Altair had to look up while she was sitting in order to breathe. The water had risen to her chin even when she looked straight up towards the bathtubs new roof. Soon it would be high enough to completely envelope her head if she was sitting or crawling.

'Maybe someone will come before it's too late,' with that thought in mind Altair took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and plunged into the water to slowly make her way towards where she remembered the stairs were. By the time she reached where the water was coming in from her lungs already burned and begged for air. She had no ability to hold her breath at all.

Still, she held it in anyway due to the alternative.

After floundering around in the water for a short time later she made it to the stairs and started to drag herself out of the water. As soon as her head broke the surface she exhaled loudly and took several long and deep breaths while she continued to climb her way up the stairs. She ended up climbing all the way up to the third step before she finally stopped.

Her head had hit the top and she couldn't go any further. She then turned around and watched as the water slowly, but surely, climbed ever closer towards her. With every passing moment, along with the rising water, Altair's mood became gloomier as she stared at the water.

Many thoughts ran through her mind as she watched her doom slowly creep up on her.

'This is so stupid.'

'Why am I even here?'

'If I just had my Mana..'

'If I wasn't so weak...'

'Maxwell, you're probably laughing at me right now, aren't you?'

'..I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill our promise.''

She waited in silence as the steam covered the top of the tub.

She waited as the water climbed higher and higher.

She waited and waited.. and waited.. and waited some more.

The illusion of the water rising was due to an induced waking fever dream from her body heating up by the steam. The water couldn't rise past four steps by safety design. Under the fourth step was a hole that would drain water that continued to flow in, preventing any real risk of someone trapping themselves inside the bathtub with the top over it. This feature was put in place for the elderly who would sometimes slip and not be able to turn off the water. No one expected that anyone else would fall into this type of situation.

So Altair sat there, staring at the water, with thoughts of doom and gloom while having a mental breakdown about how dumb she was to have gotten herself into that situation.

She sat there until evening came when Donel knocked on the door to the bathroom. Even though Donel knew subconsciously that Altair probably wouldn't understand him, habit forced him to ask, "Are you ready to come yet?"

Altair didn't respond because she couldn't hear him over the sound of the water still splashing into the bathtub. She was still drenched due to the constant steam that was rising over her and she looked like a complete mess. She was still lost in her own, self-depreciating, world.

Not getting an answer but hearing the water still running on the other side, Donel grew concerned. He knocked louder and with more urgency while practically shouting, "Are you alright in there? Answer me!"

No response.

With no answer received, Donel grabbed the door handle and shoved it open. The room beyond was filled with a thick cloud of steam. The moment the door opened it rushed to escape the confines of the room, assaulting him with the cumulative heat they produced together. It was so bad it caused him to retreat a couple steps by instinct.

When he realized what he had done and how bad the temperature was in the room, he began to panic. If he, an adult, had to step back from that temperature, than how was Altair who was still inside? If something happened to Altair, then he could lose his job and life, or worse, his pension!

Left with no other choice, Donel took a deep breath, and strode into the room.

The first thing that caught his attention was the torn blue dress that was soaked and laying next to the toilet. He then spotted the heat retention surface closed over the tub. The heat retention surface was completely white and impossible to see through.

The sight of it caused his heart to jump into his throat. He quickly shouted, "Emergency drain and emergency ventilation, authorization code: 12B!" He then rushed to the side of the heat retention surface.

At the same time, the female voice rang out in the room again, "Confirmed. Initiating emergency drain." The water that was spilling out of the pipe abruptly stopped while, at the bottom of the bathtub, a large hole opened up with a massive grate in the way. The hole covered half of the bottom of the tub and the water quickly drained out of the room. The heat retention surface also opened up quickly, far faster than it did when it slowly closed. The steam that was trapped underneath exploded out into the wider room. It revealed Altair, still staring dazedly at the center of the tub, drenched in her underwear and socks.

The voice then rang out again, "Initiating emergency ventilation." A hole opened near the toilet on the roof, also grated, and a suction sound quickly filled the room. It pulled the air out through it and ejected it outside. Even though it was a powerful ventilation tool, with how much steam was built up in the room it would still take some time for it to all be cleared.

Donel wasted no time in rushing to Altair's side and scooped her up into his arms. Her body was hotter than it should have been due to the prolonged exposure to the steam. He didn't notice that she was still conscious though, as he had assumed that she would have long passed out as a normal person would have.

He quickly took her from the room and laid her down on the hardwood floor in the main chamber. Afterwards, he went back into the bathroom and took the towel he had prepared for her to the sink next to it. He turned the sink onto cold water and soaked the towel in it before he returned to the main chamber and started to wrap it around Altair's head. He then started to make a fuss with the two people standing outside Altair's room.

Altair quickly regained her senses with the towel helping her. She sat up while Donel was telling the two what to do and looked around the room blankly, not knowing exactly where she was or what happened for a few moments. As she came to realize where she was and how she survived she heaved a huge sigh of relief and let herself fall back onto the floor.

The sigh drew Donel's attention back to her with eyes wide open like oranges. He stared blankly at Altair who didn't look unconscious at all now that he paid closer attention. This shocked him as any normal person should have fallen unconscious in that situation. He quickly wondered how strong Altair's constitution was to be able to recovery so fast..

Altair ignored him as she lay on the floor in an un-ladylike position while wearing nothing but her underwear and still being wet from the water. She still felt a little hot and sticky, but otherwise didn't care about the others. It was like she had just fought for several hours, only without the physical exhaustion and just the mental one while being covered in her own sweat.

Donel closed the door to her room as he came back in. He didn't bother to explain to the two out there what happened because they saw it as well. He walked to Altair and stood over her with a deep frown on his face. No matter what position Altair is given, acting like this was unacceptable. He had a lot of work ahead of him with Altair.

However, all of that could wait. He had brought her food in already but Altair was in no condition to eat as she was. He had no idea how she ended up in that predicament and deemed it necessary for him to supervise her while she took a bath. He couldn't let that happen again, his heart couldn't take it.

He knelt down and lifted Altair into his arms which prompted her to give him a troubled look. She knew that she couldn't communicate with words so she hoped that her expression alone would suffice.

Donel ignored her gaze and took her back into the room that had been cleaned out of steam and water by now. He walked her over to the bathtub and said, "Cancel emergencies." He then sat Altair down next to the bath and examined her with a calculating gaze before adding, "Set capacity, one hundred and thirty gallons. Set temporary temperature to 33 and fill to limit."

The female voice rang out in the room in confirmation of his words. Along with it, the two buttons that Altair pushed in popped back out to their original position and the drain that opened in the tub closed along with the ventilation duct over the toilet.

Altair saw more water pouring into the tub and her expression became confused. She had no idea what that deathtrap was even for but she didn't want to get near it again. Since it was filling up, she decided to scoot away from it as quickly as she could.

However, Donel didn't let her go. He grabbed her arm and, with practiced movements, stripped her of her clothes and pushed her into the tub. Altair only had time to squeal when she was pushed to the deepest end, where the water was currently filling.

This time, the water was pleasantly warm instead of suddenly hot.

As soon as she was there, she tried to escape. This caused Donel to have a confused expression as he looked at her panicked face. He dismissed the idea of her having hydrophobia because she was the one who turned on the tub and trapped herself in it in the first place, so he had no idea why she was so scared. He still stopped her from fleeing though, causing him to get splashed repeatedly by her attempts.