“The device I put on your ear is a translator. It knows my language, so now you also know my language. I have absolutely no idea what you are saying, though. I don’t know your language, and neither does Byte.” She pointed to the strange box demon in the corner of the cave, and it gave him a little wave with its metal arm. “The more you talk, the more the robot can understand your language and give me a chance to get my own translator. Then we can speak.”

He barely followed what she was saying. “Robot?”

Apparently, he’d repeated the word close enough in her own language for her to wince. “Right, you wouldn’t know that word. The thing back there. The box? My people created those to help us. They are... servants, of a sort.”

The small box squawked, though fell silent when he glared at it.

“And you?” he asked, leaning a little closer to her. “What do you call yourself, achromo? I would know the name my enemy has given itself.”

She swallowed, and he watched her throat work before she quietly replied, “I have no idea what you’re saying, but you seem very angry at me.”

He was. Of course he was. She had gifted him a magical device that allowed him to understand her words, while also betraying him with horrible pain. And he’d admit, he was more than a little angry at himself for falling under her spell that easily. He was ashamed that he’d let an achromo touch him, and that she’d affected him.

In his world, they were as good as promised. He’d hunted her, gifted her treasures. She’d touched his gills with such exquisite tenderness that it still made every part of his body vibrate with need. And it was wrong. Every bit of it was wrong.

She’d stolen this from him. Because he had never done any of this with any other female, and now he would always remember his first mating trials. His first attempt at having a mate, and neither of them had even wanted each other.

It was a shame upon a warrior to have a mate deny him. But to deny a female? Even one like her?

It was unheard of.

Perhaps his frustration showed. Her pale face turned even paler, and that bright pink tongue came out to lick at her lips. “You don’t seem happy with me.”

Whatever would give his achromos that thought? He licked his own lips, watching her eyes follow the movement of his dark tongue. Even more of that color drained out of her face, and he was suddenly very aware of the position they were in.

Though his fluke was still in the water, he had her pinned in every other sense. Both of her wrists were trapped by his webbed hands, high over her head. It arched her body into his, much like he had done only moments ago. Her strange tails were parted on either side of his body and he hadn’t realized they could spread so wide. It tucked him against her core, so unlike his own kind and yet strangely... compelling.

The heat that had been between them before flared bright and hot again. He could feel it coursing through his veins, turning all his colors on like she’d lit him from within. The blues flared, and his gills rose again. No matter how hard he tried to keep them down.

Just the faintest arch from her, only a little. But it tilted her body against him even better, and he had to do something. He had to touch her. Had to feel what this strange achromo had been hiding.

Transferring one of her wrists to his grip, he freed one of his hands and ran it down her side. “We are so similar,” he said quietly, watching his hand as it drifted down her ribs. “I have these. I have felt these on my women before.”

But she had no gills. He paused, his hand spread wide over those ribs that rose and fell, but there were no gills there to toy with his fingers. Nothing but the strange silver skin she wore and the delicate bones beneath.

“You are so small,” he muttered, his hand moving down to the dip in her waist where there should be the start of scales. But there was nothing. Just blank space and those twin fins that trembled on either side of his tail. “So... breakable.”

“I can’t tell if you’re going to kiss me or kill me,” she said, her eyes following his every movement. “I’m not sure if I want either of those.”

He had no idea what this kiss she spoke of was, but he had a feeling she was affected by the same heat as him. He needed to get control of himself or she would realize the control she had over him. His body had never reacted like this. Not once.

Perhaps it was the strangeness and newness of her form. He was no stranger to pleasure, but certainly was when it came to the achromos. The People of Water, both male and female, had remarkably similar bodies. The same areas caused the same amount of pleasure for him and a woman of his kind, and such exchanges were brief.

Considering how hidden everything on this achromo was, he could only assume their pleasure was different. And the mere idea of chasing it with her was a heady rush to his head.

And... other areas.

Mira took a ragged breath, her chest brushing against his. “This isn’t talking, Arges. I need you to talk so that Byte can make a chip for me as well. So we can understand each other.”

She wanted him to talk?

Leaning down so his mouth was pressed to her hearing hole, he raggedly said, “I have seen what your people do in the dark. The movements might be strange, but the sounds your kind make are intriguing to me. I wish to explore this body of yours, Mira.”

He felt her shiver at her name. He knew he said it differently than her, rolling the middle of the word over on his tongue.

“I have no idea what you just said,” she whispered in response. “But it sounded less angry.”

“Oh, I am still angry with you. Very, very angry.” He pressed his teeth to her neck, pleased with the little noise she made in the back of her throat. “But there are other ways to punish you, kairos.”

Again, her breath caught, and he found himself obsessed with the sound.

“As long as you keep talking, you can say whatever you want to me.” She wriggled in his grip, trying to twist her wrists so he had to let her go. “But we will not get anywhere unless I can understand you as well.”

He begged to differ.

Even as her strange fins squeezed around him a little tighter than before, he felt himself drawing away from this moment. They would get somewhere because she would tell him everything. He would return to his people, triumphant, and take control of his pod again. All he had to do was get information to his Mitéra that could help them destroy the achromos.

Then he really heard what she said. He rolled the words over in his mind as the sea did a stone, and finally he growled, “Are there more of these devices?”

She frowned at him, and he hissed out a curse at the difficulty.

Perhaps she was right. She needed to be able to understand him.

His gaze heated with rage now, he barked at the robot in the corner, “You there. You can make more of these devices. Make them now, and I will bring them to my people.”

Mira was far too observant for her own good. She looked at his gestures, watched as he pointed to the device in his ear and it all seemed to click. “No,” she said quietly, before her words became more forceful. “I will not give you more of those devices. Not for your people. I have no way of knowing what any of you will do with them.”

He glared down at her, but that did not startle his little kairos in the slightest. If anything, she only struggled harder and became more determined.

“Absolutely not! I only gave this to you as a necessity because you have me trapped hundreds of feet underneath the ocean. Get off of me!”

He slammed her wrists against the stones, forcing her to stop moving. “Stop struggling. You will give me more of these devices, and my people will understand your language. We will take what we are owed from you, and you will do nothing to stop it from happening.”