Page 3 of Call of the Fathoms

All the Originals preferred hard truths and logic. But human thought was rarely that.

Harlow hummed under her breath before loosening her grip on Alexia’s neck. She rubbed her thumb along the carotid artery there, as though in threat. “You have been thinking too much. That is a burden, my dear.”

Alexia didn’t think it was a burden. More of a blessing, really. She had a feeling that free thought wasn’t something she’d been afforded for a very long time. And now that she had it, she wasn’t all that certain she was willing to give it up.

“You shouldn’t be thinking on your own.” Harlow released her with a sigh and then stood from the bed. “My dear, I have told you that you are my very favorite guard, haven’t I? All these years, going through your kind over and over again, it’s so easy to think of you all as one being. But you’ve always stood out to me as my favorite.”

That didn’t feel like a compliment. And yet, she couldn’t free herself from her kneeling position on the floor as Harlow opened her night table and drew out a syringe.

Her medicine. Or at least, that’s what they always told her it was.

Alexia had been injected by people her entire life. Needles full of chemicals became so normal it was hard to imagine life without them. When she was a child, they were full of vitamins and all the other pieces and parts that made her body grow bigger and stronger. Maybe if she hadn’t been tested and pokedand prodded, she would have been a normal sized woman. Maybe she wouldn’t have stretched and had such growing pains that she was up late at night screaming as her legs grew faster than they should have. Maybe her hands wouldn’t have been the size of a human head if they hadn’t stuck her day in and day out, injecting her full of poison that twisted her body into something unrecognizable.

Her heart rate sped up as Harlow came closer with that needle in her hand. A voice she didn’t recognize in her own head screamed at her to run. She shouldn’t just wait here, kneeling, for all that poison to yet again affect her thoughts.

But there was another part of her that only listened to Harlow.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to no longer have those thoughts?” Harlow murmured. “I would hate to lose you. You know you are, and always have been, my favorite.”

She stayed where she was, watching that needle come ever closer. Because it would be easier to not have any thoughts. Especially these thoughts. These whispered words in her head that nothing was actually fine, and that everything was wrong, and if she wasn’t careful...

“Shh,” Harlow whispered as she wrapped an arm around Alexia’s neck, holding her head to the side. “Let me take care of it for you.”

She shouldn’t. She should fight this. But instead of struggling, she tilted her head to the side and allowed it to happen. The sharp prick of the needle pierced through the muscles where her shoulder and neck met. A long time ago, she would have winced at the pain, but now it was so familiar she didn’t react at all.

Instead, she remained frozen in Harlow’s arms as she felt her emotions drain away completely. Disappearing into the etherof darkness at the back of her mind where all bad thoughts gathered to be tossed into the sea.

“There we go,” Harlow said with a tight squeeze before releasing her. “You don’t have to think, Alexia. All you have to do is be here for me.”

And that was easier than thinking.

“Thank you, Harlow,” she replied, standing. “Would you like me to speak with the geneticist now?”

“Yes. I will rest and you prepare the reborn for me. Oh and, Alexia? You are ever so good at your job.”

She was the best at her job.

Alexia turned and walked out the door, leaving all those dark thoughts in the room with the Original who had caused them all.

Two

Fortis

Fortis waited in the depths, watching as the ships zipped overhead, illuminating the sea with great spears of light. He had come here on his own at first. Just to see what the great city of Tau would look like. And he was not disappointed.

Massive spirals sank into the depths, each of them winding around each other as though the entire city was a giant knot. There were bulbous ends where he regularly saw people, but those were uninteresting. Workers meandered about their day, slaving away as they should not for the people in power. They were not what he was here for. He was here for an opening, a weakness, a way into the city through the shield of energy that protected it.

He had not trained his entire life for this moment, only to let it slip through his fingers. No matter how long it took, he would find a way into this city.

His son floated beside him, surveying Tau with a keen eye. “Are you sure today is the right time? The ships appear to be infar greater numbers. Surely if there are more of them, then they will be more aware.”

“Yes, it is the right time, Aulax. The goddess has told me.” He took a deep breath in through his gills, tasting the scent of the city.

Metal and biting chemicals. The same scents that had covered his son when Aulax had been released from the clutches of Alpha. There was more in this city than any of them could guess. These people were using medicine, as Anya called it, to do something terrible within that twisting labyrinth.

“How can you be sure? Prophecies are difficult to read at the best of times.”

“The sea has provided me a time and a place. I will know when to enter this city because I am where the sea tells me to be.” He truly believed that, and he wished his son was more prepared to believe it as well.

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