THE ARTIFACT (Part 8)

-A serialized story-

Chapter 1

I am suffocating. My body twitches in the final warnings that my life is hanging by a thread. The struggle for air is a reflex need, and breathing an essential need. I am below the surface of the water, floundering helplessly, trying to locate my position in relation to the surface. Absolute darkness makes it impossible for me to determine this, but as always when you are below the surface, the only logical path is upward. With the hope that you will make it before the body gives out, lungs fill with water and all effort remains in vain. You go into eternal nothingness. Or a glittering better place. I wanted to live. Preoccupied with my struggle, I didn’t even pay attention to the fact that at this moment I still don’t even know how I ended up here, as well as other details of my existence in this place.

After an entire eternity during which I thrashed my arms and legs up and down, I finally surfaced. A cough pierced the eerie silence. The icy air overwhelmed my head. I felt as if the strands of my hair were tiny needles stuck into the skin on my head. Spitting out a good amount of water from myself, I ran my hand over my face to better observe the surroundings.

The stars and the Earth’s Moon were the only sources of light, making the darkness a shade less ominous. I was on the open sea or ocean. I wasn’t sure. The water was certainly salty. Nothing in sight anywhere except the endless water surface. Gentle waves lapped against my face. Slowly, panic began to overwhelm me. The realization and the influx of memories did not make it any less. The fifth level of Mount Sumtra was the liquid that engulfed the entire space around me.

Think…think. Every level had its trick. Nothing exists here without a reason. This is just another challenge, an obstacle to be leapt over. As in all of them so far, it was necessary to find an exit. Certainly I must start looking for it immediately, because I won’t have the energy to wait for morning. Unless it is just about to. I couldn’t count on that option.

Danger could lurk from both above and below. Above, the icy air and a gentle breeze that made the weather conditions even worse. The water was warm, maybe a few degrees higher than body temperature. Below… Well, my only choice left is to dive with my eyes open and see what is happening down there. Another thought flashed through my mind. I can negate the external cold by diving. The downside of that was that frequent alternate diving and surfacing could have a bad effect on my health.

Without success and any valid discovery below the water’s surface. The light of the celestial bodies didn’t help me see anything further than a meter around me. I will have to rely on the outside, hoping there are no water monsters that will drag me into the depths and eat me. I believed that wouldn’t happen given that the point of the mountain level is in solving the riddle called – How to find an exit, and not in mortal danger I could fall into. Though, suffocation and cold air were not far from it.

The only option I had left was to swim. I just didn’t know in which direction. Any will do. I guess…

Chapter 2

Alternately I swam and rested floating on my back. With every new moment, fear crept more and more through my existence. Negative thoughts, interspersed with only an occasional thought of encouragement, did not instill the much-needed encouragement to keep going. The desire to live drove me to keep going. Not to give up. At the end of all this there will be some reward. There must be.

Is all of this worth that reward? Risking life, pain, fear, panic, sweat. Of course it is. I want to find out what happened to my father. With Mathise. My desire to find them prevailed over every negative thought so far.

I missed my mother too, of course. I wonder what she is doing now. Is she worried that I’ve been gone for I don’t even know how long. Does she think I’m dead? It must be hard on her, first the disappearance of her husband and then of her only child. If only I could send her some message, perhaps a thought that will telepathically drift to her mind. Impossible. I am who knows how much time ahead in relation to her reality. Maybe even a few rises and falls of the Universe away. She is at this moment, in this reality, long dead. But I will return. If at all possible together with my father and Mathise. If nothing else I will find out where they are and I will find them. Even if I had to turn the entire Cosmos upside down.

While I was contemplating resting and floating on my back, something hit me on the right shoulder. I gasped in panic, only, noticing that it was some kind of plank. Wooden, split in half, given the sharp edges on one side, indicating that a part of it is missing.

It will serve well. Moreover, this is huge help that appeared to me so suddenly. The plank was large enough, even chipped as it was, to allow me to lie stomach-down over it and save energy swimming laid over it like that. Though, I had to be extremely careful not to cut myself on the sharp edge and bleed. According to memories from Earth records, it was very clearly written that blood attracts sea monsters. They can sense blood even if they are kilometers away. That is something I definitely do not want.

Time in its relativity made me have absolutely no idea how much of it had passed since I surfaced from the water for the first time. It felt like an eternity, but it could be that I have been here for only a few minutes. Maybe it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say a few minutes because a solid number of events has unfolded. Maybe ten, fifteen minutes. If only I can hold out until dawn. And with this plank I might succeed in that.

Slowly but surely, fatigue started to overcome me, causing my eyelids to close every now and then. Staying awake was a necessity. But maybe just a little nap. The water certainly isn’t cold, so napping won’t pose a danger to life. And I will kill time until dawn and a complete survey of the surroundings.

I decided, I will let go. Maybe sleeping is part of the plan…

-End of Part 8-