Serena still wasn't as open as she had been before Kain decided to confront her about 'repaying him with her body.' But after Kain broke the ice last night, she also was no longer outright freezing him out.
It was somewhere in between, like a wall that had been chipped but not yet broken down. Kain figured that was a small win—his blunt approach must have done something right.
They hadn't spoken much beyond necessity, but Kain could sense that the worst had passed, and things may continue to ease up with time.
Just when Kain was thinking that their shared prison may actually be a good opportunity to reconcile, Serena suddenly stiffened.
Kain, who had been idly flipping a bottle in boredom, trying to get it to land upright, immediately caught the shift. "What?" he asked, voice low and alert.
Serena didn't answer right away, her blue eyes narrowing slightly as she stared in a single direction, as if peering into the distance. Kain followed her gaze, but all he saw was a familiar wall of ice.
A few tense seconds passed before she finally murmured, "One of the Prismain's clones is returning. It's now close enough that I can see its surroundings."
Kain straightened. "Is it coming back with one of our teammates?"
Serena's brow furrowed as she focused on the incoming presence. "Maybe. I can't tell yet."
Kain frowned at that. "What do you mean?"
"They're… covered." Serena's tone held a rare note of uncertainty. "Multiple layers. Their face is almost completely concealed."
Kain's frown deepened. Not knowing who exactly was coming or if they were trustworthy made his excitement wane.
Serena continued gazing into the air, gaze distant as she tried to make sense of the blurry vision her clone was sending back. "They feel… familiar. But I can't confirm how."
Kain scrunched his brows together in thought, "Familiar how?"
Serena's expression remained unreadable. "I don't know yet."
"What?" Kain asked, as Serena made a pondering noise but never spoke further.
"I think…I think that space ring is familiar…It might be team leader Idrias' storage ring?"
Kain perked up, "Great! If it's him then we should be able to get out of here."
But Serena didn't look as optimistic as Kain as she examined the incoming information.
"I'm confident that is his ring…but I don't think with his Idrias. This person's physique and gait are completely different."
Kain exhaled sharply, Idrias wouldn't just hand over his space ring to someone else unless he was dead—the thought that the person in charge of this mission had passed, was extremely worrying. And if this ring wasn't on Idrias' hand, who was this? And how did they get it? Were they. Perhaps responsible for Idrias' death.
Kain ran a hand roughly through his hair in frustration, if there was one thing he hated, it was uncertainty. He had enough on his plate dealing with his own tangled thoughts about Serena—now there was a potential unknown factor heading straight for them? He hoped it truly was one of their teammates coming to help them…but if it was instead someone hostile…it could still be an opportunity to leave and it wasn't like he had no human blood on his hands.
His fingers flexed instinctively, his mind already preparing for the worst.
A heavy silence settled between them, the air thick with unspoken tension at the idea that they may be finally able to leave Serena's gaze remained fixed, her expression neutral but focused as she sifted through the limited details the Prismarin clone provided.
"How close?" he asked.
Serena blinked once, refocusing. "Not long now. Less than an hour."
Kain inhaled deeply, his body tensing in preparation. There was no use in standing around waiting like sitting ducks. He stood up, shaking off the stiffness from sitting for so long, and rolled his shoulders.
Serena glanced at him but didn't comment. She remained poised, calm, but he knew she was on high alert.
A minute passed, then another.
Then, faintly, a tap tap tap sound echoed through the cavern.
Kain stilled. His gaze flickered toward Serena, but she was already focusing on the noise.
The tapping was rhythmic—too deliberate to be a coincidence.
"…Is that Morse code?" Kain muttered under his breath.
Serena narrowed her eyes. "No," she murmured, tilting her head slightly, "but it's definitely a pattern."
The tapping continued, slow and steady, and growing in volume with time as the unidentified person drew closer. After a few moments, it stopped entirely.
Then, a voice—muffled but just barely audible—filtered through the thick walls of ice.
Kain's brows shot up. He couldn't quite recognize the voice. And Serena just stared at the wall in confusion not reply—but that was likely because she couldn't understand what was being said.
Unlike Idrias and Zareth, the respective leaders of the Pathfinders and Starchasers, Serena and majority of their teammates couldn't speak the Southern language.
Fortunately, like much of the knowledge of the Pathfinders that he was forced to learn, Kain managed to gain a rudimentary understanding of the language when Bea had transferred knowledge from that elderly tribal woman to himself.
He had to be careful, though. His understanding wasn't perfect, and a misunderstanding could be dangerous.
*"Who are you?"* he asked, his tone sharp since he now knew for sure that this was not a teammate.
A brief pause. Then the voice responded, *"Someone who is here to help."*
'Yeah that's not suspicious at all…'
Serena's gaze was focused on Kain, her brow subtly furrowing as she read his expression. She couldn't understand the words, but she was studying the way he reacted, likely gauging whether the situation was good or bad. And right now his expression didn't look too good.
The reply was vague. Too vague. Kain didn't like that nor was he convinced that this wasn't an enemy. But he could play along for now if it'd lead to them getting out.
Kain exhaled through his nose. *"And how exactly do you plan on getting us out?"*
Another pause—this one longer.
'Did this person have no plan?'
Or were they hesitating for another reason?
*"Sigh…We have our own means of melting the walls around us, but we didn't dare to try due to the risk of it caving in on us and the lack of knowledge of whether there were even any tunnel exits nearby. As long as you could scout around our location for areas that look less likely to collapse and are closer to our location, we should be able to handle the rest."*