A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

John plummeted into a pool of cold water.

"What is this place?" He exclaimed.

They were standing under a stone dome. It looked like someone carved a perfect hemisphere inside one enormous rock. There was no window or door for any light to shine through, and yet the entire space was illuminated.

"Are you sure we are in a loop?" Ethan asked. "I didn't even feel the changeover."

Sophie looked up. The ceiling seemed too new, like it was only carved out yesterday. The only sign of a well attaching to it from another century were the ropes hanging out of mid-air.

"It's a loop. The question is where it leads to." Sophie said.

"We searched," Olive said, "There's no way out. Seems someone built this dome to prevent people from entering."

"Then we will have to break the wall. Ethan?" Miss Bittern asked.

Ethan studied the stone structure, then slammed into it with his shoulder.

Nothing happened. "It's too thick."

"What about the water?" Blanche said. "There's light coming out of it. It must lead somewhere."

They turned to the shimmering water. "Worth a try." Sophie said. "But we don't know how deep it is."

Olive pulled out a rope from her small backpack. "I will find out."

"No," Edmund said, "Your metal suit is too heavy to swim properly. I'll go."

They tied the rope around the invisible boy's waist and watched as a human-shaped negative space descended deeper and deeper in the water.

A minute later, Edmund appeared again, "There's a tunnel at the bottom, leads to the other side."

The underwater tunnel seemed to be constructed out of something glowing. It took John a moment to realize it wasn't glowing, it was reflecting the light from somewhere else. So, that's why the room seemed so bright, he thought.

After about one minute of swimming, they found themselves surfacing to another pool. A dozen meters above it was a small hole where the light was shining through.

"This place looks like Abaton." Emma murmured.

"It's probably built by the same civilization." Sophie said.

"Or what if we are in Abaton right now?" Olive said, her fingers brushing through the stone wall.

"Not possible," Sophie replied, "It's most likely somewhere in Africa."

"You don't know that. For all we know, it can be anywhere south of England." Olive argued.

"Do you really think Caul would leave the Library of Souls unguarded like this?" Emma interrupted.

"Wherever we are, our plan hasn't changed." Miss Bittern said, "We will find any clue to the location of our time-controlling soul."

*

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. They walked for what felt like hours. It was oppressively dark. Even with their flashlight, they couldn't see over three meters ahead, as if the darkness around them was devouring their light, denying their passage.

Eventually, the tunnel came to an end, but so did the path. A stone wall blocked their way abruptly. At the very top of it was a small hole just big enough for a bird to fit through.

"Dammit, what are we going to do with this?" Edmund mumbled.

"I can go through in bird form." Miss Bittern suggested.