He didn’t. But looking up into those strange eyes, even if they were surrounded by white, he wondered if it wouldn’t be too bad to be taken care of by her.

She brushed her thumb along his chin before turning her attention to the wound on his shoulder. “The twenty-two percent that Byte mentioned is how much of your language it has learned. It’s not a lot, but that’s a significant jump from listening to three of you talking at the same time.”

“It’s hard to imagine it’s only gathered that much of our language,” he muttered, turning his head to the side so she had better access to the wound on his shoulder. “I talk significantly more than the others of my kind.”

“You should tell me a story,” she said, ignoring everything that he’d said. And he wondered if she made up what he was telling her in her head. Like she was actually having a conversation with him. “There have to be some words that you haven’t said. At least Byte can translate those.”

He wasn’t so sure that there were stories he could tell her. Mitéra would likely want to murder him if he told her about their gods or any other secrets of their kind. Though he was coming to trust his achromo, he certainly wasn’t sure that the robot wasn’t collecting everything he said for later use.

Perhaps she recognized his hesitation, or maybe she mistook it for him being in so much pain that he couldn’t think. Either way, she slid more into the water, until her bottom was on a ledge in the water. “This might be an easier position. It’s going to take a while for this solution to set, anyway.”

She hadn’t even started doing anything, as far as he was aware. But he allowed her to draw him forward, even though there was nowhere for him to go. Without words, she guided him to lay his head on her lap.

She couldn’t know what this was doing to him. She had no way of knowing that by resting his head against her thighs, that she had pressed his gills between them as well. That her scent was nearly overpowering here, tantalizing his senses and filtering through his very breath. He could taste her on his tongue, sweet and musky and entirely unlike anything he’d ever tasted before.

Mira cleared her throat, her fingers playing over his exposed gills for a second before rasping, “Is this okay?”

It was mouthwatering. Arges wanted to turn his head, to use his other senses to find out where that delicate scent was coming from. He wanted to split her strange tails, to see if she was built the same as his kind or if she was something different. He wanted her to run her fingers through his gills again, the way she had before in that cave where he hadn’t been so afraid that someone would find her.

Every color in his body burst into light, lighting up the surrounding water with a bright glow. And he wasn’t even ashamed about it. He refused to think too much about how all of his gills flared and then fluttered. No voice interrupted his thoughts to tell him that fluttering for a creature like her was a direct insult to the gods of his kind.

None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered at all was the feeling of her fingers brushing through his hair, and the taste of her on his tongue.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He couldn’t trust himself to speak. He’d say something foolish, like beg her to give him permission to discover more about her body. To see beyond the silver suit that covered her from head to toe. He wanted to know what that little hollow on her belly was, or what was between the split of her twin tails.

There was so much about her that he didn’t know. So much that he wanted to discover.

Instead, he let out a little hum and heard her gasp. Perhaps the sound had vibrated the water between her thighs, and it was something he stored away for later. Because that taste bloomed even more before she cleared her throat.

“I’m going to start healing you. If that’s all right?” she asked again, her voice a little deeper than before.

Nodding, he lifted his arms to frame her hips, dragging her a little closer. She could do whatever she wanted if he could stay right here for a little while longer.

OceanofPDF.com

Twenty-One

Mira

They moved through a lot of different caverns in the next week or so. Byte had been very helpful in that. Mira had fixed its projector with parts from one of the caves, so the droid could then use the projection mapping to show all the other caves that were nearby. It had taken a few tweaks and fiddles, but eventually she figured out the old droid system.

Byte did not appreciate her poking or prodding. It took many long hours until they could see the droid’s journey projected onto the surrounding stone walls. And then they would move once they found the next cave that should be open.

They were always difficult to find, of course. Byte didn’t like to show them the ones that were closest, apparently because of the dangers that it kept repeating.

“Not that one,” Byte would say, flicking through its memory with a very annoyed clank. “It’s too deep. Too far. Too dangerous.”

Even Mira was ready to throw the damn thing into the water by the end of it. But Arges remained a never ending well of patience. He asked the robot questions, even though it couldn’t really understand him. But she had noticed that the robot was beginning to speak back to him. Or at the very least, respond like it knew what he was asking.

At least, mostly. They muttered with each other by the end of the week, leaving her out of the conversation that would lead them to the next place.

She wasn’t a diver. And she certainly wasn’t a scientist who had led expeditions or knew the ocean floor like the back of her hand. But she was the one who had made Byte capable of even showing them where it had been. So clearly, she should be part of these conversations.

Finally, she’d had enough. In the fourth cavern, one that was little more than rock rubble and only two feet of space beside the water, she’d had enough.

“Byte, there has to be a better spot than just the caves.” Mira tapped her foot against the ground, looking at the water, then the walls of rock between them and the surface. “There were expedition pods in the old days, weren’t there?”

“They’ve all been destroyed by the undines.”

“That’s impossible. There were hundreds sent out into the ocean. There have to be more of them.”

“None.” Byte flicked to another cavern it thought might be habitable. This one looked even worse than the one they were standing in. “This one you could put your feet up out of the water, but that would be all the room available.”

“It has not escaped my notice, droid, that these caverns are getting smaller and smaller.” Mira planted her hands on her hips and glared down at the little box. “I assume you have some ulterior motive for these choices.”

“None at all.” Its little metallic arms came around and pressed against the box like it was holding a belly. “I just want you to remember that there are very limited options. We could, perhaps, return to the original cave and then continue in the same order.”

Arges made some song-like noise, which clearly Byte understood. The undine floated in the water much closer to them than usual. His eyes followed her movements a little too much, aware of her in every area of this cave.

Byte chittered, some gears grinding deep inside its belly before it sighed. “I understand the other undines know where those caverns are. But you are supposed to be learning about the humans, are you not? Surely there is only the one who wants to attack Mira. And one is very easy to defend against.”

“Wait a minute.” Mira held up her hand for silence, even though both the droid and undine staunchly refused to look at her. “What do you mean, he’s supposed to be learning from me?”