been too great. Toppling over the brink, she plummeted headlong. Descending for what seemed an eternity but was only moments, she struck a cold surface of water and went under.

    Diliani was an exceptional swimmer, her long, sinewy feet able to propel her powerfully through water. Thus she turned herself around and rose quickly to the surface.

    It was choppy and wavy and she was tossed about. Assuming the water to be moving, she thought she was being carried downstream, and from the clamor of the deluge probably at a substantial speed. Yet she could feel little undertow or current. The stream might be conveying me so smoothly, she thought, that I can’t detect it.

    She swam in the direction she assumed the wall to be and found...

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