While Vahn and Haru were forced into the Palamidia by virtue of circumstance, Osawa had joined the moment he realized his abilities were more than just an uncanny affinity for sailing. He didn’t have the rigorous training Haru had been gifted with throughout his youth, nor did he have anything similar to the life experience that Vahn or Kanna had been subjected to. 

Osawa had simply stepped off and signed up in hopes of finding a place to set his feet that didn’t heave beneath them.

He hadn’t thought he’d miss the Icaunian seas of his birth with its open water and vast skies and all the blue nothing that went with it. Not once had he thought back to the floating cities of his childhood with anything more than a vague neutrality.

His cell in Irkalla, however, made him nearly nostalgic. Hot, dry air had pumped through the vents, and he understood how sailors sometimes went mad on the seas and gorged themselves on saltwater. If a body had nothing, anything was a relief. 

When Vahn had opened his door, leaning on the jam with a wink and a smirk, the fire that danced behind him felt cool against Osawa’s skin.

Osawa trailed behind Haru and Vahn as they raced through the twisting labyrinth beneath the Tower. The water that Haru had managed to scrounge up barely made a dent in his thirst. His muscles felt like sludge and his side was a splitting ache. 

They took a turn in the maze, only to run into the bloody bodies of the last patrol that they had encountered.

Haru practically growled. He ran his hand through his hair as if he was going to tear it from the roots and began pacing the confined hallway.

“This is fantastic,” Vahn said. “What now, your highness?”

“I need a moment to think,” Haru replied.

“Sure,” Vahn said. “Take your time. We’re not trying to escape an inescapable death trap or anything.”

In the silence that followed, Osawa bent over, one hand on his knee and the other on his stomach. He held back a retch, but his stomach had nothing to give up anyway.

“Why don’t you ask your new friends?” Vahn asked.

Osawa straightened up in time to catch Haru’s eyes narrowing at Vahn. 

Haru turned to the ghoslights that hovered around him to consider the suggestion.

“I wasn’t serious,” Vahn said.

“Then stop wasting our time,” Haru replied.

Osawa sighed and shut his eyes as the argument continued. He breathed deep. There was a faint hint of fresh air, and it carried the scent of water. 

Osawa opened his eyes and began to follow it. 

Haru and Vahn had been fighting back to the entrance that they were originally taken through, but Osawa’s trail led them deeper into the maze. As he moved forward, the ground inclined upward and the cells stopped appearing. The path narrowed to the point that they walked in single file, and Osawa’s shoulders scraped against jagged rock. 

Haru’s ghostlights buzzed past Osawa, flitting back and forth over the group, sometimes wandering further ahead before returning to them. 

Eventually, the walls became slick with moisture and the path ended.

“I don’t know about anyone else,” Vahn said behind him, “but to me, this seems worse.”

Osawa pressed his hands to the blank wall and shut his eyes. He could feel the water on the other side, how the currents turned down in a rush and broke below, calming and eventually settling.

“The waterfall that cuts into the river, it was near the east gardens, right?”

Vahn leaned over his shoulder. “Strange time to be thinking of that time at the waterfall, Os.”

Osawa opened his eyes and shrugged his shoulder to dislodge Vahn. He tried to look past Vahn to Haru, barely making out the shine of his eyes beyond Vahn’s body.

“Yes,” Haru said. “It isn’t far from the stables.”

Osawa turned back to the wall. “Perfect.”

Every loa had a connection to their element, and it went both ways. The elements laid claim to a loa just as much as they used them, and Osawa was dry as desert bone. His connection wasn’t as strong as Vahn or Haru, but it was enough that the water would still miss him. 

He reached past the wall to the fall on the other side and it reached back, slamming into the rock hard enough that it shivered beneath his hands. The water wove through the cracks of the rock and Osawa willed it to ice and expand.

Vahn wrapped his arm around Osawa’s waist and pulled him back, stepping onto Haru’s foot. The wall cracked, the solid stone turning to rubble and leaving enough room for them to pass through.

The light from the outside was bright and blinding after the dark of Irkalla and Osawa stumbled into the small cave hidden behind the waterfall with his arm over his eyes. His lungs took deep, gasping breaths of fresh, water drenched air. 

When his vision cleared, he opened them. The cave was shallow, but it was enough space that the three had some distance between each other once again. Through the cascade of water, the Tower rose through the verdant green backdrop of the Lugosian forests. The path had taken them away from it, but not far enough for comfort. 

Osawa stretched out his hands beneath the waterfall. It pounded against his skin. The force was painful but relieved by the cooling sensation in his body as the water moved into his parched skin. He pulled his hands back and scrubbed the dirt from them before reaching out again to gather a sip.

Haru approached next to him, leaning over the lee of the cave opening to gauge the distance.

It was a decent drop, but Osawa could use his abilities to get them down easily enough.

Before he could offer, Haru took a few steps back, then took a running leap from the lip of the cave.

Osawa’s heart shot into his throat. He and Vahn leaned as far as they dared, following Haru’s trajectory to his impact. Tense moments later he rose to the surface, then began to swim to the shore.

Not to be outdone, Vahn tightened the holsters for his knives then dove after Haru once he’d cleared from below.

“Well,” Osawa said to himself. “That is one way to do it.”