Nobody's Servant, Act 1

Parasite [FINALE]

A biting chill washes over us as we hit the water. Yhana had the foresight to slow our descent, weaving gold light to stir up the air below us, or else we may as well have been leaping onto solid rock from the bridge so far above us.

Even so, the river is not kind to us. We lose track of each other almost immediately as the current sweeps us both away. I can't see, so much silt and foam it's nearly opaque. I swallow some the wrong way as I smack into a rock, but I don't stay there long, forced onward into the undertow. Eventually I get to the surface again, coughing out water along with all my core strength, trying to clear my eyes and catch sight of Yhana. No sign. Far above us, and at this point behind us, the Prelature train has started to move again, leaving behind the remains of Samsara's.

Of Samsara.

There is nobody left to help us.

Before I can start to spiral, Yhana does break the surface, near what could generously be called a riverbank; a thin, silty strip near the sharp incline of the ravine.

"Yhana!" I call out. "I'm over here!" It comes out weak anyway, and with our damaged ears I don't even know if it carries at first. But the current sweeps her up too, carrying her my way.

Pain erupts in the back of my head as I slam backward into another rock. Error codes flicker in the margins of my eyes, the only visual stimulus not rendered totally indecipherable by double vision as I'm dragged back below.

A hand finds my arm, Yhana's got me. We break the surface again after a few moments, coughing, her more than me, as she fights for air far more essential to her.

"Waterfall ahead!" she shouts. "I'll soften our fall again, maybe there'll be somewhere to get out!"

I nod frantically, it's a better plan than I could come up with. Even though it's my plan that got us into this mess.

But it was never going to be that simple. I notice an unpleasant vibration in the water like sonication, and it would have set my fur on end if it weren't so heavy now. A glance backward confirms my fear, as the lanky form of an aberration I've encountered three times now rises out of the river, upright, its pointed feet finding purchase on the surface as if it was solid. Its broad, flat shoulders spread, fanning out its razor-sharp tentacles for balance as it skates after us, faster than the river will carry us on its own.

Yhana's already on it, shaping water and forming a slipstream to carry us a little more smoothly. There's a moment where, even standing, I can feel gravel under my feet, right before we hit the roaring edge of the falls.

Back into the air. The face of the ridgelands to our left, spires to our right, forest beyond. It's a long way down, but a little push from Yhana sends us far out enough we should be able to clear the rocks. The surface ripples and whirls with the air current cushioning us and we enter comparatively gently.

There's no time to take stock of anything. Right before we break the surface, the construct pursuing us crashes in. Bubbles billow from my throat as its tendrils slice into my calf, lodging deep in the muscle, dragging me down with it as it sinks.

The frigid water burns at the same time as it chills, as the constant vibration of the aberration's body exudes tiny but intense waves through the fluid medium, spreading the pain over my entire surface area, but each new coiling appendage is several degrees more unbearable. Thrashing does nothing but make it cut deeper.

I lash out with all I've got, not that I have much radiance left in me. Total blackness carves fizzing lines through the water but they stop dead against its warded carapace. It regards me perfectly emotionlessly, the eye-like markings on its angular helmet only a simulacrum of a glare.