FOREVER KNIGHTS: #17 Marked As Mine

ACHARIUS

Acharius was swearing like the ancient Viking he was. Raging as he leapt into the water after her. Hitting the bottom like an anchor as he’d said hundreds of times, he would.

He trudged the bottom. Walking through the mud at an agonizing pace. He held his breath as long as he could. But when he ran out of air, he forced himself to stay underwater and keep moving. But knowing he couldn’t die of drowning didn’t help him relax.

This is the most ridiculous deed I’ve yet to be put on.

And despite his usual immunity to the cold, the water was so frigid his teeth nearly chattered.

He could eventually see the blurry green glow. He moved toward it determinedly. Eyes stinging from the murky water. He blinked away the pain and smeared his eyes clear with the back of one fist.

Once close enough he could see the woman floating in the water. Her clothes stirring forward and back as she hovered. Feet pointing to a boulder where a green glow emitted.

Glancing around, Acharius noticed it seemed they were nearly to the center of the Sepulcher. Deep.

Forcing the boulder over. He dug a little. Wondering how the woman floating next to him wasn’t drowning.

She doesn’t even seem to be breathing.

She’d been unmoving ever since he got there.

Just floating.

Feet pointing like an arrow.

Acharius only dug a little way before revealing the prize. He gripped it in his fist. Nearly afraid it would fly out of his grip. He crouched and pushed upward but swimming had never been his forte and he found himself sinking again.

I float like a damn boulder.

His chest ached with the urge to draw a breath. Feeling starved for air despite him knowing he didn’t need it. I’ve learned that over the weeks I’ve been searching here.

Chastain and he had learned that he wouldn’t drown, didn’t need air. But if he drew water into his lungs he could still suffocate.

The rules of our immortality are bloody complicated, at best. He thought in annoyance. Turning in what he believed was the direction he’d come. He tugged the rope circled around his waist and felt the pull back.

Chastain letting me know she’s still there.

It was her way of reassuring him.

Since she knows how I feel about being in the damn water.

As he began walking that direction, following the rope, he found his path was illuminated. Glancing over his shoulder he saw that the woman that’d let Alazar here was now floating behind him.

Drawn to the staff, clearly. Acharius made his way eerily. Fighting the urge to draw air the whole way. As he surfaced, he gasped for blessed oxygen. Feeling his lungs swell after so long being compressed.

He tossed the staff on the bank and crawled through the mud.

The woman surfaced behind him. Rising through the crest of the water and then bobbing amid the swells like a lily pad.

Alazar jumped into the waist deep water and scooped her up.

She gasped against the chill and shivering caught him around the neck. Clinging to him. “What happened! Where am I? How’d I get here.”

“Ssh.” Alazar shushed her. Making his way back out of the water with her.

She glimpsed the staff sitting amongst the grass. “That’s it.” She covered her mouth. “That’s the stick I’ve been dreaming about since I was little. How is it-” She looked around. “Seriously Alazareth, where are we?”

“Stick?” Acharius belted out. “Bit more than that.” Water was pouring off him in rivers.

I feel like a drowned rat. His blonde hair was flat around his face.