Page 26 of Song of the Abyss

Sometimes sea creatures wandered into the pipes, but never had they made it this far. There wasn’t anything for them to eat in there, and of course, there were the vent systems that they usually got caught in. What in the world was a crab doing in her pool?

But then she peered a little closer and could see there was an etched wave on the back. Someone had carved the shell of the crab. A symbol that she thought maybe was meant for her.

“Bitsy?” she breathed. “I think it’s time to get in your case.”

The crab looked up at her and rubbed its claws together. She didn’t know what that meant, but if she pressed her fingers against the side of the pool, she could almost feel the vibration. The faintest shake of clicking that echoed through the water.

“Don’t run,” she muttered to herself as she walked into her bedroom. “Don’t give them any reason to?—”

“Someone is knocking,” Bitsy interrupted, with an arrow pointing toward the door. “Answer it.”

She immediately opened the door, stopping the man mid knock. He dropped his hand quickly, his eyes moving over Bitsy before he nodded. “Good, you’re wearing that. Your father wished me to remind you that you are not to sit by the pool. If you continue to do so, we will close it off from your quarters.”

Anya didn’t care what he was saying, but she pretended to read the words flying by as he said them. This man didn’t even try to slow down what he was saying, so she could read the words. He just spat all the sounds out, gave her another nod, and then turned to walk away.

“Rude.”

She must have said the word too loud because he turned around, only to have her slam the door in his face. She didn’t care. This was a sign, she was certain of it.

Taking Bitsy’s carrier behind the partition with her, she yanked her wetsuit out of her closet. This was the only area where there wasn’t a camera pointed at her. Of course, if she didn’t hurry up, then someone would be knocking again to make sure she was okay. And the microphones in here made it impossible for her to talk to Ace. At least, not easily.

So she took Bitsy off her head and gently placed the little robot inside her waterproof carrier. Dragging a finger down its side, she booped it right on the screen where those big eyes stared up at her.

“Trust me,” she whispered, hoping the camera wouldn’t pick up on her words.

It took forever to yank on her wetsuit, and the entire time she had to talk herself into this crazy plan. After all, a crab with a strange marking wasn’t all that much information to go on. It might just be a coincidence.

What was the likelihood that undines had some kind of connection to the sea that humans couldn’t understand? Very slim. She was likely going to get herself locked up while her father emptied the entire city of water because of his stupid daughter. She’d be blamed for a lot more things to come than just what she was doing right now.

Risky. All of this was risky.

This might all be something she’d made up in her head because she was so desperate to get out of here, but... She wasn’t going to stop. She had to try.

Wetsuit on, green dress over it to give her a few extra moments, she picked up Bitsy’s sealed case and took a deep breath. No running. She could only run once she’d crossed over to the bathroom. So she waltzed through her room like it wasn’t suspicious that she was carrying a case and wearing strange leggings underneath her dress.

All she had to do was get to the bathroom. Then she could… bolt.

Her foot crossed the threshold, and she ran for the water, hitting it with a sharp slap. The icy temperature stole her breath, and she had to swim back up to the top to fill her lungs.

Fuck, it was so cold. So much colder than it should have been, which could only mean that her father was moving forward with his plans to drain the city. The water was straight from the icy depths of the ocean, and not filtered. That’s how the crab got in here.

Taking one more deep breath, she sank underneath the water and made her way to the pipe. The crab was still on one side of her pool, and another was waiting at the opening of the pipe.

But it was all darkness beyond. No undine. No one waiting there to steal her away like some villain in a fairytale. There was just her, staring into a pipe with her droid case in hand.

What did she do? Was she supposed to go back up into her room and somehow try to argue that she’d fallen? She very clearly hadn’t fallen into the pool. Her father was going to take her apart for this.

Kicking back to the surface, she took another deep, steadying breath. The water wasn’t so bad now, or maybe she was just turning a little numb.

Whatever the reasoning, it made her feel a little crazy. She looked at the door where she knew someone was about to knock or bust in without asking, even though she couldn’t hear them. And she felt the pressure of living like this bear down on her shoulders. She couldn’t handle it anymore.

Undine or not, she wasn’t going to stay here any longer.

Taking another deep breath, she headed back to the pipe. The other crab in there looked at her with something she assumed was surprise and started rubbing its claws together even harder.

Anya shoved Bitsy’s case in front of her and then dragged herself into the pipe. Maybe her father would empty it while she was in there. Just the thought made a bubble of insanity pop in her chest, a little giddy whirl of madness. She was small enough to be thrown out the other end of it into the sea. She’d probably die. But what an adventure.

Using her arms and legs to haul herself and the case forward, she made it all the way into the pipe and to the first fork. There were four pipes here, three directions other than the one she was already in. But when she looked, there were crabs in all of them. She could just barely see two of them from the light in what must be other pool systems. The darkest pipe, though, she could feel the faint thrum of another crab rubbing its legs.

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