Page 166 of The Princesses of Ruin
One day she’ll truly believe me.
“Queen Reina, King Jasper,” he greets us. “I am so blessed to be among you and the light.”
“And we’re blessed to have the ga’hanoi as our friends,” Reina replies.
The tentacled creature glows many different colors as his limbs flitter about. It’s probably his form of laughter.
“Thank you for meeting me here. I need to discuss the relocation plan,” he says. “Let us move so our gills can more easily draw.”
We begin patrolling the edge of the Deep, watching fish large and small as they move about their lives, oblivious to our dealings.
“We will not abandon our stronghold, but we want to move back into the islands surrounding the Verdant Drown,” he says.
“The water there is still quite dangerous. Toxic to most, and those who survive it I fear have been horribly mutated by the power of the fungal spores,” Reina says.
“It would be a death sentence,” I add. “You’re better off moving closer to Illya.”
Vek’ihr cocks his head. “But that is Opal Isle territory.”
I look at Reina. “Yes, and we’re struggling with our population after the false king took most of my people hostage. We can’t sustain a city on our own. I can’t be there to run it.”
Vek’ihr curls in on himself, the petals that obscure his upper half tightening. Light pulses through his abdomen until finally he speaks.
“This trust is too far. It is not normal. Tell me, Opal King, do you intend to go back on your word?”
“No,” I say, turning to the creature. “I have seen the greatness of your people. Of what you’ve created to endure your isolation. I’m…sorry for what role my people played in the destruction of your kind.”
Vek’ihr dips his upper body. “It was mutual destruction. We hunted your kind.”
“But that was our fathers’ fathers,” I say.
He shimmers with color. “It was, but I have eaten of my father, and he of his father. The memories of hunting your kin are as fresh in my mind as the memories I make with you now.”
It’s almost sickening to think they prioritized how to kill selkies, but…I know why. We did hunt them, and when they were isolated creatures, not a society to contend with, it was easy. We pushed them out of territory and dwindled their numbers—my mother confirmed it.
Such is the nature of small spaces and conquesting creatures.
“Vek’ihr, if I may say so,” Reina starts and we look to her. “Just because you feel the memory as strongly as your own, doesn’t make it yours to be accountable for, or to bear the weight of. You have never eaten anyone without their consent, correct?”
He dips his upper half. “This is true.”
“You have never hunted a selkie?”
“Correct.”
“You’ve never killed unless it was necessary?”
Vek’ihr stiffens for a fraction as his colors flash. Then, he flows and nods. “Yes.”
“We trust you,” she says.
“And we trust you to lead your people in the same way,” I add.
He considers our words for a moment, his colors dancing. “I appreciate this more than your words can convey. I would like to make another promise.”
My eyes narrow. “What’s that?”
“To grow closer, I will give you my first hatched male,” he says.
