The Deep Current

🌊 Room 6 — Water Gate — Flow

The river runs wide and black and silent. No banks — the water simply becomes the world, cold and deep and endless. The current moves north, always north, and the current is older than stone, older than the tree itself.

You step in. The cold is total. Your breath stops — then returns. The current doesn’t push you. It carries you. For a moment you are the current, tracing the roots of the tree from the inside out.

Something bobs in the water ahead — a sealed glass vial with a note folded inside. The water is so clear you can see river stones on the bottom, five colors, one for each wing.

What do you do?

⚙️ Wade back south toward the corridor 🌿 Follow the riverbank east toward the garden 🔥 Follow the current south toward the fire 🌳 Let the current carry you north to the tree’s heart ⬆️ Return to the Waiting Hall