Quickwater

Fell into the sea under the islands? Quickwater brings you back up by itself: it carries a swimmer to the mouth of the nearest race rising from the sea — at the mouth the water wells up and hands you to the race, and the race lifts you to the islands: step off it sideways. No mouth nearby — an upwelling column rises by the nearest island and sets the swimmer on its top. Items you dropped are carried onto an island by the same column. Crouch to dive — then the water does not carry you.

Quickwater carries flux with you: a bucket poured outside the Quickstream gives the chunk a quarter of its riverbed — but not above one and a half riverbeds — and lies as plain water. This is how the flux of a chunk is raised under a Sluice Arch or in a dry workshop. It is scooped with a bucket from the sea under the islands of the Quickstream; standing in it slowly heals. It does not multiply: two pools make no new source.

A Crucible filled with quickwater while empty boils over without murk: the living flux carries the surplus away. Scoop it — it is quickwater again; add plain water — it becomes plain. In the Stillness a poured bucket thaws a circle of three blocks for a minute — a short thaw on the move; it gives no flux there: the Stillness has no riverbed.