The canoe lay on the beach near the waves, fully loaded for our adventure. We had Khanna’s spear, a bow, a quiver of arrows, and various odds and ends, including some smoked elk meat and a couple baskets of water. I had the multiuse tool, the welding torch, and my own quiver of arrows.

  Before we left, Khanna went over to Billie, and I expected a fight.

  The huntress spoke in broken English as she took Billie’s hand. “Thanks to you for letting Khanna go with Sid Marshall. You stay. Thanks to you very muchly.”

  Billie turned beet red. “It’s okay, Khanna.”

  Khanna nodded, turned to Holly, nodded again, and then returned to the canoe.

  I went over and hugged them both. “Stay on the ridge. You’ll be safe, and you’ll be able to see us from up there. Depending on the currents, I plan on rowing past the skyscrapers to check them out. Then we’ll get the gigantic crystal. If the buildings look promising, we’ll go back in for salvage.”

  “Be so careful, Sid Marshall!” Billie said in a loud voice. I had never really heard her raise her voice back on Earth. Then again, she had hidden herself away to fit in.

  “Yes, Sid,” Holly said in a far quieter voice. “Be careful.”

  “Careful is my middle name.”

  Khanna got into the bow of the canoe, and I shoved it into the water before hopping in. Then we had to concentrate so we could time our departure perfectly.

  We made it over the first wave before it broke. My arm and back muscles glowed as we fought our way over the next set of waves and then we were out passed the swells, gently being raised and lowered by the dark water of the surf. I had to modulate my strength, or we would’ve rowed in circles. As it was, I switched back and forth between sides, really digging into the water when I needed to.

  “Opal, do we have anything under us?”

  Puff Otters detected in the area. Gramble Whales detected. Vakvak Squid detected. None of which pose a threat.

  Something gigantic and white passed under us in complete silence.

  “Opal, is that a Gramble Whale?”

  Unknown entity beneath us. This unit cannot evaluate the threat. It seems to be some kind of prehistoric shark.

  Khanna turned to scowl at me. “What is the spirit in your head telling you?”

  “Nothing much.” I kept it casual even though my stomach was churning. I didn’t like that the unknown creature under us was in the shark family.

  But soon the shape swam away.

  We oared toward the skyscrapers. We’d have to pass them to get to the crystal.

  Nothing was attacking us at the moment, and so I asked Khanna, “Why did you thank Billie?”

  Khanna stopped rowing and didn’t answer for a long time. She didn’t turn around when she answered, “The young bitch wanted to come. Sid Marshall not want her to come. Sid Marshall not want Khanna to come. Perhaps he say no to both. Young bitch could’ve thrown a fit, but that did not happen. Khanna happy, so Khanna thank her.”

  “I appreciate it,” I said. “We need to live peacefully together.”

  “Khanna thank young bitch—”

  I cut her off. “Billie. Her name is Billie.”

  The huntress sighed. “Khanna thank Bil-lie”—it was a struggle for her to get the syllables out correctly. “Khanna must be nice. Khanna share Sid Marshall with Bil-lie now. Khanna smell her on Sid Marshall after he come back to bed.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Even after our day of sex, Billie had woken me up for my watch with a kiss. We then sneaked out to the bus to bang each other senseless before she went to bed, and I enjoyed the night, which passed peacefully enough, though I thought I heard Sleezenak out in the jungles of the Dinosaur Swamps.

  “Are you going to be okay with sharing?” I asked.

  Khanna laughed. “Khanna share always. Khanna is fine for now, but soon Bil-lie will turn into evil bitch. Khanna and Bil-lie will fight. Khanna stronger. Khanna win.”

  “That’s not going to happen. Billie understands the situation.”

  “Khanna hope Sid Marshall is right.” But the huntress’s sigh made it clear she had her doubts.

  We passed by the skyscrapers, disturbing some of the huge seagulls, which went squawking out. The rising and falling tide swept water in and out broken windows near us. Inside, it was dark. Anything could be in there.

  Between buildings, I saw a tower rising out of the fog. Not a tower, an obelisk. A Fodoron Obelisk.

  There was an island on the other side of the skyscrapers, one that we hadn’t seen.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Wait, Khanna, look!” I pointed.

  “Khanna hate spire,”: she said in a low voice. “Evil magic. Please, Sid Marshall, the sky towers are bad enough, but spire is awful to Khanna.”

  “Sorry, Khanna, but I have to check it out.”

  Then I steered us onto a broad avenue between the buildings.

  A few times, we almost hit the side of the skyscraper as the ocean rose and fell, but we oared quickly through the submerged city. The dark windows stared at us like dead eyes.

  Once we emerged on the other side, sunshine cut through the clouds to shine on the obelisk. The island was maybe the size of a football field. There was no plant-life, just ocean-stained stone. I didn’t see any sign of animal life at all, no bird shit, nothing. The only sound was the thrum of the obelisk. I heard it even with the gush of water swishing through the buildings of San Submerged.

  The obelisk seemed like a carbon copy of the one in the Dinosaur Swamps, except from my angle, I noticed something.

  “Khanna, I know you don’t like the obelisk, but I have to go check something out.”

  She hissed but didn’t stop me from oaring close to the island. I spun us around, so I could grab the smooth rock and haul us close. Then, I couldn’t believe it. There were a ton of the power crystals lying scattered around the bottom of the obelisk.

  I slid out of the boat and hurried over. It was long before I was sucking in power crystals, left and right. Opal hit me with message after message, as I continued to creep closer and closer to 100%. I was going to do it. I was going to get a full charge.

  Or so I thought. I was at 97% when I picked up a fairly large crystal. This would get me to 100% easily.

  The minute the Inferna crystal disappeared, I was given a very disappointing message:

  <<<>>>

  Utilizing Inferna crystal. Charged to 99% of full. This unit is 1% away from optimal functionality.

  Error detected.

  This unit is in an error state. 92% functionality detected. Inferna crystal maximum charge reached. Please take this unit to an AQUIA charging station for reconfiguration and a full charge.

  <<<>>>

  I picked up several more crystals but got the same error. I couldn’t get to a hundred percent, not through crystals alone. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t like I was going to give up on our quest to find Sector X.

  I let Opal know I didn’t want to use any more of the crystals and that we should save them. I put the extra crystals into a basket. It wouldn’t be bad to have a good supply of the crystals in order to keep Opal at 99%.

  Khanna could see I was disappointed. “Sid Marshall is sad.”

  “No, Khanna, I’m fine. Hold on. I want to check something. Opal. Any sign of the shark?”

  Creature is circling the island and nearby structures. Motives unclear. Bramble Whales are feeding on kelp-like material from Sector 2.174.B. Neighboring oceanic sector from unknown world. Likely source of the shark creatures.

  “Okay. Keep me posted.” I eased myself onto the rock.

  Glancing up, I saw that the sky in the distance was a different color, more of a pale pink though there was still a lot of fog in the air. I dubbed the new sector Shark World.

  “Wait. Opal. Did you say creatures as in multiple shark creatures?”

  Affirmative. This unit detects a variety of creatures hunting for prey. A Gramble Whale has been killed five hundred meters to the south. Possibly sentient humanoid shark entities are harvesting the flesh with coral knives.

  “Wonderful,” I muttered.

  New Sector detected. Sector 3.903.C (Veesus igneous rock from Blood Island region. Rock samples from planet creation 1.2 billion years ago).

  I was about to ask her another question when Opal found a new region.

  New Sector detected. Sector 3.303.B (Earth, Section of San Franscico downtown, California, North American Continent)

  “Wait, Opal. Was that the same sector the section of Highway 1 that I found in the Rainforest World?”

  Affirmative. Same reality signatures detected. Sector likely brought here in the same Ravana Storm event.

  I didn’t think it was an accident that Earth had been hit by the energy storm more than once. I also thought about what the storm might’ve left behind back in Colorado. Did it just grab the place and copy it? Or did it leave behind another world? Was there a strip of jungle in the National Monument where we’d been grabbed?

  Khanna sighed. “Poor Sid Marshall. The spirit must be poisoning his mind.”

  “It’s not poisoning my mind, Khanna. Stayin the boat. I’ll be right back.”

  Leaving the basket of crystals with her, I approached the obelisk, wincing at the sound of the thrumming.

  Approaching the structure, I confirmed what I’d seen from the water. In the Celtic knots above the doorway, there was an indentation about the size of a big power crystal, far bigger than what I’d seen so far. Was it ten times bigger? It seemed so.

  My heart sank. It seemed the only way to get in was to slide a power crystal into the housing. Or that was my theory, anyway. I needed the actual crystal to prove it. That might’ve explained why there were so many other Inferna gems lying around. Someone might’ve been bringing them here to test them, but all of them proved to be too small.

  Maybe it was one of the shark men swimming around.

  I heard the gentle swish of a paddle in the water. Khanna was keeping the canoe close to the island even as the various currents tried to pull her away.

  I walked around the obelisk and realized that only one of the Celtic patterns had the indentation. It was the one that faced east, though in the ever-changing landscape of K’Shaul, directions didn’t mean much.

  But the way forward was clear. We needed to bring the gigantic crystal back to Fodoron Island to unlock the door. Well, it wasn’t like the crystal would get me to a 100% charge.

  I hurried back across the rock as Khanna paddled the canoe up against the stone. I slipped back into it and then started paddling like hell. This time, we were seeing the city from the east side. It looked similar, except I saw that some of the windows higher up were still intact. It seemed to be apartments. This was some great fucking news. We might find some great salvage there.

  We cut through the water, heading away from the island.

  Opal kept me updated on monster sharks below the surface. So far, nothing had come up to take a bite out of us. I hoped that remained the case. I didn’t like the idea of sentient man sharks with coral knives cutting up a whale, but if they didn’t bother me, I wouldn’t bother them.

  Another one of the huge pale shapes passed underneath us.

  Khanna was absolutely silent. Swear poured down her pale face, completely clear of freckles under the clouds. It seemed her freckles only moved about when she was in the sun.

  HOSTNAME: Sid Marshall. You are a hundred meters from a 10X power crystal.

  She continued the countdown as we grew closer. Fifty meters, forty meters, twenty, ten…and then we were over the crystal. I could see the red glimmer deep down beneath us.

  “Opal, how far away are the shark men?”

  Fifty meters, which should be the limit of their eyesight. Primate eyesight is ten times worse in a liquid environment.

  “Anyway, you can optimize that?” I asked.

  Processing. Optimizing host for underwater activity. One moment.

  The pain hit my eyes first, and I cried out, slamming hands over my face. Then the shrieking agony went through my brain and down into my lungs.

  It felt like I was breathing razorblades.

  Being optimized wasn’t fun.

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