The Phoenix and the Crow

Drowned

They needed to get to the treasury, but Kaz would need some kind of cover while he picked that inscrutable lock, and there were druskelle everywhere. They rounded the corner and saw Nina, Matthias and a person they both assumed must be Bo Yul-Bayur running from the treasury. He'd been about to call out to them when the explosion hit, and everything went to hell.

'They blew up the lab,' he'd thought as debris rained down around them. 'I definitely did not tell them to blow up the lab.'

"For Saint's sake..." Y/N cursed.

All of what happened in the following few minutes had been completely improvised on Kaz's part. All he told Matthias originally was to meet them by the ash when Black protocol began to ring. He thought he'd have more time to explain before they fell through the dark.

"This is going to sting a bit, but if we live, you'll thank me later."

Nina and Matthias had yet to recognize them until both Kaz and Y/N slid their hoods off. The Inferni quickly slipped the thick druskelle coat off her shoulders as well.

"Don't pop the baleen before you hit the bottom," Kaz called. Then he grabbed Bol Yul-Bayur and launched them both into the back mouth beneath the roots of the tree.

Y/N placed her hand over her heart and muttered the shortest prayer before throwing herself after them. The last thing she glimpsed was Matthias and Nina following her. She heard gunfire—and then she was falling into the black, into the cold, into the throat of Djel, into nothing at all.

She felt her back hit the water with breath-taking force, as she bit down on the baleen. It might have been a mere second too late as the air had already bee knocked out of her and when the baleen formed she felt like she was choking. The water rushed around her and clogged her ears, she tried to keep her eyes open but the current made it a painful task. Her body was thrown around and dragged through the tunnel.

Panic began to set in her bones as the strain in her chest and throat grew tighter with each passing second. She could feel her fingers begin to spark but clenched her hands in fists to prevent the water around her to heat up. If she lost control she could boil the water while they were all still under. She couldn't risk that.

The current didn't ease up on them for another few minutes and by the time she emerged from the water she felt so drained. The weakest she'd felt in months. Her hands crawled across the gravel that dug into her palms. Once she was far enough out of the shallows, she threw herself on her back and gasped audibly for air while resting her hands on her chest trying to control the harsh convulsions her body was experiencing.

She could faintly hear Nina and Matthias farther down the shore to her left. From the tones of their voices she could tell that something was wrong, but she had no physical strength to mover herself to see.

She felt as if the cold water seeped through, passed her flesh and into her bones, she had a chill in her body that she couldn't seem to shake. The remains of her energy was used in her attempts of warming her body from within. She had never felt so cold in her life since her body naturally ran really warm, nearly burning at different times.

"I. Should. Let. You. Die." Matthias' voice could finally be heard clearly and startled Y/N.

She rolled to her side with her palm on the floor in front of her to support her weight. The body laid between Nina and Matthias was nothing but a blurry figure, but it didn't take long before she realized who they were hunched over.

"Let me help before you crack his sternum. Does he have a pulse?"

"Kaz." Her voice croaked and sounded foreign to her ears as she pushed herself to her knees, slowly rising to her feet. A flame licked its way up her hand to her arms stopping at her elbows in her last attempt to warm her body. She knew Kaz wouldn't let her touch him if she felt this cold and just the thought caused a sense of desperation to kick into her system. Her chest felt hallow and her breath was shallow, a feeling she thought she would be used to, but the reasoning behind it caused despair to settle in her bones beside the unwavering chill.