Clouded blackness gave way to a sky crowded with glittering red and white jewels. One distinctive, deep red star hung on the horizon. The light converged about its center to create a pupil, with tails of radiance extending off each side to form an ellipse. That star, Maln’s eye, would soon set for the tenth, final, time and usher in a new year.

  Adanna’s excitement blossomed from anxious waiting into unrestrained delight. The Nabata was so close she could practically taste it. Visions of stunning displays, sap-lit fire workings, and eclectic varieties of booth foods coaxed her attention away from the now. Best of all, she’d soon get a well-needed break.

  The stars above dimly illuminated the barren, frozen flats below. That icy expanse stretched out in all directions as far as Adanna could see, gently reflecting the twinkling starlight. Without the moon, Lus, there was barely enough light to see the jagged silhouette of Sableshore, breaking the horizon in the distance. It would take hours to return.

  “Where do you think our next dive will be?” Adanna scrunched her face in annoyance. “The other side of the Andhera? On Lus?”

  A sudden set of frozen gusts broke the calm, forcing a chill between her skin and hooded fur calarite cloak. With a long exhale, she snugged it closer.

  “Quit whining,” Ren said through filtered cloth as he rummaged through their sled. “It’ll only make it more miserable.”

  Adanna kicked a clod of stuck freeze, skittering it across the ice and hitting the sled with a thunk. She would whine when she felt like it. Blast the cold, the wind, the ice, and especially these damned pools. She walked up to the edge of today’s hellish pit, grimacing.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  Adanna slipped her feet from her calf-high boots at the edge of the perfectly circular hole. This pool was relatively broad at four paces in diameter—the krystos that made it must have been enormous. The cold assaulted her feet as soon as she stripped off her stockings. Stuffing the hosiery into her boots, she tossed them in a beautiful arc into the sled—thunk!

  “Ouch! Watch it!” Ren yelled.

  “Gotcha!” Adanna laughed—laughter that trailed off into a frown. There was no point in holding out—her toes were already icecubes.

  In one quick motion, she shoved her feet into the twinkling waters and screamed. In seconds, they were numb. She forced her breaths steady, inhaling the bitter air and exhaling clouded bursts of condensate. Sitting at the pool’s edge, Adanna peered into the inky black.

  The placid pool revealed a dim version of herself. Adanna’s short-cut hair, dark skin, and light freckles remained vague in mirrored starlight. She kicked her feet, and the heavens danced at her command.

  Another gust blew over them, violently rattling their sled.

  “Void take us; that one was brutal,” Ren said, sitting at the icy bank across her. He followed her lead, slipping off his boots and dipping his bare feet into the pool—he didn’t even wince, the showoff.

  Adanna hated this part, but her mother's mantra rang in her head like a bell—“the cold keeps a diver alive." At this point, it was part of Adanna’s soul. Despite the Moment inside urging, ready and eager, she resisted. To forget was to be careless, and to be careless was death.

  Cringing as her feet shifted from numb to painful, she looked starward toward Maln. That was the shortest path to the day-star, Rosol—Gus had shown her on one of his maps. The world was so big that Sableshore wasn’t even a freckle.

  “Ever think about leaving?” Adanna said between gusts.

  Ren shifted on the pool’s bank. “I’d love to bathe in Lake Valkar—see the Assembly.”

  “No, like way out there—” she nodded starward. “Past Valkar. The Iko.”

  Ren rubbed his scruff. “I guess not. Where would you go?”

  “Somewhere warm,” she hummed. “I could pass for a Lesh in Cabor—travel from city to city. Maybe even to the capital one day. Trying all the foods along the way.”

  Cally chirped at Adanna, drawing her attention. The calarite lay curled beneath their wooden sled, a large, rounded lump of fur. Rows of saucer-like eyes stared curiously, questioningly. With Cally’s quirked head and high-fluted chirp, it was as if she was saying, “Are you okay?”.

  Adanna huffed, kicking a splash in Cally’s direction. Unbothered, the calarite let the icy droplets bead and slick off her dense white fir. “Worry about yourself,” Adanna said with a grin.

  Cally replied with a soft and, somehow, offended trill before nuzzling her long, sleek head back into a nook between powerful hind legs.

  Ren cleared his throat. “I’d go with you if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Thanks Ren. Now hush, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

  Adanna opened herself to the frigid air, relaxing. She let her eyelids close as her attention wandered outside of herself. That perception, akin to a shadow's shadow, traveled through the long tunnel of ice and water hundreds of feet.

  Finally, the ethereal glow of Moment bloomed in her consciousness, like a flower opening and stretching towards the light. It was deep—possibly the deepest ever, although she couldn’t be sure until she counted the beats herself.

  “Why are we always stuck with dives like this?” she said, eyes still closed.

  “It’s deep?” Ren asked dumbly.

  “Obviously. It’s a pile of stinking, sizzling shit.”

  She’d seen enough, relaxing back to true sight. Ren’s grinning face greeted her. Adanna raised her eyebrows, daring him.

  “You’ll have to go to the Iko for those. We only do cold shits here.”

  “Shut up,” Adanna said, but couldn’t help chuckling. “It’s not fair, is it?”

  “We’re the best,” Ren said, shrugging. “The hardest chisel would be wasted on the softest stone, no?”

  She flicked a glare at him. He wiggled brows tauntingly, which soured her mood further.

  “It’s a wonder,” he said, “that a diver as talented as you would dread it so viciously each and every time.” He stood up and stripped off his cloak and shirt, revealing a too-hairy barrel chest, impressive musculature, and a bit of a pot belly.

  She lifted her legs from the water before standing and followed with her cloak, although more carefully. Next, she worked off a thick undershirt.

  “It’s not comparable,” she said, voice muffled until the shirt slipped off, baring her chest to the cold. “I don’t have the necessary adaptations.”

  Adanna turned and presented a profile before cradling an imaginary bulk at her belly and miming a jiggle. “Unlike some more…fortunate divers.” His offended face sent her cackling.

  Ren worked off his pants.

  “And if you could cook, perhaps you’d earn some insulation of your own.”

  Hand to mouth, Adanna mocked offense.

  “Clean plates speak for themselves,” she said, dropping her pants and undergarments.

  Now totally nude, Adanna laughed manically. Ren looked at her like she was insane, and she probably was a little. Who wouldn’t be? The cold was unbearable. It clawed inside, hungry for warmth—it found it quickly. Her teeth chattered like dice in a cup, and her limbs quivered uncontrollably. It wasn’t long before the chattering tapered and her trembling steadied—the unmistakable sign of her body's surrender.

  Finally, Adanna let herself use her Moment.

  She willed a fraction of the power to escape, forcing it into the open, outside of her. Warmth enveloped her, sending pain spikes to numbed limbs and shielding her from the cold’s worst bite. Adanna stocked the flame hotter, feeding the outside air with more Moment. Sweat beaded on her skin, running in rivers and pooling along the flats before freezing solid. Steam roiled off her body in waves as the freeze battered her.

  The combined sensations were distinctive as they were familiar—a strange dance of ice and fire.

  Balancing the two was challenging—too little, too cold. Too much, though? Adanna would be quite “warm” for the rest of her short life. But she wouldn’t fear it—no more than she would fear a hammer, a millstone, or a rope. Everything had harmful potential. Moment was raw power, yes, but it was still a tool, nothing more. Respect it—never fear it.

  Adanna gathered and folded her pile of dropped clothes into a neat stack before placing them beneath the cart. Cally languorously uncurled and gracefully flowed onto all four of her long white legs, stretching each of her limbs before sauntering to Adanna’s side.

  The calarite stood two feet taller than Adanna as the creature perched on her hind legs to sniff the breeze. Adanna rubbed Cally’s webbed front paws, evoking a satisfied trill. Cally circled and stretched out her sizeable head for more pets.

  “So needy,” Adanna said, scratching the spots Cally liked along her neck. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”

  The calarite flared her nostrils and trilled.

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  It was hard for the unfamiliar to tell how a calarite felt. With their nictitated eyelids, a double row of nostril-like holes running along the length of their mouthless snouts, and complex tonal language, most found the creatures too alien to decipher. For Adanna, it came effortlessly; the gentle flutes Cally purred as Adanna scratched were an unmistakable mix of appreciation and contentment.

  Patting Cally on the neck, she turned to dig into her pack, propped up on the sled. She wound her ballast belt about her waist and fastened a slip knot to secure it. Adanna checked that each flat stone was in place securely before probing out a sheathed, latched dagger and securing it onto a belt loop.

  As she walked back to the pool, Adanna thumbed the tops of those smooth stones comfortingly. These had been her mother's, grandfather’s, and farther still before they fell into Adanna’s ownership.

  Adanna and Ren gathered at the pool, with Cally falling in place between them. The calarite stared at the pool with her triple set of beady black eyes, tilting her head back and forth. She surveyed the dive as Adanna had. Finished, Cally excitedly chirped, hopping back and forth at the pool’s edge.

  Thoughts and fears melted into a deep, relaxed focus. All was the dive.

  That familiar fear—claustrophobic darkness and suffocating cold—awaited her, far beneath the surface, far from breath, surrounded by oblivion. It triggered a primal panic in the unfocused. Panic hastened the heart, and that was it—the void would take its prize.

  Embracing fear was the key. Adanna channeled fear into awareness, turning weakness into strength. She lost herself, pulsing in time with her heart, magnifying singular attention inward. Fear gave way to presence—immediacy. Now.

  Twenty heartbeats, each slower than the last, she clarified mind and body. Adanna was ready. She grabbed one side of the looped harness across Cally’s slender chest—Ren took the other. Whistling in a staccato, Adanna led them head-first into the black.

  The cold consumed them as icy waters rushed past in a blur. Adanna held tightly to the harness and worked in sync with the powerful calarite strokes to swim through the tunnel of ice and water at a steady clip.

  Ten, she counted. She equalized, easing the pressure.

  Even with her eyes open, Adanna sensed mind light far below—the darkness leaving little else to perceive. It was as indistinct as a dream. How deep was this?

  Twenty, she counted, worried.

  Adanna plugged her nose and blew to relieve the throbbing in her skull. The cold clawed closer, and she fought back with more Moment to reinforce her barrier.

  Thirty? That was the deepest they’d ever gone, and they were still going. Panic threatened to creep into her presence, but she shoved it back. There was light in the distance, visible light, not mind light. It was dim but quickly growing. After forty heartbeats, they shot through the tunnel’s end.

  The ice tunnel walls opened abruptly into a vast world of vivid colors and light, the intensity nearly overwhelming. Branching groups of lumivine and fluxflora spread out in all directions, creating a net of dancing light and heat. Living shadows rippled in the spaces between.

  An absurd variety of life gathered in the light and warmth. Adanna spotted five calp grows just a short swim away—at least the haul would be worth it. Those long, spiraling blue-green grows thriving in clustered groups along the lumivines would feed hundreds.

  Adanna turned to Ren, signing quickly. Forty heartbeats.

  Ren shrugged, replying: Let’s hurry, then.

  Adanna pointed to nearby grows. Ren nodded before swimming off in that direction. Adanna swam in the opposite direction, towards a farther group of calp grows gathering near a drop-off. Beyond that stretched an abyss. As the best chisel between the two, she supposed she deserved it.

  Swimming to the floor bed, she let herself drift. The warmth radiating off the flux tickled her stomach. Everything in the deep had a purpose, even if it was hard to see. The flux and lumi exchanged heat and light to create pockets of livability in the deep where other life could flourish—like the calp.

  All types of creatures scuttled about at her arrival, snapping to rocks, digging into sand, or hiding in nearby shrubs. Adanna maneuvered across the sea floor, pulling herself along the lumivine, hand over hand.

  A patch of strell peeked from the sands to her left—each like a strand of hair that had grown finer hairs along its length. They used those delicate filaments to collect debris from the water. The stalks extended curiously from the soil, searching. As she passed her hand close, the strell plunged into their tunneled homes, kicking up jets of sand in their wake.

  A calp grow floated just ahead, the slender stalks stretching high off the sea floor. Methodically, Adanna severed a majority of one calp's length with her knife, leaving a little at the base for regrowth. It was difficult work, with the thick, hearty growths resisting her obsidian. Plant after plant, she methodically harvested the tough, fibrous calp. The cuts floated upward, buoyant by the embedded grains. Cally shot overhead to collect them, joyously chirping with each pass, before dropping them off at the tunnel entrance. There, they floated to the surface for collection.

  Despite Adanna’s many dives, the beauty here stunned her. As much as Adanna hated being cold, she adored this splendor beneath the ice. It was a sight reserved for a few, and she basked while moving from grow to grow. Could anything compare to this on the whole of Calaria? She’d like to find out one day.

  Fist-sized klackers, their tightly overlapping flat rock defenses wielded like a soldier’s armor, walked confidently across the sea floor on their four articulating tentacles. Fish, in all shapes, sizes, and colors, darted from her path, the smallest hiding within the calp. As she harvested, panicked silhouettes zipped out to seek shelter elsewhere.

  Within about ten minutes, she had harvested most grows on the ridge. A few clicks made her turn. Ren waved at a distance, seemingly finished. He floated close to their entrance. She clicked back, promising she would be along shortly.

  Towards the edge of the drop, one remaining sizable calp grow remained. Adanna moved with precision and careful grace, slipping carefully past vents spewing murky water and avoiding the invisible currents by their tells in the vegetation.

  The life around her suddenly retreated as she approached the dropoff. Lumivines dimmed, klackers shut, strell sunk into the sands, and the fish slipped under the lips of rocks or nestled within thicker foliage. Something was happening, something Adanna had never seen.

  Adanna flattened herself to the sea floor, grabbing a thick lumivine to steady herself. She ebbed and flowed with the gentle sway of the water, looking all around her. There was nothing.

  As her eyes scanned the abyss, a glint brought them to a halt. She peered, squinting into the black, but there was nothing to see. Had it been her imagination? Against the darkness of the abyss, she could keep her eyes open and aware of her surroundings while opening her perception to Moment.

  Adanna had never seen the sun, Rosol. Despite Gus’ descriptions and analogies, the concept seemed fantastical.

  “The day star isn’t something you can intellectualize; you must experience it. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.”

  This was like that—an explosion of mind light sent Adanna reeling, blinking against the brilliance.

  A chill ran up her body like a sharp wind. Moving slowly, hand over hand backward by leveraging the lumivine, Adanna inched away from the drop-off. Illogically, that blazing image in her mind seemed enough to scorch her to ash. Shaped vaguely like a sphere, it appeared stationary in the black. Within that sphere were limitless complex workings of Moment that warped and overlapped into fascinating geometries. It was mesmerizing.

  A silhouette of incredible size peaked into the vine light from the shadows. Adanna almost gasped.

  Its body was a sinuous ribbon that extended into the void. Its leisurely movements betrayed its enormity, moving with fluidity and grace as it undulated toward her. Glittering, iridescent flattened spikes overlapped along its length, scattering the light into a rainbow of colors. Its head had to be at least twenty paces across with a face without a mouth, similar to a calarite’s. Five enormous eyes adorned its face, four as deep and dark as diving pools, while the center blazed with pulsating Moment energy.

  A krystos, she thought, disbelieving her own eyes.

  She turned and swam, powerfully and dangerously, back towards the entrance. Ren and Cally waited distantly at the tunnel entrance. They weren’t looking her way—they didn’t know. Her lungs burned, hungry for breath.

  Ren smiled at her, signing something she didn’t bother to read. She frantically motioned that they surface. His face dropped, concerned, as he tried to peek past her while moving to his side of Cally. Adanna grasped her handle as Cally started chirping wildly in a panic. Adanna made sure Ren attached before checking behind her. The krystos was a heartbeat away.

  Clicking her tongue twice, the group shot up into the funnel-like tunnel. It was as fast as Cally had ever pulled them, and Adanna struggled to keep her grip.

  Thirty.

  The tunnel grew hot, impossibly so. Glancing down, she saw a forge red krystos a breath away, creating a boiling, bubbling steam that cut through the ice like it wasn’t there.

  Twenty.

  Adanna clicked her tongue, rushing Cally, and she picked up speed. Then, Adanna held Cally as close and tightly as possible, squeezing her eyes shut.

  They burst into the starlight and splayed onto the ice. Scrambling, they sprinted to the sled and threw on boots. Not bothering to dress further, Adanna whistled to Cally.

  Cally paced, her fur raised on end as she chirped dissonant—she wasn’t listening. Adanna whistled again, louder. The calarite turned to Adanna, and they locked eyes. Cally glanced back at the hole one last time, now shooting steam jets into the air as the krystos closed in. Looking at Adanna, she chirped low—an unmistakable apology.

  Turning, the calarite sprinted homeward—without them.

  “Cally!” Adanna yelled, chasing after the calarite. But Cally was a hundred yards out and barely visible in the starlight in seconds. Ren caught up to Adanna, eyes as wide as hers felt.

  “Do we run?” he said, shocked. “How long until…”

  The ice cracked and groaned before splitting in a burst of light and sound as the krystos erupted from the pool. Adanna turned to stare at the magnificent creature, spiked scales glittering in the starlight. It shook its massive head, freeing the calp that clung there into all directions to smack wetly onto the flats. Despite most of its length remaining below the ice, it towered high. All five eyes locked on the two of them.

  “What do we do?” Ren said, frozen.

  Adanna stood, just as petrified, staring back in terror. It stared at them. No, it stared at her. For some reason, she could feel its attention wasn’t on Ren. As it stared, it remained still, as if waiting. Beyond reason, she closed her eyes.

  A moment from that fifth eye exploded into her consciousness. It shimmered and shifted like thick waters before contorting into intricate, overlapping symmetries. It was horrifyingly beautiful. Adanna felt somehow connected to those patterns. Time seemed to slow, and the world blacked to nothing—all that remained were those twisting patterns.

  The structure was similar to the lumivine nets in the depths. They interconnected in a ring about the pupil, swirling Moment around in a circle. Adanna tried to do the same inside herself.

  She had never attempted to control the flow like this, which was initially awkward. It helped to imagine it as a breath. Adanna “exhaled” Moment down her arm before “inhaling” it back into her chest. Next, she tried to do the same with each of her legs. The loop suddenly dissipated into nothingness.

  The creature trilled a bassy roar.

  “Adanna, what are you doing? We should run!” But Ren's voice was as distant as a dream.

  She started again, back from the beginning. It was difficult, like trying to wrangle the ocean alone with her will.

  She pushed over and over again. Time after time, she failed. And after what felt like weeks, she’d finally formed her Moment into a thick stream that looped within herself. The loop held. Adanna kept it there, fighting for control. Like a lantern snuffed out, all went black. Time cracked back into focus like snapping a frosted branch.

  Sweating, Adanna gasped for breath as she opened her eyes. The krystos tilted its head left then right, eyes locked. It slithered from the enlarged pool until its head was within ten paces of her.

  It waited there, perhaps demanding more, but she had nothing to give. The krystos startled them, slipping back into the depths with speed that defied its size. Soon, they were standing there alone. Adanna looked to Ren, who looked back at her, mouth gaping and eyes wide.

  “What in hells just happened?” Ren said, shock morphing into hysterical laughter. He grasped her bare shoulder, shaking her. “Adanna, are you in there? What did you do?”

  Blinking, she noticed how freezing she was. Whatever happened had fully drained her of Moment, and she shivered against the stark, chilled air.

  “I think,” she said, her teeth chattering, “I spoke with it.”