The golden glow of something warm was magical in nature. That much Maria could say with certainty. She had tried to reach for it with her senses but had been blocked. This meant that she had to make the journey down without any help from her magic.

And she had tried again and again to reach the bottom, only to fail every time. It was getting on her nerves and made her irritated but at least she had made progress.

“Can you see anything in the depths? The source of the glow?” Maria tried to swim deeper but the force of the blow from beneath made it impossible to swim against it. It also swiped away any magic Maria tried to build up against her.

She swam back up as soon as it looked like this was another failed attempt. And she had tried hard to make it past the current this time. She was sure she had seen a small cave with natural light shining from behind the hot currents.

“It’s still there deep down. The current is still pushing me up which makes it near impossible to reach” Maria complained as she broke the surface. Her face was flushed with heat and red with exhaustion.

In simpler words, she was a mess and maybe should also consider getting rid of her long hair. They were a hindrance more than a help to her.

“Nao, hand me a knife,” Maria asks, knowing that her friend carried a sharp one with her. Maria only had a dull decorative blade with her that she had stolen and she was pretty sure it would not work for what she was about to do.

Nao handed it to her without any words. She seems to be lost deep in thoughts and Suna was not around as well. Maria took this time to gather all the courage she had and clipped off her long hair.

“Hey, I’m back and I brought us something to look, at, and JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING” Maria cursed as she cut off the wrong section of her hair. It caused her previously even hair to go all over the place while her hand still help her previous mane.

Suna’s words caused enough commotion for Nao to come over as well and wasn’t that an amusing face? That look of horror.

“Maria, what did you do? They were such a beautiful thing as well. So well cared for and everything” Nao looked more devastated by the state Maria’s hair was in than Maria herself.

Suna looked disturbed to see such an obvious show of emotions on the usually calm and collected Nao’s face and even Maria understood why she felt like that. Nao had been Maria’s primary caretaker and as such, she had certain responsibilities to look after.

One of them had been to ensure that Maria never looked anything but her best. And to see Maria doing something to harm her hair which Nao had tried so hard to care for was a disappointment for her.

“Nao, get yourself together. My hair was bound to be a sacrifice sooner or later. You don’t need to feel responsible for it” Maria consoled, trying to make Nao feel better. Maybe she should have waited around to cutting them.

“Give them to me. I’ll keep it safe with me since you were about to wash them off with water anyway” Nao ask in a creepy voice and Maria hesitated to give her hair to Nao. There were far too many taboo magic practices involving DNA to make Maria feel comfortable with handing her hair to Nao.

She quickly decided that ‘no, she could not hand such power into Nao’s hands.’

“On second thought I think I will keep them on me. For security reasons and all” Maria took a few laps back before the hair in her hand disappeared in her inventory.

Nao looked like she was seeing her worst nightmare come to life as she took in Maria’s new looks. Suna was the one who took mercy on the pair and held her hand out.

“Give me the knife or a pair of scissors, if you have one. I’ll try to even your hair out but no promise. It’s best to get it done processionally if you have time to” Suna recommended but it was not easy to follow.

They seemed to never have time for it, nor the funds to get it done professionally. And then there was also the problem of Maria being the oracle and easy to get recognized. It would be much better once Maria had a disguise in place.

Suna chopped off Maria’s excess hair snd every swipe dragged out a pain-filled led groan out of Nao. She sounded like she was being tortured which was a little funny for her tough-girl image.

And Suna seemed to think so as well since she look longer than necessary to even Maria’s hair.

“Suna, you took a look around this cave, right? Did you see any opening that might be headed downwards?” Maria asked.

She had seen a small opening below the hot currents so there had to be an outside entrance as well. There was natural light coming out of the opening which indicated the existence of another passage.

Besides, the placement of that glow long with their group’s sudden trip here felt like it had been planned by someone. The golden glow had not emerged until Maria had let herself go and released into the water her essence.

Did it have something to do with her as an Oracle? Or perhaps because of her father’s blood? Both were likely options since they both held strong origins.

“An opening headed downwards? I don’t think I encountered any inside here. I can try looking around again outside the cave after lunch” Suna proposed and the deal was done.

Maria decided to have another look downwards before deciding to check the river for any possible entrance. It could be underwater but near enough to make sunlight pass through.

However, there should be a hint somewhere Maria might be missing here. She felt like she had the answer right on top of her tip.

“You said the cave had natural light being filtered through? Won’t it make more sense for its other part to be right on the other side? Light cannot bend that far without magic, right?” Nao asked and it finally clicked.

“Nao, you are right. How did I miss that crucial part?” Maria felt like a failure. Really, how had she missed that? That should have been the obvious outcome.

Of course, the opening had to be a direct line.