Chapter 27

Daios was cast down into the muck and mire of the depthstrider home. Long ago, when he was just a child, he remembered hearing so many stories about these creatures. They were pale from lack of sunlight. They were dangerous, with claws much larger than his own, and eyes that saw into the future.

There were rumors that the woman who ran their pod, Mitera, was descended from them. It was why she appeared more like a jellyfish than the other People of Water. She could see the future with her multicolored eyes swirling as she peered into a person's very soul.

Dangerous creatures, indeed. They could look inside someone they touched and know what and how and when they were going to swim throughout their lives. He'd been terrified of them. Or perhaps he'd been more terrified of what they would see.

His back ached as he struck the ground. Dust plumed around him, pressing against every part of his body and threatening to choke him through his gills. This was the same as the first time the depthstriders had brought him here. Years ago. He had been young and foolish, then.

A part of him had always thought he was better than the others. Pride had been his downfall. And when Arges was given the esteemed position of taking over their pod of warriors, he'd lost his mind. His ego had sent him careening into the depths as though he could change what had happened. Just like now, he'd been struck in the side and thrown into the dirt.

Daios was big. This creature was so much larger.

Breathing hard, he curled his fingers in the muck at the bottom of the sea. He knew what he would find when he looked up, and still he had to steel himself for what he would see.

Pale skin on the male's chest tapered into a deep purple that was only seen this far in the abyss. The depthstrider who loomed above him did not have fins that flared on his sides like the other undines, but tendrils. Tentacles that ended with bulbous tips that lit up with his anger. Though he still had the tell-tale fins on the sides of his face, his hair was much finer. Where Daios's locks were tangled into their own similar tentacles, this one had fine strands that billowed around his head like a plume of dark ink.

A severe face etched white as the moon, with lines of deep purple that streaked down from his eyes like tears, stared down at him. Powerful muscles flexed, his tail stretched so far behind him that it disappeared in the meager light both of their bodies let off.

"Fortis," he snarled.

"You have returned too soon," Fortis replied, his voice crackling with misuse. "Or perhaps far too late."

The tips of his tentacles glowed brighter, their ends reaching for him with what he knew would be an electric zap that would render him unconscious.

Rolling, he flicked his tail to get away from the much larger male. It was rare to meet anything in this sea that was larger than him, and it always made him uncomfortable.

Fortis grabbed onto his fluke, claws digging mercilessly into the delicate membrane there. Daios arched his back, his teeth bared as white hot pain raced up his spine all the way into the small of his back.

He fought. Writhing and wriggling like he could get away from this much larger creature who had absolutely no intention of letting him go. He fought until blood filled his gills, flowing out of the deep wounds that Fortis continued to rip through him. And still, he was stuck. Like a fish on a hook.

Hissing out an angry breath, he stilled. "What do you want with me, Fortis?"

"I wish for you to see."

"I have seen enough from your kind," he spat. Twisting so he could see the other male, he bared his fangs and gnashed his jaw. "Or did you forget how long I was here last time? Because I did not. I know exactly how long I was here and how much you plied me with your sulfuric medicine. It took me months to get it out of my system."

"Because you had not yet seen," Fortis replied, those soulless black eyes meeting his and uncaring of the discomfort he caused. "Now you have seen some, but not enough. You have been summoned."

"By who?" Daios snarled.

"By all of those who have been before, all of those suffer now, and those you meant to save." Fortis's voice raised until the booming sound nearly made Daios's ears bleed.

The depthstrider reeled him in, clawed hand over clawed hand, digging into his scales and ripping through his tail until the much larger creature could hold him in front of his face and snarl, "You didn't listen the first time."

In those black orbs, he could see colors moving. He fought harder, wrapping his own claws around the wrist that held onto him. Daios dug his talons in, tasting the black blood of the depthstrider that was so tainted with sulfur and metallic poison that it filled his lungs as though he had ingested the drug himself.

Maybe if he had both arms, he would have been able to fight harder. He would have been able to grapple with the other creature better, rather than just use his body like a battering ram. He couldn't get out of this depthstrider's grip, and he couldn't stop the darkness that swept around them both.

The colors in Fortis's eyes slowed, then stopped. That blackness sucked him in and suddenly he wasn't Daios any more. He wasn't anyone at all.

There was the briefest moment when he could still feel hatred that depthstriders could do this. That they were so connected to the sea itself that they could take a person out of their body and show them something that the sea wished for them to know. He had always hated how powerless moments like this made him feel. And Daios was tired of feeling weak.

Fortis sent him careening not through the ocean, but through a memory that flashed through his mind as though he was there. One moment, he was Daios at the bottom of the sea with a creature who had his hand wrapped around his neck. The next, he was back in Alpha.

Or at least, he thought it was Alpha. The room was still filled with wealth and gleaming walls as he had seen before. The opulence was almost blinding. But this room was not like the one he had seen, or any of the others he had seen while searching out Anya.

He floated in the water like the room was filled with it, but surely that wasn't possible. Groggy, he could feel both of his shoulders lifting and falling with each breath. Flexing his fingers, he felt them twitch, but he couldn't lift them. No, he had lost an arm. This wasn't him, it was someone else.

Blinking his eyes open, he stared down the length of his pale, purple body only to look up and see two achromos standing right in front of him. His vision was blurry, but he could see they were standing, not swimming. Two of them. Both men, one with hair barely covering his shiny skull and the other, younger man looking up at him with a dark grin on his face.

They wore white clothing and held something rectangular in their hands. He could see they were talking, but in this memory, he did not have the chip attached to his head. He didn't know what they were saying, only that they were saying something.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself to reach for them, to fight. But something was in the water. Something bitter that tasted like bile after his body rebelled over something he ate. It filled his gills and suddenly he wanted to sleep again. He wanted to let his head loll to the side and not even think of what was or could be.

Belatedly, he knew he should reach out to someone. But Daios didn't know how to do that. His people did not have the abilities of the depthstriders to reach out through the distances. He knew that there was nothing and no one who could hear him.

The achromos spoke for a while longer, then reached out and hit their hands against twin red orbs on either side of his container. One moment he was surrounded by water, and the next, he was spilling out onto the floor. He couldn't stop himself. His body was strangely limp, as though there wasn't a fiber of his being that could fight any longer.

Gills flaring wide, he tried to breathe, but he couldn't. There was no water around him, just air. His body just reacted. Water expelled through his gills, soaking his body as he shivered. Lungs he hadn't used in years filled with air as he breathed through his mouth, an unnatural feeling that seemed to thrill the achromos now standing above him.

Others reached for him. But he couldn't do anything with this body. All he could do was lie there, limp and trying to fight. It was in his blood to fight. He could hardly even bare his teeth to let them know that he intended to rip their guts out and make them wear them like a necklace.

They weren't afraid of him. It took six of them to lift his body, and not even smaller achromos. The ones who surrounded him were the larger of their species, and they still were not afraid.

He was placed on a cold, hard object. Higher up. He could feel his tail hanging off of it, limp as the fluke slapped heavily against the floor. The achromos converged on him, touching his body as though they had a right to.

And then he felt it. The first flick of pain that radiated through his body. It was enough to send his neck curving, just to look down at the achromo who had ripped off one of his scales.

The creature held up the purple specimen. He could see the light glinting off it, and there were gestures made as though the achromo was surprised at how thick it was. They'd torn a piece off of him. Like sharks in the water.

But then he saw next to them a table of implements that had been wheeled over. Blades and knives and glinting metal that were all meant to rip and maim. What was he supposed to do?

He couldn't move. He couldn't tell them to stop. He couldn't even beg for mercy once they had done all they intended to do.

Daios endured. Every inch of that memory was forced to be replayed as though he lived it himself. He felt their blades as they sliced through his skin while he was wide awake. They watched him for any sense that he might be able to move, but he wasn't ever able to defend himself. One moment he had been swimming through the sea and the next he was here.

Sharp blades cut into his belly. And his earlier threat became his reality. He watched his entrails pulled from his body, then measured and weighed on some gleaming scale that quickly grew mottled with his black blood. Throughout all of it, they watched him as though they were waiting for him to die. But his people were a hardy race. It took a lot to kill him, and so he endured.

Long hours of torment. What felt like forever while he suffered and silently begged them to stop.

When the first and last tear slid down his temple, he felt the spasm of death take him. His powerful tail curled up toward his body, the muscles bunching despite the drugs they had filled him with. Then and only then did he feel the sea reach to take him back.

Slamming back into his body, he gasped and reeled away from the creature who had held him. Fortis let him go. He knew Daios needed a few minutes to piece his soul and body back together. He needed to shake the feeling of death's claws from his shoulder and gather the taste of the sea on his tongue.

"Who?" he wheezed, his gills flaring wide and the oxygen in the water not feeding his lungs nearly enough.

"A friend," Fortis replied. Even this stoic creature seemed moved by the memory. Yellow tendrils shook at his sides, sending a strange strobe-like effect through the sea as they blinked on and off in his anger. "I found his body at the bottom of the sea. Half rotten with crabs crawling through his ribcage."

The image sent Daios's mind into a tailspin. He saw Hamartia's rotting face. He heard her screams and saw the water turning black around them. His breath caught in his lungs as he felt the cold claws of the dead scraping down the back of his neck.

And he knew if he turned, he would see her again. Or perhaps it would be someone else. Yet another person who had trusted him because he had listened to the depthstriders the first time they'd given him memories.

"I did your bidding," he whispered. "I did what you asked, and I failed. What makes you think I can do better this time?"

"Because this time you have more information. This time, I am not telling you what to do with the information I am giving you. I am showing you what has happened and now it is up to you to fix it."

"Why can't you?" he snarled, all of his fins flaring wide as though he were preparing to fight. "You are the one who told me all of this. You discovered the truth of the future that would happen if we do not stop them. What are you doing, Fortis? Other than sewing the seeds of malcontent for a future you know will come to pass no matter what we do?"

For the first time, the expression on Fortis's face changed. It wasn't much, just a twitch of his cheek, but Daios had a feeling that said far more than he could guess. "I have my own battle to fight."

"What battle, Fortis?" he shouted. "I see all of us risking our lives for this future you have seen. I see all of us above having to deal with the achromos far more than your kind, and still you all do nothing but sit in your muck and prophesy futures that have yet to come!"

A blur of pale color and surging rage rushed forward. Fortis stopped right in front of his face, so close that Daios could see the lines down his cheeks pulsed with a darker light. "Do you really believe there are only three cities? There are more, my brother. Do not make me kill you and find another messenger. The depthstriders are doing what we can down here so that those up above do not have to be attacked in the same way."

"You've already made me lose my arm," he replied, his own colors flaring bright. "I am not willing to lose anything else for you."

"Oh, because of the woman? Is that it? You will lose her and everything else if you do not control this. I could show you your future without her, if you wish. I could show you one with her as well. The ancients already gave your brother that gift, but it is not one I so readily share with those who do not appreciate what I can give them."

"Don't you dare speak of her."

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Fortis shoved him hard, sending him floating back a few feet before he flared his fins to stop himself. "You are lacking in more than just your arm, Daios. But the sea has tentatively cast you in her favor once again. So do not squander this opportunity, or she will swallow you herself."

With a flick of his massive tail, the pale creature disappeared into the darkness. But Daios stayed where he was until the pinpricks of light disappeared entirely. Until it was just him and the sea, at the bottom of the icy depths where he swore he could still feel Anya's arms around him.

Then it all hit him. Harder than the depthstrider who had grabbed him.

His people were dying. Anya's people were not just killing them, but experimenting on them. There was nothing either of them could do to stop them, but they had to try.

They would fight again. Battle and wage war until nothing remained but blood in this ocean. He should gather his warriors, create a pod of his own and attack every city until there was nothing remaining but rubble.

Instead, all he wanted was to see her.