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“I am not going in there, Ella,” replied Conor emphatically, “no fucking way.”

“I’m open to suggestions, Con.”

“I mean, can’t you do something? Don’t you have some kind of powers down here?”

Ella shrugged. She hadn’t really thought about that. Something about holding a knife in her hand made her forget anything else. When she was gripping her knife, she just wanted something to run at her.

“Well, it’s not my deep, Con, so I don’t really think I can.”

“I’m not going in there unless you try something.”

“I spent years filling my deep with stuff, everything I could get down there. So yeah, I could use a lot of it. But this guy has nothing in here.”

Conor thought of the wall of water that burrowed a river in the salt flats of Ella’s deep.

“What about water, Ella? Do something with the river.”

Ella laughed, she knew he’d been impressed by that. And he was right, of course. Every deep had a river. Every deep had a sea. She reached down and felt the cold concrete beneath them. She reminded herself how she had moulded her deep. How malleable she had made it. She ran her hands out rightwards, feeling the smooth ground until her fingers gently rolled over a bump. She felt for the seam, pulled at it, and it ripped like old carpet. She grabbed it with two hands and tugged sharply up, and the ground popped and buckled away behind them. The seam stretched back to a 20p coin she’d thrown earlier. Under it was cold black soil. Ella dug her hands in, rooting around, a moment later, and she was in past her elbows. She glanced back at Conor and smiled, lifting her arms out as water bubbled up from the two holes she’d plunged. The water began flowing faster then, and the two of them watched as the water ran up and under the door where the £2 coin had disappeared. The water was flooding in then. The sound on the other side of the door was becoming more frantic. More skittering, more thuds, squeals and wails.

The water was pumping under the door at an unbelievable rate. Conor and Ella’s feet were soaked as the water filled around them. But their chamber was large. The excess water pooled out here even as it ran relentlessly into the next room. Soon, the sounds subsided as the roaring water grew louder and louder. Eventually, the door burst open, flying to the ground, sliding away between them. With it came a great wave that burst through and then ran away, bathing the entire chamber in a cool green light reflecting all around them. It lit up a great hound. A huge malnourished beast, teeth bared and shrunk stomach now gorged - along with its lungs - with water. She recognised it, despite its enormous size, as having once belonged to Mrs Careen.

Ella paced towards it, squatted deep - bum to heels, and stared in its wide eyes.

“Sorry, Gellert,” she said quietly.