Inara just shook her head, still failing to hold back a smile. “I don’t know about your world, but here there are only three elements.”

  James rolled his eyes. “Well there’s supposed to be four.”

  “Sure, ok. And maybe the fifth element is your Imagination.”

  That one actually startled a laugh out of James. “Virgil, you know things, what do you think? How many elements are there, really? Virgil?”

  The scholar stood at the edge of the water, staring at the flat walls of the grotto, as if he saw something more than just his reflection.

  James looked at the wall too, trying to figure out what his friend was looking at. The closer he looked, the more Virgil’s reflection seemed to warp and shift in the light, like he was doing more than just standing there.

  The image began to sharpen, and he could see Virgil in wizard’s robes, walking beside a creature with swords for arms and its head split in two.

  “What the—?”

  “Whoa!” Desiree saw the images too.

  Inara gasped.

  The picture on the wall continued to sharpen, until it was clear as television.

  Virgil raised a hand as if to touch the image. “I was there,” he said, his voice shaking. “This is… These are my memories.”