7. The Stream of Truth

Vivienne rammed Slupper’s shell with maximum force. Of course, he barely felt any of that, while she seemed too angry to feel pain.

“Didn’t I tell you! We shouldn’t have left him alone! He went on by himself!”

“How dare you?” Slupper yelled. “He may be eaten! Kidnapped! Swept away by the currents!”

“How many more times will you give him the benefit of the doubt, limp-dimp Slupper? Again and again Solomon does sneaky strange things—and you defend him. Always. I just saved our lives and I get nothing.”

“That’s because … because …” He took her fin and looked deep in her eyes. “Because I expect that from you.”

Vivienne looked away. “You must choose. You can’t say you trust me, then ignore all I say. Either we stop Solomon together now, or I’m leaving you here alone. And I never want to see you again.”

At the last line, his shell turned green, then orange, then yellow, and eventually all the colors of the rainbow. I don’t want you to leave. The thought had sat in his mind for a long time, but only now revealed itself. With her gone, who would be his friend? How could he not grow old lonely and abandoned?

Still he remained silent, lost in these thoughts.

She turned and swam off. He heard sobbing, though the tears vanished immediately in the sea. Even if we find The Truth and save the town, he thought. What does that matter if that town spits me out?

He dove under her, until she could rest on his shell.

“If … if you explain why Solomon can’t be trusted, I’ll stand fully behind you.”

She laughed again and pressed herself against him. Just as quickly, she darted off again.

“No time to lose! I’ll explain on the way.”

“Why didn’t you explain back when we first met?”

“Solomon can hear, feel, see everything around him. If I had said it, he would have hurt me right away.”

Her fin pointed at a gray lump in the distance. No plant dared grow on it, leaving this part of the sea pitch black.

“I lived peacefully with my parents in the tunnels, until the day a gigantic turtle burst in. My parents tried to defend themselves, but were struck hard.”

“Are you certain that was … Solomon?” he asked in a trembling voice.

“Yes, a hundred percent and more. Listen. That Companion searched our house and stole our books. I secretly followed him and found his cave under the Pillars of Gibra.”

“How did he never notice you?”

“No idea.” Vivienne finally calmed down. “I only know I nearly died too. But something touched me and I felt strong again. So strong I seemed to stop aging. Since then I’ve wandered these lands looking for a way to get revenge. And now I have you!”

“Oh—so that was the only reason you acted so nice? Because you needed me for something?” Slupper felt betrayed. “Friend” seemed a grand word for “I’m only kind because I need you.”

Though hadn’t he done the exact same?

“Yes,” said Vivienne seriously. “Like friends need each other.”

“Friends? Or—”

“Friends, nothing more. Otherwise I would have come back sooner. I would have hid in your garden every day waiting for a chance to talk to you. Which I—erm—definitely did not do.”

They reached the hill. The current grew increasingly noticeable, warm water pulling them along whether they wanted to or not. They bumped into each other and, like one soft ball, tumbled through the bubbles and swung around hills.

A stone wall abruptly ended their journey in a painful way.

Don’t scream. Don’t scream. Don’t make a sound.

Slupper rubbed a small wound on his forehead, while Vivienne moaned and swam through the opening. They found a dead-end corridor, with a lamp working overtime on either side—the same as in Solomon’s cave.

“He’s not here. Just a pointless cave.”

“Hey, what happened to trusting me? Those lamps aren’t here for nothing. See what they highlight?”

“A gray wall?”

Vivienne swam closer and held her fin under a hidden notch. “What does this symbol look like?”

“All those other symbols I collected over twenty years.”

She swam to a lamp and tapped it three times. A hatch slid open, spewing an endless stream of bubbles.

“The corridor continues behind here. You just have to shove this rock aside—it’ll roll back itself. But I never got further, because the next chamber isn’t flooded. Somehow, it stayed filled with air all these years. I can’t go on.”

“Of course you can! I’ll just carry you!”

“I HAVE to stay in water at all times, slow-plow turtle. I’m a fish.”

“I won’t leave you behind. That’s not what friends do. I’ll smash the wall and let water flow into the chamber!”

“I don’t know about that. The Alasti must have had a reason to seal off that room.”

“Then we just have to be quick.”

He kicked the opening under the lamp. A crack appeared, but the wall stayed intact. He kicked a second time. The lamp sank down. A third kick left a wider crack and sped up the airflow.

On the fourth kick, however, nothing happened again. He kicked ten more times without result.

“Maybe this is a good time to remember you’re a turtle,” Vivienne whispered in his ear.

He immediately spun around and rammed the wall full force with his shell. The stones exploded and the wall crumbled. The lamp bounced on the ground and extinguished. Shards of glass flew in all directions, fortunately instantly slowed down by the water.

Air tried to escape but was pushed back by the flood of water. A layer of waves formed in the cave, while the current carried them into the new space.

The chamber was perfectly round. A deep groove scratched through the wall, interrupted in places by a lamp. Other grooves, thicker and slimy, criss-crossed the floor, as if a giant snail had traveled here. Left, right, and ahead, high openings led to other chambers.

“Which should we take?”

“I don’t know. Maybe there’s text with it—”

Footsteps sounded from the left chamber. He flattened himself against the wall, pulling Vivienne along. They waited until the noise stopped.

After a brief silence, they peeked around the corner, but saw only darkness.

“Odd,” Slupper whispered. “It suddenly went completely dark.”

“Uh—that’s not the chamber.”