Half the Power

Discoveries

Ava was the first to feel anything. She tripped backwards, and Ryan and I just barely managed to catch her. We set her gently on the ground. 

"Orion was right," she murmured. "There's a lot of stuff under there. It just hit me really hard. I wasn't expecting..." Her head lolled to the side, and she fell asleep. We hadn't gotten much rest last night, with all of the talking we did. It was a wonder neither of us had dozed off earlier.

Ryan happily splashed her with water. Ava was less happy about it, but at least she looked wide awake. 

Ryan was trying not to laugh. "I could feel the water up there, a little to our left. Amelia, you could feel something too?"

I nodded, shaking from laughter at the sight of Ava drenched. I took a shaky breath to calm down. "W-We'll need to make a plan before we go on. We can hardly burst in and yell at him to stop... whoever he is."

Ava scrambled to her feet, embarrassed. She began wringing her hair. "If we don't know who this guy is, how are we supposed to make a plan? Maybe if we knew his name, we could learn about him, figure out his weakness..."

For once, it was my turn to be the optimist of the group. If even Ava couldn't stay bright, I knew I had to step up. "Let's work with what we have. So we know he has a lake up there... Ryan, could you use that as a source of water, when we have to fight him?" In  truth, I had no idea if that was how his power worked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Normally, I just borrow the water from the nearest source. Then I return it to wherever it came from. Watch." He flicked his hand casually in his sister's direction, and she dried instantly. I heard the distant splash of the water landing in the calm lake.

Ava looked back towards the sound of the water, then back at Ryan. She stared at him, wide-eyed. "How come you never told me about that?" she demanded. "You've soaked me so many times, and I just assumed that you couldn't do anything about it afterward!"

He shrugged. "I never had to use it on you before."

I cleared my throat. "About the plans... this is going to sound terrible, but we might have to bribe him. Ava do you think you could summon some jewels if it comes to that?"

She shook her head sadly. "I can try to gather some outside, but after we go in... the floor will be in the way. My little gems can't possibly break through that. He also might not appreciate a ruined floor, even if they could."

"Besides," Ryan continued. "even if we tried to bribe him, he could come back at any time, do this again. As much as I love drenching Ava, I don't think any of us are looking forward to making this trip again. It was a good idea, but bribing is off the table,"  he concluded.

I struggled to find another idea. Ryan at least had an advantage with the lake. Ava couldn't really use her powers to help us at all. (That sounded extremely rude; I would never tell her that, of course.) I couldn't see how I could help, other than what little I normally did. 

Actually, and it only occurred to me then, Ryan couldn't do a whole lot either. What was he supposed to do? Blast this guy in the face with water and demand that he wake everyone up? I doubted that would work.

I sighed. "Well, let's start making some progress. It's better to think while we walk and save time."

As it turned out, walking didn't help us think, like I had hoped. Every time I got close to an idea, I would trip over a root or a log or something, and lose my train of thought. Was my brain playing a game of keep-away with me? It felt like it.

When we could hear the sound of a fountain in the lake, we were still at a loss for ideas. We had a silent agreement not to bring that up. A different idea stuck me. "Ryan, is there a limit to how much water you can borrow from one place?"