The kelp shifted behind him and he drew his tail inside to make room for the newcomer. He’d expected perhaps Maketes, who had helped his brother away from that original kelp forest. The yellow scaled brother might have brought Daios somewhere safe, and therefore would have tried to find Arges. Who he did not expect to see was Mitéra herself, slowly gliding into his home and casting her gaze over the weaving he touched.
“Your mother had a talent.”
The tapestry fell through his claws, already ripped, but tearing more with every current that pressed along it. “Yes, she did.”
“You are not supposed to be here, Arges. You are supposed to be with your achromo, convincing her to tell us all her secrets.”
“She’s dying.” He’d intended to ease into this conversation. He had wanted to convince Mitéra of his kairos’s use, or perhaps that they could trust Mira to come back, even though that was unlikely. Instead, he was the idiot who blurted out the truth the moment Mitéra looked at him. “She will not last much longer without the achromos’ medicine that they take. She will die and we will get no information out of her.”
Mitéra waved her hand through the water. “Then she will die. Now we know how to take them, and that their people will not follow anyone who has been lost. You will get another.”
“I do not wish to take another.”
It was a hard truth to tell her, but one that he felt deeply. Arges was not meant for this. He wasn’t supposed to take people out of their homes and watch while they died. He couldn’t torture anymore people like this.
He was loath to admit that the achromos had become people to him. He hated that. And also knew it was right at the same time.
Mitéra watched the emotions play across his face with all-seeing eyes. “You feel something for this achromo.”
“She is honorable,” he begrudgingly admitted. “More than I expected her to be.”
“There is no honor in their kind.”
“There is in this one.”
Her usually serene expression warped with confusion, and he knew that she couldn’t understand what he meant. There was no way she could even see what he saw in Mira, and that was the problem. Mira was the enemy. And that was the only way any of his people could think.
Mitéra’s frown deepened. She shifted closer, the bell of her hair billowing around her and glimmering a hundred colors before she brushed her hand through his hair, over the glowing tendrils mixed in with the tangled locks. “You know there has never been such a pairing. We are not even the same kind, my son.”
“I know.”
“You know it is impossible, then. And that future cannot change, no matter how hard you fight against the sea.”
He did. And yet there was still something in his chest that whispered, “Maybe.”
Mitéra shook her head and backed away from him. “You need to seek the ancients. Beg them to show you the future, so that you may understand why I warn you. You seek only a life of sadness and ruin.”
“The ancients only welcome you, Mitéra.”
“They will welcome you this time.” Her features hardened, and he saw the tendrils underneath the bell of her hair lifting. “I will tell them you are coming, and you will go to them now. My son. Tell them to fix you and give me back my warrior.”
He did not want to be fixed. He didn’t want all of this to change his mind about who or what he was, it simply wasn’t... right. Arges didn’t want to forget her. Mira was so much more than just an achromo that he had stolen, and yet he was powerless to disagree with Mitéra.
If the ancients wished to speak with him, then he would do so.
Arges moved through his home with his eyes on the ground and his thoughts in the billowing sand. The sea would drag him farther down, into the very depths where all the lights went out. And even then, he did not care. He kept his own bright blue lights dim and close to his skin, so as not to attract the attention of the creatures far in the depths.
The ancients were monstrous beings who lived in the depths. They no longer moved, although legends claimed they used to in the old days. Apparently, there were many of them. Massive sea beasts with long necks and lights that dangled off the fronts of their heads, like anglerfish but infinitely larger. Their mouths were wide enough to swallow a whale whole, but they could not move very quickly.
Many of them died early on, and now his own people took care of them. Every year they made sacrifices to the depths, sending whales and sharks and other large sea creatures into the depths in the hopes that the ancients would remain hidden.
He had never seen one before, and he wasn’t certain he was prepared to see them at all.
But as soon as he neared the depths, three lights illuminated everything around him. He saw in a sudden flash the skeleton creatures who had trailed along with him. Fish with sharp, massive teeth. Sharks larger than he was with dead eyes that had not seen anything in the darkness for a hundred years. Strange, alien squids with tiny bodies but arms that were longer than he was in thin, razor sharp lines.
All of these creatures fled the moment he came close to the ancients. And he knew why.
They truly were terrifying. Their massive bodies were nearly as large as the achromos’ cities were tall. Covered in massive, thick plated scales, they were impossible to kill unless through starvation. Their long necks led only to mouths. He could not even see their eyes. Didn’t know if they even had eyes. His gaze remained on their teeth, and their gills that opened and closed with breaths that were so slow, he feared they might no longer be living.
“Arges.” They spoke as one. Three of them with booming voices that were so loud he felt the delicate membranes of his ears seal shut in an attempt to not bleed through the power of their voices. “You are here. Mitéra said you would come.”
“I seek my future,” he said quietly, trying not to show fear. “She said you would show it to me.”
“You have two.” The nearest ancient shifted, and he realized they actually had fins. Short, stubby fins, like a seal. With bones inside them that moved like a hand, even though they were encased in a thick layer of blubbery fat and leathery hide. “Your futures have always intrigued us. You are an outlier, Arges. A creature who can defy the natural order of things.”
He didn’t want to hear their opinions of who he was or what he could do with his life. He wanted to know what the truth was. He wanted to know... “Two?” he asked. “How is that possible?”
A great wave of energy blasted against his spine. Though he knew it was a deep sea shark with smooth skin that had bumped him nearer to the ancients, he couldn’t stop himself from struggling. He also did not want to get anywhere near these massive creatures and yet, he was forced. He wasn’t given the option to remain far from them.
Instead, he was ushered closer to the first one’s teeth. He stared into that maw and then froze as the mouth opened. “Come.” He watched as the massive tongue moved to shape the word. “Seek out your future, Arges of the sea.”
The current moved him even closer, and before he knew it, he was inside the maw of the monster. There was only a split second for him to feel the massive tongue against his back before something sharp nicked through his scales. He arched into the pain, surprised by the sudden poisonous heat that flowed through his veins and then... he disappeared.
Arges wasn’t here. He wasn’t in the monster, nor was he even in the sea. He was in the middle of nothing, darkness that stretched out from all angles until a light bloomed in the distance. The moment he noticed it, the future barreled toward him.