Page 91 of Whispers of the Deep

"This was her home."

Mira felt her jaw drop open as the droid said that with such ease. "Excuse me?"

"This was her home. It was built for her by her father, after she supposedly disappeared. My programming initiative was to tell everyone that she'd died, but we were not programmed to lie well. So I was sent into the ocean because I couldn't keep the secret about... him." Another click and a new image appeared, floating like he was just outside the window.

A green finned undine, just like the legends always said. He wasn't nearly as different as Arges, but perhaps he was from a different clan. He certainly looked like he wasn't a deep sea creature. With tiger stripes of green scales that glimmered on his skin, and gills behind his long pointed ears, some along his ribs as well, he was just as massive as Arges but so much softer looking.

This new undine pressed his fingers against the glass, and the love in his eyes hurt to look at. He loved her so much. She could see it in his eyes, in the way that he lingered at the window, draping his tail over it as the image of Alys danced through the room. She reached up for him, wiggling her fingers and laughing at the way he shook his head.

They were so in love. So very in love.

The images faded, and she found her throat had closed up with emotion. Licking her lips, she asked, "So you wanted me to come here? Why?"

"I didn't know you would end up here. In her home. But I saw the way you two looked at each other and I couldn't let you go back home without realizing the truth."

"What truth?" she croaked.

Byte's projector crunched back into the box. "That it was possible for your two to be together. Because I have seen it happen, and I know that it can work. Alys and her undine were together until she was very old. They lived here, and no one bothered them. He was an outcast to his people but he... he loved her. Very much. And she loved him in return."

It was possible.

They weren't the first.

She sank down onto her knees next to the open moon pool, suddenly questioning everything that she'd been taught. All her life she was told that the undines were monsters, that she couldn't trust them and that they were dangerous creatures who clearly wanted to harm her. They were going to destroy everything her people had ever done, and that was only because humans had forced them to share the ocean.

Humans and undines hated each other. It was only natural that they warred because they were so different they would never see eye to eye and yet...

Oh, and yet. Someone had done this before. Someone had fallen in love with an undine just as she had fallen in love with Arges and it wasn't fair that she hadn't known. She hadn't seen. No one had told her that it was possible!

Tears dripped from her eyes into the water below. Salty tears joining the salty water that had kept her away from him for such a long time.

"So you think I should stay," she whispered.

"I think he loves you very much, and I can see that you love him. Leaving would only send you back to the city, where you already said you weren't very happy. Why not take a risk on an adventure while you're here?"

"I suppose you're right," she muttered before turning to look at Byte. "But why do I have to give up my people to be with him?"

A small drive opened up from the middle of Byte's body, the same drive that housed the language chips. "What makes you think he isn't giving up everything to stay with you? Now take this, you're going to need it."

"Why?"

"Because it seems like the undines have already made their choice in the matter, and I don't think the undine beside you is all that friendly. At least, not yet."

She didn't think, she reacted. Mira grabbed the language chip and turned in the same motion. There was indeed an undine in the water right beside her, one of the yellow ones that she recognized. With a lunging movement, she threw herself at it.

Clearly the undine wasn't expecting her to do so. It hardly even had time to flinch before she had slapped the translation chip behind his ear. The instant pain startled him, and he hit her so hard in the chest she went skidding back across the floor. She hit the stairs with a harsh wheeze, and struggled to pull air back into her lungs while the creature writhed in the water.

She saw the flash of rage in his eyes. The glint of his claws as he launched himself out of the moon pool toward her but she sucked in a lungful of air at the same time and shouted, "Stop! Stop wait!"

And that did it.

He froze, his claws still outstretched but this time he stared at her like she'd turned bright blue and told him she was actually just a fruit.

"What?" he breathed. "Did you just talk?"

"All of us can talk, I just made it so you could understand me." She held out her own hands, trying to show she wasn't a threat. "The device is a little painful, I'm sorry for that. But now you can understand my language. We can talk."

His yellow edged gills fluttered, and his dark hands slowly lowered. "I have never wanted to talk to an achromo."

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