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- <p><b>08: waterfalls</b></p>
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- <p>The floor tiles were almost frozen under her feet. A strange feeling on her soles, Antarctica at the bottom of the world while everywhere else was the tropics, sweltering and misty. She threw her bundle of clothes onto the plastic chair outside the shower stall and hung her towel on the hook above and stepped into the small enclosure.</p>
- <p>Barely three square feet to stand. Someone had left their bottle of shampoo in the little alcove molded into the one wall that could afford to be porcelain. A blue tube with a green cap and a peeling label, barely legible black words spelling doom and gloom in a list of unpronounceable chemicals.</p>
- <p><em>Finally, something familiar.</em></p>
- <p>She turned the handle on. Locked to halfway, a meager trickle came out of the showerhead. She reached her fingers to the stream- it was icy cold.</p>
- <p>"No wonder everyone here smells like ass."</p>
- <p>"Most people go to the sinks and get a bucket of water and just pour it on themselves," said a voice from the next stall over. "Soap, then rinse. Then at least it's over quickly."</p>
- <p>"Are you sure about the soap part?"</p>
- <p>The other person snorted. "Otherworld soap would degrade all the plants living here."</p>
- <p>"What? All this divine intellect running the show, and you can't even build proper drainage systems?"</p>
- <p>The other voice fell silent.</p>
- <p>"Good riddance," Sully murmured to herself. "I'm getting out of this dump as soon as I can."</p>
- <p>"Where are you headed?" the other voice chimed in.</p>
- <p>"Like I'd tell you, fed."</p>
- <p>"I..." A nervous laugh. "What?"</p>
- <p>Sully shut up, working the soap- which turned out to be filmy and sickly-sweet scented, but it was all she had- all over her sweaty skin.</p>
- <p>"Seriously, though, what's a fed?"</p>
- <p>Sully started to hum. Not any song in particular, just enough to be heard over the steady trickle of water seeping from the showerhead.</p>
- <p>"Fine, don't tell me." A scrape of rings against a metal bar, the rustle of curtains being drawn back. Bare footsteps on the tile, dancing the uncertain dance of anyone trying to get dressed without a bench to lean on. "We're headed to the firstworld to murder a god. We'd help you out of the underworld if you're traveling the same way."</p>
- <p>"You're going to... <em>murder</em> a god?" Sully laughed. "Yeah, I'm not interested in your swords and sorcery shit. I've got bigger things to deal with than some celestial being throwing a temper tantrum."</p>
- <p>A grunt. "Yeah, not with that attitude. Not in the mood to get stabbed in the back. Forget I said anything."</p>
- <p>"Yeah. I think I will. Good idea. It's probably the first one you've come up with all day."</p>
- <p>More footsteps. A vague silhouette appeared on the other end of the curtain.</p>
- <p>"Show yourself."</p>
- <p>"Yeah, I'm kind of <em>buck naked</em> right now."</p>
- <p>"Show me your face. I want to know who's yelling at me."</p>
- <p>Sully groaned. "<em>Fine.</em>"</p>
- <p>She poked her head out from behind the curtain, her waterlogged hair plastered to her back. A redhead stood in front of her, arms crossed, wearing a scowl. Loose red fabric, slowly fading to brown, hung from her frame.</p>
- <p>Red irises stared back at her.</p>
- <p>Sully copied her face. "A godling. Of course."</p>
- <p>"Oh, you think I <em>want</em> to be divine? That I <em>want</em> to be constantly overshadowed by my dopey father?" The girl's lips tightened. "I'd trade my cursed blood for human in an instant if I had the choice."</p>
- <p>"Oh, you have daddy issues too?" Sully disappeared behind the curtain again. "You and me both, girl."</p>
- <p>"My name's Solstice."</p>
- <p>"Sully. What do you want? I'm trying to shower."</p>
- <p>"I want-"</p>
- <p>"Hey!" Heavy footsteps pounded towards the bathroom entrance. "Solstice Avaroe Talos, your father requests your presence. <em>Immediately.</em>"</p>
- <p>Solstice swore under her breath. "Well, Sully, it was... nice talking to you."</p>
- <p>Words scrambled to spew out of Sully's throat, one final act of belligerence, but she clamped her jaw shut and merely watched as Solstice turned and left.</p>
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- <p>Something rattled outside the door. Mori shook off the dregs of catatonia laying over her like faithful lap dogs and opened her eyes.</p>
- <p>"Lukas Talos," she murmured. "I don't understand..."</p>
- <p>"I'm sorry that your first experiences in Rennica were so rough," he said. He threw open the cell door and strolled into the dingy area, taking a seat in front of her. "I came to apologize. The guards shouldn't have been so rough-"</p>
- <p>"Why did you arrest me?" Mori rubbed her eyes, sore and heavy with ever-elusive sleep. "I haven't done anything wrong. All I did was get a piece of paper."</p>
- <p>"I know. I made a mistake, and now I'm setting it straight. Which is why I came to set you free."</p>
- <p>Lukas stood up and offered his hand. Mori took it, and he pulled her up to her feet. He led her out of the jails, torches on the hallways guiding them out into the open air of Rennica proper. A gaggle of little kids half their age sat on one of the knotty roots popping out of the ground, playing some arcane game with flat stones with the edges rounded off. Other than that, the agora was quiet.</p>
- <p>"Workday," he explained, sensing Mori's confusion. "I hear the hydroponics crew have some kind of cursed tomato vine with twice as many fruits as last year."</p>
- <p>"That's not cursed...?"</p>
- <p>"It is, if they're all hollow inside." He plopped down on a different root. She followed, sitting at his side. "Where are you from, Mori? Before you came here, I mean."</p>
- <p>"Nowhere." Mori put her hands together. "I woke up in a tower one day. Mistress always took care of me for as long as I can remember. She said..." Mori rubbed her hands together, watching her fingers blush pink. "She said that I used to hold power 'beyond comprehension', but I hurt myself during a training session, and now I can't really do magic anymore." She patted Lukas' knee, getting his attention. "What about Solstice? Is she still here?"</p>
- <p>He hissed. "Yes. She and I are going to have some... talking to do after I bring you back to your room. I trust the guards are keeping a watch on her until I get there."</p>
- <p>"Do you like being a father?"</p>
- <p>He let out a heavy breath. "It's... a challenge. She has her ups and downs, just like her father did. But I love her all the same."</p>
- <p>"Her... father? That's <em>you</em>, right?"</p>
- <p>"Actually-"</p>
- <p>A thunderous roar erupted from somewhere in the upper levels. Lukas sprung to his feet. Several Rennicans took off running in the opposite direction, some of them scampering all at once into the stairways and causing a traffic jam.</p>
- <p>Mori rose up. "What's going on?"</p>
- <p>"No..." Lukas' eyes went wide in terror. "Solstice, I thought-"</p>
- <p>Another roar. A pink and red beast tumbled onto the balcony, teetered on the safety rail, jumped off into the air. Sailed above their heads, landed with a <em>woosh</em> on the ground and took off running towards the external tunnels.</p>
- <p>There was a girl with her arms wrapped around its neck for dear life, seat sliding around without a saddle, eyes wide with sobering fear and drunken delight alike.</p>
- <p>Lukas swore under his breath. "Hey!" he yelled at the nearest guard. "Black alert. <em>Now.</em>"</p>
- <p>"Yes, sir!"</p>
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- <p>The farther away they got from Rennica, the less vegetation greeted them at every turn, the more the land resembled what it had in her own father's time: red brambles growing all over the earth, locked and intertwined in a ragged yet smooth surface like paper under a microscope. Some of the old walls of the labyrinth stood, half-broken with spikes stretching to the ceiling far above them.</p>
- <p>Selmina loosened her grip on Solstice's neck. A cowgirl riding her soulmate horse across the plains, as opposed to a feckless bull with no regard but for its own freedom. Her hand absentmindedly brushed through the scales beneath her as the miles unfolded under them. They felt almost soft to the touch, flower petals in frost instead of armor, or the strange plastic chips she'd heard otherworld children used all the time to count in something called "elementary school".</p>
- <p>But no chips accompanied her except for the ones in her bag. Every few hours, she swung it over in front of her and retrieved a few and ate them, taking the time to let them regain some of their lost moisture in her mouth before swallowing. A few flasks clanged on her belt, hastily swiped before their breakaway, filled with water from the same springs her ancestors had drunk from since time immemorial.</p>
- <p>Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Solstice halted in her tracks and shook her head. Selmina slid off, and Solstice rolled onto her side and lifted a wing, curling the soft stretched tissue around her friend's sleepy body as they both drifted off to sleep in the land of the once-living.</p>
- <p>The land of the soon-to-live.</p>
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