Page 14 of Whispers of the Deep

Watching her was incredibly boring. How did the achromos live like this?

Arges had never wasted his time trying to understand her people. He was more interested in finding flaws in their city. Dents in the armor that he could use to his advantage as he attacked and destroyed. Now, he was forced to watch them. He had to see what they did with their lives as he tried to find an opportunity to steal her away.

And by all the seven seas and the gods within them, they were boring. How did the achromos survive like this? They did the same thing every day. They walked the same corridors. Seemingly performed the same jobs. Day in. Day out. They even seemed to eat the same food. Some wet looking gloop that made him want to vomit the first time he’d seen it.

No wonder they were so aggressive. He’d have gone mad long ago as well if he was forced to live such a life.

Of course, his achromo did the same thing as the others. It only took two days for him to know everything she was going to do every day.

She got up and went to one of the halls where there were many achromos. She ate that horrible, wet substance, then walked down the same corridor. They appeared to meet with large groups of achromos often. She didn’t make a lot of effort, nor did she often speak at those gatherings. Instead, she did a lot of head bobbing, which he assumed was meant in an agreeing gesture, not aggression.

Then she would sneak off with another male, one he already hated, and they would disappear into one of the rooms he couldn’t see.

Was she mating with him? The idea shouldn’t be so frustrating, but it made him very angry the first time he’d seen the pattern. Why else would a female and a male disappear into the same room? The thoughts dug through him like puffer fish spines, angering him even more.

He told himself it was because he would smell the other male if he had to steal her away. She’d smell like someone else, and her scent was the only one he found... tolerable.

It took days for anything to change. the achromos bored him with their monotonous schedule and never ending patterns. At least until he saw his achromo disappear with the other. Not to the same room that they had been going before, but to a different part of the city. A deeper part. Nearly at the bottom, where they had never been before.

At least, not while he watched. So he followed them, alone this time rather than with one of his pod. The others had given up on hunting with him.

After all, nothing ever changed. They weren’t learning anything about the achromos other than that they were boring.

They’d already known that.

Arges swam to a hidden part of the city, ducked deep into the kelp and behind a very large boulder while he listened to his achromo and the male wander over his head. They chattered in that horrible speech, and he almost wished he could understand them. Perhaps then he would know their nefarious plan.

But then he saw the opening into their city.

How had they missed this? He remained where he was, watching as two metal plates shifted and then revealed bright lights and metal panels. There was an opening inside the city that he’d missed.

An opening that could easily be pried open with sharp weapons. And the achromos had hidden it from their eyes for such a long time.

He ground his teeth in anger. Who was supposed to be watching this part of the city? Likely, no one. He’d never assigned anyone to the very bottom of the city because there was nothing here. Just a wall that dug into the stone and leaked rust into their gills.

Arges was the fool, then. These achromos had tricked him well enough, and now there was nothing he could do about it.

They’d wasted so much time. He could have attacked them from the inside. And he’d proven himself within their tubes. He could fight them even there, and a whole pod of his people? They would decimate the city until their corridors ran red with blood.

Seething, he pulled himself closer to watch and see what the achromos were doing now.

One of the plates that he and his achromo had destroyed was slowly lowered into the sea. He bared his teeth in a silent hiss as a metal arm helped guide it through the water and then propped it against a stone at the bottom. He hated seeing those arms now that he knew what they were capable of.

But then he was both shocked and horrified to see an entire metal creature drop to the ocean floor. It fell through the water like a stone, plummeting to the bottom where sand and debris plumed around it. And it didn’t react. He’d have thought such a jarring thud, one that he could hear from some distance away, would have made it at least shake the pain off.

It didn’t.

A soft grinding noise rippled through the water and then twin antennae appeared over its head. Another click, and beams of light speared out of them. And then the being turned. It looked right at him. He was certain it had seen him and he readied himself to flee, but then it just... didn’t move. It stayed so still it was almost like it was made of rock. No movement. No breath. Nothing at all.

The water above it rippled and Arges wondered whether he should leave. He could take this information back to his people. They should know the achromos had weapons they had not seen before.

They all knew about the weapons on top of the tubes and attached to the city. He knew many People of Water had been touched by their flames that somehow lived even in the sea. They had all been seared, or knew someone who bore scars from an attack.

But this? the achromos had birthed a new being made of metal, and it would be one who was extremely difficult to kill.

Another form dropped out of the city, this one lithe and gleaming. For a moment, he thought it was some kind of pale fish that they had tamed, but then he realized what it was.

It was his achromo. In the water, swimming with him.

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