32. Vesper #2
The first shock of the cold water closing over my head is frigid.
The second shock comes as it quickly soaks through all my clothing and makes me heavier.
It’s so cold, its numbing, stealing the air I’d managed to hold in my lungs just before I’d gone under.
My fingers slip from Locke’s grasp as I tumble over and over again beneath the water, spinning with the force of the wave’s momentum.
I open my eyes, and the water burns them, but in the green depths, I can see.
The water is clear enough for me to see at least twenty meters. It’s too deep to see the bottom, the water dark beneath us. When I finally stop tumbling, I’m able to look around me.
Locke is three meters from me, fighting against his clothing to reach the surface.
He shrugs his heavy coat off, and I watch as it begins to sink, heavy with the sea.
Past him, I get a good look at how many of the orcas are around us.
I can’t count them all. They move fast and disappear in and out of the darkness as I try, but there are at least a dozen of them swimming, I think.
They all have different gray markings and it’s the only way I can tell them apart.
I open my inventory and grab my Bloodsense Fang from it as I start to try and kick toward the surface. My panic immediately lessens the moment it’s in my hand, the Instinct Anchor buff activating. With it, my anger rises and I open my mouth beneath the water to scream in rage.
The orcas move fast, swirling around us.
When one gets too close, I swipe the Fang out and catch a fin, nicking it.
A bright spot of red blood colors the water for a second before it disperses.
They don’t like that, but my Fang does. My senses sharpen and I suddenly know how many orcas there actually are.
Fifteen.
I break the surface and take in great gulps of air.
In front of me, Locke swims closer, his own hammer in his hands, but he can hardly swing it in the water.
Not with enough force to cause any real harm.
My body hums with power, something in my chest expanding that I don’t understand.
Still, when the next orca comes close, I raise my weapon.
“This is not my grave!” I scream, and slam the blade into the orca’s snout.
It bellows and swims away, my Fang pulling free as it jerks.
The other orcas answer the shrill bellow with their own sounds of anger.
I can no longer feel my hand wrapped around the blade and I worry that I won’t be able to hold it for much longer.
I tread water, but I’m starting to sink, my bones growing exhausted from fighting.
I kick at my boots and they fall off my feet.
It worries me that I can’t feel them go, that the water doesn’t get colder.
I can’t feel anything.
My chest warms as I fight, my teeth chattering against each other in a sound that echoes around us.
My attacks are growing slower with each jab, until I start to lose feeling in my arms entirely.
The orcas swirl and fight, playing games with us until we’re exhausted, until we barely have enough energy to keep our heads above water.
How long have we been in the sea? How long can we possibly withstand the frigid temperature?
The numbness claiming my body tells me we’re already well past what we can withstand.
My next swipe doesn’t even catch the orca. It’s already gone before my Fang can injure it, and its answering song throws it in my face. We don’t have long now and they know it.
“Locke,” I gasp, my lungs barely working with the cold.
His eyes are on mine already, his head tilted back as he struggles to stay at the surface.
We don’t say anything. There really isn’t anything to say even if we had the energy to say it. Instead, I reach for him. Neither one of us can feel the other, but I know he’s there, holding my hand, as we prepare for the inevitable.
“Tell Dox I tried,” I think to Cipher, who remains silent. He doesn’t offer help. He doesn’t say good-bye. He just . . . left. He looked at his statistics and left me to face them alone.
No. Not alone. With Locke and Svetlana.
“This is not your grave,” I try to croak out, but the words don’t even sound human anymore. My teeth are chattering too violently to let anything out, but still I try. Still, I desperately try.
My chest warms despite the cold again, a strange feeling of euphoria coming over me. Is this what death feels like? I thought it would be more painful.
The warmth spreads outward slowly, but it never passes to my limbs. It stays centered on my heart.
The orcas sing and swim around us, and then their song changes. The anger disappears and changes to something that feels frustrated, disbelieving even.
Something new breaks the surface in front of me.
It’s grey and spotted, so for one brief moment, I worry it’s one of the leopard seals and our death is about to be more gruesome than even I thought.
Until I get a good look at the large horn sticking from its snout.
As it breaks the surface, it blows air out of its top just like the orcas, and then slowly comes toward me.
The horn is in front of it, moving fluidly, and I close my eyes, thinking I’m about to be impaled by it.
“Hello,” a deep, booming voice calls. “Are you in need of assistance?”
My eyes pop open in surprise. The new creature is floating right in front of me, its intelligent eye focused on my face. “You can, can talk?”
“Of course, I can talk,” he answers, rolling his eye. “Do you need assistance or not?”
“I . . .” I look over at Locke who is struggling to keep his head above water. We’re surrounded by orcas, in the water, and we’re very close to death. “C-C-Could you?”
“I can do whatever you need,” the horned creature says.
“Can you take . . . take us to the . . . the safehouse?” I grit out around my chattering teeth. “Please?” My voice is weak, barely audible above a whisper.
“Right away, Beast Bound,” he answers. “Each of you will—”
“W-Watch out!” I cry, pointing to the orca rushing the new creature from the side.
The horned creature turns faster than he looks capable of and points his horn toward the orca. The orca dives, just barely missing being impaled.
“As I was saying,” he says as he turns back. “Each of you will grab my fins and I can pull you toward the safehouse.”
I put away my Fang and reach for the fin. My fingers are weak and numb, but I manage to get a good hold before he travels over to Locke and encourages him to do the same. Both of us latch onto the horned creature and then around each other over its back.
“Hold on tight,” the horned whale orders and starts to swim.
The water bunches up around my face, but I don’t have the strength to lift myself any further out of the water. I’m barely hanging on with limbs I can no longer feel.
“S-S-Svetlana,” I say, but she doesn’t answer. I can still feel her on my head, still tangled in my hair, but she isn’t talking. My arm burns, but it fades fast from the cold and I can’t focus on it anymore.
My teeth chatter so hard against each other, I worry they’re going to break as the large shape rises in front of us.
“Welcome to the Titanic Safehouse,” the horned creature declares. “Enjoy your stay.”
He shakes us both off at the base of a ladder and dives back beneath the water. We float there, both of us too cold and weak to move. I start to sink, but just barely manage to reach up and tuck my elbow over the bottom rung of the ladder. Locke latches onto me and we hang there.
“W-We need to . . . to . . . to climb,” I grit out.
“C-C-Can’t,” Locke answers, his body wracked with shivers just as bad as mine is.
“Oui! What are you two doin’ down in the water? Don’t ya know it’s too cold for that?” someone shouts above us. I can’t bring myself to tip my head back to see who. “Hold tight, players!”
After a few seconds, the whir of something mechanical comes on overhead and then a large wooden door is lowered into the water front of us. Chains are wrapped around it, serving as a sort of platform that they can pull back up.
“Get on, players! We’ll pull yas up!”
I’m not certain if I let go of the ladder, I’ll be able to swim. I push Locke toward the door and watch as he floats into it. He reaches one shaking hand toward me.
“It can’t, can’t h-h-hold us both,” I say, watching the treacherous tip of the wood beneath the water. “Send it back for me.”
“It c-c-can,” he grits. “T-Take my . . . h-h-hand.”
Carefully, I unfold from the metal rung and immediately start to sink, but Locke’s fingers curl into my jacket and heave me onto the wooden door.
“D-Don’t w-worry,” he says. “I’ll n-n-never let-t-t g-go.”
As soon as I’m on the platform, it begins to rise out of the water.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
You defeated—
I don’t even pay attention to Cipher’s pre-recorded message this time.
I’m exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open to see the interface light up with the notification.
The next time I crack my eyes open, it’s already gone, nothing but a small exclamation mark that disappears a second later.
I can only focus on the ice in my lungs, on the way my body seizes with cold, on the way I can no longer feel my limbs.
This is worse than the frostbite from before. So much worse.
“Heave!” someone shouts. “Hurry it up, lads! They’ve got one foot in the grave!”
“T-this i-i-is not-t my . . . g-g-grave,” I say on instinct, fighting the chill in my veins.
“That’s right, las. Keep that up.”