[Jiji] "Bkaw!'
[Wade?] "What? Already!?"
[Tiss] "Huh? What's wrong?"
[Wade?] "I guess we're here already."
[Tiss] "UEH!? Already!?"
The golden light surrounding us vanishes in a flash. A rush of cold air surrounds us and we can see a familiar world once more. Clear blue skies. The mountains. The massive tree stretching out and blocking a lot of the sky. Down below... Ah, yeah there's the lake. Glittering blue water. Serene and perfect.
And it's totally going to fucking kill us if we crash!
Tiss and I start plummeting. Jiji flaps her wings and hovers above as we drop.
[Jiji] "Bawk bawk!"
[Wade?] "Good luck? You traitooooooooooooooooooooooor!"
My voice trails off as I lose breath and fall at an alarming speed. Tiss' scream is cut out by her breath being stolen. I snatch Tiss' hand as we descend, then pull her in close. We both catch our breath as quickly as we can.
[Wade?] "Tiss, do you have anything to help us get to the ground safely?"
[Tiss] "No. I don't know what to do!"
[Wade?] "Then just listen to my plan, okay? We're only going to have one shot at this!"
Tiss nods her head and focus on me intently.
[Wade?] "When we're within a hundred feet of the water, you have to shoot a Myriad Stinger at it. If you break the surface tension that way, we won't get hurt when we hit the water."
[Tiss] "Alright. I'll do it."
I wrap my arms around Tiss' waist and hold her tight at my side. We adjust our position so that we're falling head first.
[Wade?] "Get ready!"
Tiss pushes both hands forward and charges mana into the back of her hands, forming her usual mana crossbows. We're getting closer and a rapid pace.
500 feet. 400 feet.
We're almost there...
300 feet.
Just a little bit longer...
200 feet.
[Wade?] "Start casting!"
I've seen her cast this a few times. The spell comes out fast, but not instantly.
[Tiss] "Myriad Stinger!"
Her hands shine with mana as the crossbows on the back of her hands load up and then begin to shoot.
100 feet.
Arrows of mana rain down onto the lake below, creating a cloud of mist, and blasting away the serenity of the water. Just below we brash into the lake below, Tiss' spell ends. I grab onto her tighter as we plunge into the water. The plan worked perfectly. Both of us safely entered the water. Tiss has a surprised look, but she's okay.
I lean and pull Tiss with me, making our bodies arc through the water instead of spearing straight downward. Once we slow down, I let go of Tiss just a bit so I can grab her hand. Our eyes meet and I use my other hand to point up at the surface. She nods at me and together we swim upward.
We both break the surface and gasp for air. Neither of us were underwater very long, but it's nice to be able to breathe freely again.
[Wade?] "We did it! Tiss, we did it!"
[Tiss] "We did! We're home!"
We swim closer and wrap out arms around each other, hugging and celebrating.
[Wade?] "Let's head to shore."
[Tiss] "Yeah, let's."
We both let go of each other and start to swim to the nearest shore. It only takes us a couple minutes. I'm not the best swimmer, but I'm not awful at it. Tiss seems like she's about the same as me. So we don't really struggle, but neither of us are moving very fast. When we finally make it to shore, I pull myself out of the water first, then help Tiss. She comes out of the water and immediately falls over on top of me.
[Tiss] "Sorry... Let me stay like this for a minute..."
[Wade?] "It's fine... I'm tired, too..."
Both of us are breathing heavily. Tiss drops her head right onto my chest. She hits me with a thud. I almost cough, but hold it back. We just lie still for a moment. My head falls over to the side. I'm looking the same way as Tiss.
[Wade?] "Wait, is that..."
[Tiss] "Yeah..."
To our right there are three grave markers. They're stone tablets with names etched on them. The stone seems worn down. Moss has grown in places, but it's easy to tell that they've been taken care of. On the tablets are the names: Rick, Tissela, and Wade.
I recognize the are just a bit. Nearby the graves is a dip in the earth. It looks like the attack that sent us to the labyrinth hit there. It's been a long time since then so the earth has had plenty of time to fix itself. Instead of a large pit, the earth is now smoothed over and not so deep of an indent.
[Tiss] "These look so old, but we were only gone a couple days…"
[Wade?] "About that…"
[Tiss] "Hm?"
[Wade?] "I learned something a bit before we got out of there, but… I didn't know when would be a good time to tell you."
Tiss pushes herself off of me and then sits on her knees and looks at me. I sit up and look at her with a serious expression.
[Wade?] "Time worked differently in place. It wasn't very long for us, but… Here it's been over 20 years."
[Tiss] "I… don't understand."
[Wade?] "I know it's hard to process, but-"
[Tiss] "No, wait… Not that. We were together the whole time. How did you learn something like that? Did Jiji tell you?"
It seems that it's time to come clean.
[Wade?] "I… talk to a god sometimes. In my dreams. When we rested in the labyrinth, he told me about that place. Different dimensions link together. Time is warped everywhere. Most of the time it's faster than here."
[Tiss] "And you were hiding that? Don't you think it could have been important to tell me?"
[Wade?] "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't know how to talk about it. I didn't want you to worry."
[Tiss] "Well what about now? What about my family? My father? Mother? My brothers? What of the Duchy? Elyssia? They all think I'm dead! And it's been over 20 years!?"
[Wade?] "…"
[Tiss] "You asshole!"
I should have said something sooner. I shouldn't have hid anything from Tiss. I… I really need to trust her more.
[Wade?] "Listen, I-"
[???] "Is that… Are you… Tissela? Are you really Tissela?"
Footsteps crunch along the ground and stop behind me. I turn my head. A beautiful woman stands there. She wears a cloak that conceals most of her body, but I remember that voice.
She pulls back her hood to show her face.
Elyssia.