Page 39 of Call of the Fathoms

It was, however, surprising that one of his kind would be this close to Tau. Usually his people avoided this area of the ocean.It was a desolate place with very little food and even fewer resources. There was no reason for anyone to come here.

But then he blinked, and the depthstrider came closer. She was large and therefore must be female. Easily the same size as him. Her tail stretched on forever, it seemed. She dragged it behind her, as though the weight of it was too heavy for her. Not unusual in females of that size, but he wanted to shout and warn her that the vents here were hotter than most.

Until she came close enough that he could see her coloring.

White, he realized. White as the belly of a whale or the pale beasts that hunted in the depths. White as a pearl, and he knew now that this wasn’t just any depthstrider who had found him.

“Wife,” he whispered, the word broken as it escaped his lips. “Why have you come?”

The ghost of his dear one floated ever closer. And he looked his fill.

Fortis was a starving man as he looked her over. This woman who had captured his heart from the first moment he had seen her. Now, she was right before him again, and never had her spirit visited him. Not once. Not even when he had seen so many people who had passed on. His wife’s soul had never found him in the sea.

She was still so beautiful. Those fins around her face were small, delicate even as they accentuated how pronounced her cheekbones were and the harsh the angles of her jaw. Tiny speckles dotted around her cheeks and spread down to her chest where there were starburst lines that spread all around her ribs.

“You are just as beautiful as I remember,” he croaked, remaining still as though a single movement might banish her from his sight.

“You never found me beautiful,” she replied, her voice carried to him by the currents. “You found me sturdy, strong,and powerful. These are the things that you loved about me, Fortis.”

Her words broke him. His wife. His beautiful, wonderful wife.

“Astrum. You know I thought more of you than that.” He reached out his hands, feeling his fingers pass right through the image of her. How he would have given anything to touch her. “I miss you,” he whispered.

“No, you don’t.”

“How could you say that? Every day I swim in your wake, hurtling toward you in the hopes that soon enough, I will join you in the afterlife.”

“Oh, my sweet love. I don’t want you to hurtle towards me. What a terrible end to our story that would be.” Astrum swam around him, her tail so long that it was able to wrap around him in a giant circle twice before she stopped with him tangled up in her spirit. “You remain here for a reason, Fortis.”

“I remember your prophecy.”

“You remember your death. You have been chasing the end for all these years, and have forgotten to live.” Her hand reached for him, just barely touching his cheek, and he swore he could still feel her cool touch. “I released you all those years ago, my love.”

“There is no life without you.” Even to his ears, the words sounded broken. “I raised our son as you would have wished. Aulax is capable and wise. He is one of the few depthstriders who sees through a person and into the soul deep within. He is more than ready to be here alone without me.”

Astrum’s shoulders curved in. “My dear. I never wanted either of you to suffer for the lack of me.”

“How could we not? You were the light in our life. The guiding beacon that brought us to safety and happiness. Without you...” He looked down at his empty palms and clenched his fistsas though he could grasp even the slightest bit of what they once were. “There is nothing without you, my love.”

“You have spent all these years since my death searching for something in the sea that would bring you peace.” Astrum laid her cold hands over his chest and he swore he could actually feel her touch. “But what you seek is in here, Fortis. The sea has been reminding you of that for years on end and you have willfully ignored her message.”

“I ignore nothing. Of all depthstriders, I am the closest to the sea and all her messages. I listen. I learn. I seek the answers that no others will.” He looked up at her helplessly. “What have I missed?”

“Everything,” she replied. And then her form started to fade. “You have missed everything from the prophecy, from what the sea wants, even what I want, dear husband.”

“What do you want, then?”

The desperation in his voice was aching. He didn’t want her to go. Not yet. Not when he had just been filling his soul with the sight of her and every memory that had brought him so much peace.

But she was leaving already. Even he knew that the spirits of the sea weren’t allowed to stay for very long. Not when there was so much for them to tend to. They were the guardians of the ocean, the ones who guided all the living through currents and away from danger. She was more important now than she had even been when she was alive.

A small smile crossed her face, and he remembered this was when he had found her the loveliest. “I wanted you to live, Fortis. I fear you’ve been half dead since I left, just waiting for when you could let go.”

“Yes,” he whispered reverently. “That is exactly what I have been doing. I wanted to honor your memory.”

“Then live, husband. Live until the end of my prophecy and you will understand why it is so important.”

He reached for her, his claws disappearing through the remaining image of her tail, but he wanted one last moment. One last second to hold her in his arms and tell her all the good that had happened since she’d left. Every proud moment he’d had as a father. When Aulax had killed his first fish and looked so proud of himself holding the long dead creature. He wanted to tell her about the first time their son had swum on his own, and how graceful he’d been for one so young. How their boy had been one of the few to survive the achromos and their torture.

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