Chapter 29

chapter 29

ELLE

The next morning I raided every storage spot inside ALRI I could open, till I found what Ceph required—a black fabric grocery-bag looking thing—and took it to the dock with me.

"Going shopping?" Donna asked.

"Yeah. I'll snag you some lettuce if I see any," I said and grinned. She kept giving me a look, and I kept laughing.

"What's so funny, ladies?" Marcus asked, when he came on the scene, and then somehow that made it worse, especially when Donna muttered something about "setting number five" and he groaned. "This is exactly what I was afraid of. You two ganging up on me," he said, stepping up into his crane roost.

I got into the suit, still beaming, and walked confidently into the water. "Ceph?" I thought out.

"My pearl," he said, swimming up to me. He flashed blue and then purple, and I realized I really needed to talk to him about his colors—I wanted to know what all of them meant to him. "Did you solve everything last night in a dream?"

"Ha. No, I wish." I hadn't dreamed at all, really. And when I had fallen asleep, it was into a deep slumber, and I woke up rested again, even though I couldn't have had more than a few hours of sleep. "But I'm ready to try and work on it again today."

We had a few more safe days together at least, before I was supposed to write a report for the next submersible run so that Mr. Marlow could know what the fuck I was doing with his money.

Ceph swam ahead, and then swam back. "I will carry you as soon as we reach the part where they will not see."

"Okay," I told him, with a blush. And then once we reached it, he picked me up again, swimming both of us off in a slightly wrong direction.

"The ship's over there!" I told him. At least I thought it was—it was easy to get spun around in the darkness.

"I know," he said, setting me down gently. "But I made this for you here."

At first I couldn't tell what it was I was looking at—but then I realized there were intricate lines and patterns on the ground.

"Is this your language?" I wondered, carefully kneeling down, to get closer.

"Why would we use language, when we have the 'qa?" he asked me, coming to be by my side. "It is part of our ceremony." He took my hand, so that I would stand up. "It is a thing that my people have always done. You are meant to follow them."

I scanned left and right—and realized that the lines were a path. "Oh!"

He nodded, and then disappeared. He was still in my mind, I knew he hadn't gone far, so I walked along the path, feeling like a monk wandering a meditative maze. And the first thing I came across was a piece of coral that glowed after my light left it.

"What is this, Ceph?" I asked in wonder, picking it up.

"It is for you. To light your way in the dark." I was touched. I put it in my bag. "Keep going," he urged.

I followed the next steps of the path—until I came across a small kraken figurine. It was wonderfully detailed, and smooth to my tactimetal's touch .

"Ceph!" I squealed, picking it up. "Is this you?"

I heard him laugh inside my mind. "Not exactly—but it could be. I carved it, a very long time ago. It is so you will always have me close."

"It's perfect," I told him, holding it out, so that he and it were side by side. His lips were peeled wide, in a smile, revealing his fearsome bone-beak, but nothing about me was frightened of him.

"There is more," he promised, darting off into the dark, to wait for me at my next stop.

I walked down the rest of his path, going whichever way it required, until I wound up in front of a small shiny rock—and on it was my wedding ring.

"And this is what you thought you lost, but now have found."

I inhaled deeply. "Ceph."

"I saved it for you," he said, and I could feel his pride building. "Traditionally, I am supposed to feed you now, but I did not kill anything, since with your helmet on you cannot eat?—"

"I don't want that back," I stammered on our 'qa, and he went silent.

"Why not?" he asked, when an explanation didn't come.

"Because. I threw it into the sea for a reason."

"Ah. So it was trash." I could feel him chastising himself.

"No, it wasn't—it was just..." A sign. That I was rebounding too fast—like I was bouncing on a goddamned trampoline.

What the fuck had I been thinking?

I'd wanted to throw caution to the wind, but—it was one thing to know I was going to hurt me.

It was an entirely other thing to know I would be hurting him.

"Look, Ceph," I started, taking several steps back. "I'm glad I know you, and flirting with you has been lifechanging, but I'm human and you're not, and even though you're really hot and kind and pretty much amazing—there's gonna come a day when I have to get out of the ocean. And if I take that," I said, pointing at the ring, my heart squeezing hard. "Other people make promises and get to break them—but not me. Taking that from you—someday it'll make me a liar."

I watched him breathe, his chest swelling and falling, as his tentacles gently worked to keep him afloat. "I understand." He bent down to pick the ring up, and put it back into one of his belt's many pockets.

"I'm so sorry, Ceph."

"I know you are," he said, tapping the side of his head meaningfully—because he could hear it from me. "So you do not need to say any more." He looked back over his shoulder. "Let us go back to your spaceship, and see what we can learn."