Page 13 of Song of the Abyss

“Of course I was right! I’m always right, and no one ever listens to me before the start of anything. You know—” Maketes paused, then looked up at him with his mouth again wide open. “Did you just admit I was right?”

Daios nodded.

“Well... That’s awfully remarkable, coming from you.”

With a shrug, Daios slapped his brother with his tail and then used his much larger blade of a fluke to shove Maketes upright. “Go tell the others that I’ve found her.”

“What about you? You’re supposed to be the one making the report. You haven’t told me anything about your interaction with her or how to find the girl. There’s no report for me to give other than you grunted at me and said it was done.” But Maketes was already moving away, already moving even while he argued that he shouldn’t be.

“Just tell them I have it handled.”

“So you’re not coming back with me?”

Daios had thought he was going to. Everything in him shouted that he should. He was rebuilding his relationship with Arges, and every moment that he did something like this was another moment when he was failing his clutch brother. But... something in him also said that he couldn’t leave right now. He had more to do.

“I’m busy,” he replied, his gaze back to the city. “Tell them I’ll return with her when I’m ready.”

That stopped Maketes. The currents played through his brother’s long hair, coiling through his gills and filling him with purpose. Daios missed that. He missed the moments when the sea had given him its approval. This moment felt like one of those times when the sea approved of his choice, though. It wasn’t giving him too much attention, likely because it hadn’t entirely forgiven him for all the death yet. But he was taking the right steps to getting back into its good graces.

Sighing, he waved a hand at Maketes when his brother didn’t respond. “Go on.”

“You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” Maketes asked, his voice very low and very quiet. “We need her alive, Daios.”

“I’m not going to hurt her.” The growl that came after those words startled even him. He pressed a hand to his hearts, trying to still the anger that writhed inside of him at the mere thought. It was wrong. It was disgusting to even react to an achromo like this.

“Then what are you planning to do?”

“I don’t know.” He wished he had an answer to that himself. All he knew was that right now, he had.... feelings that he couldn’t explain. A sensation in his chest that wouldn’t go away and a strange need inside himself that had him stuck in this spot.

Maketes moved a little closer, flicking his tail and keeping himself lower than Daios’s vision, so he didn’t seem like a threat. “Are you making decisions based on instinct right now?”

“You could say that.”

“This is going to get real complicated real quick,” Maketes muttered before blowing out a mouthful of bubbles. “All right. Just don’t get caught and die, would you?”

“I don’t intend to.”

As his brother disappeared into the darkness, he told himself this was good. He worked better on his own, when there was no one else to risk. But turning back toward the city, he already knew that there was a long way for him to go. He didn’t know where she would be again. Surely there were plenty of other pools, but which ones would she be at, and how could he guess when she would be there?

What had the other achromo said? He tried to remember what the other female shouted while she tried to scold the golden one. Something about her father and other people to speak with.

A gathering then. The achromos were not so different from his own people in that way.

He’d have to go back into the city. She obviously didn’t live in that strange pool room, and likely only visited it when her father wanted to show her off. The General’s golden daughter, a precious gem to show all of his friends. But considering how she did not go to see her father, he could only assume that meant she wasn’t anywhere near as close to the man as others thought.

This was good. He could get her away from the city faster if she didn’t fight.

What would he do with her after he’d gotten her away? He had no idea. But like Daios had told Maketes, he was running with his instincts. He didn’t have a choice for another way.

So Daios launched himself toward the city again. It took him the better part of a week, perhaps even longer to map out the city. He’d gone through every pipe, every tunnel, every pool. And when his mind was near full to bursting with information, he would return through the pillars. His body was decorated with healing scab wounds by the time he got back to his map that he’d made out of stones on the sands.

He could map this city out by himself. Even if that meant he was lacking some of his fin, because he kept getting sucked into sharp vents with spinning metal pieces that sliced through his fluke. One had even gotten his elbow when it had turned on and surprised him.

But blood was something he could lose. He wasn’t afraid of pain or what would happen to him if he was caught. He had to keep going because there was a little female in this city that was without him. And when he was finished, he would find her again. He would map out this city until he knew as much about it as he could, and then he would make his attack.

The day that he finished, he could almost taste blood in the water. His gills flared wide, the fins around his face fluttering with the realization that he’d done it. He knew all the places where they traveled. He knew every pool and every pathway in this city. At least, all the ones that he could reach.

Daios had stayed in the water. He hadn’t been caught by anyone or anything as far as he knew, although he was certain the achromos had noted the amount of time those pillars had gone off these days. He could only hope that they were so foolish that they thought it was a migration of some fish passing by their home.

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