Chapter 9Vera

Chapter 9

Vera

It wasn’t until I was outside that I realized I didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. I’d gone to enjoy the meal au naturel since Cetius had just put the salve on me, and I didn’t want it to rub off. Then when Seena had showed up she hadn’t reacted at all, and I’d honestly totally forgotten about it. Oh well. Looking around, we were pretty much alone, and it wasn’t like Cetius hadn’t seen all the goodies already.

Not to mention, the water made bras basically unnecessary. My breasts didn’t sag here at all; the water was support enough. I loved how bras made my ladies look , but hated the way they felt. Back on Earth, I always used to take them off the moment I got home. No clothes meant no bra, and no bra was most certainly a good thing in my books. So I rolled with it.

I was super grateful that Seena had prepared food for me. I wasn’t sure I could ever eat live fish and animals like the Thalassonians did. Then again, he probably found my lifeless slabs of meat just as unappetizing as I did a wriggling lettuce wrap.

Turned out that the “dining room” wasn’t what I had thought it was at all. The part I’d stayed in was simply the entrance. The giant open space above the enclosures was the real dining room, where they could chase down their meal. I bet it helped them work up quite an appetite.

I remember learning that some reptiles and amphibians on Earth only ate live food. In captivity, they had to be tricked to eat anything else. They’d even spit it out again if it didn’t move around in their mouth! It made sense, I guess. If it was still moving, you knew it was very fresh.

We stepped out into the courtyard. The sky…or rather the sea…was exactly the same as I’d remembered it yesterday. Either it was precisely the same time of day, or the ambient light in the city was consistent day in and day out. I made a mental note to ask when we got back inside. This whole lack of voice thing when I was in the water was getting really inconvenient.

I swam awkwardly to the plant with the blue and purple spear-like leaves and gestured to it, hoping that he’d understand I was curious about it.

“You were wearing this in your hair yesterday. You like this plant?”

I nodded, then held one of the purple-blue leaves with silver stripes up to his scales.

“Yes. We share similar colorings.”

I tipped my head questioningly…at least I hoped that was how he’d interpret it…and urged him to tell me more. I wanted to know where he found it, because it didn’t look like anything I’d seen coming into the city.

“I found it off one of the smaller floating islands. Clumps of it were clinging to the edge of the shelf, barely remaining attached as they were battered by the currents. I believe it used to grow in a sheltered area, but a chunk of the shelf broke off, exposing it. I couldn’t find the plant anywhere else, so I uprooted a single section and carefully brought it home. We almost lost it several times until we came to know its requirements.”

Aww. Cetius might have saved it from extinction. Surely, as the floating islands broke off and were constantly carried by the currents, biodiversity would drop, since only life that could survive in a multitude of changing climates would thrive.

I opened my mouth to ask what the requirements were and who he meant by we, but no sound came out. Drat! Add it to the list of questions.

I also wanted to tell him that purple and blue plants were my favorite. When I was younger, I’d longed for a garden full of purple and blue flowers, but that dream was dashed when we were all shoved into the space stations.

We went about his garden, and he explained where he had found some of the cooler plants and decorations. He didn’t know much about the plants themselves, but he remembered the exact spot where he’d found them. Each one was a live souvenir from his adventures around Aquaria—adventures that I could tell he was very sad to be leaving behind, now that he had to stay in the city and run the family business.

I thought it was kind of too bad that he had to put aside something he enjoyed so much. He didn’t look that old, either, but I was a horrible judge of age, especially with a species I didn’t know that well. For all I knew, he could be middle-aged, but I got the impression he was still in his prime.

I wondered if I could convince him to take me up to explore one of the islands. I would’ve totally checked out the island I landed on if it hadn’t been for that storm. The oceans around the islands were interesting, too. I wondered if species ever hopped from one island shelf to another, and if being isolated on an island shelf meant species evolved differently.

“Cetius!”

I turned, then shrank back and tried to hide behind my triton husband. There was a giant sea serpent in his garden! If I had been able to scream, I would have.

“Iravan, welcome. I thought you were coming by a little later.”

Suddenly, I was very glad I didn’t have the ability to speak underwater yet. Screaming and hiding at the sight of one of his friends? Super embarrassing.

“I wasss,” his friend hissed.

I didn’t know how it was possible underwater and without air, but the creature sounded downright sibilant. Yup, totally a sea serpent. My triton husband was friends with a sea monster!

Cetius made the introductions and explained my inability to speak until I got used to using water instead of air.

“I came by early to warn you. Your brother isss in the cccity core today. You might want to make sssure your little human is safely hidden away.”

As he spoke, the translator got used to his speech and started to drop the extra s’s. Handy.

There was that mention of his brother again. I thought it was still too early to ask him for details, but I filed away all the information I could for later.

“Also,” Iravan continued, “this arrived at the office.” He held out a conch-shaped device I recognized by now as one of their cell phones. “I took the liberty of entering your, Cetia’s, and Cetion’s contacts into it.”

Cetius took it and then handed it to me. “This is for you.”

I took it and squeezed his hand in thanks.

“Do you know how to use one?”

I nodded. Cetia had shown me yesterday.

“Good. Now, let’s get inside. I don’t want to deal with Algrim just yet. I will continue telling you about the plants another time.”

“Cetius, please. You’re going to bore the poor female to death with details of your travels.”

I shook my head vigorously. I wasn’t bored at all.

“Vera studied plants back on her home planet.”

“Really? I didn’t know Earth had any plants left to study.”

“Maybe that’s why Starlight Brides thought she would be a good match and sent her here. Plenty of plants of all kinds. She can continue studying them here. I don’t know much about the specimens I bring back, the gardener does most of that. Poor Kole. He keeps having to deal with species he’s never seen before.”

So that was who he meant by “we”. He had a gardener. Well of course he would, with an estate like this. Surely, he wasn’t doing all the landscaping himself. Seena hadn’t known anything about the plants either. And I was pretty sure she didn’t look after all the small animals in that room full of…terrariums? Vivariums? It was hard to think of them as aquariums since we were underwater already.

We went to a large room with seating, and as Iravan regaled me with stories of Cetius when he was a kid, Seena brought in a tray of snackables: a carefully presented selection of shellfish, roe, and greens. Basically, anything that wasn’t liable to swim away.

Apparently, Cetius wanted to take me on a honeymoon to a resort up on one of the floating islands. He had to explain to Iravan that a honeymoon had nothing to do with condensed nectar or the lunar cycle but was the equivalent of a post-union vacation newlyweds on Earth embarked on together to spend time away from everyday stresses.

The destination was apparently a vacation island on the planet that attracted both ocean and land dwellers. The tropical paradise was equally beautiful under the waves and on the sand. It wasn’t quite the same as exploring the unknown, but I could tell Cetius was excited for a trip of any kind.

It was one of the reasons he had asked his friend to come over. The first of course was to meet me, but the other was to work out some details for work so he could take me on our trip. I thought it was sweet that he cared enough to find a place where I’d feel comfortable. A tropical island vacation sounded just about perfect to me.

From the way they spoke, I got the impression that Cetius didn’t really need to be there for things to run smoothly, but because of a recent dip in sales and shares due to the recent handover of leadership to him, he’d taken a more hands-on approach. No wonder his grandsire had told him he needed to learn to delegate.

Reading between the lines, I got why Cetius wanted to be there. It seemed not everyone thought he could run the business, so he felt he had something to prove.

After a short visit, the two dropped me off in my air-filled room and went to Cetius’s home office to talk more about nitty-gritty logistics.

Alone, I reflected on everything I’d learned today. It was only my second day in Coral’s Deep and already I was starting to think that Starlight Brides did in fact know what they were doing. So far, everything I had learned about Cetius had been great.

Sure, he was filthy fucking rich, but that wasn’t what made him attractive to me. He was hardworking too, and really seemed to care about his family. I liked his sister and his grandsire. And Iravan was nice as well.

But it was that look on his face when he talked about his travels that really got to me. I’d never seen a man so passionate about something before, and it was a total turn-on. I’d never thought of myself as an explorer type, but the way he talked about all these places made me want to go there too and see them with my own eyes.

I flopped down onto the chair in front of my computer and pulled up the forum with all the other Starlight brides, wondering if any of them managed to go on extended trips with their husbands.