Chapter 67: Deep Waters

The well was dark and damp, with corruption vines spiraling down its walls like some kind of twisted staircase. Grace and Petriel climbed down carefully, their wings folded tight against their backs.

“Are you sure about this?” Grace whispered, trying not to touch the pulsing blue-purple tendrils.

“N-no,” Petriel admitted, her voice echoing slightly in the narrow space. “But we don’t have many options left.”

When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a low tunnel carved from stone. Water trickled along its floor, tainted with corruption that glowed faintly in the darkness.

“The spring should be this way,” Petriel pointed ahead where the tunnel widened.

As they waded through ankle-deep water, Grace cleared her throat.

“So… about this Intimate Healing. Just to be clear on what we’re doing…”

Petriel stopped walking, her back to Grace. Even in the dim light, Grace could see the tips of her ears turning red.

“It’s, um…” Petriel fidgeted with her robes. “There are different levels of the technique.”

“Right. And what level are we talking about exactly?”

Petriel turned around, looking everywhere but at Grace’s face.

“The most advanced version involves… complete energy synchronization.”

“Complete… what does that mean?”

“It means…” Petriel took a deep breath. “Skin-to-skin contact. While channeling divine energy through… through…”

“Through what?” Grace asked, though she was starting to get a pretty clear idea.

“Through physical union,” Petriel squeaked, her face now glowing brighter than the corruption.

“Physical union?” Grace repeated weakly. “As in…?”

“Sex,” Petriel blurted, then immediately covered her face with her hands. “We’d need to have sex.”

Grace’s brain short-circuited.

“But—I—you—we—” Words failed her completely.

“It’s the fastest way to amplify power!” Petriel hurried to explain. “The Intimate Healing technique draws on both Love Sister and Compassion Sister methodologies and—”

“Is there another option?” Grace interrupted, her voice about three octaves higher than normal.

“W-well, there’s a partial version that just requires… touching. But it won’t generate nearly as much energy.”

Grace considered this. Mara was turning into a plant monster. The entire village was being corrupted. Ivy was still trapped.

“Touching sounds good,” she said quickly. “Let’s start with touching.”

“Right. Touching.” Petriel nodded vigorously. “We can try that first.”

They continued down the tunnel, both walking a bit faster now. The passage opened into a large underground cavern where a spring bubbled up from the ground, feeding a small pool before flowing into channels that presumably led to the village wells.

At the center of the pool stood a massive plant creature—easily ten feet tall, with a trunk-like body and writhing vine-limbs. But what made Grace’s blood run cold was its face—Mara’s face, perfectly replicated in pulsing blue-purple vegetation.

“Welcome, little angels,” it said in Mara’s voice, but distorted, like it was speaking through water. “Have you come to join us in the glory of growth?”

“Oh crap,” Grace whispered, pulling Petriel behind a rock formation. “That’s not good.”

“The Root is using Mara’s connection,” Petriel whispered back. “It’s like a projection of its consciousness.”

The Mara-creature tilted its flowery head.

“I can hear you, dears. No need to hide. Don’t you want to bloom with us?”

It extended a vine arm toward their hiding spot. Grace and Petriel pressed deeper into a small alcove, barely big enough for both of them.

“We need that energy boost now,” Grace hissed.

“Before it finds us.”

“R-right.” Petriel’s hands trembled as she reached for Grace. “This might be… intense.”

“Just do it,” Grace whispered. “And hurry!”

Petriel placed her hands on Grace’s shoulders, then hesitated. “It works better with direct contact on energy centers.”

“Meaning?”

“Your chest. And… lower abdomen.”

“Oh.” Grace swallowed. “Okay. Go ahead.”

Petriel’s fingers slid tentatively under the fabric of Grace’s robes, touching the bare skin of her collarbone. Immediately, warmth spread from the contact point, making Grace gasp.

“I feel that,” she whispered.

“That’s just the beginning,” Petriel replied, her voice steadier now that she was in healer mode. “The energy builds with… more intimate contact.”

Her hands moved lower, resting just above Grace’s breasts. The warmth intensified, pooling in Grace’s chest and spreading outward.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” the Mara-creature called, its voice closer now. Vines slithered along the cavern floor, searching.

“We need more,” Grace urged, trying to ignore how her heart pounded against Petriel’s palms.

Petriel nodded, her eyes glowing faintly with divine energy. She leaned forward, her lips brushing Grace’s ear.

“Trust me,” she whispered, and then her mouth found Grace’s in a kiss that made their previous one seem like a casual greeting.

Divine energy surged between them, hot and electric. Grace felt it fill her veins, her very being, amplified by each point of contact. Petriel’s hands grew bolder, sliding lower, tracing patterns on Grace’s skin that left trails of golden light.

“Oh,” Grace breathed against Petriel’s lips. This was… more than she’d expected. Much more.

The world narrowed to just the two of them, the energy building between them like a gathering storm. Grace’s hands moved of their own accord, pulling Petriel closer, needing more contact, more connection, more—

“THERE you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for—WHAT THE HELL?”

Diana’s voice shattered the moment like a brick through glass. Grace and Petriel sprang apart just as chunks of stone and dirt rained down from above. Diana crashed through the ceiling, sword first, landing in a heap practically on top of them.

“Were you two MAKING OUT in the middle of a CRISIS?” Diana demanded, scrambling to her feet and staring at them in disbelief.

“It’s not—we weren’t—it’s a healing technique!” Grace sputtered, frantically adjusting her disheveled robes.

“Oh, is THAT what they’re calling it now?” Diana raised an eyebrow, then ducked as a vine whipped over their heads. “Argue later, fight now!”

The Mara-creature had found them, its flowery face twisted in a parody of Mara’s maternal smile.

“Three little angels, all in a row,” it cooed. “So much divine energy to absorb!”

“How nice of you to drop in,” Grace muttered to Diana as they backed away.

“I tracked the corruption to the source,” Diana replied, raising her sword. “Didn’t expect to find you two… exploring caverns.”

“Can we PLEASE focus on the plant monster with Mara’s face?” Grace begged, her cheeks burning.

“Right. Kill plant, save village, tease you mercilessly later. Got it.”

The creature attacked, vine-arms lashing out with surprising speed. Diana slashed through them with her sword, but each severed piece grew into a new, smaller creature.

“This isn’t working!” Diana shouted, surrounded by mini Mara-faced plants.

Grace looked at Petriel. Despite the interruption, she could still feel the divine energy they’d generated humming beneath her skin, ready to be released.

“I can do this,” she said, stepping forward. “I just need to get close enough to absorb some corruption.”

“Are you insane?” Diana grabbed her arm. “That thing will infect you!”

“Not if I’m quick.” Grace pulled free. “Trust me.”

Before Diana could stop her, Grace darted forward, dodging vines and leaping onto the edge of the corrupted pool. The water burned where it touched her skin, but she ignored the pain, focusing on the main creature.

“Hey! Plant-face!” she shouted. “Remember me? The one who smells like Eternia?”

The Mara-creature turned, its flowery features lighting up with interest.

“Yesss,” it hissed. “The special one. Come closer, little angel. Let me taste your light.”

“Taste this,” Grace muttered, plunging her hands into the corrupted pool.

Pain shot up her arms as corruption flooded into her. But this time, she was ready for it. She drew it in like she had in the cavern, channeling it into her core where it mixed with the divine energy Petriel had awakened.

The combination was explosive. Grace felt like she might burst from the inside out, her whole body glowing with gold-violet light.

“GRACE!” Petriel’s voice, panicked.

“I’m okay!” Grace called back, though she wasn’t entirely sure that was true. “Stay back!”

The Mara-creature reached for her, sensing the power building within her. Its vine-fingers brushed her cheek.

“Join us,” it whispered in Mara’s voice. “Become one with the Root.”

“Not happening.” Grace grabbed the vines, using them as conduits to absorb even more corruption. “But thanks for the power-up.”

When she couldn’t hold any more, Grace raised her hands toward the ceiling, aiming at the stone above the spring’s source.

“Everyone down!” she shouted.

The energy released in a concentrated beam so powerful it knocked Grace backward into the pool. The blast punched through stone, earth, and root, creating a perfect shaft upward that revealed a patch of sky far above. But more importantly, it hit the spring’s source directly.

Golden-violet light spread through the water, purifying it instantly. The corrupted channels feeding into the village wells glowed as the purification traveled outward, creating a network of light beneath the village.

The Mara-creature screeched, its form dissolving as the purified water ate away at its corrupted body.

“It’s working!” Petriel cried, helping Grace out of the pool.

Diana stood dumbfounded.

A rumble shook the cavern. Cracks spread across the walls as the purification energy continued to expand outward.

“We need to get out of here,” Diana said, grabbing both of them and pushing them toward the exit tunnel. “Now!”

They splashed through the tunnel as the cavern collapsed behind them. When they reached the well shaft, Diana boosted them up one at a time before following.

Back on the surface, they found the village transformed. The corrupted plants were withering, the purple tint fading from the air. And most surprisingly, the barrier around Ivy’s tree had changed—still present, but thin enough to see through, revealing the Earth-Tender still trapped inside.

“It worked,” Grace breathed. “The purification must have created a feedback loop into the tree.”

“The barrier’s weakened,” Willow confirmed, joining them with the other Earth-Tenders. “We might be able to reach Ivy now.”

“Thank the goddess,” Petriel said, carefully maintaining a few feet of distance between herself and Grace.

Diana looked between them, a smirk spreading across her face.

“So… are we going to talk about what I interrupted down there, or…?”

“It was just Intimate Healing,” Grace said through gritted teeth.

“Very intimate from what I saw.”

“Can we focus on saving Ivy and Mara?” Grace pleaded.

“Sure,” Diana agreed too easily. “But after that, I want all the details about this ’healing technique’ that had your hands up her—”

“DIANA!”

“What? I’m just saying, if that’s what healing looks like these days, maybe I should switch factions.”

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