Chapter 10

"Careful, Genis…" Raine's voice shook as she helped her little brother into the washtubs. There were no boats at Thoda dock, only three small wooden washtubs sitting in the water with paddles. Thoda gauzier was not too far from where we were. We could see the small island from the dock. It was too far to swim though.

"I am being careful! Everything is fine, Raine." Genis said to his sister as they pushed off from the dock to join us in the water.

I was paired up with Lloyd in a washtub, letting him use the paddle as I tried to keep the tub from tipping over. Kratos was with Ami, and Genis with Raine.

We all paddled over to the small island, seeing the gauzier go off, shooting off into the sky.

"Did you see that?!" Genis smiled as he crawled out of the tub. There were several people standing around the popular tourist attraction.

"Yeah! This is so cool!" Lloyd said as he looked over his shoulder. He held out his hand to help me out of the tub.

"H-hey! Pay attention or I'll fall in!" I said to Lloyd, who was distracted by the gauzier. It shot out of the ground, steam went everywhere, letting a horrible hiss sound and shake the ground.

"WOAH!" Lloyd stumbled, and I pulled his hand at the wrong time. We both fell back into the washtub. He tried to catch his fall by grabbing onto the side of the tub, making it shift backwards violently. Thankfully I grabbed his arm, pulling him into the tub before he fell in, but it ultimately ended in him falling on top of me. We both were as still as possible to keep the tub from tipping. "S-sorry, J-jenni…" He panted, quietly apologizing. He shifted awkwardly as he got up. He then properly helped me out of the tub. Everyone waited for us up the path.

"The hell was that about?" Ami mumbled to me as we made our way in search of the pedestal to open the door into the water seal.

"Lloyd being…" I sighed, shaking my head. My face felt hot, and I didn't doubt it was red. "…being Lloyd."

"And Jenni being Jenni, I'm guessing…" She mocked.

"Oh shut it." I bit my lip, trying to hide my smile.

We made it to the top of the path next to the gauzier. Ami smiled as she found the tablet to open the door, putting her hand over it. I watched as mana formed over the gauzier, making a solid bridge over to a cave that perched over the water.

"Bingo!" I ran over to the bridge. I pushed my foot on the glass looking path. When it seemed firm enough, we all headed inside carefully.

Inside the cave was lit by small torches on the rocks. As you walked, water would start to soak into your shoes because of the puddles. This cave was miraculous, stretching way over your heads and below your feet on its lower levels. Every rock dripped with water as steam rose from the hot streams that ran beside the paths.

"Oh my god…" I was able to mumble out as my eyes tried to see how far the cave went up. The darkness clouded my vision as we made our way down the stairs. With every drop of water that echoed through the cave, you could really since how vast its corridors went.

"ECHO!" Lloyd yelled. His voice shouted back at us after a moment.

"How far down do we have to go?" I asked Ami, who I trust the most to tell us where to go. When I thought about it, she probably knew the least.

"This place isn't…anyway like I thought it was going to be, Jen. Look there." She pointed down where the stairs we were taking down started to flatten out into a level room. "It's so…much bigger, Jenni. And so much darker."

This is nothing like how it is in the game. I thought as we all carefully made it to the bottom of the stairs.

"Here!" Genis said as he flagged us over. He was standing next to some sort of magical structure. It stood about 4 feet off the ground, its marble arms holding water that floated in mid air.

"What is that?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow. Then it all clicked. We had seen this before in the Martel Temple. This was how we originally got what was called the Sorcerers Ring. The sorcerers ring is what was used to light the torches that helped us get through the fire seal.

"It is made to manipulate the Sorcerers Ring." I said, noticing that Raine knew the same thing, and was about to state just that. She gave me a weird look as if she was confused as to how I knew that, but decided to drop it.

"How? And why?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow.

"I…don't know how. And maybe it's to help us get through to the Seal. Like we did in the Triet Ruins." I shrugged. "Look…in the water…" I pointed. In the center of the floating ball of magical water, there was a small white jewel.

"Reach in there and grab the jewel with the Sorcerers Ring on, Lloyd. It adapts itself. I've studied these before many times." Raine spoke up. Lloyd nodded and did so, reaching into the ball, grabbing the jewel. The water lost its anti gravity-ness and dropped to the floor with a splash. We backed away as Lloyd looked at the ring again.

"It's blue now!" He smiled in his small victory, showing everyone now that instead of fire shooting out of this magic ring, water flowed as if from a stream. The red jewel was left floating inside the arms of the structure.

"We'll change it back when we are done here." Kratos said, making his way down one of the corridors. "Let's keep moving."

Ami nodded, agreeing with the mercenary. She ran back up beside him. I hadn't read her journal lately, but by this sight, I'm guessing Kratos had begun to grown on her a little more. She stood close enough to him to maybe cling to his arm if she wanted to, but she probably wouldn't dare.

"What are you smiling about?" Raine raised an eyebrow, standing beside me with her arms crossed.

"U-uh …sorry! It was nothing! I was just…going." I quickly cleared my mind of Ami and Kratos, moving forward out of Raine's scary glare. I was getting tired of people asking me questions. Would it help if I not do or say anything? Maybe it would…

The event with Yuan the other evening was still hot on the brain. I never imagined he could be so terrifying. I don't have any trouble killing you, Jennifer. His words stuck in my ears like ice on skin for too long. He could do it. He could kill me.

I ran my hand along the inside of my buttoned tunic; my fingers touching the bandages Raine set to keep from any further damage. I didn't want to find out what else Yuan was capable of doing. And I hoped he wouldn't get another chance to talk to me alone. His questions were too hard to answer. What if he knew that I had this knowledge? What if he knew Ami did as well? He would probably torture us for information. Isn't he already doing that? I wondered. It might get worse though. It could ruin everything.I hadn't even told Ami that it was Yuan who attacked me. I'm guessing that she just assumed it was him, because she hasn't asked or said a word to me but "are you okay" or "everything alright with the thing on your stomach?" We have such a strange relationship.

I watched as she followed Kratos into the next room. This room was far bigger than the last. It was a cavern of lights and waterfalls spilling out of ancient waterways. There were carvings in the marble that resembled Atlantian artwork and sculptures that stood in the rocks that were chiseled by hand.

"Where did Lloyd and Genis go?" I asked, spinning around after a moment of realization that they were nowhere to be found.

"They went up there!" Ami pointed above us to a ledge. Lloyd and Genis were busy filling pots with water with the help of the Sorcerers Ring. It was when the ground shook slightly when we knew they did something right. "Alright, now toss the Ring down!" Ami said to Lloyd.

"We've got a problem , Lloyd!" Genis yelled.

"Coming!" Lloyd quickly tossed the ring down to us on the lower level so we could start to fill the triggering pots with water. Kratos caught it before it landed in the steaming water beside us.

"Good catch!" I smiled to him.

"We've got company…" Kratos pocketed the ring and unsheathed his sword. I turned around and faced a monster. Have you ever seen a shark swim above water? Cause this was EXACTLY what this was. A floating giant ass SHARK was coming right for the group. And it wasn't alone, small little starfish stood on the ground by its sides. Accept it looked like these guys were genetically mutated to have very sharp needle like points to their arms.

"Don't get stung by these starfish. Their poisons can be fatal if panacea bottle isn't given fast." Raine said, starting to cast a small spell to bring everyone's energy up. "Charge!"

After a few arrows to as many starfish as I could count, the battle was almost over. Kratos and Ami were taking care of the shark. I thought I helped them out by sending a fire arrow at JAWS, but Kratos got a little irritated when he couldn't have the last blow.

"And that's how it's done…" I smirked, nodding to Kratos who glared back at me.

"Let's get back to Lloyd and Genis." He shook his head, looking over at Ami, who was using the Sorcerers Ring to fill the last remaining pot. When she did, a platform rose from the stream, making a pathway to the Water Seal Portal. That would take us to the "boss room" just the same as in the Fire Seal.

"P-professor!" We heard Lloyd. He seemed to be in trouble by the sound of his voice.

"What's wrong Lloyd? Are you alright?!" Raine yelled. We ran towards the stairs.

"I'm fine, Professor!" His voice echoed. We ran around the staircase, finally making it to the corridor that lead to them. "It's Genis…" Lloyd looked up to Raine as she came around the corner. Lloyd was kneeling by Genis who was on the floor, shaking and writhing in pain. He held his shoulder, close to his neck.

"What happened?!" Raine ran to them, kneeling by her brother. Lloyd opened his hand, two stingers rolled in his palm.

"I t-took them out. The starfish got to him from behind." Lloyd gulped.

"Get me a panacea bottle. NOW" Raine growled, looking to me. I frantically looked through my pack, grabbing one.

"H-here, Raine!" I handed her one after I uncapped the bottle.

She put it to Genis' lips, asking him to drink it. His skin was so white, he looked so cold. His eyes were closed so tight, and he probably couldn't hear us.

"Genis! Genis, look at me!" Raine yelled. Genis took a deep breath, starting to drink the bottle as fast as he could. He could hear her voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw her.

"I…im…fine, sis. S-stop…c-crying…" The kid smiled, coughing a little bit.

"I am NOT crying." She gulped, shaking her head. She pulled him into a tight hug. We all had the same reaction and exhaled at the same time. Lloyd threw the stingers into the water.

"You okay?" I said to Lloyd quietly as we started to get into motion again.

"Y-yeah…" He nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay now that Genis is alright. I'm ready to get out of here." He sighed.

"Well, after this next room, we are out of here." I said, walking in the direction of the portal. Ami was the first one, followed by Kratos. I teleported last after getting one more look at the cavern behind us.