The twelfth floor was a white floor.
At the bottom of the stairs, shallows of pure white sand stretched out ahead of them as far as the eye could see.
The water came only to their ankles, or their knees at most. The white sand on the bottom showed clear through it, and the blue light of the glowmoss on the ceiling glittered and danced across the surface. Here and there, deep holes gaped open in the sand.
"It's beautiful..."
Celes murmured it, hugging her wand to her chest.
"They call this the Shell Shallows. There are loads of crystal clams here. Those deep holes are the deep pools."
All across the shallows, people with baskets hanging at their hips were bent over, picking up clams.
At the edge of one of the deep pools, a lightly dressed woman took a big breath and slipped smoothly into the water.
"Those are the clam gatherers. They say some of them have lived on the Labyrinth's lakes for generations."
Luca counted his steps with [Mapmaking] and sketched the shape of the shallows into his notebook. Where the deep pools were. The sandbars where the sand rose out of the water. The paths the clam gatherers used.
At the edge of the first deep pool, Luca stopped.
A basket lay there, finely woven from vine. Its shoulder strap had torn off at the base.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Don't breathe all the way in. Eight-tenths full, then dive.
Fill up all the way, and the body floats. The chest hurts, too. At eight-tenths, you slip right down.
To the bottom of the deep pool. Crystal clams cling thick to the rocks. Pry them loose with a little knife and into the basket.
It's starting to hurt. But don't go up yet.
Let the bubbles out a little at a time. One. Two. Letting them out loosens the hurt. Keep breathing out, keep diving.
The basket's full. Kick off the bottom.
The face breaks the surface, and the strap of the heavy basket snaps.
...Oh, come on. That was today's whole haul.
The basket catches on the rocks at the edge. Every clam inside goes back down to the bottom of the deep pool.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo stacked: [Hold Breath].
"...That's the second 'stacked.'"
"[Hold Breath]?"
"Yes. It's a different way of doing it from the goggles person on the ninth floor. You don't breathe all the way in, and when it starts to hurt, you let it out a little at a time."
Luca took off his jacket and put on the goggles.
He breathed in. Not all the way. Eight-tenths full.
He slipped smoothly down into the deep pool.
He sank more lightly than he used to. Crystal clams clung thick to the rocks at the bottom, and he pried them loose with his knife.
It started to hurt. He let the bubbles out a little at a time. One. Two. The hurt loosened.
Luca came up with both arms full of clams.
"...Two hundred and fifty," Celes said, stunned.
"Wasn't it a hundred and fifty? Before?"
"Yes. I could stay down longer than before."
"It's still getting longer...?"
* * *
It was early afternoon, and they had gone deeper into the shallows, when the sand moved.
"Celes, get back!"
Three flat shapes burst up out of the sand.
Great pincer crabs: crabs the size of dogs, each with one pincer as big as its whole body.
The first one's pincer, he turned aside with his round shield. [Shield Block].
The second one's pincer, he dodged by the width of a sheet of paper. [Hairbreadth].
But the third one slipped right past him.
"Eek...!"
The third crab's big pincer clamped onto the hem of Celes's cloak.
It dragged her off her feet, and she landed on her backside in the shallows.
"Pierce."
Pop.
Luca's spark of fire burst right in front of the third crab's eyes. The crab let go and sprang back. In that gap, Luca brought the pommel of his dagger down on a seam in its shell. [Stone Reading] and [Stacked Strike]. The shell popped open like a nut.
Celes's fireballs took care of the other two.
Afterward, Celes looked down at the soaked hem of her cloak and heaved a deep sigh. It was torn, half of it gone.
"...We really do need a shield-bearer."
"Yes."
Luca looked at the small round shield on his left arm.
One crab, he could block. Two, he could dodge. But the third had slipped right past him.
They needed someone who would stand in front and take all of it.
* * *
On the rocks at the far edge of the shallows, Luca found another dropped thing.
A net, the round kind that opens out in a circle, was caught on a corner of rock. Lead weights ran in a row all the way around its edge.
◆ ◆ ◆
—You don't throw a net. You spread it.
Split the edge of the net between the shoulder and the arm. A few of the weights in the palm.
Twist the hips. On the twist back, swing the arm. Last of all, turn it with the wrist.
The net opens in midair, a circle. The weights fly outward, and it settles softly onto the water. A perfect circle.
A school of lake shrimp is trapped inside it.
He starts to draw it in, and it jerks to a stop. The edge of the net has snagged on a corner of rock under the water.
...Tch. Rocks again.
He cuts the edge of the net with his knife and leaves the rest there on the rock.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Cast Net].
Luca worked the net free of the rock.
He quickly retied the cut edge. He split the edge between his shoulder and his arm and took a few of the weights in his palm.
"A net this time?"
"Yes. I'll try it."
Twist the hips. On the twist back, swing the arm. Last of all, turn it with the wrist.
The net opened in midair, a circle.
It settled softly onto the shallows.
When he hauled it in, something inside was flipping and flopping.
Heaps of see-through lake shrimp. And lots of thumb-sized crabs, each carrying a little snail shell on its back.
"Lake hermit crabs. ...There must be thirty of them."
"I'll take them to the Full Belly."
"I knew you'd say that."
* * *
"Well, I never! Hermit crabs!"
That night, in the Full Belly's kitchen, Martha peered into the basket, her eyes shining.
The twins were poking at the lake hermit crabs with their fingers and squealing. Miro wasn't back from hauling yet.
"Now these, you do like this."
Martha laid the lake hermit crabs out on a grill, shells and all, and held it over the fire in the hearth.
"Try to pull them out of the shell and they won't budge. They dig in, and the meat tears. But put them on the fire shell and all, and they get too hot and come out on their own."
"On their own."
"No high heat, mind. Heat them up all at once and they get startled and shrink back inside. Medium heat, nice and slow. Let the heat get right through to the heart of the shell."
After a little while, tiny legs began to creep out of the mouths of the shells.
One, then another. As if they couldn't stand the heat, they crawled out of their shells.
"They came out."
"Didn't I tell you? My husband taught me that."
Martha quickly fried the crabs that had crawled out in oil and sprinkled them with salt.
Luca took one and popped it in his mouth. It was toasty and sweet.
"It's delicious."
"Well, good. Go on, eat up. There's plenty."
Working his way through the fresh-fried heap, Luca asked,
"Martha. Where on the thirteenth floor were the Silver Scales attacked?"
Martha's hands stopped.
Then she answered in a low voice.
"...The pool, they said. A deep pool where the lake serpents nest."
Luca nodded.
"I'll go take a look tomorrow."
* * *
The thirteenth floor was a dark lake.
The glowmoss on the ceiling grew thin and patchy here, and the water was a blue so deep it was nearly black. A narrow gravel path ran along the shore. They had followed it for about half an hour when Celes stopped.
"...That's it."
In the middle of the lake was a round patch of color, darker than the water around it by far. A deep pool, with no bottom to be seen.
Here the shore path ran right alongside it, and a gravel beach jutted out to the very edge of the pool. To get to the far side of the lake, there was no way around it. You had to cross this beach.
"The Serpent Pool. They say it normally sleeps down at the bottom, but if you make a racket nearby, it comes up."
Luca crouched at the end of the beach and looked at the pool.
[Water Reading].
Faint lines showed on the black surface. The water turned in a slow spiral, sinking down and down. Anything that sank here would be carried by that spiral to the bottom on the pool's east side.
That's probably where the shield is too.
Then, [Sense Presence].
Under water, he could only feel presences dimly. Even so, he could tell that something huge lay coiled far down at the bottom of the pool. Asleep.
Long. Longer than any presence Luca had ever felt.
* * *
Something was wedged between the stones of the beach.
A thin leather glove. Only one. Its fingertips were scorched black. On the inside of the wrist, a name had been stitched in small letters: Ilse.
"A mage's glove. Fire mages use them a lot, to protect their hands from their own fire."
Luca closed his hand around the glove.
◆ ◆ ◆
—The pool swells.
The lake serpent's head breaks the surface. It's huge. Its mouth, opened wide, could swallow a person whole.
"Over here, you damn snake!"
Miro steps forward, banging his great shield with a club. Clang. Clang. Clang.
The serpent's head turns toward Miro.
Raise the wand. Pack the fire tight. Sharpen it. And the instant it hits, let it go.
"Flame, crack and burst!"
Bang! Fire bursts right at the tip of the serpent's snout. It rears back. Then its eyes roll around and fix on her.
So scared—
"I said over here!"
Clang. Clang. Clang. The serpent's head swings back toward Miro.
"Fall back! We're pulling out!"
Edgar's voice.
"But Miro—!"
"Leave Miro! He's Sturdy, he won't die!"
Her legs are already running on their own. The glove slips off her hand and falls. No time to pick it up.
She looks back. Just once.
In front of the serpent, a big, broad back stands with the great shield held high.
Then the rocks along the shore hide it from sight.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Burst Flame (Lesser)].
For a while, Luca said nothing. He still had the glove in his hand.
"Luca?"
"...Mr. Miro didn't run."
His voice came out a little hoarse.
"He stayed in front of the serpent, all by himself. He kept it turned toward him so the others could get away. ...And their leader said, 'Leave Miro.'"
The blood drained from Celes's face.
"They abandoned him..."
She gripped her wand hard. Luca thought he knew what she was remembering. The hollow on the sixth floor. Golden cloaks. Backs running away after throwing a jar of lure incense.
"...That's unforgivable."
"Yes."
"But a memory from a glove won't count as proof on its own, will it? Same as last time."
"No. That's why I'm going to pick up the shield."
Luca looked toward the east side of the pool.
"How the shield fought the serpent. A shield would remember every bit of it, I think."
* * *
"So what was the skill from that glove?"
"A fire spell called Burst Flame. It had 'Lesser' on the end, though."
"...Your magic always comes with 'Lesser' on the end, doesn't it."
Luca pointed a finger at the rock wall a little way off from the beach. As he breathed in, he built the shape inside himself. Pack the fire tight. Sharpen it. And the instant it hits, let it go.
"Burst."
Snap!
A tiny flame popped in front of the rock wall with a sharp crack. The scorch mark it left was the size of a fingertip. But the noise was startlingly loud.
"...It's all bark."
"Yes. It's all bark."
"Still, if someone did that right in front of your face, even a monster would jump."
Celes shifted her grip on her wand.
"Teach me the trick."
"Packing the fire tight and sharpening it is the same as a fire arrow. But the instant it hits, you let go of everything you packed, all at once. That's when it bursts."
"Pack it, then let it go..."
Celes closed her eyes and took a breath.
"Flame, crack and burst!"
Bang!
The rock wall exploded. The ball of fire burst the moment it struck and gouged a fist-sized chunk out of the stone. Shattered rock rained down onto the lake.
Neither of them said anything for a moment.
"...Yours isn't Lesser, Celes."
"This is going to be so useful."
Celes's eyes were shining.
That was when something cold ran up Luca's spine.
The presence at the bottom of the pool had moved. The coils were loosening. Slowly, they were rising.
"Celes, we need to run."
"What?"
"It's awake."
They ran from the beach. Behind them, the surface of the pool heaved up in a great swell.
When Luca looked back, a huge, pale head had risen out of the black water. Two eyes glowed dimly.
For a while, the lake serpent stared toward the beach. Then it slowly sank back down into the pool.
"...That was too loud, wasn't it."
"Yes. Let's not use Burst Flame near the pool."
* * *
That night, Miro was at the Full Belly.
He sat in a corner of the kitchen, peeling potatoes without a word.
Luca went and stood in front of the counter.
"Mr. Miro. Tomorrow, I'm going to go pick up your shield."
Miro's hands stopped.
"...Huh?"
"I think it's at the bottom of the pool on the thirteenth floor. Probably in a hollow on the east side."
"Don't."
Miro didn't look up.
"That's the serpent's nest. You'll die."
"I'm good at diving."
"This isn't about what you're good at."
"Also..."
Luca hesitated for a moment. Then he said it.
"You were left behind, weren't you, Mr. Miro?"
The potato fell out of Miro's hand.
Slowly, he raised his head. All the color had gone from his face.
"...Who told you that?"
"Ilse's glove."
Miro stared at Luca for a long moment. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. Then he slammed the half-peeled potato into the sink.
"Fine! Do whatever you want!"
He stormed out the back door. The twins flinched and clung to Martha's apron.
Martha looked at the closed back door, then at Luca.
She didn't say a word. She just heaped Luca's bowl high with stew.