Page 30 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Thirty

Fortis

H e knew how dangerous an ask this was. And he knew, without a doubt, that she would survive it. He knew they would need all the help they could get from every single Person of Water.

His people were the hardest of them to convince. He knew the depthstriders were not likely to help, especially when it came to Tau. There were too many rumors about the city. So many of his people had experienced painful losses. Tau knew how to find and torment their kind and, if they weren’t careful, they could lose everything.

Alexia had the ability to change their minds, though. She knew more about the city than anyone else, and that meant she was capable of giving them details they didn’t have now. If he could just convince them to trust her... then it was a start.

As Mira started working on whatever she could to keep Alexia alive that deep in the ocean, he prepared himself for what was to come. Fortis floated in solitude, lingering in the currents as he prayed to all the gods and goddesses of the sea that they would help him convince his pod to fight.

And he felt like the sea was listening. He could feel the tides caressing his sides, as though the sea herself was trying to give him a lingering hug and tell him not to worry so much. His people knew what they were doing. The depthstriders had always been kind enough to trust him. They had supported him for years upon years. They were there when he needed to get his son back.

But a small pit in his stomach wasn’t sure if this would work. He knew that they wouldn’t want a human in their midst. They were the least trusting people in the sea, especially after Arges had snubbed one of their own.

He smelled his son approaching and told himself that he wasn’t upset at the interruption. But this felt like he had limited time to pray, and he needed the sea to hear him. He needed the goddesses to cast pity on a worshipper who had spent his entire life dedicated to them and the memory of his wife.

A memory who did not care if he had dedicated himself to her. And that stung.

“Father,” Aulax said, his voice carrying through the water as though he knew Fortis would be angry. “I need to speak with you before you leave.”

“Speak quickly. The goddess does not like to wait for anyone.”

He regretted the words as soon as he said them. His son had always been better than him, and Fortis knew he needed to listen. But he already feared the conversation that was about to happen.

Aulax had forgiven the achromos, even after everything they had done to him. Fortis had not. And his conversation with Arges hadn’t helped.

Apparently, it was possible to have a relationship with one of them and still hate them. He just didn’t believe it. Alexia and he fought, that was what they did. Mira and Arges didn’t fight, not like two warriors who could tear each other apart. If Mira wanted to fight with Arges, it wouldn’t be a fair battle, anyway. Arges would kill her. But when he thought about fighting with Alexia, he believed that given the right training, Alexia might be able to kill one of his kind on her own.

Breathing out, he opened his eyes from prayer and met his son’s worried gaze.

“What is it, Aulax?”

“You are bringing her into the depths to meet Mitera, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. It was more a disappointed statement that said his son very much did not appreciate what his father was planning on doing.

“I am.”

“Mitera hates humans.”

“She does.”

“She also hates this pod.” Aulax gestured behind him like Fortis needed to be told which pod she hated.

To be fair, Mitera hated almost everyone other than the depthstriders.

“Mitera was sent to guide Arges’s original pod. She was not received well there for many years until she had finally gotten them to respect her. They all fell in line the way they were supposed to until Arges rebelled against her. The pod she had been given to guide was fractured beyond hope at that point.” Fortis breathed out a long sigh. “She holds a grudge for that. I know.”

“It’s an understandable grudge, but I don’t believe she will forgive easily. And yet, you think swimming into her home with a human will correct all that?”

He corrected his son. “Achromo. That is their name.”

“They call themselves humans, father. After all they have done to help us, the least we could do is call them as they wish to be called.”

He hadn’t ever thought of it like that. He’d heard them say the word countless times. But somehow he couldn’t bring himself to say the word until this moment.

“Humans,” Fortis corrected himself. “There is no love lost between Mitera and the humans. I know it will be difficult for her to believe that their species would rebel against each other.”

“It is difficult for her to believe most things. She is not a kind creature.”

“Mitera knows what she is doing. Her gift to see into the future is better than any other creature under the sea. She is an impressive woman in her own right and deserves our respect.” He hesitated before adding, “If in measured amounts. She hates the humans, and she does so blindly.”

“Father, I believe that’s the first time you’ve ever said anything bad about another depthstrider.”

“I am not without my faults.”

He grinned at his son, knowing that at the very least, he would always have Aulax by his side.

“It’s hard to call them humans,” he muttered. “The colorless ones have always fit them. They are so... bland.”

“They do not come in a rainbow of colors, but I have found there is still color in them. Mira’s hair. Anya’s eyes. Ace’s bright laugh that fills the room with bursts of bright light. There are plenty of colors in the humans, father. We just don’t see them.”

Perhaps he should listen to his son’s wisdom. The boy had matured far more than he was comfortable with. Where was his little boy, who had pulled the tails of visitors and played pranks on those who lived beside them? Now he was looking at a young man, a formidable warrior, and a person he respected.

He sighed, disgusted with himself. “I find it easier if things do not change. I can look at my people and myself with far less... Discomfort.”

“Change is good. Change brings about new ages of people and exploration that we might never have tried on our own. I, for one, am very excited for our future with the humans at our side.” Aulax grinned at him. “Even if you aren’t all that excited.”

“I am rarely excited.”

“Maybe it’s time to start getting excited. Maybe it’s time to start feeling all those things that you have refused to feel for such a long time.”

But feeling meant he put himself at risk. Feeling the good meant he had to feel the bad too.

Aulax saw far too much, and then his son gently said, “Wasn’t Alexia drugged? It made her incapable of feeling things?”

“She told you that?”

“Alexia is very honest if you ask her literally anything. But you remember that part, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” It still made him want to rip apart everyone in Tau. She deserved to feel, and feel as gloriously as she had in the abandoned facility with him. What he wouldn’t give to go back to that moment before anyone else had seen them together. Before he had all these questions raise in his mind.

“Then maybe you need to consider that while she had medication to hide her emotions, that doesn’t mean other people haven’t been doing the exact same thing to themselves without the drugs.” Aulax flicked his hip fins in agitation. “You’ve spent your entire life adhering to complicated rules that no one asked you to uphold. You were the one who made yourself live that way, and you were the one who refused to feel anything because you were so afraid of losing someone else like you lost mom.”

He stared at his son in shock. He’d always thought Aulax was spared from most of what he was feeling. His son was intuitive, of course. He was more like his mother than not. But he hadn’t thought Aulax saw through him that easily.

“I don’t know what to say,” Fortis rasped. “I thought I had hidden all that from you. I struggled when your mother died, but I never thought...”

“Father, I have known everything from every moment. I was with you through all of it. I just chose to not hide myself, like you did. If I had to hurt again, like I hurt with mom, then it was still worth it. Because I wouldn’t trade knowing her for the world.”

He felt the fins on his hips shudder in sadness before he nodded. “I understand. But replacing your mother?—”

“It’s not replacing,” Aulax interrupted. “No one is taking mom’s place. No one is pretending she didn’t exist. She is still in our hearts and our memories, but if I have learned anything through all the pain and torment I have been through, it is that these feelings are worth it. No matter what it costs to feel them.”

He hated that his son was so honorable. And loved it, of course. But he hated it at the same time. This wasn’t a child before him. It was... Aulax. A man who saw the world more clearly than his father did.

Heart in his throat, he nodded at his son. “You are wise beyond your age. I should listen to you more often, I fear.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?”

“Yes. I don’t relish taking advice from my son so often when I should be the one giving you advice.”

Aulax grinned. “I guess that just means I’ve grown up, father.”

He hated that. It felt like time had passed so quickly when his son was a child only moments ago. He feared he hadn’t done enough in the time that he had been given. He wasn’t a good enough father. He hadn’t taught Aulax enough, but clearly that fear was unfounded.

Fortis quite liked the man in front of him. A lot.

Now, he would bring Alexia to his people, he would get them to fight, and then he would destroy the city that had caused so much harm. To his people, and to so many others.

Even if it meant changing how he saw the world around them.

Nodding, he asked, “How is Mira doing? She needs to work faster if we are going to do this. The depthstriders will be difficult to convince, and I wish to move sooner than later.”

“Mira knows you’re in a rush. She’s doing the best she can with the time that has been given. She just doesn’t want Alexia to, you know, die.”

The sarcasm. He was going to smack his son upside the head if he kept talking like that. “I’m sure she doesn’t want Alexia to die. Neither do I. But I think everyone needs to understand that there is far more at stake here than just Alexia’s life.”

“Are you willing to risk it?”

“No,” he growled. “I just want it done faster.”

“Then you need to learn patience, father. There is no faster.” Aulax flicked his tail. “Pray to your gods. I will return when they are ready for you.”

He only hoped it wouldn’t take forever and a day. He knew how much of a perfectionist Mira was. But perfection had no place here.

Fortis wasn’t sure how long he floated, praying to the sea and existing just beyond the edge of reality. His mind wandered into the future of anything that passed by him. Some People of Water got too close, and he watched as their lives warped and changed. Some of them were going to have children soon. Others were going to die peacefully, some in tragic ways. But most of these outcomes were things he would never tell them. Even the fish that passed by showed him snippets of a future in the sea.

Bright flashes of color, of sunlight burning through the waves. Some of the fish would see weapons firing all around them, and they wouldn’t make it. Their lives would be cut short very quickly by the anger of humans. One of them in particular saw a battle between the humans and the People of Water, and he knew very well what that fish saw. Unfortunately, it died far too early for him to guess who might win.

The sea did not want him to see that ending. Perhaps because he was going to die long before it happened. Because he could feel his death coming soon.

Which was why he was rushing. The end barreled toward him, and he feared what that meant. He had to do everything he could before he lost all of his chances of helping.

“Father?” Aulax’s voice broke through his reverie many hours after he had seen his boy.

Blinking his eyes open, he wondered if it was daylight because it was the same day, or if he had meditated away hours on end.

“They are ready for me?” he asked.

“As ready as they’re going to get. Mira isn’t happy, but Alexia isn’t letting her do any more testing. She said it was good enough, and that you don’t like to be kept waiting.” Aulax’s lips quirked to the side. “She’s a lot like you.”

“One of the reasons I appreciate her presence,” Fortis replied.

He flicked his tail and swam past his son, heading back to the small human village. At least there he would be able to get this journey started.

He had no idea what waited for them. Surely Mitera had seen that they were coming. The old woman saw more than most, and she would know without a doubt that they were coming for her. She’d prepare a show that would try to scare Alexia away from that deep abyss.

Alexia wasn’t one to get scared easily, though. As he approached the village and saw her lowering into the water, he prayed one last time to their gods that she wouldn’t break at the sight of his people.