Page 111 of Call of the Fathoms

“So that ends up being...”

“Two hundred and twelve. Just about eight versions of each person left. I would suggest that a set of them who are capable of existing on their own as adults, be put in separate cities. They’re unlikely to ever meet.” She pointed to a count. “It’s essentially two of each person that are always available for some sort of need.”

“One can go to Beta for now. I can have someone there show them the ropes and how to be people. The other can remain here.”

Alexia pointed to a few more numbers. “And there are six more each that are babies. Two could be brought out into the world as twins.”

Sitting on one of the chairs near her, Mira blew out a long breath and puffed her cheeks. “So there’s a hundred more. That still leaves us with what? A hundred and twelve people in stasis?”

Alexia nodded. It didn’t settle right, but that was where they were. “We can’t just wake them up now. They’ll have to remain as they are and slowly be added into the cities.”

“We could do the same here. It’s unlikely that Beta and Tau will mingle, but there’s always the chance.”

“A hundred people that we’re choosing to keep asleep.” Alexia shook her head. “It feels wrong.”

“There’s nowhere else to put them, unless you want them to go to the prison city.”

“I don’t,” Alexia snapped. “I know it’s the right thing to do. They will wake up eventually. I just... I wish I could save them all.”

“You did save them all.” Mira scooted her chair closer, pointing at the numbers once again. “If you weren’t here, these people would have been used for god knows what. Now, they have a chance at a normal life. Alexia, you have to take that as the sign that it is. Without you, they would have all suffered a much worse fate than waiting a few more years to wake up.”

Alexia nodded and tried to get that through her head.

“Listen to me. You’re saving four hundred and twenty-seven people. Not to mention countless others that Tau was controlling and using to distract from what was going on here.” Mira grabbed her hands and squeezed them. “Take the time you need to let this settle in. I’m sure it’s not easy to believe. But it’s the truth.”

The truth.

Alexia bit her lips and nodded. She could believe it. Someday.

But for now, she would help get these reborns to homes where they could live. Really live.

Epilogue

Fortis

Fortis slowly came back into this world. The voice had been the one he’d heard in that tomb. The deep voice of reckoning had warned them all of what they had done.

“You have all entered a time where humans will now be part of your life. Whether you wished them to or not. I have been asleep for centuries. Waiting. I know what you face and what you will soon see. And it is I who will help guide you.”

And then all depthstriders were shown the same vision at the same time.

He wasn’t sure what they were meant to get out of it. Humans swimming alongside their own kind. New cities, ones that incorporated his people into them. He saw entire rooms where the People of Water had the ability to swim up into tubes and rest in entire homes that were accessed by droids for them. Metal arms that brought them food allowed them to work with the humans in massive spaces filled with people making decisions with each other. There were children, too. Childrenwith smaller tails, two tails, children that looked like humans and his people mixed together.

It was a good future, but one he knew many of his kind would fear. This would fundamentally change their lives. No more would the People of Water have to avoid humans or expect to be fought with. They would be... enmeshed.

When he could finally see the surrounding world, he looked at his son first. Aulax had a bright grin on his face and so much hope in his eyes. “That is our future, father?”

“I believe so.”

“I cannot believe...” Aulax let out a shocked laugh. “Then it worked. Everything we did. It worked.”

So it had. More than any of them could have expected, it had worked. They had created something that had changed the very fabric of time itself. And he, for one, was so excited to see it come to fruition.

“And I get to be here to experience it with you,” he murmured, before throwing his head back and laughing.

Together, he and his son rejoiced in the future that would come. He knew there were some, like Mitera, who were terrified. They did not know where they fit into this new future, but he knew exactly where his family fit. Right at the heart of it all.

Alexia returned with Mira, and he knew that his life had only just begun with her.

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