cascade | kotlc

10. Psionipaths

tw: bl/od

 Keefe was breaking, cracking under the pressure. June hoped he would be okay. Sophie would help him.

June woke with the sunrise, glancing out her window. She saw Keefe asleep by his own, his cheek smashed against the glass.

She smiled, passing a finger over his face, tracing his hair before she changed into a tunic and a skirt before she checked on Sophie. Calla was with her.

"What?" she asked.

Calla was nervously whittling her green thumbs.

"Is everything okay?"

Her wide grey eyes met her grey traces. "I need help from the moonlark. There is something I need you to check for me, a whisper in the forest I do not understand."

June stood. "I'm coming."

"I know you will."

Sophie fumbled to change into pants and a tunic as June followed Calla into the waterfall common room.
"We should leave a note for the others so they do not wonder where you are," Calla whispered, plucking a dry leaf from the carpet and carving a message with her thumbnail.

"We're leaving Alluveterre?" June asked.

"Yes. To the Neutral Territories."

"Mention Biana, then. I'm sure she's going."

I really hope this is Biana and not Della.

"I know. I have." Calla handed her the message she'd cut out in frilly lettering.

"Biana?" Sophie asked, coming down the stairs in a tunic and pants, still trying to slip into her boots.

"In the corner," June and Calla said in unison.

"I am," Biana agreed, appearing in the shadows. "But Calla, how'd you know I was here?"

"Gnomish eyes are not fooled by tricks of light," Calla told her.

"Seriously?" Biana asked. "How did I not know that?"

"It's not something we think to mention," Calla said. "Elves have no reason to hide from us. Well... they used to, at least. But are we ready? The journey ahead is long."

"Just let me grab my shoes," Biana said, and June was relieved to see her return from her bedroom in a pair of sturdy walking boots. Thank god she wasn't going to have to carry her around when she tried to pass through in heels.

Calla placed the leaf note on a table and led them down the winding stairs. Biana used the walk to play 'how many invisible fingers am I holding up?' and June and Calla passed with flying colors.

"Wow, I can't believe you can see me," Biana said, blinking in and out of sight. "Can you teach me how you do it, so I can try to find a way around it?"

"I suppose we can give it a try." They'd reached the ground by then, and Calla dropped to her knees, pressing her palms against an exposed tree root.

"Uh, are we getting flung in the sky?" June asked nervously. "Because I'd rather fly myself-"

"No," she said. "We will be going- here."

The earth opened as Calla sang a deep, slow song as the roots twisted and twirled, seeping aside the soil, creating a narrow tunnel that stretched underground.

"This is even worse," June muttered. "Did I mention I have claustrophobia?"

"I apologize," Calla said. "But this is our only way through."