After floating for awhile, it was very clear why it was a bad idea to float in a dress. My arms were tired from trying to remain upright. The current pulled at the fabric, making it heavy and dragging me down. Lady Grace, even with the torn apart dress, had to be exhausted from swimming.

  She wasn't letting us know whether she was tired.

  I guess I was going to have to be the one who gave in and gave up earlier than the other two. The problem was that I also had nothing useful to offer if we needed to sacrifice one of us.

  I said, "We need to stop as soon as we can pull ashore somewhere."

  The relief in their voices when they agreed with me was palpable.

  I did not point out the reason was that my arms and legs felt like dead weight just in case Lady Grace assumed I was doing it out of weakness. I didn't need to be the weakest link of the three of us. As of this moment, killing me would not get either of them anything useful. Later, though, my death might mean their survival.

  I needed to make myself absolutely indispensable. I just had no idea yet what I could do to do that.

  Did I trust Joceline to not just murder me in my sleep? A few hours ago I could have said yes with all my heart, but now I felt the faintest bit of doubt.

  I thought about how Joceline's father had mentioned about sacrificing one of the sheep upriver to pull any river monsters away from the herd as they forded. Later, Joce had said it was a joke, but it didn't sound like much of a joke. We didn't actually need to sacrifice any of the sheep or lambs. Still, that thought was crossing my mind now in the ultimate of places to be sacrificed for the greater good.

  "There! Just in the dark!" Grace said and she began swimming in a direction.

  At first I saw nothing, but she seemed so adamant that I had to follow her just to be sure.

  I saw the edge of the cave expand as well and I felt a surge of energy to just swim to the rock wall.

  We came up the wall and sure enough there was a small ledge. We dragged our wet selves up onto the ledge. It was dark stone and, other than the sound of the water from the river, it was quiet. The ledge led to a small low hole that when we crawled through, opened up to a cavernous room somewhat similar to the one that we had left behind only a few hours — was it minutes? — before. Dank, moist, and mouldy smelling. Check. Just this one had a natural warmth to it that the previous one didn't.

  The biggest benefit was nobody else was here. Just us.

  From cracks near the edges of the room, I could see a reddish glow. Something warm heated up the stone floor underneath it. It felt amazing through my thin and sopping dance shoes. This vaulted chamber was roughly square in shape and the red light at the ground level, plus the strange purplish white glow of Grace's light spell, seemed to affect some dark mass above us that glowed green. I was no expert, but it looked like moss.

  There was an exit on the other side of the chamber that looked like someone had carved a door out of the rock. That door was closed.

  Good enough for me.

  I sat down on the warm stone and began peeling off my clothes.

  Joceline gave me a queer look, but then she started stripping off her things.

  "What are you doing?" Scandalised, Lady Grace glowered at us.

  "What?" I gave her back a mocking scandalised look. "We need to get off these wet things and let them dry. Wherever this heat is coming from it's going to help. Might not even need to light a fire for warmth."

  "Lady Grace. We could get very sick."

  Lady Grace refused to remove her things and so I just continued doing my own and paid her no mind. My ruined dress clung to my skin. All my underclothes were sopping wet. I removed them and laid them out on the ground until I was actually completely naked.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Joceline did the same as me and once she was also naked, she began unpacking her pack. She laid out all the things she had with her, but she kept one bag separate and did not open it.

  I stretched out on my back and let the warm stone seep into my skin. It felt good. I almost could forget that I was naked with two people that had never seen me naked before. Almost. I crossed my arms over my chest then rolled over.

  "Do you have anything to light a fire, Joce?"

  Joceline nodded sadly. "I do, but my pack isn't waterproof. Everything will have to dry and then maybe it will work."

  We were going through the contents of Joceline's pack when Lady Grace finally started removing her wet clothes. She stayed a bit aways from us, but she too sorted out her things. I was aware that there wasn't much of anything. She had even less than I did.

  I didn't look at her directly and pretended for all intents and purposes that she was even more fully clothed than she had been at the ball. Nothing to see there.

  "I know my father would rest while he could. So we'll do that. This seems like a safe room. Only Grace noticed the entrance near the edge of the cavern. If anyone followed us, then they'd need to see the ledge and then crawl through that hole there one at a time."

  I felt like I sounded more assured of what I was saying than I actually was. The relevant letter from my father had been heavily redacted by blacked out portions. He had written about resting and finding safe encampments. He also talked about food. Most of his letters had been about food and how hungry he was. We'd need to find some as soon as possible or at least get some loot that could be dropped off in a return chest. I didn't want to know what it felt like to starve.

  Lady Grace sat quietly with her arms wrapped around herself and her legs curled up so that her head rested on her knees. I tried hard not to notice that she was silently crying.

  "Can I sleep?" Joceline asked. "I didn't get any rest last night. I was up all night and I'm very tired." She did look just exhausted as if the momentum of the funnel with the fighting and then swimming and then this room had finally drained her energy off.

  "Sure. I'll stay up and watch the hole. You two, get some rest."

  "I'm not sleeping if you aren't." Lady Grace said as she wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms.

  "Don't be daft. You're the only one of us with magic right now. We need you rested."

  "I'm not tired." She said petulantly.

  "Well. I am." Joceline lay face down on the stone and sighed. "This stone is really warm. Like the hearth back home."

  "Yeah." I agreed with her and didn't say anything as Joceline turned her head. She wept too. After a few minutes, her sobbing shoulders evened out and she looked to be sleeping.

  I moved over to our clothes and began turning them all over to hopefully get the other sides to dry. I checked the bag that Joceline had kept separate and found in it her pile of food. Mostly it was soggy nuts and cheese, a couple of slippery hardboiled eggs, as well as some wet sheep jerky. She had a water bladder that was corked and probably full.

  "Are you going to steal her food?" Lady Grace said loudly.

  Joceline murmured in her sleep and moved.

  I hushed Lady Grace and rolled my eyes at her then moved closer so I could whisper. "She's my best friend. I would never take her things. I just wanted to be sure how much she had. Because I know Joceline and she'd offer all her food to you and me and let herself starve."

  "And?" She asked me.

  "She doesn't have enough to feed or water us and herself. So if you take any of it —" I let the threat hang.

  Lady Grace looked affronted and I don't know if it was because I threatened her or maybe she was actually pissed because of what I said to her.

  I glared at her. She glared at me. Then she broke it off by turning around and rearranging her things.

  So I did the same with my reticule and the pot of ink.

  Time passed as we awkwardly attempted to not pay attention to one another. At some point, my clothes were dry enough that I could put on my underthings. It felt good to not be completely exposed.

  I worked on wringing the water out of my dress and when it was dry, I draped it over Joceline's body as a blanket.

  My mother would have been absolutely furious with me. She would have murdered Grace and done whatever it took to become as powerful as possible. She also would have stolen everything from Joceline.

  Lady Grace had not moved for awhile so I looked over at her. She was asleep. So much for staying awake with me. I could have woken her up, but she'd need her rest too.

  I sat there, watching over the two of them sleeping and I thought of all the things I could have brought with me today if I had known I was going to be Stocked. I could have brought more than just the paintbrush and ink pot I carried in my reticule. The paintbrush that was probably now in the hands of that fallowstock. I could have worn pants. I could have worn sturdier shoes. My uncle owned the dry goods store. I could have brought the best of anything you could order on trade.

  I could have brought food and water.

  I could have trained my life for this. Like the others did. Instead, I did the bare minimum in all physical activity. I took only the fun martial arts and was pathetic at even those. Before it had felt stupid to even try since my life was not really my own; my father's valour owned my freedom. I didn't study because I didn't understand why the Funnel had been so important that I grew up without a father. I had wanted to know why I was the — well, prior to the incident earlier in the day — lucky one who would never face annihilation here.

  I was stupid to waste all those years.

  It was too late now.