Thunderstorm ➪ʜᴀᴢᴇʟ Lᴇᴠᴇsǫᴜᴇ [𝟷]

𝗫 𝗜 𝗜 𝗜

𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗾𝘂𝗲, it was called Crown Fountain. All the water had emptied out except for a few patches that were starting to freeze. Then again, those big monitors had flashed the face of their mysterious enemy Dirt Woman. Nothing about this place was right. Bronte could feel the wind picking up around her, and she hoped it was a normal occurrence in Chicago, and not her powers. Maybe it could even be a couple venti, and they'd get a good fight.

But then she looked at Piper's uneven gait, and Jason's quiet solemnity, and Leo's gaze on the sky where Festus had disappeared, and decided that the best answer might actually, for once, be her powers. At least then she could help make it better.

She took a couple deep breaths and the winds seemed to calm a bit. Dirt Lady had left. They had a plan, meager as it was. Things were okay.

Piper's grip on her jacket seemed to ease. Jason's shoulders loosened.

Together, they stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop them. The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance ladder led down into the gloom.

Jason went first. Bronte let Piper and Leo go in after, then followed them all down.

As she climbed, she braced herself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn't that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor.

"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered.

"No," Leo said. "Trust me."

Jason frowned. "How do you know—"

"Hey, man, I ran away six times. I've slept in some weird places, okay?"

" . . .Which way do we go?" Bronte asked quietly. There were two options, maybe she could pick one and actually participate--

Jason tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. "That way."

"How can you be sure?" Piper asked.

"There's a draft blowing south," Jason said. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."

It made more sense that Bronte's coin flip of a choice, but it still stung. This wasn't supposed to be how her quest went. She'd been preparing since she was nine. She was supposed to know what to do. She wasn't supposed to be useless.

Even if they knew which direction to go, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled. Jason had to catch her.

"Stupid ankle," she cursed.

"Let's rest," Jason decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"

"Thought you'd never ask. Chef Leo is on it!"

"I'll get you some ambrosia," Bronte promised to Piper. She'd taken her backpack after the incident in Detroit, to take a little bit of the burden off the injured girl. After rummaging through her pack, she passed along a "Dr. Bronte" prescribed hunk of the magic food, then she sat quietly by Leo.

Piper and Jason sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his tool belt, pulling out increasingly crazy things. Food, logs for a cooking fire, and, even weirder, a bundle of kindling.

"Can't you just light it yourself?" Bronte asked him, voice small.

He blinked, surprised, then huffed. "Yeah, I guess I can."

He put the kindling away and summoned a ball of fire in his palm. It caught easily.

After a few moments he spoke, brown eyes reflecting the dancing firelight. "Come on, burbujita, you're telling me you're not enamored by our questing conditions?"