Surfacing Ch. 01

Lucky, indeed, and I wondered now that I did not credit my survival entirely to my own will and intelligence and desire. I would have, once upon a time, but now...everything had seemed so far beyond my control once Wilsira had gone insane and dragged me down into that pit. Really, how was it possible that I'd even managed to recognize my name as I'd stood naked and lethe in the Consort's room, let alone manage to function as well as I did through the crises that ultimately led me here on the Surface?

Gaelan touched my face again and signed, *Hey. You are alive. You are still with us.*

I almost reacted in defense or blithe sarcasm—I didn't want her to pity me or think me weak—but I remembered where we were, on what we were about to embark, and how both she and Jael were here because of me... I found I could respond differently.

*Thank you,* I signed. *I am glad to be alive, and with my Sisters.*

I heard Gaelan's lips draw back from her teeth before I glanced over to confirm she was smiling. She turned on her side facing me and laid her head on her arm, shifting closer.

*You're welcome. Return to reverie, Sirana,* she signed.

We each drew in a breath and let it out slowly, ready to do just that, though I spent a few more quiet moments thinking about Auslan. I believed that he had been that last one to say that to me, before now. *Return to reverie.*

My hand slid down to rest low on my abdomen.

Now I had to go forward, but with the acceptance that my continued survival, and that of my child, truly did depend on me...up until the point that it didn't.

Life was so much fun that way.

I wished I could remember whether sex with the Consort had been different or unique at all. Perhaps it hadn't been; I could wager that I might even know more variety than him, having lived with the Sisterhood for two years. What else could he have tried that others couldn't? Just the fertility magic itself, I thought.

That magic, though...I was convinced that was what had pushed me to offer to come back for him. Otherwise it hadn't made any sense for me to say. I was a Red Sister; I could never choose a consort or a sire to be exclusive to me. I wouldn't have the time to protect and support him, and it made both of us vulnerable, both of us targets of reprisal. I wouldn't be able to keep him in any reasonable way, even if I completed my mission and returned as I promised.

Much like my pregnancy, if I somehow made it full term, I had no idea what would happen next. I had to try to plan something, though, for both sire and offspring before the time came. If the time came. And if I didn't fail, it was likely I would have to plan it alone.

******

Later the three of us received a kick in the ass as a wake-up call. Elder Rausery then strode past us and said aloud into the tunnel, "The Sun has set."

She had tossed the words casually over her shoulder and kept walking; she wasn't stopping to wait. We scrambled to get up and quickly situate the couple of weapons which were not conducive to damage-free sleep, and I called my guardian spiders to me. They were quick and leaped down from the ledge to cling to my bracers as I moved after Gaelan and Jael; eventually they would make it into their home pouch on my belt on their own.

Passing through the Surface portal this third time and beneath a clear night Sky was stunning. The Moons had not yet arisen and I could note for certain that the Western direction was to my right as the bare smudge of reddish-purple light faded far into the horizon. The darkest part of the Sky would be East, and...the Stars provided the best kind of light thus far for our eyes.

The mountainous forest, which had been soaking wet the previous night and nothing but smells and sound during the day, was clear and in stark relief. At first I was unsure if my eyes were not in fact seeing the energy waves of dark vision to see so clearly, but no...this landscape was outlined not as if I was seeing pure energy, but instead as dark blue shades and silvery shadows highlighting every tree branch and stone. The light was far less harsh than a candle, yet there were more points of light than I could count above my head, some brighter, some faint or barely there. It was definitely the color spectrum in which I saw everything at night.

I had never seen this before. Light without fire to hand. Light without blinding flares, surges, or bursts. Just a constant, gentle trickle from above.

No. Not above. Shyntre had said it was "out." Away, not up. Those Stars were only too far out to be as punishing as the Sun was up close. I had tried to imagine a limitless cavern over my head once in the library, but knew that was wrong because something still remained over my head. To actually see this river of Stars now, to know the space between them was so vast, and somewhere out there was the Abyss, where Kerse had been trying to reach with his wings...

How could it even be? Why was it here? How could he get from here to there? Or his sire from there back to here?

...where had we come from?

Wilsira had said to the Valsharess in the audience chamber, talking about the alliance with the Abyss: "before we came here." Before we settled in what would become the City ruled by our queen, I had assumed.

But what about the Underdark itself? We weren't the oldest race down there, we knew that in general—but we were strong enough to have displaced things to make our own small world. Our map designs and the very fact that we were literate in our magic only in light confirmed that we had gone underground from the Surface, not the other way around. So how long had our pale cousins been up here? Where on the Surface did we come from? Was it all from the same place and we had spread out from there?

Or had some of us come from somewhere else entirely?

Watching the Sky now I was unable to fully grasp my instinctive response to it; it was like a silent song deep in my mind, deep in my chest that I knew was still there... I wondered more about our racial hatred for our Surface cousins, as I'd only begun to do. I wondered about our distrust and enjoyment in taking advantage of their weaknesses.

I recalled Jaunda's story about violating the blonde trespasser and, after finishing, throwing her back like a fish carcass. Closer to her home, with a chance to make it back to warn others. Unlike the others, who'd all died.

Shyntre had said there weren't many Surface elves in this area, as a whole they avoided it as a place that Drow been known to surface from time to time. They hid from us elsewhere, seceded this part of the Surface where we did not even live, and it might be decades between visits for us. They would not even try to defend it, though it looked to have resources enough.

Why were they like that? Nothing so weak could hope to prosper on this exposed, ever-changing landscape, could it?

I wished Jaunda had questioned the blonde elf, at least asked her why she had come down so far as to be on the very borders of the Underdark. What had made the risk to her worth the trying? Just like us, where we stood now: we had a reason to be here, one deemed worth the risk or not, but we were not welcome and we knew that. I would expect no better treatment being captured up here than the blonde had received at our hands.

Rausery had gone back to signing. *The Moons will rise one after another and may be in the Sky together. This will hurt your eyes as well but is easier to adjust because it is less intense. Remember, you are not looking at the source but an indirect reflection. The light is still from the Sun.*

We nodded but remained silent. I noticed only now that it seemed even a bit warmer just as the Sun had set, compared to just before the Sun was about to rise, even if the Sky was just as dark. I blinked away the distraction and focused again on Rausery's hands.

*We start with basics, putting into practice what you've learned in scrolls. How to find water, plants known to be edible in this season, and we will try to track game. We will practice building shelters and getting to know what you may have at hand to burn if you need fire. We are at the very end of Winter, and though Spring will come soon this is the most sparse time for food. We want to supplement our rations. Come full spring and summer there will be more abundance though your rations will be gone unless you make more.*

*Yes, Elder,* we signed.

*You will learn how to do this both at night and at day,* she signed, staring hard at us. *There will be no 'night-only' activity. Before I leave, we will practice combat in all lighting, dusk and dawn especially where it can get tricky for day creatures. Expect irregular rest. The weather and conditions will determine your training and I will call it as I see it best.*

*Yes, Elder,* we said again.

*Then lets us begin.*

******

Our cloaks tripped us up more than anything else during our run the first night. Every snag on tree limb or bush broke the tough pace Rausery had first set, made unwelcome noise, and earned proper excuses for the occasional signed or slapped humiliation at the hands of our demanding Elder.

Personally, I enjoyed how creative she would get in some of her lingual insults, even though my ears stung just as much as my Sisters'. It was as though the seven-century Drow was rejuvenated to a much younger year as she slipped through the Surface's night forest with astonishing silence and dexterity...held back only by her three stumbling students.

The physical bruises and sore muscles we received in equal measure were punishment for making noise. They also increased our fight responses and kept our blood high as well. It did have the advantage of easing the drastic variances in the temperature whenever the air moved.

"You think it burns now, patty-slit, wait until I sit on your shoulders."

After an hour it struck me that Rausery had said she would be finding food and water and learning our resources. Instead we were being run through an obstacle course with a distinct lack of stealth, smacked around, tearing our cloaks—which we would no doubt have to repair later—and becoming hungrier and dehydrated by the moment.

All this while also scaring away the night creatures I'd even had a chance to glimpse before they disappeared into the landscape. We weren't anywhere near catching dinner, and our larger portion of our supplies were still back at the cave.

I knew Jael and Gaelan were bewildered, too, and losing strength, but neither of them had said anything yet. They likely wanted to keep their jaws without hairline cracks and what little of the thin air would stay in their lungs.

The problem I saw was that this did not help us now; this was moving without looking. It was as though we had skipped to a much later test of endurance without the basic experience to aid us. Granted, the Sisterhood was known for such treatment in the Underdark, but that wasn't how Rausery had been handling our preparation before. This made no sense.

We had passed sign a little bit ago, a converging trail likely made by game in the area. By Rausery's own notes and under Shyntre's tutelage, I knew in theory that the convergence was possibly pointing at a source of surface water.

I was thirsty, I would not waste what I had on me, and I was now sure that Rausery was testing us.

I drifted to the back of the line after Gaelan had finished another set of push-ups and...I stopped. I began to backtrack as quietly as I could, intending to find that branching game trail again. My adrenaline still flowed and I thought reaching the water before Rausery might lessen the expected response to my insubordination. Perhaps.

Or perhaps I would just call her on her Drider shit so at least I believed that I fully deserved the punishment.

Left to my own pace, I could be much quieter and I gathered up my cloak just for simplicity and speed, keeping it close to my body so I could avoid getting hung up in the branches and shrubbery. The punishingly steep hill we had previously tackled straight-on I now took at an angle instead, keeping my eye on the point above of which I didn't want to lose track. A Star brighter than the others around it helped me keep my orientation.

I needed to breathe deep in order not to wheeze, enormous draws to get enough air to which I was not accustomed. The scents were so lush here in the thick of the vegetation, even compared to standing on the mountain's layered outcropping. The stone was drier but not the soil, which was still dark and musty with moisture. The "grasses" were short still due to the chill and the early season, but green. This soft plant layer fascinated me; it seemed like extremely aggressive moss now, as it was everywhere that the taller trees and woody stalks did not poison it away or block its Sunlight. And yet... it was not nearly as long as Shyntre had said it could grow. Given time, that would change before my eyes.

I found our own trail embarrassingly easy, further insulted by how obvious it would be to other hunters which direction we'd gone. At least I had no trouble finding the convergence again, and I started following that trail, keeping all my senses open for trouble.

Especially from my own kind.

The soft soil beneath my feet had been packed down by other creatures though grass strained at the edges to invade—and no doubt would by "Summer." The pressure of many feet before mine compressing the soil was the only reason I did not walk in mud after the rain. The air never seemed to stop as it swept past my ears and through my hair; my eyes watered easily as the wind quickly stole too much moisture from them. I found myself blinking a lot as my heart slowed and my breathing became more regular. There was still plenty of forest noise from creatures as well, just as in the daytime, though it seemed more subdued.

I climbed and descended two more hills, still following the trail, before I heard rushing water; that noise was the same whether underground or above it. It would likely be safer to drink than some sources; different kinds of stone and sediment had a knack for filtering away odd tastes in water, and few parasites and other tiny creatures had the time or safety to fully infest water moving that fast.

Dark shapes of trees kept the water out of sight until I was nearly upon it; I could smell the wonderful refreshment and feel the vapor on my skin long before I emerged from the trees to get a good look at it. It was the loudest thing in the area, white and frothing as the rapids churned over large boulders at this exact location, but I soon noticed that the game trail lead farther upstream, along its edge to a double-waterfall and, between them, a bedrock platform just wide enough to create a relatively calmer pool. The waterfall higher up was a shorter drop than the lower one.

I headed for that pool, opting to climb the rocky wall beside the lower waterfall rather than follow the game trail that went back into the forest, no doubt so certain larger animals could find an easier place to climb. It was a funny thought to think that this trail became the path to water with a permanent detour—rather than some other animal forging a more direct path from a different direction.

Once I had crested beside the second waterfall and stood at the edge of the pool, I took a turn around me for any possible shadows or sparks of life energy aside from the trees. I could hear nothing thanks to the water and again I had to rely on my eyes. My peripheral vision drew me to a bit of light above the far side of the pool and when I focused that way, I realized the first Moon was rising, ready to shed more light on the forest.

The Moon was not full, maybe half, although the wavering reflection of its light on the pool were slivers that very much reminded me of the sickle shape of platinum in my sapphire pendant, the twin to the one around my wizard's very bitable neck.

Fancifully, perhaps, I wondered if he had ever stood here? What had he known, or thought of what he was seeing? Had he been wearing this very sapphire at the time?

I could not spare too much time on that, unfortunately. My waterskin still contained pure underground water but was half-empty, and I wanted to taste this water before I mixed it. However I did not want to bring my lips directly to it, exposing all my back and head to...to what?

Well, to Rausery. I still expected her to catch up with me very soon.

Quickly tugging off a glove, I scooped into the astonishingly frigid water with my bare hand and sipped.

It was....crisp. Pure. Somehow, it was better than any water that had ever passed my lips before. What was the source? I racked my mind, trying to remember... Ah, yes.

Snowmelt.

Frozen rain drops turned to crystalline flakes...snow, falling from the Sky in Winter and waiting atop mountains until the days got longer and it melted under the intensity of the light, only to rush down from the tops of mountains, as it was now with Spring just starting. On to the very bottom of...wherever the water would flow. Some of it went to the Underdark. Eventually. But most on the Surface would become vapor again with heat and Sun, and it would become clouds and rain...or snow. And the water would start its journey over again.

There was a grand majesty to that predictable, life-sustaining loop that rivaled the reforming heat and chaotic surge of lava from the deep earth. I had to wonder why the water returned to the Surface rather than becoming lost among the Stars? Was the pull of the world's core responsible for holding it, just as it was somehow holding all of us to it? How did it come here? I knew Lolth hadn't made it...it was not part of our stories that She had ever created the world.

We had no story of who actually did. Or whether it formed on its own from the void...

A twig snapped. I gasped and tried to locate its direction. Irritatingly, I looked up first...but there was no ceiling and no trees above me; it was a wasted move. The sound had echoed in a maddeningly unfamiliar pattern and I was not sure where to look next. I was both surrounded on all sides without an easy escape...but also hard to attack from any but one direction unless something could fly. I focused on that one direction, on the forest behind me as I'd tasted the water.

I did not have to wait long; my attacker was overall an impatient one, and I saw the movement underneath new Moonlight within the trees. I recognized it and smiled, drawing my twin fighting daggers: black, non-reflective, single-edge blades elegantly curved and nearly as long as my forearms.

Jael surged out of the brush, fortunately without getting snagged, her own daggers drawn. I welcomed the engagement with a wide, white grin that certainly stood out in the night—there was far too much light for Jael not to be able to tell. In contrast she was frowning in concentration and fatigue, but I hoped to have her smiling as well soon.

Our weapons clashed and gave away our location to the others. I kept a wide stance on the potentially slick, wet stone as we circled, engaged, and broke apart again. Our immediate area was not so different from our native home: water and stone as our practicing ground. Strike, block, evade. Try to get behind... *Oh, no, you will not.*

I tumbled the very edge of the waterfall's pool, dipped my blade, and flicked a good bit of the cold snowmelt into Jael's face. She was shocked at the temperature, drawing in startled breath, and my next surge disarmed her right hand, the dagger clattering a short distance away. I saw her lick her lips, collecting some of the droplets, and I saw pleasure in her eyes. Not only that, but her body needed more. So did mine.

*I yield,* she signed and sheathed her left blade.

I nodded acceptance and sheathed both my blades as she lifted her other and secured that as well. We both kneeled to drink our fill. Somehow the cold water was even better sharing it with one of my Sisters. We soon noticed, however, that our stomachs began to cramp from drinking too much, too quickly—which was less volume than we could suck in relatively warmer underground water before suffering the same soon after a run.