Chapter 279: Paper Walls
They crossed the front on Riptide’s current, with Ward sheltered between the others. Ren kept the water covering steady around the whale’s wounded tail, directing the flow clear of Balm. Keep’s cradle had gone back between Ward’s shoulders before they left the arch.
At the outer landing, Ren waited until Ward settled in open water with room to turn. Anvil took the approach beside it, and Hearth opened its mouth behind them. The whale would not have to wedge itself into another gap.
Ren turned to Mosaic and Bolt.
The school gathered below the landing, its small bodies turning together beneath the surface. Bolt circled once and stopped as Ren pointed toward the third passage, then along its bank.
"Draw it toward the bank. Once the fire stays there, pull out."
Saber and Ribbon waited beside that passage’s mouth. Ren indicated the rock behind them where Mosaic would regroup, making sure both had a clear route before moving to the second entrance.
Bolt ran the short stretch to the rock and back. Mosaic spread toward the same shelter, then gathered beneath Ren again. He waited for the school to settle before pointing inward; neither would need to wait for a message from Keep to begin withdrawing.
Riptide lay near its mouth, establishing a current through the remaining water. Lantern spread her silk along the near edge, sweeping loose smoke aside and exposing the bank. Snap braced on a rock overlooking the return channel. Farther back, Spear stood beside its blue Lawfire, clear of their movement.
Knock settled between the mouths, sheltered by a rise in the stone.
"One note," Ren said. "Same gap each time."
Knock sounded it while Ren checked the current beneath his sheet. He looked from the second passage to the third, then back toward Ward and the waiting group.
His allowance was still empty. The retreat route was there if he needed it, but he would have to reach it alive.
"Now."
— • —
Mosaic entered the third passage with Bolt moving along the bank.
Above the school, Ren’s image stood on the water, one arm raised. The mirrorfins held it together as they advanced, their bodies moving beneath the reflected light. Ren sent a stream of cold seawater alongside them.
Grey spread across the passage ahead of the image. Darkness covered the farther stretch, and a tongue of fire swept from the bank Bolt had just crossed toward the moving school.
Mosaic withdrew. The raised arm broke into scattered reflections, then the figure disappeared as the school turned toward the mouth. Bolt ran back along the rock. Saber and Ribbon stayed clear of their path, watching the fire reach across the lane behind them.
Ren kept his sheet at the second entrance. Nothing had opened there yet.
Mosaic gathered and advanced again. Its image rose above the water, with Bolt threatening the same bank and Ren’s stream following beneath the figure’s feet.
The earlier stone remained across the lane. Fresh grey spread beside it, while the fire that had swept after the school held its position instead of withdrawing. Green flame ran along the bank toward the entrance.
Mosaic turned back before it reached them, but the edge of the working caught the school. Several small bodies stopped moving where green touched the water. Others greyed and sank as stone formed beneath them.
Ren saw the gaps open. The remaining mirrorfins drew together, the image collapsing as they fled toward Saber and Ribbon. Bolt reached the outer rock first, then turned to follow the school out.
The burning strip widened behind them. Even after the last moving bodies left the passage, it remained across the water, with new fire spreading over the first response.
Ren looked toward his own approach.
— • —
A stretch beside the stone formed during Riptide’s diversion was becoming visible.
Darkness withdrew from the near bank. Water moved between it and the grey crust, carrying a line of loose ash inward. Lantern’s silk lifted and settled near the entrance as the current passed beneath it.
Ren followed that movement past the first obstruction. The opening extended beyond where the marker had previously lost sight of the lane. Farther in, smoke still hid the vent.
Knock sounded another note.
The water continued moving. Keep’s delayed report confirmed the outer positions, but Ren was already watching the opening itself. Across the rocks, Mosaic and Bolt had cleared the decoy mouth.
He began gathering Deepsnap.
Seawater drew toward his right palm. Ren compressed it into the forming point and signaled Riptide. The current took his sheet into the second passage.
— • —
Stone lay beneath the water on his left, and the bank rose close on his right. Ren kept the sheet centered in the remaining lane while Riptide’s current carried him forward. With less attention needed to drive it, he could feed the covering and maintain the pressure gathering before his hand.
Water boiled from his shoulders. He replaced it, watching the edge of the grey crust slide past his feet. Lantern’s silk fell behind him at the entrance, and the darkness remained beyond the strip he was using.
Another note reached him from Knock.
Ren passed the first obstruction. Ahead, smoke lifted enough to show the outcrop rising from the sea. White fire stood above its vent, thinner than the arm he held toward it.
The rock sloped down toward his approach. He could see a place to step above the water, with a clear angle toward the lower section of the thread.
A cone erupted across the basin. The sound swallowed Knock’s next note, and a surge struck the side of the sheet. Ren steadied it without releasing the pressure in his hand.
Deepsnap was close to ready. He kept compressing the gathered water as the current carried him toward the slope.
Then the sheet pulled sideways.
— • —
Its leading edge stretched toward the darkness on his right. Ren felt the same dragging change that had taken his water before, and drove the remaining sheet against the outcrop.
His left foot struck stone. He brought the other beside it and settled his heels before the pull could take his balance.
[HOLDFAST — BEGINNER: HOLDING.]
Roots entered the cracks beneath his boots. The sheet tore away to his right and disappeared, leaving his feet planted on the slope. The strain traveled through his knees into his thighs, but his raised hand stayed aligned with the vent.
Ren continued the charge.
Below him, the water hardened against the foot of the outcrop. A grey crust built over the wet lower rock and spread toward his boots. Fire lashed from above the vent, swept past him over the sea, then bent back toward his extended arm.
Gravebloom opened at the contact point. Black petals folded between the flame and his forearm, taking the strike while he held his wrist steady. Dust brushed his sleeve as the bloom withered.
The crust reached his right boot.
Behind him, fire spread across the lane he had used. Ren caught its glare against the slope without turning. The return current remained below, but the burning strip was narrowing the water through which he could reach it.
He couldn’t retreat with the charge unfinished and expect that opening to remain.
The compressed point settled before his palm. He felt the working reach the pressure he’d held during the test at home and kept it there while adjusting his aim.
The lower thread stood above him and to his left, just beyond arm’s reach. Between it and his hand there was only air. He lifted his wrist a little, bringing the point above the rock mouth and directly into line with the white fire.
Darkness was spreading back across the water below the vent. It hid the bottom of the slope, then the roots disappearing beneath his heels. Ren kept his eyes on the exposed thread as the shadow climbed. His hand was still clear of it.
Stone caught the edge of his sole. Ren held the stance and released.
— • —
The hit landed before its report reached him.
The compressed point crossed the gap and struck the lower thread. White fire broke around it, spreading sideways as spray burst across the vent’s lip. The upper length guttered, briefly hanging above the break before folding down and going out.
Recoil drove through Ren’s wrist into his shoulder. Holdfast kept his feet under him, but his elbow bent and his hand dropped. The rock shuddered beneath the stance.
Then the sound struck the surrounding slopes and came back across the basin.
Pale fire dimmed along the nearest passage. The change spread unevenly across the circulating water, leaving brighter stretches between areas already losing their glare. A cone continued venting across from him, but the next surge failed to restore the connected burn.
Water struck the outcrop from the side, throwing spray against his knees before drawing back. The next surge reached lower. Ren stayed anchored while the current slackened, watching loose stone settle where the water had been carrying it around the vent.
Ren watched the place where the thread had stood. Heat and smoke still rose from the vent. The white fire did not return.
His right hand had stiffened. He lowered it against his side and waited for the panels.
[WORLD FIRE DEFEATED.]
[CLAIM CONDITION: MET.]
He read them once, then looked down. The crust around his boot had stopped spreading.
— • —
Ren released Holdfast and braced his left hand against the rock as his knees loosened. He worked his trapped foot sideways, breaking the thin edge around the sole, then pulled it free.
The way out was still burning.
Stone filled the parts of the passage where the water had hardened. Darkness thinned above them, revealing the banks, but the fixed strip across his return lane remained alight. Green residue stained the lower rock beside it.
Ren waited until the strip weakened enough to show moving water around its edge. He could see the route now, though it was narrower than the lane he had followed in.
He drew water from storage and formed another sheet below the slope, shaping it with his left hand. After testing its movement against the current, he stepped down and eased away from the outcrop.
The near edge passed close to the grey crust. Ren kept the sheet narrow, covering his feet as he guided it around the lingering burn. Heat still reached him through the water, and he maintained the supply until the strip lay behind him.
Riptide’s current caught the sheet near the outer reach and carried it toward the entrance. The serpent waited beyond the mouth, where Snap had turned toward a fresh obstruction.
A slab lay across part of the exit. Snap fired into its projecting edge, breaking a section into the shallows. The remaining rock stayed in place, but water rushed through the gap beside it.
Ren angled the sheet through. A broken corner scraped its edge before Riptide drew him clear, and he steadied himself with his left arm extended.
Behind them, the fixed fire continued burning down. The cones still sent smoke into the air, but the pale fronts no longer advanced through the passages.
— • —
Beyond the ring, surviving native fires stood upright on the water.
Ren could distinguish their colors again where the pale glare had faded: red near the outer rocks, white farther along the passage, Spear’s blue beside the landing. None leaned toward the basin now.
Spear turned as Ren approached, then stopped facing the extinguished center.
Within its transparent chest, blue flame lowered toward the basin. The coal remained in place. Its Lawfire bowed on the water beside it and held there, its tip pointing toward the empty vent.
Other flames along the outer rocks bent the same way. Ren watched one straighten after a gust, then incline toward the center again. Those farther along the water followed, until every native fire he could see faced inward.
Spear remained on the landing with its weapon lowered. It did not turn as Riptide carried Ren past.
Ren let the sheet slow near the waiting group. Mosaic had gathered beside Hearth, its bodies moving in a tighter school. Bolt waited on the rock above it, while Saber and Ribbon came in behind them from the decoy passage.
Ward remained in open water with Balm over its tail and Keep secure between its shoulders. Ren brought the sheet alongside the whale, planted his left hand on its back and stepped across. Anvil shifted near the landing to make room for the others.
He looked back toward the vent through the gap between the cones.
The outcrop stood bare above the water. Smoke rose from its mouth, drifting across the place where the thread had burned.
[WORLD CORE: LOCATED.]
The location lay beneath the central vent, below the rock where he had taken his stance.
[WORLD CORE IS ALIVE.]