Page 35 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge

"They have different forms than you do? How does that work?" Her eyes sparkled when she was curious. It might not be sex, but in so many ways, seeing her like this was better.

"Well, we choose our forms. So, we're born with the ability, but not the skill. We have to learn to shift, and we all pick what animal we want during puberty."

"How remarkably... unique," she said, voice hushed. "So you study an animal and eventually you can just, poof, shift into it? Do they all shift like you, to other humanoids and such?"

"Heh, no." Aegir flopped back onto the bed, hoping she'd not notice how his cheeks colored. "I just have a knack for it, I suppose, which leads me to your next question. I'm here to find what we can about the Empire. Looking for chinks in their armor we can exploit. I'm here to gather information, and eventually we hope to do what we can to defeat them.”

“I see,” she said. “Well it's certainly a worthy endeavor. That was quite thesuccinct summary, and still I feel as if I know so little about you.”

“Well, that's the thing about me. I'm an enigma. But what about you, little seal? What should I know about you?”

“There's nothing to know about me, really. Beyond what you know already, I suppose. I have a mother and a brother, my father died. I enjoy drawing and I used to take care of the sick and elderly in my village. I can turn into a seal, and live on a remote island where until recently we'd been left largely alone by the Empire.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Immediately, Aegir understood what she meant. He knew more about her, but almost nothing of consequence. Her family certainly mattered a great deal, but as he thought on it, he realized he'd rather know things like what her skin looked like in the early morning light, or what she enjoyed eating. He'd love to know what her laugh sounded like in the dark, or what faces she made when she drew. He didn't want simple platitudes or facts one might as well find in a book. He wanted the intimate parts of her, the knowledge that one only gained over time spent in company.

“What do you draw? Other than doodles of me on my papers, that is.”

“Landscapes, mostly. It helped that I knew my island so well.”

"So I'm special then?" he asked. He knew the grin on his face would likely come off as cocky, but he was anything but. Instead, the feeling that accompanied it, that coursed through his body, was gratitude.

“I should hope so. It’s not like I’ll ever be bonded to anyone else.” She smiled sweetly, and she carved into his heart. Oh, yes, the bond, his feelings were more intense than any he’d ever experienced, and it always seemed to come back to the bond.

“The way I see it, that doesn’t make me special at all. Anyone could’ve bled on your pelt.”

She frowned, perhaps that didn’t sit right with her either and hope swelled within him.

“I’m not sure that’s how it works.” She pursed her lips and frowned. “It’s quite frustrating, isn’t it. Not knowing which are your own feelings and which are magically created.”

Lovely, now he’d made the situation even worse. The last thing he wanted was for her to be upset. She’d gone through so much, and that was just what he expressly knew about. Who knew what all she had gone through before he met her.

The frowndeepened as did the lines on her forehead, and Elspeth began chewing her lip.

“Why don’t we talk about something happy?” he asked. “Maybe you could tell me about what you’d like to do after all this is over.”

Elspeth opened and closed her mouth several times before cocking her head to the side. “You know, I’ve never much thought about what I wanted my life to look like. So much of it has been reactionary. I fished with my father, and then he was gone, so I helped my mother. That grew into helping everyone on my island. Helping everyone on the island grew into helping out at the temple. I always figured I would just continue on that way until something else happened to me…”

She huddled into herself, pulling her legs up so she was in a ball. “I suppose that sounds pathetic to someone like you. Hell, you make your own luck, determine your own life. Whereas I might as well be a strand of kelp, planted firmly in the seafloor, and moved about by the tide.”

“Actually,” he said. “It’s more common than you’d realize. The Empire purposely makes it so that there is little mobility between communities. That there is little opportunity for advancement. I don’t think it’s pathetic atall, though it does make me angry on your behalf.”

Leaning forward, he traced the backs of his fingers along her cheek. “What if you took a moment to dream? What do you think you might want if you could choose for yourself?”

Those deep gray eyes met his, pulling him in. She gave a nod, and was quiet as she thought. She caught his hand with her own and held it gently, tracing the lines of his palms and of old worn scars. As if she had no idea she was doing it, Elspeth began humming. Every drag of her delicate fingers shot fire through his veins. Each small tickling touch dragged him deeper under her spell. It would be easy to dismiss it—perhaps it would even be logical. Since she hadn’t actually opened her mouth to sing, he doubted that his mesmerization was a result of her voice. No, it was just her.

As she traced his hands, staring intently down at them, he caressed each of her skin markings with his eyes, determined that if he looked long enough, he could memorize their pattern, perhaps even trace them in his sleep. He didn’t spend a good deal of time in his human form, and so those markings on her skin called to him, echoing with his own predilection tohis orca form.

“I think," Elspeth whispered. "That perhaps I’d like to travel if I had the opportunity. I know my island, forwards and backwards, as well as anyone can know a place. But even just this has shown me how many different things there are to see in the world, how many different people there might be."

“Well, there’s quite the start! Travel is a grand idea, though I admit, I might be biased. And is there anything else you’d like to do?”

“Part of the reason that I want to travel, honestly, is to draw new places. For example, there is a waterfall on Hillskerry, I think I’ve drawn it in every season, every time of day, from every angle I could possibly think of. I love those drawings, but I’d love to have a new waterfall to draw. You said that Berggeheimnis is in the mountains, but I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve only ever seen mountains from a distance. What does a mountain look like up close? Is it a bunch of tiny rocks? Or one large one? Will there be small details that I’ll be able to capture forever on the page?”

Her face held a faraway look, and her words pulled him into the magic of her dream. He could just imagine it, and as soon as she spoke of mountains, he was overcome with bubbling anticipation. He’d be the one to witness her reaction upon seeing her first mountain. He’dbe the one to introduce her. As he thought of the path of their journey, he mentally noted different places they could visit. And after, he could think of more that he wanted to show her. What would she think of Sanctuary? The stark cliffs, and the glowing blue caves of his youth. Abruptly, it struck him that after the end of their journey, even if she were able to travel, there was no guarantee he would be there with her. Truly, there might not be any reason for him to be at all.

And he was surprised to find that he wanted to be. He wanted to be the one to show her new things, take her places that would ignite her imagination and make her fingers itch to draw them.

“What about you? What will you do after all this is done?” She asked, voice suddenly soft.