“Why is it called that?”
“I don’t know.” She drifted out of his arms, through the warmer water and to the button that she could only assume was rusted, but was pleased to find still worked. Hitting it with her thumb, Mira moved away as the moon pool opened and revealed a room above her head.
She didn’t hesitate. Mira kicked her feet and ripped off her mask. She didn’t care if the air was stale or smelled like wet seaweed. She didn’t care even if it was breathable, because it had to be. There was a person living here. A human person who could... could...
No one had been here for ages.
She looked around, noting the thick layers of dust that coated everything and the strange, stagnant air. No one had been around to push buttons or maintain this space in a long time.
The steps down into the moon pool were very bland, but everything else in this room wasn’t. What little walls there were, mostly half walls of metal underneath glass, were hand painted with faded yellow flowers. Delicately and meticulously made to look like daisies. There were two levels inside. One with a table and half a kitchenette, small but enough for a single person. And the next level with a comfortable bed with a yellow comforter that somehow was still in perfect condition. It even had pillows. So many of them.
Spinning in the water, she turned to look behind her and saw the rest of the dome was full of life. Plants that overflowed with so many variations of zucchini, tomatoes, grapes, countless others she couldn’t name that weren’t bearing fruit yet. Food. Real food.
Her jaw hung open in shock. It wasn’t possible that there was a place like this under the ocean and yet, here it was. More food than she could eat and various tables and jars everywhere. A person had lived here. Not even just lived, but thrived.
A small rescue pod, out in the middle of the ocean. Far away from any of the cities. Who had built this?
Swallowing hard, she pushed herself out of the water and sat on the edge of the moon pool, trying to devour everything with her eyes. But her mind couldn’t keep up. This was beautiful and remarkable and far too perfect for everything that she needed.
Arges joined her, slowly rising out of the water like some kind of sea god who had brought her to salvation. “Will this suffice?”
“I don’t even know what this is.”
“There were rumors, years ago, of my people keeping... pets.” His lips wrinkled in distaste. “There was one in particular who had been brought to this area by her owner and I thought perhaps it was still around.”
“So it is.”
“This will keep you alive?” He stared at her a little too intently. “You will not die here?”
She could feel the warm sun at her back and was surrounded by food. No, she wouldn’t die here. “I don’t think so.”
Arges swam a little closer and tapped his knuckles on Byte’s exterior. The little robot opened the top hatch, glaring as much as a robot could.
The undine snarled at her droid before repeating, “She will not die here?”
“This will suffice.”
“Good.” He swam a little farther away from her, looking like he wanted to stay. “I have a few things to do, our trail to cover up, and I need to find where my brother is. Stay alive, human.”
“I—”
But he was gone before she could thank him.
Twenty-Eight
Arges
It took him far too long to figure everything out. He returned to his home, still hoping that Daios might have been there. But his brother was suspiciously absent, as were more of the members of his pod.
A bitter ache churned in Arges’s belly the longer he was with his people. He knew that there was some undercurrent of disrespect, but he didn’t know how to deal with it. His people had never not trusted him. They’d always looked to him to lead.
Now, after he had taken the job that their own Mitéra had given him, he was suddenly an outsider. People didn’t want to be around him. They tugged their children away from him when he moved through the coral city. They even glared when they thought he wasn’t looking. Did they forget how he had just saved them? Did they think he had forgotten how they used to treat him?
But perhaps it was her scent. Even he could smell her, no matter where he went. She clung to his scales as a constant reminder of what he had done and what he planned to do.
Still, it took many days for him to ease Mitéra’s mind and to make sure that his brother wasn’t returning. He hated that he had to leave his kairos alone to do so. It made his stomach churn and his hearts beat in his chest a little too hard. He wanted to go right back to her. To stand guard outside of that dome, and maybe that was how the original owner had felt.
He’d lied to Mira. There were no rumors about anyone living there, nor had he been aware of its existence. He’d asked the sea to guide him to where she would be safe, and it had brought him there.
Outside of the home, he’d found two skeletons. One that was clearly of her people, the bones of her legs had been eerily interesting. And laid out next to her were the bones of one of his own kind. A massive male, with a tail nearly twice as long as Arges’s, speaking of his age and power. They had been curled up next to each other, almost as though the sea didn’t even dare move their skeletons. Together, even in death.
But when he had looked into the dome, he had seen there was much of their life still there. So much that his kairos could live on, and perhaps even thrive on. So he had decided to move their bodies. Even if it was against every part of him, he moved them so his Mira would be safe.
Perhaps his people could smell the death on his hands as well.
Troubled, he started the long journey to where he had hidden Mira. It took even longer for him to get there, namely because he doubled back multiple times, trying to shake anyone who might follow him. He hated to bring anyone to this place, considering the awe in her eyes when she had seen everything inside the glass dome.
He’d felt like he had done something right for the first time in a very long time. Her eyes had been so wide, so pleased with what he’d found. And he’d felt his gills raise and his chest puff out in pride.
He had taken care of her. Provided for her in more than just the way that his people had stolen mates in the past. She was safe for the first time since they had come here, and that was... rare. For her, for her kind, for even his people. It was hard to ever be safe in the sea.
His thoughts were so scattered, he hardly realized what he was doing until he made it all the way back to her dome. Swimming above it, feeling the warmth of dim sunlight on his back, he hovered above her small bubble of air in the ocean.
She’d cleaned, he noticed. Perhaps she’d come out here with her rebreather on and rags in hand. But a majority of the algae had been scrubbed off the glass, giving him a perfect view into the dome.
Arges had thought she would notice him, but she didn’t. Not at all.
Instead, his little captive kairos puttered about the dome. Completely and utterly ignorant that he was above her.
Her arms were laden with green fronds, and she was clearly talking to Byte. Wandering about with those fronds, she gathered more and more, stacking them on top of each other as she chattered. But what she wore captivated him far more than the movement of her lips. Instead of her usual wetsuit, she wore a bright blue dress. He’d seen humans wear them before, the fabric cupping underneath her breasts and lifting them in such a tantalizing way. The flare of fabric around her waist moved like waves around her body as she shifted, swinging this way and that with such lovely movement.