Assisted by the prolonged effects of the water-breathing spell, they swam relatively comfortably down the chamber to where Lumira and Jade had found the metal rod that they thought was the water management system. Lumira swam up to it to inspect it.
“It is some kind of valve,” she knocked on it and listened, but with the water distorting sound, the only additional information she gained was that she felt silly about doing it in the first place. “It looks like a regular ball valve. I expect that when we turn the valve, it will change the flow of the water, but I can’t guess how because I cannot see any pipes.”
“What is it Acantha?” sang Jade to her friend who had been gesturing wildly at a tunnel, when Jade noticed she pointed at three other tunnels opposite from one another. “Right.” Jade swam up to one of the tunnels and felt a current pushing her back, preventing her from swimming inside, which she demonstrated.
“This one is sucking water in,” sang Lumira.
“Let’s turn the valve.”
Morn was already at the valve and with Jade at the other end, they pushed it a quarter revolution.
“It has changed! The current is now flowing this way,” sang Lumira with a smile on her face. “This is either a very intricate hidden pipe system or just magic.”
Acantha waved and pointed upwards, she wanted to say something. They obliged, it was only fair.
“I have a plan,” she said with a lungful of air, “Jade and I go into a tunnel to explore, after a few minutes, you turn the rod so that the water streams the other way and we can go back.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Lumira. Morn and Jade nodded in agreement and the four of them dove back down. Acantha went into one of the tunnels and Jade followed. It became dark quickly and without her feet to feel around, Jade became nervous. But being able to see would not have mattered, they were sucked further down the tunnel by the current and even if she had wanted to change anything about that, she couldn’t.
“There’s nothing,” said Jade, as they stepped out of a pool of water. She was not quite right. There was something and that something had once been part of the structural foundation of the church that they were standing in. This structure was still present, however invisible to Jade because part of it lay in ruins at their feet and closed off the entrance to an amazingly interesting room that they were now missing out on.
“Too bad,” said Acantha and they waited by the waterside for the tunnel to have its current reversed. When they came out on the original side of the tunnel again, Acantha pointed at the second tunnel and went through. This tunnel was noticeably longer than before. They climbed out of the water and found a valve next to the tunnel entrance.
“Useful for getting back,” said Acantha. They walk further up to an edge, water fell down on both sides of them. Looking down, they saw Lumira and Morn submerged next to the rod.
“Look over there,” Jade pointed. On the other side of the room was another valve on a platform as high as they were now, but out of their reach due to them being unable to fly.
“We could go through the water,” said Acantha, looking doubtful at the strong currents of the waterfalls. Jade shook her head and said:
“Not worth it.”
They went back down to tell Morn and Lumira what they had seen and went into the third tunnel, which led them into a room with a dim blue light shining from behind a portcullis.
“That’s our way up,” said Jade, who stood pouting next to the portcullis.
“No way, how do we open this thing?”
Jade was used to Acantha posing questions she had no answer to and she decided to ignore her and returned to stand by the end of the tunnel where they waited in silence for the current to be reversed by Morn and Lumira.
The fourth and last tunnel led them to an area that was very much unlike the previous rooms. The space held a small settlement of six houses inside, but the size of the room was not even the most remarkable. What was dazzling about this room was that instead with water, this room was flooded with sunlight, which came from a light up in the ceiling. Ever since entering Hell, they had not seen the sun shine so bright and warmly. They decided to fetch Morn and Lumira for this one. The four of them gathered in the small pool of water. Jade stepped out and felt around with her feet, she turned and quickly brought her finger against her lips.
“People live here,” she said softly, “There’s a workshop, a storeroom, a bedroom with a lot of beds, some place of worship and, eh, a water room.”
“A water room?” said Acantha.
“It’s the big one,” Jade pointed to the building directly opposite to them. The building had a large double door and was positioned across the square. They all exchanged looks and without words they agreed that they should go there. As they crossed the square they walked past a small water basin, , Jade peered over the edge and saw that in its center lay a tile with a symbol on it. She recognized immediately what the symbol was supposed to represent because when she had been a child, this was exactly the way she would draw the shiny thing that hung in the sky during the day. It lay precisely in the center of the settlement and when she looked up she noticed it lay precisely under that bright light that came from the ceiling.
They reached the large double door of the building that Jade assumed to be some kind of water supply room. We can’t blame her, because she had not yet seen enough of the world to be able to recognize it for what it was, namely, a swimming pool. Jade knocked and from inside they heard a voice:
“Oh, Jim! Come in.”
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