Once they return to the upper levels, Karmen storms into the pantry and lifts a keg-sized barrel of sea king jerky. She returns to the dining area and sets it on the table. "Eat," she orders. Pierce sits and begins eating, having no desire to pass up a meal and disobey her in one go. He'd need the protein to fight off the remaining fungus in his system. She watches him eat until she's satisfied he won't get sick and mentally adds one more stop to their next outing. Only then does she notice the patients sitting around the other tables and helping out in the kitchen.

Iona leans back in her chair, she was sitting across from them at another row of tables, and nudges Pierce. "You really put up with that?"

Pierce looks genuinely confused. "With Karmen caring about my health?"

She rolls her eyes, recognizing that she's not going to get anywhere on the "poor abused bodyguard" line of questioning. "What's wrong with you, anyway?"

Pierce considers answering, then shoves a handful of jerky in his mouth and mutters an answer around it. "Pierce's medical history is between us and Saaresto unless Pierce decides to share," Karmen says. He swallows and gives her an appreciative smile that Iona can't see.

Winston walks out of the kitchen and points to the empty chair across from Pierce. "You sit too."

Karmen takes the one beside Pierce instead. Winston sets a steaming cup of Darjeeling in front of her, shortly followed by an individual apple pie in a red pan. She noticed others being laid out to cool in silver pans and wonders if hers was made special. She silently picks up her fork and takes a bite, only to choke up in endearment at the taste. "You put in nightshade like the story," she croons, remembering the version of the fairytale she'd told Zoro several months back. "It really adds to the flavor."

Iona reels, twisting in her chair. "Your pie is poisoned and you're eating it?!"

"Well, I'm not going to pass it up." Karmen looks back to Winston. "Thank you, dear. This is lovely."

"So lovely that you'll forgive me for being an idiot?" Pierce asks hopefully.

She rolls her eyes at him. "Pierce, you were always forgiven. I'm not sorry for yelling at you though."

"And that's why I didn't ask for an apology. I fully deserved it."

Karmen takes a sip of her tea. "Maybe not all of it, but yes. Yes, you did."

"Thank you for not poisoning me."

She blinks. "Oops." She removes a syringe from her belt and injects his bicep with a pale pink antidote. "I almost forgot that I tagged you in training. I really need to get that time-release thing figured out."

He rubs his arm but grins. "Now look who's being forgetful."

"And who's fault is that?"

"Respectfully, Mistress, yours."

"I could poison you again if you like. This pie has a lot of nightshade."

Iona glances between the two of them as they eat. "Don't tell me you two are...?"

"Best friends? We are." Karmen says this in a flat tone, completely missing the indication.

"That's not what she meant," Bhoden says, but Winston waves them off.

"They've known each other since they were children and had to rely on each other for survival. They are close," his eyes glance over Karmen and Pierce. "That's all there is to it."

"What else would there be?" Karmen asks.

Pierce cocks his head. "Should there be?"

Iona shakes her head. "Never mind."

Camilla gives a snort and continues setting out the unpoisoned pies. She glances over at them. –My cloak had better not have any white fuzzies on it.-

-Don't worry, it'll get washed.-

-I'm going to slip out when I can. You know where to find me for training.-

"And what's her deal?" Iona asks as Camilla walks out. "Why doesn't she pick one form of communication and stick to it?"

"Camilla, keep that trowel in your hand, please," Karmen calls, not bothering to turn around to find the girl with her arm pulled back and ready to throw. She looks at Iona instead. "You can needle us all day and we won't bat an eye, but needle Camilla, and I can't promise that you won't be stabbed."

The meal is brought out then and they eat in relative silence. When Karmen passes Pierce half her protein, his head dips. She wonders if he's feeling shame. "I really am sorry, Karmen." He looks so pitiful that if she keeps staring all her anger might just fade completely, and if that happens she would start taking it easy on him and soon enough he'd become complacent and forget his medicine again.

Karmen narrows her eyes and purses her lips at him. "If you were really sorry…" she pauses, trying to come up with a suitable apology. She grins as she settles on one that he may have already expected. "If you were really sorry then you'd dance with me tonight." Iona almost chokes on her drink. The red-headed woman still has to spit half a mouthful back into her cup.

"Any requests?" Pierce asks.

"I'd kill for a-" she almost says a tango, but the image of the circumstances surrounding her last one pops into her head and she quickly changes her mind, "-a hustle."

"I'm not sure," Pierce teases. "I think my equilibrium is off from all that yelling. I have sensitive ears, you know."

Karmen smirks at him. There's no way he would actually turn down a request to dance with her, but playing along will provide a distraction, if only for him. "You can either dance with me or let Winston give you the old Rivera treatment."

He blanches. "You wouldn't dare."

"Of course I wouldn't, but Winston has a whole shipment of things that he's planning on sending to his brother… sister."

"And you say you aren't a slave driver." Despite his words, he grins. "I think you just like seeing me in fishnets."

"Can you blame me? All my blackmail pictures blew up with the mansion."

"What a tragedy."

"Get a room," Iona mutters, curling her nose up at them.

Karmen grins. "What a wonderful idea," she responds before turning back to Pierce. "Training room, later."

"And a poem."

She groans. "Now who's being impossible?"

"Poem or no deal."

"Fine. Deal?"

"Deal."

Iona groans.

Winston exhales a long breath. "This will be even better than watching you spar."

Iona sputters. "Don't you have anything better to do than watch them? What are you, their chaperone?"

Winston shakes his head. "Karmen's ballroom dancing is second to none this side of the North Blue. It would be a shame to miss it."

Bhoden leans over and smirks. "Where is that head of yours trying to take it? Really, Iona, you aren't catching on to how this island works at all, are you?"

"Shut up, old man," she snaps before hiding behind her cup. "They've been fighting. I just figured they'd want a bit of privacy. You'd think a dance and a poem wouldn't be enough of a make-up."

Karmen blinks in her direction. "What more do you expect?"

Pierce shakes his head. "To each their own."

Despite the hot meal, Karmen doesn't find herself relaxing. She needs a quiet place and physical activity. She helps clear away the dishes and goes down to her personal training chamber. It is a large chamber with a natural pool in the floor fed by a spring somewhere deep within the rocks. The water drains away to the cistern below, as smooth and quiet as the Calm Belt itself. Hundreds of stalagmites reach up out of the water. The only sound or disturbance comes from the water dripping down slowly from stalactites from the levels above. Karmen leaps onto the stalagmites, tip-toeing across four as she slows to a stop. She spends the next two hours performing yoga while standing on points of rock no wider than her pinkie toe, changing positions every time a drop of water falls from the ceiling and solidifying her new stance as it hits the still water.

Drip. She's in tree pose on the left side of the chamber. Drip. Mountain pose in the middle. Drip. Warrior pose on the right. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. She works her way through sun salutation. Crescent lunge. Camel. Forward bend. Pigeon. She moves through them methodically, not really caring which pose she ended up in so long as she kept her balance and focused her haki. She keeps ramping it up, moving faster, seeking something stronger and faster to synchronize with. She needs… she needs… She doesn't know what she needs. If there was anything to scrub in this cave she'd be scouring it. She wants the balance brought through physical activity and the clarity of just shutting off her mind and letting her body work. Not finding it, despite all her efforts, frustrates her. She pushes herself, focusing her haki to the point of exhaustion, making a cloak that covers the room, the outside tunnel, the level.

She knows she's made a mistake the instant her muscles lock up as she moves into a half lotus toe balance. She has the ball of her left foot balanced on the tip of a stalagmite no wider than a pen and her right foot crossed over her left knee. Her hands are folded together in front of her chest as if she's praying. She might be, if only for no one to find her like this. She quickly draws back her haki, but even when she shuts it off completely she still can't move. That's when the stalagmite cracks.

Air forces its way into her compressed lungs in a gasp as the rock beneath her crumbles into the water. It isn't deep, but the surface still closes above her head as she sinks to the bottom, back scraping rock. She holds the breath she'd taken. It's the only thing she can do. The water in this cavern is cold, but she can't feel it. Her eyes are the only part of her body she can move or feel. This would be the perfect condition to focus on the expanse outside her normal range of senses, but if she did that now she'd drown. Panic wells in her stomach and she forces it down. It took twenty minutes for her to regain function last time, or had she fallen asleep and had only been awake for that long? She can hold her breath for at least twenty minutes if she relaxes, maybe longer. Haki had gotten her into this mess. Maybe haki can get her out.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she increases her haki back to her normal range. She can sense the lizards scampering on the walls. Even when she closes her eyes she can see the glow of life surrounding them. A snake winds its way through the water's edge and slides down the drainage chute. There is only one person on this level of the caves. Pierce. She'd recognize that stiff walk anywhere. He's close, too. He's turning the corner, perhaps looking for her. She prays that he is. He cocks his ear as if he's listening. He slows. No, no, no, no, no. Come here. Come here, Pierce. Please, come check on me. I'm down here. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Keep walking. Keep coming down the tunnel. Listen in and-

"Karmen?" Pierce's voice is muffled by the water but she can hear him clearly. She can sense him step into the chamber and stop just at the foot of the pool. He tilts his head from side to side, listening for any sign of her. Here. She exhales, hoping the escaping air will make a sound his sensitive ears will pick up. She pleads, sending up as many bubbles as she can afford, hoping to draw his attention. When he shrugs and turns around, her heart plummets. He can't sense past the water's surface. He can't sense her. How much air does she have left? Already she feels the burn of how much she'd released. She'd exhaled too much, thinking he'd come swooping in to her rescue like always.

Patience.

She isn't sure if it's the voice she'd heard while coming back to the island or her own internal voice. She wants to take a deep breath or two to reset her nervous system, but inhaling anything would just put her in a worse situation right now.

Calm down.

She can't move and Pierce can't sense her. That's fine, or rather, it would have to be fine for a little while longer. She can't use her physical abilities, so she has to use her head. Her head and her haki are the only two things working for her right now. The opposition weighs heavily and it's all she can do to ignore that for now.

You know what you need to do. Calm down and think.

She'd been in jams before. Usually, she has at least one person to rely on when it happens. Maybe she still does. She closes her eyes and concentrates.

Up on the top level, crouching in the poison garden, whispering gently to the plants, is Camilla. She forms an image of herself on the leaf the girl is inspecting and feels a jolt of satisfaction when she stiffens. She has the haki her clamp her hands around her throat in a choking motion and points down. Camilla's chin ducks to follow the motion. When her haki finds Karmen she drops her trowel and runs.

Karmen keeps her eyes closed and relaxes. All she has to do is hold her breath. She can feel the water now, which is a good sign. Soon her muscles will release and she'll be able to move. Still, she doesn't know if her reserve of air will last long enough for that to happen. Thankfully it only takes five minutes for Camilla to reach the chamber. She takes one glance around and trudges through the water, knees kicking up waves as she fights against the resistance. Her hands plunge in and she lifts Karmen above the surface.

Karmen waits for a half-second to let the water run off her face before inhaling a deep breath. She wants to thank Camilla, but she can't move. She looks up at her and gives a long blink instead. She seems to get the message.

"So this is what happened out in the ocean?" Blink. "You can't move at all?" Blink. "How'd you end up in the water?" She glances sideways at the broken rock. "Aren't you freezing?" Not really. Camilla shivers. Goosebumps are rising on her exposed skin. The water must be colder than she thought. Karmen can't feel any of it. "I'd better get you out." Thankful blink. Communicating like this makes her feel like Tuna. Was he still out on the beach? She'd need to bring him in before too long, but first, she has to be able to move her own body. Camilla drags her to the edge of the water, grunting all the way. "How much muscle do you have? You're pure dead weight in a handbasket when you're soaking wet like this."

If she could, Karmen would have laughed. She knows she doesn't weigh that much. Pierce may be strong, but he doesn't have a problem lifting her when he's a twenty-five-pound bat. Camilla drags her out of the water and props her against the wall. When she's satisfied Karmen won't topple over, she sits beside her.

"That was scary," she says. "I really need to figure out that illusion trick you do. I didn't realize how handy it could be."

Despite Camilla's usually quiet demeanor, she can't seem to stop her nervous chatter. Karmen realizes she must have been terrified and this is how she feels most comfortable dispelling that fear. She doesn't mind. Listening to her helps pass the time and she wonders how many nights she and her late sister Jade had sat up, talking just like this. Camilla continues to speak until Karmen is able to lift her hand and place it on the girl's shoulder. "Do me a favor," she says, breathing a sigh of relief at the sound of her own voice. "Don't tell Pierce."