Round 71

Seraphine's staff flickered back to life as they reached the ledge, its pale blue light cutting through the darkness. She clung to the stone with desperate fingers, her chest heaving as she drew ragged breaths. "Too close," she managed, her voice shaking. "If that current had pulled us under again..." Water dripped from her soaked robes onto the narrow shelf below, each droplet echoing loudly in the oppressive silence.

Her sharp eyes scanned the cramped space they'd managed to reach—a wide crack in the tunnel wall, barely large enough for both of them. "This is hardly a safe haven," she muttered, more to herself than to Jeane beside her. Seraphine's gaze dropped to her injured ankle, now freshly soaked and throbbing with renewed pain. "We need to find higher ground," she said, her voice gaining some measure of its usual authority despite the lingering tremor. "If this passage floods completely..."

She didn't finish the thought, instead focusing on the practical problem at hand. "Can you boost me up? There might be a larger space above."