"Just pull them that they will let go."

He does so, pulling them off and putting them with his clothes, looking regretfully down at them. He feels sort of naked without them.

Which does make some sense, considering his state of dress.

He looks back towards Zephyrinus, "It's harder without the wings - they were doing a lot of work, holding us up. Do you want to try, and I'll stay close to make sure you don't sink?" 

"Sounds good. I should be able to create ice to float in if things get too dangerous, but that defeats the point of learning how to actually swim."

"It does," he agrees, "But it's good to have the safety net." 

 ...Back in the water? 

Back in the water!

He stays pretty close as they wade out, stopping when the water's up to Zephyrinus' ribs. "Try floating on your back again, like you did with the wings," he begins, tentatively offering an arm for him to steady himself on if he seems to be sinking.

He does as instructed. There are a couple of slips up but he manages without reflectively freezing the water.

Then Jaim will move on to guiding him through the other instructions he gave when they were sill wearing the wings, sticking close and catching him if he looks like he's floundering. The quick touches leave him a little red, but he doesn't let himself focus on it. 

Once he has it down, Jaim decides to show him how to dive! He has a few spells for this - not too expensive, and he's regenerated a decent pool of Air magic by this point. Enough for a half hour, for two people.

The spell leaves him with a bubble of renewing air around his mouth and nose, so he can stay under as long as it lasts. He offers one to Zephyrinus as well. 

"You are not overexerting yourself?"

"I meditated some this morning, and regenerated some last night, as well. I can sustain two for about half an hour before I will want to stop, to be safe." 

"Okay, but then we should go straight back. To be safe."

He chuckles, "Alright, we will," he agrees. 

Spells cast, they can explore the bottom of the lake to their hearts' content, at least until they run out. 

It goes pretty deep. 

Is that a building, looming out of the darkness at the bottom of the lake?

Apparently, Zephyrinus goes to investigate.

Jaim follows, just as curious.

It's a cylindrical building, a short one - or perhaps it's only the tip of something much larger. It looks quite unlike the architecture he's seen in this world so far, smooth, as though it was dragged up from the earth in one piece. 

There's a doorway in its side, a few meters from the bottom of the lake. A dim glow comes from it, lighting the lakebed below. 

Zephyrinus pushes his head closer to Jaim's so the bubbles can merge, and they can talk. "Do you know what that is?"

(Aaaaa???)

It takes him a moment to reply.

"Some kind of ancient ruin?" He says. It's taking some serious effort to stop himself from tensing up. "The glow likely comes from an Artefact or some active runes," he adds. 

"Oh, is it dangerous?"

"It could be," he admits, "If there's an Artefact in there and they have control over the ruin - but usually not. Even if there is an Artefact in control of it, they usually want to be found." 

He's just going to. Ignore the closeness, how about. That seems likely to work. It works with just about everything else. 

"Uh-huh. I guess the obvious things to do is go back and tell people what we found and to keep guard. So we come back tomorrow after having rested."

"I doubt a guard will even be necessary," he says, "It's unlikely anyone else will stumble upon it while we're gone - It's been here over 300 years, after all.

"We can just come back tomorrow with some back-up - my lieutenant, if they're interested. Perhaps Ilek, if he's well enough for it." 

"It will be fun to do more swimming and exploration."

"It will!" He agrees, "Not that we have to stop now - we can keep looking around for a while longer. Though... if I use up less of my mana today I will have more tomorrow," he adds. 

"And you were already pushing it?"

"Perhaps a little," he admits. 

"...I just wanted to give something back," he tries to explain. 

"I appreciate it. Conditional of you being safe."