Throne of Power: Ascendance

6. The Cost of a Fight

Caroline

The sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff were the first step to her death, the crash breaking her arm to smithereens, deeming her unable to fight against the strength of the current. The roar of the sea surrounded her as she yelped in pain, trying to reach the surface to breathe and scream. That was when the arrow came, piercing her broken shoulder as if it were a knife cutting a piece of paper. Her lungs were running out of air, and her heart out of willpower.

And then, there was this instinct. The instinct not to breathe underwater. An instinct so strong that it overcame the agony of running out of air. It was no instinct that, no matter the pain and the struggle of reaching the surface, forced her to try again, one last time. But her body crumbled under its own weight, her throat and lungs burning as she blew the last whispers of air out, now waiting to die.

Still, no matter how desperate Caroline was, she wasn't planning to inhale until she was on the verge of losing consciousness. A nightmare which was going to become reality mere heartbeats later. Yet her mind told her to hold her breath, ready to die. And her body told her that she was dying and that she had to take a deep breath. 

She could see the light sparkling on the water and her blood twirling inside it, escaping her in small lines of red and fading into the night. She could feel the rocks below her piercing her back. She could taste the salt of the open ocean, the sweet kiss of the reality of her dire situation. Who knew that this was going to be the last thing she saw... the last thing she felt... the very last thing before...

That was when the only thing more unpleasant than running out of air took place, with her senses still barely awake, ready to feel the crucifying pain of inhaling water with the first involuntary breath. This was how the drowning began, but not how it ended. She was afraid now, screaming in pain in the middle of the sea. She didn't want to die, but the screams only made her die faster and more painfully, aiding the water in the attempt to take her life. But that still wasn't the end.

A spasmodic breath dragged water into her mouth and windpipe, water flooded her lungs and ended any chance of air reaching her insides, even if she managed to reach the surface. Her heart was pounding harder now, trying to get any air it could find to the rest of her body. Her organs burned as the invisible poison reached every single one of them through her blood.

The pressure was pushing her from all sides, making her feel like she was being trapped in a world she couldn't move, breathe or escape. A world in which pain was the only state of being, and being was just another way to die. The edges of reason were blurring in this strange universe and fear was clawing deep inside her stomach, tears mixing with the water around her. The tide had taken over her... she was at its mercy

Here, half-conscious and approaching her death, in no position to fight her way back up to the surface, she could just witness herself dying in the middle of the cold night. And how the very process of drowning made it harder and harder not to drown, much like how crossing her and trying to fight back against her would have resulted in your wounds being deeper and deeper, but not lethal enough to release you from the pain. But that was when she was still alive.

Darkness was taking over her, as she gave up any and all fight, giving her body to the Gods of the Sea, who were punishing her for not being a true Darlean. Punishing her with more and more pain, which outweighed her dying senses. As her panic faded into numbness, slowly decreased, echoing around her like an anvil echoing on metal. One... last... ti-