Suikoden VI

Chapter One: Part Ten

Part Ten

"'The Great Cistern'?" Surya echoed. He looked at Daunte. "What is that?"

"All of you out!" Clara snapped. "If you're not assisting in the delivery, then you're just in the way!"

The group begrudgingly left the isolated area of the infirmary, and Clara swiftly closed it off by pulling a curtain closed. Daunte spared a glance at Felicity and the poor girl had a look of dread on her face.

Well, she survived the Dark Chasm. Hopefully witnessing childbirth won't be too bad for her.

Gunther swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. "The princess told you guys something, right?"

"Archana," Surya said, shaking his head. "She was taken to a place called the Great Cistern."

Gunther winced and rubbed at his nape. "That's not good."

"What is the Great Cistern?" Israfil asked. "By the name alone, it should be a reservoir of fresh water, correct?"

"Well, yeah." Gunther shook his head. "Golden River is technically the only source of fresh water in Nagarea. Well, except for rumors of a fresh water spring in the Red Tundra, but that hasn't ever been confirmed. But in any case, the Great Cistern is a reservoir that a portion of Golden River flows into underground. It stores all of the fresh water in Nagarea."

"If the Great Cistern is a freshwater reservoir, then why do you look so anxious?" Mokuren asked softly.

"Because monsters have invaded the Great Cistern," Daunte said softly. He got looks of horror in response and he shrugged. "From what I've heard it didn't use to be so bad. I mean they already had a problem with monsters, but the workers of the Cistern were able to tolerate it. Then a couple years ago I guess they lost control of the number of monsters coming into the Cistern and were forced to abandon it."

"There are still people working at the Cistern," Gunther said. "But they're outnumbered by the number of monsters in there. As such, unfortunately, some of the vaults of water down there have been contaminated."

Surya turned green and shuddered. "No offense, but now I'm going to think twice about drinking water here."

"They've isolated the vaults that have been contaminated," Gunther said. "But...the Theocracy hasn't done much otherwise to try and contain the problem. It's rumored that they're keeping those vaults contaminated on purpose just in case they want to unleash them on a group of people. Like us."

"And you guys don't get contaminated water?" Mokuren asked, rubbing at her arms slightly.

Gunther shook his head. "We've made sure of it."

"If Lady Archana is in such a place, then we need to get to her as quickly as possible," Israfil said insistently.

"I agree," Surya said. "We should go—"

"Just hang on a second," Gunther interrupted. "She was taken there for a reason, right? A valuable hostage like her taken to a monster-infested area? This is obviously a trap, guys!"

"It might be, but I'm still going," Israfil told him.

"Look, it's the middle of the night and you guys have been running all over the Northeast without stopping. Since you're going to be walking into a trap, you should take a breather and head out in the morning."

"If we wait, then they might move her somewhere else!" Surya snapped. "And what if she gets attacked?! Archana has no combat experience!"

"They're expecting you to come for her, so they won't let anything happen to her. Besides they've already taken the trouble of removing her from Uaminifu to the Great Cistern, so they're not going to remove her from that place so quickly. I know this is difficult to think about, but you must think rationally and get some rest! If you keep rushing from one to another without pause, you're all going to collapse. Just sleep it off until the morning and we'll head out after sunrise."