Page 16 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)
Sixteen
Fortis
T here is honor in her, and Fortis hated that he saw it. The more he spoke with her, the more certain he was that this was a dangerous current to swim. She was an unusual specimen of an achromo. He hesitated to even call her one.
Though she shared the same looks and the same body that many of their kind had, she was so different that it didn’t seem right to lump her in with all those monstrous creatures. Alexia’s experiences made her singularly different. She struggled with the choices she made, just as he did, and that was something he could appreciate.
Because she had done terrible things. Just the few glimpses he’d gotten and the few things that she’d told him, her life had been filled with brutality. They were memories that would haunt her for the rest of her life, as they should.
But he had the same kind of memories. A city that fell because of his intervention, so many deaths that he had prophesized and there was nothing he could do to stop them. Countless memories that had made him question if he was a good person or not. He understood the struggle she was going through and it angered him that he could identify with someone of her species.
Fortis floated through the sea, sinking deeper and deeper into the depths where he could find some peace.
The sulfur fields were mainly used by his people. Not the rest of the People of Water, but specifically the depthstriders who could glide through the noxious waters without passing out. Of course, there were some who lingered deep within the yellow fields in the hopes that they could disappear from the world for a while. He’d even encouraged Daios to be here for a while as he struggled with his own choices.
Anger could not exist while a person was floating through the sickly smell. Nothing could exist. It was a place where the sea spoke directly to the soul, and no other thought could survive.
He needed that.
Desperately.
Because he was softening toward an achromo that he could not leave alone. He hated their species. Always had.
So why, when he closed his eyes, did he feel the curves of her hips in his palms? Why could he see the perfect image of her when she’d taken her clothing off and he had stared at her? He had no permission to do so. And why... why did he care that she had promised to try to trust him?
This was wrong. He needed to get his mind back on the mission. He didn’t need to think about the way she’d been curled up in that chair, strangely small when he’d always thought of her as a towering pillar of strength. But she’d been so little outlined by blue light, even with her muscular arms wrapped around her legs. That moment of weakness had nearly destroyed him.
He hated to see her like that. Hated to acknowledge that he had anything to do with it.
So he sought out his goddess. He had to know that he was doing the right thing, and that he wasn’t making the same mistake so many of his friends had already.
The first hint of sulfur tickled his nose, and he knew he had found a hidden vent. There were more frequented fields on the sea floor, many of them were extremely large. They were easy to find with the lava flowing underneath them. This one appeared to have not been disturbed for many years. It was only him and the sea.
The yellow coils spread up into the water, sending sparkling motes that floated all around him like chips of gold. He breathed in deeply through his gills, allowing the particles to slide into his bloodstream and calm his mind.
He sank deeper, close enough to the lava vents that he could feel the heat against his body, and then hovered there. Frozen in the sea, with all of his gills spread as wide as he could, his fins holding him in place, and his tail limp in relaxation.
Here he was home. Here, he was held in the warm grasp of the sea and he could release all his tension and worries.
“Show me,” he whispered. “Show me what you wish for me to see.”
It wasn’t usually that easy. The sea was a fickle mother and impossible to control. She did not like to tell anyone anything. Not when she could teach them a lesson instead of speaking it.
He blinked his eyes open, staring through the sparkling gold as it appeared a fin flickered in the water. At first, he almost yelled at the new depthstrider to leave him in peace. He’d found this place in the hopes that he could commune with the sea goddess without being interrupted by another of his kind, but he also realized that no depthstrider owned any of the sulfur fields.
It was, however, surprising that one of his kind would be this close to Tau. Usually his people avoided this area of the ocean. It was a desolate place with very little food and even fewer resources. There was no reason for anyone to come here.
But then he blinked, and the depthstrider came closer. She was large and therefore must be female. Easily the same size as him. Her tail stretched on forever, it seemed. She dragged it behind her, as though the weight of it was too heavy for her. Not unusual in females of that size, but he wanted to shout and warn her that the vents here were hotter than most.
Until she came close enough that he could see her coloring.
White, he realized. White as the belly of a whale or the pale beasts that hunted in the depths. White as a pearl, and he knew now that this wasn’t just any depthstrider who had found him.
“Wife,” he whispered, the word broken as it escaped his lips. “Why have you come?”
The ghost of his dear one floated ever closer. And he looked his fill.
Fortis was a starving man as he looked her over. This woman who had captured his heart from the first moment he had seen her. Now, she was right before him again, and never had her spirit visited him. Not once. Not even when he had seen so many people who had passed on. His wife’s soul had never found him in the sea.
She was still so beautiful. Those fins around her face were small, delicate even as they accentuated how pronounced her cheekbones were and the harsh the angles of her jaw. Tiny speckles dotted around her cheeks and spread down to her chest where there were starburst lines that spread all around her ribs.
“You are just as beautiful as I remember,” he croaked, remaining still as though a single movement might banish her from his sight.
“You never found me beautiful,” she replied, her voice carried to him by the currents. “You found me sturdy, strong, and powerful. These are the things that you loved about me, Fortis.”
Her words broke him. His wife. His beautiful, wonderful wife.
“Astrum. You know I thought more of you than that.” He reached out his hands, feeling his fingers pass right through the image of her. How he would have given anything to touch her. “I miss you,” he whispered.
“No, you don’t.”
“How could you say that? Every day I swim in your wake, hurtling toward you in the hopes that soon enough, I will join you in the afterlife.”
“Oh, my sweet love. I don’t want you to hurtle towards me. What a terrible end to our story that would be.” Astrum swam around him, her tail so long that it was able to wrap around him in a giant circle twice before she stopped with him tangled up in her spirit. “You remain here for a reason, Fortis.”
“I remember your prophecy.”
“You remember your death. You have been chasing the end for all these years, and have forgotten to live.” Her hand reached for him, just barely touching his cheek, and he swore he could still feel her cool touch. “I released you all those years ago, my love.”
“There is no life without you.” Even to his ears, the words sounded broken. “I raised our son as you would have wished. Aulax is capable and wise. He is one of the few depthstriders who sees through a person and into the soul deep within. He is more than ready to be here alone without me.”
Astrum’s shoulders curved in. “My dear. I never wanted either of you to suffer for the lack of me.”
“How could we not? You were the light in our life. The guiding beacon that brought us to safety and happiness. Without you...” He looked down at his empty palms and clenched his fists as though he could grasp even the slightest bit of what they once were. “There is nothing without you, my love.”
“You have spent all these years since my death searching for something in the sea that would bring you peace.” Astrum laid her cold hands over his chest and he swore he could actually feel her touch. “But what you seek is in here, Fortis. The sea has been reminding you of that for years on end and you have willfully ignored her message.”
“I ignore nothing. Of all depthstriders, I am the closest to the sea and all her messages. I listen. I learn. I seek the answers that no others will.” He looked up at her helplessly. “What have I missed?”
“Everything,” she replied. And then her form started to fade. “You have missed everything from the prophecy, from what the sea wants, even what I want, dear husband.”
“What do you want, then?”
The desperation in his voice was aching. He didn’t want her to go. Not yet. Not when he had just been filling his soul with the sight of her and every memory that had brought him so much peace.
But she was leaving already. Even he knew that the spirits of the sea weren’t allowed to stay for very long. Not when there was so much for them to tend to. They were the guardians of the ocean, the ones who guided all the living through currents and away from danger. She was more important now than she had even been when she was alive.
A small smile crossed her face, and he remembered this was when he had found her the loveliest. “I wanted you to live, Fortis. I fear you’ve been half dead since I left, just waiting for when you could let go.”
“Yes,” he whispered reverently. “That is exactly what I have been doing. I wanted to honor your memory.”
“Then live, husband. Live until the end of my prophecy and you will understand why it is so important.”
He reached for her, his claws disappearing through the remaining image of her tail, but he wanted one last moment. One last second to hold her in his arms and tell her all the good that had happened since she’d left. Every proud moment he’d had as a father. When Aulax had killed his first fish and looked so proud of himself holding the long dead creature. He wanted to tell her about the first time their son had swum on his own, and how graceful he’d been for one so young. How their boy had been one of the few to survive the achromos and their torture.
There was so much for him to be proud of, and his wife deserved to know what an incredible being their son had become.
But she was gone, and there was only him now. Lingering in the sulfur vents where there were few answers and only more questions.
He sighed, readying himself to leave. Shaking out his fluke, he tried to understand why the sea had sent his wife. Was it because the sea wanted him to remember why he was doing what he was doing? He remembered. His family and his... friends needed him.
A low, echoing chuckle rocked through the vents. Quite literally through the vents. It was like the depths of the sea rumbled with the sound, echoing with that ancient voice who had called him deep into the abyss not all that long ago.
“You aren’t very good at listening,” that god-like voice boomed. The vents bubbled with the force of it. Giant lava bubbles erupted from within the vents, disturbing the sulfur and sending more of it cascading out toward him until he expelled it all from his gills because it was too much, even for a depthstrider.
Was he hallucinating? The sea floor could not speak .
“I listen well,” he said. “I hear you .”
“As you must. But you speak with the dead and you do not listen. What an interesting depthstrider you are, Fortis. I am greatly enjoying watching your journey.”
The spines along his back and arms rose. “Who are you?”
“I did not tell you then, and I will not tell you now.”
“Why are you hiding yourself? You were in that tomb, were you not?”
“I am everywhere and nowhere. I am part of the sea and part of the land. I am beyond your understanding.”
Who was this voice? Fortis had spoken with the ancients before, but this was different. This creature did not sound the same as those lingering giants in the depths.
His guts twisted with fear. He hadn’t felt like this in very many years. Fear wasn’t something a depthstrider often felt in the sea, and even when he had discovered his son had been captured by those in Alpha, all he had felt was rage. It was rare for Fortis to lose control like this.
But the creature who now spoke to him was unlike anything he had met before.
“Oh Fortis,” the voice chuckled. A few lava bubbles popped with the laugh, spraying out sizzling molten pieces into the sea. “You think too much. I can feel those thoughts rumbling in your head. I’m not going to ask you to do much.”
“What are you going to ask me to do?”
“That thick skull of yours is impeding my plan. I need you to take the woman out of her ship. Look through her mind again. There has to be some information that will get you and your people inside of Tau.”
“I do not wish to force her.” He hated that it was the truth. Even saying the words felt like a betrayal to his wife, who had just been right in front of him. “If she has information to share with me, then I would have her tell me through her own volition.”
It was the least he could do. After everything Alexia had shared, and after everything he had seen himself, he didn’t want to force her. Not when there was still a chance she could make the right choice.
A low hum echoed through the water, and the lava stilled. “You believe you can win her over.”
“I do.”
“You believe she will choose to help us.”
He hesitated only a brief moment before sighing, “I do.”
Another low hum. “If that is so, then you need to do it faster than you are now. She said she has never seen kindness, Fortis. Show her kindness.”
What a terrible idea. She was a warrior woman, a creature who responded only to violence and fighting. She wouldn’t care if he was kind. But the more he thought about it, the more he thought perhaps this strange, unknown voice was right. Maybe Alexia did need to see a different side of him.