"You ready?" Kar asked Ember nervously. They stood at the foot of the ship's interior ramp, door panels just ahead. Kar shifted his weight in anticipation.
"I am ready."
Kar took a deep breath, then stepped forward and placed his hand on those panels.
They slid open silently, and Kar took a cautious step onto the exterior ramp. The doors to the ship slid shut behind him.
He held his focusing staff—that's what he'd decided to call it anyway—upright in one hand, a tongue of flame wagging from its tip like a torch. His new pack was slung across his back, Ember and the rest of Kar's things secured within.
The cavern greeted them with silence.
That and the eerie faces of more than a dozen of those frozen, masked figures; imprisoned outside of time.
Where was Old Set?
Kar crept to the foot of the ramp and entered amongst that statuesque forest of people. He looked left to right slowly, searching the surrounding darkness for signs of movement.
Nothing.
"Ok," Kar whispered as they started up the side of the ravine, "can you help me find the way back to the tunnel?"
"I can."
They reached the top where Old Set's fire had been. The pit was dark and there was no sign of the old man. Kar repositioned his pack, feeling uneasy. Should he just head for the tunnel then?
"You've done well Karalinde!" a gravelly voice said behind him.
Kar jumped, then scrambled away, turning to find Old Set standing there.
"Stay away from me!" He yelled.
"Oh, you have nothing to fear from me." Set said.
"Where is that voice coming from?" Ember asked, its tone concerned.
Kar tripped and fell back, landing on his rear. He thrust his focusing staff ahead of himself, warding back Set.
Set simply crouched in place, a twisted grin on his face, "You take care of that Prism now, you hear me boy? And you…Ember. Look after Kar here. I'll be watching your development with great interest."
Kar blinked and Old Set was gone.
----
The trek back to the tunnel was somber. Kar continued to use the staff as a torch in one hand and carried the sledge he'd reclaimed in his other.
"It disturbs me that I could not sense the old man." Ember said to him.
"There's a lot about Old Set that disturbs me." Kar grumbled in reply.
"I do not think he had good intentions."
"You don't say?"
"We should stay away from him."
"You'll hear no arguments from me." Kar breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the last of the lanterns he'd placed. He continued to mull over that last encounter with Set as they followed the path back.
"Why did he call you a Prism?" He asked Ember.
It was silent for a while. "Perhaps that is what I am."
"Huh." Kar shook his head, storing the information away for later. He felt unsettled. There was something at play here, something beyond him. Kar could sense that. But this wasn't anything he was prepared to deal with. Kar just wanted everything to go back to how it had been.
That wasn't necessarily true though, was it?
He looked down at himself as he hiked along. Despite the trials of the last few days, he'd never felt better in his life. And while Riftwater was home, they had been starving and wasting away before Aldwin returned for them.
So no, he didn't want things to go back to the way they had been. He wanted his family back he realized. Wanted them to be safe.
But what about the rest of his family? The family he'd forgotten? His mother, his father? Who else had been left behind when Nat took them away? Kar desperately wanted to find the answers to those questions.
"You have been quiet." Ember said, interrupting Kar's thoughts.
"There's just… a lot on my mind I guess."
Ember seemed to accept that, and they returned to a companionable silence.
They soon reached the tunnel wall. Kar couldn't believe how relieved he was to finally step through the hole and back into that arched sanctum of monotony.
"We just follow the tunnel, right?" he asked Ember.
"That is correct." The Prism answered.
Easy enough.
"How far to the end?"
"It should not be far."
Great. So if Kar had just kept going when he originally found the hole in the tunnel wall he would have already reached the surface by now. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Why are you making that sound?" Ember asked.
Kar wiped tears from his eyes, "I just thought of something funny I guess."
"Oh."
"Do you understand humor? Irony?" Kar set off, thankful for the lantern light that suffused the tunnel. The gurgle and drip of running water down the center channel soothed him.
"I will have to learn what those are." Ember replied, then changing tones, "Thank you, for bringing me with you."
Kar found himself smiling, "It's nice to not be alone, isn't it."
"Yes. It is nice."
They enjoyed a comfortable silence as Kar strode purposefully down the tunnel, toward the surface. Towards freedom. The thought of feeling the wind and sunshine on his skin again spurred him onward.
He almost cried when he noticed the first glare of natural light in the distance. Kar ran toward it, his feet slapping against the stone bricks underfoot. The roar of falling water greeted them as they neared the broken mouth of the tunnel. Kar slowed as he neared the edge, recognizing that there was a drop.
The far side of the Rift came into view, a sheer cliff face obscured by a massive waterfall and thick mist. Kar eased himself forward to where the tunnel floor fell away; there was nothing but open air beyond.
He placed his hand against the curving tunnel wall and peered down. It was a long drop to dark waters below. He looked to his left then and paused. There was some kind of…obstruction there, stretching from the southern wall of the rift—where he stood—to its opposing northern face. It was a dam.
Kar looked back down at the waters below and realized he was standing over a massive reservoir.
"I thought you said this was a way out!" Kar yelled over the din of falling water.
"It is." Ember replied.
"I can't exactly fly!"
"I cannot fly either."
"I didn't think you could! And that's not the point, we have to get up to the surface, how am I supposed to do that from here?"
"Could you climb?"
Kar craned his neck to look upwards. It was a long way to the top, further than he was capable of going.
"I don't think I'll make it. Any other suggestions?"
"Perhaps you could ask the people over there for assistance?"
"People, what people?"
"The people down there to your left."
Kar looked back to the dam. On closer examination he noticed small figures standing atop it. There were people down there. What were they doing? Fishing?
He noticed small boats close to them. An idea came to him. He swallowed hard as he tried to gauge the distance to the water below. Was it a hundred spans? More?
He was getting ahead of himself though, first he needed to get their attention.
Kar set down his sledge and raised his focusing staff, then Focused a blast of fire out the mouth of the tunnel. It flared brightly. He tried again, intensifying how he imagined it in his head. A corresponding stream of flame erupted across the sky, arcing out over the reservoir.
He looked down. Had anyone noticed? His Focusings crackled loudly, but they were surely drowned out by the roar of the distant waterfall.
He thought he understood now how the staff worked. It merely intensified Focusings, whatever they were; concentrated them. Kar's problem was not that he couldn't Focus, it was that he was weak as Morrow had said. With the staff's help he could counteract his limitations but not eliminate them altogether.
He started to get frustrated, not sure what to try next.
"I think one of them noticed that." Ember said.
Kar jumped excitedly as he saw the figures at the dam pointing in his direction. He waved both arms. Then he remembered most of the strangers he had met since coming to Iridess had not been the friendliest of hosts.
One of the boats turned in Kar's direction and rowed over beneath him. He could make out faces peering up at him from below. Their distant calls and shouts echoed up to Kar. He waved at them, and they waved back. That was encouraging.
Next he took a deep breath and steeled himself. It looked like he was going swimming. A crazy idea occurred to him then as he tried to psych himself up to make the leap. What if he tried to hover like Aldwin had, over the plains?
"What are you doing?" Ember asked.
"I'm going to jump."
The Prism hesitated, "It's a long ways down."
"Yeah. Yeah it is." He peered over the edge one last time, then tossed his sledge down. It fell for a sickeningly long time before it struck the water, white rings expanding outward from its impact. Then Kar took a deep breath, tightened the grip on his staff, and leapt.
He had far too much time to regret his decision as he fell. What if the focusing didn't work? Terror gripped him as the wind whipped by. As the water rushed up to meet him, Kar Focused, picturing a burst of force exploding from the staff's tip beneath him.
To his relief it worked, and Kar was jolted to a momentary slow as a burst of power erupted below him. Then he lost his grip and the staff ripped skyward out of his hands.