The Trouble with Time, Part 2.14 - Pale

 It is very dark inside the cave and Kevin thinks it's a miracle that they haven't tripped on anything yet. His own night vision is quite good, but he is worried about how well Alice and Sam's eyes are adjusting. They've walked for around 20 minutes now but the progress has been slow and not the most steady, so they've not made it very far into the cave.

He considers suggesting a torch again, but decides against it. The riddle did imply they needed to make their way in the darkness.

Except it's not so dark anymore.

He stops. Alice in front of him has done so too. Sam collides lightly against his back, takes a hold of his arm to steady themself.

"Why'd we stop?" they ask, as they peer around him. They blink and squint and say, "Wait..."

"There's... light coming from up ahead?" Alice says, though she doesn't sound sure. The path up ahead does seem like it's not as dark than it has been.

"Oh good, I was worried I was imagining that," Kevin says. "Sometimes the dark plays tricks on you, you think you're seeing something but you're not."

Alice starts to walk again, her steps faster and surer. They round a bend and stop again. The path branches out into three different directions.

"What now?" Kevin asks. "I don't know where any of these tunnels lead, so I can't say which one we should take."

"To be fair, none of us know where the tunnels lead," Sam says. "Or even what we're hoping to find at the end."

Alice is silent. She is thinking and Kevin can feel the wheels turning in her head. The concentration radiating from her is so intense, it's almost overwhelming, and he has to take a moment to detatch himself and take a deep breath. The air is dry and ashy and cold.

"There," she says and points to the middle tunnel. "We go there." The path divides again and she pauses for just a moment, before continuing on the left path. Another fork and she doesn't even stop this time, just turns left again.

Kevin understands what's happening. The further they go, the clearer it is that something ahead is giving off light. It's not much, but it's there. And then they turn a corner and the source comes into full view.

From the walls and the ceiling grow clusters of pale blue flowers that glow softly in the darkness. There's only a few at first, but as they continue walking and look ahead, there's more and more of them. They light the way in the tunnel and whenever they hit a crossroads, there's only one path the flowers grow on.

"This is amazing," Sam says, inspecting one cluster a bit closer. "How can a plant like this survive in the darkness like this? What flower is this?"

"I do believe it's the glowbloom," Kevin says as he walks over and rubs a petal between his thumb and forefinger. The glow dimmens in the area he puts pressure on. "Kind of an obvious name, I suppose, but that's now it goes, isn't it. I'm not a botanist, so I don't really know the specifics, but as I recall, it uses the heat of the volcano instead of sunlight? Or something to that effect. But what it also does..."

He snaps his fingers and a small flame ignites above the tip of his finger. The cave goes instantly black. He grins, his face illuminated by the flame, the only light source left.

"It only glows in complete darkness," he says and blows the flame out.

"Thanks, asshole," Sam says. "Now it's dark again."

"Eh, give it a second," he says and true enough, slowly the flowers start to open up again. Soon the tunnel is basking in their blue glow once more.

"Are you taking this seriously?" Alice says and Kevin blinks.

"What?" he asks. She crosses her arms.

"Sometimes it feels like you're just playing games," she says, annoyance itching its way into her voice. "We have a very, very strict time limit and you're just... messing around! Joking and doing your little magics and reminiscing with your old buddy, and I'm stuck here not being able to do anything while you--!" She waves her hands around wildly at him.

"Woah, where is this coming from?" he says, feeling more confused than hurt by her accusation. "I'm doing my best to help you out, I--"

She cuts him off.

"Sure, yeah, by helping out you mean make this all about you and your experiences in the Fey Wilds!" She scoffs. There's a twinge in his chest. "We get it, you know everything and everyone, you've been everywhere! And you are the one who has to solve everything, who need to be the one to fix things!"

There's tears starting to well up in her eyes and she's so angry, so angry and he doesn't know what to do. Doesn't know how to feel.

"Alice," Sam tries, but she ignores them.

"You are always making this about you," she bites out. She is seething, all her frustrations over the last few days, last few weeks, months, the last year, all of it bursting out all at once and targeted at Kevin. "You're not here to help me, you can't be because I'm not doing anything!!"

"Alice, calm down," Sam says more sternly this time, but she can't hear anymore. She has tears flowing openly from her eyes now, she is shaking, hugging herself tightly. Kevin's mind is spinning, his heart is racing, his mouth is dry. He doesn't understand. His chest hurts, a throbbing, stabbing pain.

"Do you ever stop to think about how others might feel?" she says, a lot more quiet now. "About how I feel? Because I feel like shit!" Her mouth is turned down in a grimace. "I feel useless! Vanessa is stuck here and she's losing herself and soon I'll be stuck here too, I can't do anything about it, I don't have enough time and I don't know what I'm doing and it's all your fault!"

The silence rings loud in their ears.

The remnants of the words echo in the cave.

Everybody is still.

Alice looks horrified -- remorseful? -- her hands clasped over her mouth, tears still streaming down her face. She doesn't say anything more, all the steam evaporated with that one last accusation. She's sobbing quietly.

Sam stands to the side, their eyes wide open, grasping the front of their coat with one hand. They're stuck in the unenviable position of middleman, unsure which party to comfort without offence. Their eyes flick back and forth.

And Kevin... Kevin is pretty sure his heart has just broken.

"Hello?" comes a voice from further along the cave and they all snap their attention to that direction. A woman appears from around a corner and she smiles as she sees them. "Oh, I knew I heard voices from here!"

She is tall, though her posture is slouched, making her appear smaller. Her skin is pale, almost white and her long platinum blond hair is intricately braided. Her clothes look like they were once nice, but are not tattered and faded. In fact, everything about her looks faded, like she was once very bright but has lost some of that brightness over years and years.

She looks over the three of them and her smile falters. "Oh my, I seem to have rather unfortunate timing," she says and walks over to Alice. She's walking with a slight limp. "Are you alright, dear?" she asks her.

Alice sniffles, rubs her face on her sleeve. "I'm not sure," she says. The woman nods.

"Seeing as you've made it this far, I can only assume you're here to see me," she says and gives them another kind smile. "It's just a little further, you can calm down and relax there for a moment." Alice nods and wraps a hand around her arm.

"Excuse me, but who exactly are you?" Sam says as the woman starts to lead them towards where she came from. "And what is just a little further?"

"My home, dear," she says. "Or prison cell, technically." She giggles and then waves her hand. "Oh, I don't mean to sound drab, it's really quite nice there. I just can't leave the mountain."

"Why?" Alice asks, her voice small.

"I was banished by the King," the woman says happily. "He didn't like that I had so much power so he tied me down here. Quite rude, if you ask me, but what can you do?" She laughs again.

"What are you?" Kevin asks, surprised to find himself walking along the group. His body is here, but his soul feels like it's lightyears away.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," the woman says, waving her hands. "My name is Deneb. I am a Fallen Star."

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Oops.

I swear I didn't mean to make them fight, they just started doing that on their own!

Also I wrote the entire thing before I realized that this is just the Secret Tunnel plot from Avatar lmaooo XD oh well, at least it's a good plot :D

Next topic is "Shiny"! Cheerio!

Pie out.