Chapter 3

For once after his injury, he was glad he only had the one arm. The pipes were tight, and slithering through them was grueling work at some points. For the most part, he was able to move through them fairly easily, though. There was enough space for his tail to flick him forward. With one arm raised to guide him through the darkness, and the other shoulder bent down, he could slide into their world far too easily.

These achromos. They were always so certain that they were protected and safe in their little bubbles, but they were not foolproof.

He had spent too much of his life learning how to fight them to not know their weaknesses. And hubris was the greatest weakness they had.

Finally, he saw a small light at the end of the piping. He'd traveled through this section for a while, mapping it out in his mind as he took only rights to ensure that he knew how to get his way out. The last thing this mission needed was for him to get stuck in the piping system with no idea how to get out.

He kept the fears at bay. But the voices constantly whispered in his mind. At least there was no one else for him to kill here. At least he couldn't harm anyone else if he was the only one who ended up dead.

Maybe he deserved to end up dead, just like all the other People of Water who had suffered the consequences of his folly.

Breathing slow and shallow through his gills, he conserved his energy in case something else happened. But strangely, these pipes led straight toward a light that flickered at the end of the tunnel. That golden light called out to him, even if he was quite certain it could be his end.

These achromos didn't see the world the way they should. All they saw was something to plunder, and he could only imagine their homes were dismal and disgusting. He liked to think they lived in caverns like eels, staring out from their dark homes with beady little eyes that watched for the slightest glimpse of a weakness in anything approaching them.

But as he stuck his head out of the piping that led into a massively deep structure, he was speechless as he realized everything above him was beautiful. The ceiling held the image of clouds, so detailed and streaked with pinks and reds that it was almost as though he looked up at the actual sky. He'd only seen the surface a few times in this life, but it had looked like this.

And the strange pool he was now in was decorated as well. There were chips of glimmering gemstones all around the bottom. Those gemstones caught in the golden light and flickered against the wall in a thousand rainbows that danced everywhere his eyes looked. Even the walls of the pool were smooth to the touch when they shouldn't be. They couldn't be.

Rock wasn't smooth. Not like this.

He reached out with a clawed, webbed hand and gently patted the edge. It really was lovely. It made him hate them all the more. They hoarded this wealth to themselves when his people might have used this to make more comfortable homes for themselves.

A low rumble vibrated through his gills as he moved all the way out and approached the surface.

Breaking the water line, he kept most of his body underneath it, but lifted his gaze. Blinking the water out of his eyes, he was surprised to see even more wealth here. Gold poured from the ceiling above him, and the benches were made out of a pure white substance that he'd never seen before.

He pulled himself out of the water a little farther, lifting his head up as he searched for anyone in the room. And for a moment, he thought he was entirely alone, until someone started speaking.

Daios ducked into the water again, his hearts racing as he worried that there would soon be screaming. The sound was almost similar to screaming. The cries of the achromos were terrible, and he knew that they summoned others with that horrible squawking sound.

But the sound continued on and on, almost as though this was intentional. As though the person didn't realize that they were screaming.

Frowning, he allowed his ears to pop above the surface again. And yes, it was similar to screaming, but nowhere near as loud. The pitch continually changed up and down, some of it quiet and some of it loud. Then he realized where it was coming from.

A woman sat in the corner, something in her hands as she waved them in front of her in a graceful dance. Her fingers flew over the air before her, as though she were playing some instrument he could not see.

Her golden hair fit in with this place, just like the yellow dress she wore. But it was her hair that he could not stop staring at. It was so... elegant. A smooth waterfall of golden color that was pinned in place with some claw shaped device that held all the locks where she wanted them. But he wanted to rip that out of her head. He wanted to see the shiny tumble and to feel if it was as smooth as it looked.

His fingers spasmed in the water, a strange reaction considering he also wanted to kill her.

She was too small for him to be interested in. His hearts did not beat for someone that would break the moment he first touched them. Not to mention she was so perfect. A little golden statue hidden in the middle of her golden city. So pretty and perfect and wrong for him.

A monster would leave smudges on something so lovely as she.

Besides, he hated her kind. And he was going to destroy them from the inside out. She would never see him as anything other than a nightmare, nor should she.

For now, he would know that this pool was a start. He should return to his people and let them know he had found a way into the hidden city. He could get them into Alpha, which meant he could likely shield Mira and bring her all the way here. Then she could steal some of their coverings and make her way into the city. From there, she could hopefully find the General's daughter.

That was who they were looking for, after all.

The door to the room opened, and he ducked back into the water with a soundless movement. He barely even saw ripples as he sank back toward the pipe that would lead him out of the room.

But this person spoke clearly, loudly, and succinctly. He could hear this woman's voice all the way through the deep water and to the pipe that he had almost finished backing into.

"Are you quite done?" the woman barked, her voice piercing even from these depths. "The General would like to see his daughter making rounds, and if you're unwilling to do that, I'm sure he will happily have some words with you."

The General's daughter?

Daios suddenly turned his attention to the surface again. Though slightly warped through the surface, he could see the new woman standing there with a frown on her face. But more importantly, he could see that the golden-haired woman had not responded.

"Hey!" the woman said, much more loudly. "Would you look at me, please? Clearly you cannot hear a damn thing I'm saying."

There was a longer pause, but the General's daughter still did not look at the woman.

"Absolute nuisance," the woman muttered, stalking away.

But as the door closed, clicking shut, he could see the General's daughter look to the door. What a strange woman to pretend that another person wasn't even in the room. But then she turned her attention back to something floating in the air that didn't exist.

Interesting,he thought as he returned to the surface. Curiosity burned in his chest. Why did this woman have so much power over others that she didn't have to respond?

He crested the surface again, moving slightly closer to her. Enough so that he could reach up with a webbed hand and grab onto the edge of the pool. Still, she did not move, didn't respond, didn't even see him. For the daughter of a warrior, she didn't have a lot of self preservation. She should have felt his gaze on her or something of the ilk.

His fingers accidentally brushed against a silver container that clanked as it fell against the lip of the pool. The high-pitched clamouring echoing through the room. He froze, already halfway out of the water at this point. She would soon turn to the sound, see a monstrous red beast coming out of the pool, and then she'd scream.

A sound erupted from her mouth, and the sound made him flinch. The scream would surely warn all the other achromos that an intruder had finally broken through their defenses...

Except, it was the same off key sound she'd made before. A terrible sounding voice, but the more he listened, the more he realized she was attempting to sing.

What a grating voice, but she was clearly enjoying herself. And she hadn't heard the sound of the pot. He looked at the metal, frowning as though maybe he'd only heard the sound in his mind. But the metal had sunk down to the bottom, soap floating up and bubbles floating on the surface. He'd only seen Mira use this awful substance, and it stuck to his gills in the most horrendous manner.

Glancing back at the woman, he felt something in his chest click.

For whatever reason, she was unaware of her surroundings. Clearly, she could see. Her fingers flew in front of her as only a person who could see would do. Could she not hear?

Narrowing his eyes, he tested this theory. As strange as it was, there was a thread in his chest that screamed for him to know more about this woman. He needed to understand her. Why? He had no idea.

Daios knocked off another of those metal containers, listening to it clink and echo as it tumbled across the strange texture of stone and then fell into the pool. Nothing. No reaction at all.

It made him brave. Her lack of reaction only made him want to test this even more. Perhaps that was what made him so unfit for this mission. After all, he was supposed to find a way in and then report back. There should be multiple People of Water wandering through the pipes right now, seeking out the best way to kidnap this woman who fate had handed to him.

But all he had to do was reach out. He could grab her by the waist and yank her into the water with him. But she was still an achromo. Still a monstrous being who he had fought against his entire life. The thought of connecting one of his longer tentacles to her throat? To create that connection so he could breathe for her underwater?

It made him want to vomit.

Still, he couldn't stop himself from pulling his giant body out of the water. Using his one arm, he lurched forward until he was right behind her. Only his fluke remained in the water, and he knew that this put him in a precarious position. If anyone walked in, they would see him here. They would scream and he would have a hard time getting back in the water before they all arrived with their blisteringly hot weapons that would rip and tear through his body.

But he wanted to know. He had to know.

Daios watched his arm as though it belonged to a stranger. One moment, he was coiling his tail underneath him so he could loom above her. And the next, his good arm was reaching out toward her hair. Carefully, so delicately that surely she wouldn't feel anything at all, he reached for the clip.

She wore a clear square over one eye, and he could see through it from this angle. She saw something far more than just the world in front of her. Every hand flick was moving something in that glass. Messages, perhaps, but it looked more like a map. Like someone had sent her a map, and she was looking through it at the best way to do... something.

So, this little creature had more plans than he had expected. Perhaps he had been foolish to think she would be easy to capture. She was still the General's daughter after all.

With a quick snapping movement of his claws, he untangled the clip from her hair and launched himself back toward the pool. But he still watched, and all he saw was the slow motion waterfall of her hair falling out of its confines. He'd been right. It was smooth and so soft as it had fallen across his webs with the barest of touches. Like the finest material he had ever seen in his life.

A precious, golden waterfall that made every muscle in his body tense. He told himself it was because he had to rush away from the stupid thing that he'd done and that she surely would call for reinforcements.

Because she whipped around so quickly that he almost didn't get out of her way before she saw him. Maybe she did. Maybe she'd have the sense to realize that a dark figure had been directly behind her, and all that remained was the splashing edges of the water and the waves that billowed onto the floor from where she stood.

He'd already darted into the pipe with her clip in his hand and his hearts thundering in his chest. Stupid. What a risk. She'd probably go into hiding now after she started screaming, but... she didn't.

Daios hesitated, then turned at one of the connectors where he could squeeze his body into a "U" in the tight fit. He couldn't leave. Not when she hadn't reacted the way he'd expected. So he returned to that golden light and peered through the water to see her standing there. The water was still rioting from the massive length of his body, disturbing it, but she wasn't screaming. She was just standing, staring at the water like she'd seen a ghost.

Maybe she had.

Daios bared his teeth in what he was certain was an evil grin. She had no idea that he was coming for her.

A part of him he didn't recognize unfurled in his chest. A demon, surely, because it whispered words he'd only heard in the darkest times of his life before.

"Hunt her," it growled in his chest, rumbling through him until he felt his gills vibrate with the sound.

The woman above him stumbled back from the pool at the sound. Maybe she hadn't lost all her ability to hear. Or perhaps she recognized the feeling that she was suddenly prey.

A predator had entered her home. Now he wanted to see just how easy she was to hunt.

With that feral grin still in place, he tossed her clip out into the center of the pool and waited.