The eighteenth floor lived inside a roar.
From a hole high up in a towering rock wall, white water came pouring straight down. It was the overflow from the lake on the floor above.
The plunge pool was the size of a small lake. Spray hung in the air like mist, and here and there it turned the glowmoss light into rainbows.
"So the way to the nineteenth floor goes around the edge of the plunge pool!"
Celes had to shout. Otherwise, the noise of the water drowned out everything.
Luca was watching the waterfall.
[Water Reading]. The falling water wasn't coming straight down. It fell in an arc, a little way out from the rock wall. Behind that curtain of water, there was a hollow.
Twelve years ago, she came back from the Falls on the eighteenth floor barefoot.
Bodge's voice came back to him, deep in his ears.
"There's a ledge behind the waterfall. ...I'll go take a look."
* * *
A narrow, wet foothold ran along the rock wall to the back of the falls.
Luca tied a rope around his waist and handed the other end to Miro. The footing was slick with moss. His [Lunge: Refined] feet searched out the solid rock beneath it.
When he ducked through the curtain of water, the roar grew a little more distant.
The ledge was wider than he'd expected. Toward the back it was dry, and blue light, filtered through the falling water, rippled across it.
In the middle of the ledge sat a pair of shoes, set neatly side by side.
They were light-looking shoes of soft leather, their toes pointing toward the falls. As if someone had taken them off right here and walked away across the water.
On the heels, a little waterbird was embroidered in white thread.
Liene the Waterbird.
Luca picked up the left shoe.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Don't step on the water.
Kick it while it's still hard.
Strike water fast enough, and for an instant, it's hard. In that instant, put out your next foot. Don't leave your weight anywhere.
Don't hesitate. The foot that hesitates is the one that sinks.
She runs across the plunge pool. Spray stings her cheeks. Ten years, it's taken her to get this far.
Something behind the falls seems to be calling her.
She bursts through the curtain of water and leaps up onto the ledge. She takes off her wet shoes and wrings them out.
Deep in a crack in the rock, something glints.
She reaches in. An old coin. A crest she's never seen.
Her fingertips touch the coin.
—Hssshk.
A hiss like blowing sand paints over the Recall, there and only there.
Deep in her head, someone's voice speaks. Words she must have heard. They can't be heard.
When she comes back to herself, she's shaking, the coin clutched in her hand.
...I can't reach that far.
She sets the shoes down neatly, side by side. Inside the left one, she puts the coin.
I'll leave it here. Until someday, someone who can reach deeper than I can picks it up.
Barefoot, she runs out onto the water.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Water Running].
Everything in front of him went white.
Heavy.
Much heavier than Bodge's pole had been. In years, Bodge's thirty were longer. But a technique like running across water on human legs lay deeper than anything he had ever inherited, and all of it came pouring into him at once.
His knees folded on their own. Something was draining out of the pit of his stomach.
"Luca!"
Miro came along the rope and leaped onto the ledge.
Luca was on his hands and knees on the rock, unable to move. He couldn't even tell whether his stomach was growling.
"Hey, pull yourself together! Eat something!"
Miro dragged the three-tier lunch box out of his pack and shoved what was left in the second tier into Luca's mouth.
Luca ate without a word. Only after the second tier was empty, and five sticks of jerky after that, did the world in front of him start to brighten again.
"...I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. ...What did you see?"
* * *
Back with Celes, Luca told them.
That Liene had run across the water to the ledge. That in a crack in the rock, she had touched an old coin.
"I think she heard a voice, deep in her head. But that voice was the one thing I couldn't hear. It's a Recall from twelve years ago, but just that part was worn away."
"Worn away..."
"And then she said, 'I can't reach that far.' She put the coin in her shoe and went home barefoot."
Celes looked at the shoe in Luca's hands. Then she looked at the plunge pool.
"...You said [Water Running], didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to try it?"
"I'm going to try it."
* * *
Luca stood at the edge of the plunge pool.
He had tied the shoes to his waist. His feet were bare. The same as when Liene had gone home.
Don't step on the water. Kick it while it's still hard. Don't hesitate.
Luca broke into a run.
On the first step, he felt something solid under his sole. Water. For one instant, the water was as hard as a plank. In that instant, he put out his next foot.
Two steps. Three. Four. Spray burst up around his feet. His body was moving forward, across the top of the water.
Seven steps. Eight. Nine.
On the tenth step, the water swallowed his foot.
Splash. Luca went under, all the way over his head.
When he swam back to shore with [Swimming], Celes and Miro were standing frozen, mouths hanging open.
"...You were on the water just now..."
"I sank after ten steps."
"You still ran ten steps!"
"You're not human..."
Luca looked down at his wet feet.
"My legs couldn't keep up. Liene's legs were much stronger than mine. She said it took her ten years to get that far."
"So you inherited ten years of technique in one go and ran ten steps..."
* * *
While the shoes dried by the fire, Luca slid a finger inside the left one.
Deep in the toe, there was something hard.
An old coin.
He opened the cloth bundle from inside his jacket and laid it next to the other two. The same crest.
Luca closed his hand around the third coin.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Cold.
The sound of water, on and on.
Waiting in a crack in the rock, so long. Someone with swift feet touched it. But that one was shaking.
Then waiting again, inside a shoe. For a long, long time.
Found you.
◆ ◆ ◆
The voice that told him an Echo had been inherited didn't come. He wasn't hungry, either.
"...It said, 'Found you.'"
Celes caught her breath. In Luca's hand, all three coins were warm together.
Miro was looking from the coins to Luca's face and back.
"...Hey. What's all this about?"
"I'll tell you too, Miro."
Luca told him. The first coin, picked up on the sixth floor. The second, from the Stone-Eater's belly. Thank you for picking me up.Deeper. Go deeper. And just now, Found you.
Miro listened without saying a word. Then he scratched roughly at his head.
"...I don't really get it, but I get that it's a big deal. I won't tell Ma."
"Why would your mother come into this?"
"She'd worry, wouldn't she? Ma cries over stuff like that at the drop of a hat."
Luca wrapped the coins in their cloth and tucked them into the deepest fold of his jacket. He put the dried shoes into his pack.
"I'm going to give these shoes back to Liene. If I ever get to that port town."
"Port town?"
"That's where Bodge said she went. ...Besides, I haven't asked her yet. What it was she heard."
The roar of the falls rumbled low behind them.
* * *
The nineteenth floor was a dry cave.
No lake. No falls. Just a wide chamber of rock with a low ceiling. Black rings of stone from old campfires were scattered all over the floor, and the ceiling above them was black with soot.
The walls were covered in carved names. Every one of them was the name of a party that had rested here.
"The Gate Camp," Celes said. "The last place people rest before they challenge the Gatekeeper."
From somewhere under the rock at their feet came the faint sound of water.
The twentieth floor.
* * *
"I'm making dinner tonight."
Celes rolled up her sleeves as she said it.
They had lake shrimp, caught in the plunge pool with [Cast Net], and old Trude's jerky. The third tier of the lunch box stayed shut until tomorrow night. They'd promised.
"...You can cook, Celes?"
"Of course I can. Nobody handles fire better than me."
"Please don't mix up the salt and the sugar."
"I only brought salt this time!"
Celes leaned toward the campfire and blew on it, hard.
The fire roared up. The lake shrimp in the pot began to crackle and pop, turning black before their eyes.
"Nice fire, isn't it?"
"Celes, it's burning."
"Huh?"
The shrimp on top were pitch black. When they broke one open, the inside was still translucent.
For a moment, nobody said anything.
"Burnt outside. Raw inside."
"...How?"
Without a word, Miro put a burnt shrimp in his mouth. Without a word, he swallowed it.
* * *
Wedged between the stones of an old fire ring was a single tube of bamboo.
It was an old blowpipe. The joints had been knocked out to hollow it, and a small hole was bored in the tip. Soot had turned it completely black.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Tomorrow, the Gatekeeper.
Twelve companions. All of them tending their weapons in silence.
He can't fight. So he cooks.
No high heat. High heat burns the outside and leaves the middle raw. Give them an upset stomach, and tomorrow their swords will be slow.
Never let the fire die. Never let it flare. Let it creep in, little by little, all the way to the core.
Don't blow hard into the pipe. Thin and long. All you're doing is giving the fire a little more breath, gently.
In the pot, the meat comes apart at a touch. It smells good.
"...Nobody cooks like our cook."
The youngest swordsman holds out his bowl for seconds.
A warm belly tonight makes a warm sword tomorrow.
In the morning, he sees his companions off to the Gatekeeper's chamber, then packs up. If they win, they'll go straight on to the floors below. He leaves the blowpipe where it is, wedged between the stones of the hearth.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Heat Control].
Luca pulled half the wood out of the fire.
The flames shrank. But they didn't go out.
He put the blowpipe to his lips and blew. Thin and long. Quietly, but without a single break, the fire licked at the bottom of the pot. Not too strong. Not too weak.
He laid the shrimp that hadn't burned back in the pot. Jerky, water, and a little salt. After a while, a good smell began to rise from it.
"...Those are the same ingredients, aren't they?"
"Yes. It's just a different fire."
The shrimp shells were crisp, and the meat inside was plump and cooked all the way through. The jerky had soaked up the broth and fallen apart, soft and tender.
Miro took one bite and stopped.
"...Tastes a little like Ma's."
"Martha said it too. Medium heat, nice and slow."
Celes looked from her burnt shrimp to Luca's pot and back again.
"What did I do wrong?"
"The fire was too strong. A strong fire only burns the outside. It never gets to the middle. You keep it thin and long, and you never let it die. Slowly, all the way to the core."
"...That's the opposite of magic."
Celes stared down at her palm.
"I was taught that with magic, the stronger the better. It's all about how big a fire you can throw in a single shot."
"Cooking seems to be different."
"...I'll remember that. Thin and long, and never let it die."
Luca's stomach rumbled.
Three rounds of seconds later, the pot was empty.
* * *
The next morning, the three of them went down the stairs to the twentieth floor.
At the bottom stood a great stone door, wide open. The entrance to the Gatekeeper's chamber.
Luca peered inside and caught his breath.
It was a hall of water.
Nearest the door, the water was shallow, knee-deep to waist-deep. In the middle sat a single flat island of rock. Beyond it lay black water, so deep he couldn't see the bottom. In the far wall, past the deep water, stood a second stone door, shut tight.
Something was sunk in the deep water.
A huge spiral shell. Its surface was plastered with armor. Breastplates, helmets, pauldrons, shields. Iron of every color and shape covered the shell like patchwork, glinting dully at the bottom of the water.
[Sense Presence: Refined].
"...It's there. Its body's curled up inside the shell. It's asleep. It's about the size of the Full Belly."
"The size of the Full Belly? The whole place?"
"The whole place."
* * *
On the floor just inside the door lay a single gauntlet.
It was made of thick iron. A crest of bull's horns had been hammered into the back of the hand.
"That's the Steel Bulls' crest."
"Then it's Ganz's."
Luca closed his hand around the gauntlet.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Wading through the shallows in heavy armor. Four companions. Every one of them in armor.
The deep water swells. A shell is rising. ...Big. Someone's armor is stuck to it.
Two eyestalks swivel toward them. They are looking at the iron.
A huge claw clamps onto his breastplate. He's lifted off his feet, armor and all. Dragged toward the deep water.
"You can have the armor! You're not getting my life!"
Armor isn't your body. If it grabs you, shed your shell.
The laces are always tied in quick-release knots. The buckles open from the side, not the top. Breathe out as you slide your shoulders free. Shake the gauntlets off.
One breath.
The empty armor stays in the claw. Only his body drops into the water.
His party's mage hits the shell with fire. A huge, fierce blast. The Armor-Eater's body shrinks back, deep inside the shell.
Then it sinks down into the deep water. Clouds of steam billow up from the surface.
After a while, the shell rises again. No more steam. It went down and cooled itself off, damn it.
"Fall back! All of you, ditch your armor! Let it have it!"
He runs for the door. Behind him, he hears the left gauntlet he shook off bounce across the floor.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Armor Shed].
Still holding the gauntlet, Luca looked at the shell in the deep water.
"...Luca. What did you see in that recall?"
"Once the Armor-Eater grabs iron, it doesn't let go. When fire hits it, it shrinks back into its shell, dives into the deep water to cool off, and then comes back up."
Celes's face hardened.
"So fire doesn't work on it?"
"It worked. It just cooled off."
* * *
Back at the camp on the nineteenth floor, Luca retied every lace on his breastplate in quick-release knots.
He put the breastplate on. He pulled Ganz's gauntlet onto his left hand and slid the round shield onto his left arm over it. He shouldered his pack, too.
"Celes, please count."
"Count what?"
"Until I'm out."
Celes tilted her head, but she opened her mouth.
"O..."
Pull the laces. Unhook the buckles at the side. Breathe out and slide the shoulders free. Shake off the gauntlet, round shield and all.
"...ne."
The breastplate, the gauntlet, the round shield and the pack had all thumped down onto the rock in a heap.
Luca stood there in a single plain shirt. He wasn't even wearing padded underclothes.
Celes stared at him. So did Miro.
"One breath, and I was out."
"...What would you even use that for?"
"For when something grabs me."
For a while, Miro just looked down at the breastplate on the rock.
Then he muttered, "You mean if the Armor-Eater grabs you."
"Yes."
Luca's stomach let out a long, rolling growl.