The water filter crisis cast a long shadow over the sanctuary. The air was thick with worry and the knowledge that difficult choices loomed. Captain called another meeting, the tension in the main chamber palpable.
Elara, her face set with a quiet determination, stood near the edge of the group, Kael beside her. She hadn't revealed her idea to everyone yet, but the weight of it sat heavily on her.
The discussion was a grim repetition of the previous day – insufficient supplies, the danger of scavenging, the grim prospect of rationing contaminated water. Gus was vocal in his opposition to any high-risk scavenging runs.
As the debate reached a stalemate, Elara stepped forward hesitantly. All eyes turned to her. Even in this desperate time, a young girl speaking up was unusual.
"Captain," she began, her voice trembling slightly but growing firmer as she spoke. "I... I have an idea. About the water."
A ripple of skeptical murmurs went through the group. Gus scoffed. "An idea? From the girl who keeps company with the curse?"
Elara ignored him, her gaze fixed on Captain. "Kael's light," she said, the words catching the attention of everyone. Whispers of fear spread again. "It pushed back the Husks. It made a dead plant live, for a moment." She looked at Kael, then back at Captain, a desperate hope in her eyes. "The Void makes things bad. Contaminated. Can his light... make things good again? Can it... cleanse the water?"
Silence fell over the chamber, thick and heavy. Faces registered shock, disbelief, and a dawning, terrified hope. The idea was audacious, insane, dangerous. But they were desperate.
Captain's eyes narrowed. He looked from Elara to Kael, who stood small and tense beside her, his face a mask of fear and uncertainty. He remembered the light, the power, but also the devastating Bedel, the way the child had crumpled, the new voids in his eyes.
Gus was the first to break the silence, his voice a loud, angry roar. "Are you insane?! Use that thing on our water? He's tainted! He'll poison us all, or draw the Void right into the reservoirs!"
Other voices joined the protest, fueled by fear. "No!", "Too dangerous!", "He's a curse!"
Elara stood her ground. "He helped before! He pushed the Husks away! And the plant... it showed it can make things live!"
Captain held up a hand, silencing the clamor. He looked at Elara for a long moment, assessing her conviction. Then his gaze shifted back to Kael, who stood trembling, the weight of all their hopes and fears suddenly upon him.
Captain's face was grim, burdened by the impossible choice. Risk a dangerous scavenging run, or risk a child's terrifying, unpredictable power and its devastating cost? One promised likely death or failure; the other promised terrifying uncertainty but a glimmer of a different kind of hope.
"Bring the child," Captain ordered, his voice low and final. "And bring a barrel of the reservoir water. We will test her idea."
A wave of fear and anticipation swept through the chamber. Gus looked horrified, but Captain's word was law. Elara rushed to Kael's side, her face pale but determined.
They were led to a separate, contained area – a smaller, empty room with a reinforced door, away from the main water stores. A wooden barrel of the murky, questionable reservoir water was brought in. Captain, Gus (protesting every step), Elara, and a few other key, wary survivors were present.
Kael stood before the barrel, the center of all eyes. He felt the weight of their desperation, their fear, their fragile hope. He felt Vispera's presence, more focused now, a feeling of "Try. Potential."
Captain stood opposite him, his gaze stern. "Elara believes your light can cleanse this water, child," he said, his voice low. "Show us. Can you control it? Can you use it... not to fight, but to... make something good?"
Kael looked at the murky water, at the hopeful fear in Elara's eyes, at Captain's grim resolve, at Gus's condemning glare. Use the light? With intention? The memory of the last Bedel, the loss of knowledge, the agony, was a fresh wound. But the desperate need in their eyes, the thirst they were facing...
Drawing on Vispera's gentle, persistent pull, remembering Elara's belief, Kael raised a trembling hand towards the barrel of water.
He wasn't sure if he could do it. He wasn't sure if he should do it. But he had to try. For them.
The chapter ends with Kael standing before the barrel of contaminated water, his hand raised, about to attempt to use his power for the first time in a controlled test, the risk of Bedel and the potential outcome of the test hanging in the balance, setting up the next chapter for the test's results.