Love in the Time of Trepidation

Chapter 6: A Report

Time to begin Act 2 of the story, getting a little deeper into the plot now, with some more potential deviations! Chapter 6, start!

Chapter 6

A Report

Her lungs filled with water, drowning in an endless flood. Akari sunk beneath the surface, any attempt at a breath bubbling up, but never breaking. Her eyes saw nothing but the deep, dark abyss of the waters around her. She flailed, trying to reach the light she could see above. It looked so majestic, like nothing she'd ever seen before, but no matter how much her limbs spun, she could never quite grasp it.

Any attempt to suck in a breath was met by the burning sensation in her throat and nostrils, causing a cough to rise up. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Yet despite that, it felt like she knew everything and nothing all at once.

She kicked her legs, hoping to swim for the surface, but no matter how many strokes she made, it was never within reach. The light kept slipping, or she kept falling into an even darker place. Soon enough, the light winked out of existence, causing her to sink into the darkness. Fear overtook her, the black bubbles surrounding her, and she started to cough again.

It wasn't just fear, either. So many emotions were beating her, filling her lungs. First it felt like a different kind of fear, or perhaps it was worry. Then there was a joy over a newborn. Utter grief. Terror. Every single gasp of breath in the abyss was a new one, tearing at the very fabric of this place, at the stitches in Akari's soul.

And there was anger. A deep brooding anger that longed to drink the world dry.

It was that one she felt she could actually understand, remembering her brother's cold hands, and his delirious state. The swinging of the golden axe as it sought to bisect her. Akari tried to scream, her hands scratching, clawing and attempting to find any purchase that she could to climb up or pull herself out of this inky mire.

There was no more light in this place; just the vast emotions stretching through time, or perhaps all of Hisui. Akari didn't know, but she wanted out. She didn't want any of this. She hadn't asked for any of this.

Let me go! Her mind was screaming the thoughts, her throat unable to try as it burned, ripping away until she could no longer hold on. Her fingers tried to grasp where the light had been one more time before falling away from it entirely. Her body sunk further, Akari closing her eyes. There was heat in her hands, and the words echoing, but drowned by a sudden shot of lightning.

One flashed near her, almost searing her floating locks of hair. Like darts, they traveled through the pool, trying to strike upon some dancing, dodging object. Akari was too out of energy to dodge it, allowing herself to give in, dropping down to the bottom, if there was one, of this deepest, most primal emotion. This time, the voice started breaking through.

There is a grave threat to Hisui.

Bind the rift.

Seek the shards of the Original One.

Akari shook her head, not understanding a word, barely contemplating what had and was happening in that space. Was she in Lake Verity, drowning? Or was it some other being attempting to smother her out of existence? Some other force, like the Noble, that wanted to toss her away in some frenzied attempt at...something? She didn't know, and her head was hurting like the rest of her body.

But she could remember one thing from the conversation.

Emotion is what is needed. For without emotion, can one truly live?