Citizen 649 Ariadne

The looming wall at the edge of the dome stretched out before Ariadne. Her family hushed behind her, having said their farewells and waiting for her to take the plunge into the depths for the first time. Anticipation hung in the air, unbroken even as she stepped into the cold ocean. Ariadne had announced to the dinner table a few days ago that she intended to travel to the depths for her coming of age ceremony. She had expected some push back, from her father maybe, her mother definitely. Her mother’s family tradition was to hunt a gift for the ancients; believing it to be the ceremony that the elders intended, since it kept their children safely in the dome. Declaring her intention to flout the tradition in the middle of dinner should probably have earned her some sharp questions. Instead, her father had nodded and her mother had stared at her contemplatively. It had felt oddly unnerving, not receiving the response she had expected for pushing out of line. “If you want to take a step out of your mother’s shadow, you don’t need to throw yourself into danger,” was the only thing her father said on the matter, later that night, away from other listening ears. Ariadne had nodded to her father, unsure of what to say, how to tell him that her choice to go for a dive wasn’t really influenced by her mother, or really anyone in the family at all. The frigid water brought her back to the present. Her eyes widened as she took into the watery world around her, inspecting the land outside the dome for the first time without the elder’s magic obscuring her view. Sometimes she could see the shadows of the creatures that swam outside playing across the skies, but never could she make out the details of their forms. It’s hard to describe the absolute joy she felt when upon exiting the dome, she immediately encountered one of the beings making those shadows: a whale. The enormous creature sang out to the little rex before turning away from the dome and ascending. Up it went until Ariadne could no longer see it. Up, up and out of the ocean, longing for the world above, that’s why she wanted to make this dive. Much before making that dinner table announcement, she found herself longing to see a true sky, without the sheen of magic. That desire carried her through many long nights reading library books in her room by halo light with her blankets tucked under the door to keep the light from leaking out into the hallway. It inspired her to beg off chores to pester the swimming teacher for more lessons and practice with the underwater breathing spell. It brought her to breaking family tradition and requesting a dive for her coming of age ceremony. This unending want drove her out of her shell, out of her comfortable life making those around her happy, and here, into the unforgiving sea. Ariadne had never been accused of being an impulsive pup, she has a plan for getting her wish, and this is the first step. She needed to know if she could even attempt the long swim up to the surface and her ceremony was the perfect excuse to dive into the ocean. She made her way deeper into the trench, taking shallow breaths every 15 minutes or so. She knew that more frequent shallower breaths was easier to maintain, never getting to the point where she was desperate enough for oxygen that she might panic and mess up the spell. It was almost all for naught, when she swam through a narrow corridor into a bright bottomless cavern and gasped, bubbles rising above her, running away with her precious air. As her lungs burned, she struggled to focus on her magic and she attempted to breathe in and all she got was water. Ariadne was choking. She was writhing above the endless ravine and she couldn’t help but think of her mother. Was she right? Were rexals never meant to leave the confines of the dome, their precious prison at the bottom of the sea? Had Ariadne made a mistake? As her panic started to envelop her, a flotilla of glowing jellyfish surrounded the rex, dancing around her. She peered at them through her darkening vision. What a beautiful sight; worth exiting the dome to experience. What a breathtaking place. Ariadne couldn’t be disappointed with her choice. Her resolve to appreciate this beauty strengthened, even if it was the last thing she would do. Her focus shifted away from her spinning thoughts and Ariadne felt herself going through the motions, and breathing in once more. Blessedly, instead of salt water on her tongue, she felt salty air. Immediately, she started coughing up the water in her lungs with her newfound air. Her sudden movement startled her jellyfish friends, but after her hacking was complete she was finally able to fully appreciate what had inspired her original gasp. The cavern was teeming with glowing life, a vision she would never see in the dome. With a deep breath and a smile as her magic held strong, Ariadne shouted for no one to hear, just herself, “I am free. I am strong. I can explore as much of the world as I want.”