“Just let it dry and then wipe it off. I don’t know how humans work.”

So she was just supposed to... sit here? With period blood on her fingers and... “Nothing could make this day better,” she muttered, flopping awkwardly onto her back with her hand in the air.

“Well, I am pleased to report the dialect of the People of Water is at seventy-two percent.”

Seventy... She sat straight up, ignoring her hand now. “Seventy two?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take my damn chances with that.” She staggered to her feet and then walked over to Byte. She grabbed the small robot with her clean hand and set it on a much higher rock. “Give me the translation chip.”

“There are a lot of their conversations that you will not understand. Particularly the nuances of their languages, their gods, and many other uncertainties. It is best if I continue to listen and provide you with a complete translator first before I⁠—”

“Nope,” Mira interrupted. “I can’t stand not understanding him anymore. This would all be so much easier if we could just talk. I fully understand the risks of implanting a translation chip that does not have the complete language, but languages are always growing and evolving. I’m sure there are things I’ve even said to you that you don’t understand.”

Byte grumbled. A little tinny noise echoed inside its box before it muttered, “There have been a few things, but I have updated my database accordingly and now I understand the language fully again.”

“Then you will continue to update your database the more we are around the undine. But for now, I want that chip in my head so I can at the very least understand where he is taking us and why.” She held out her hand expectantly. “Don’t make me use protocol, Byte. I will order you to do it.”

It grumbled again, but this time, she heard the slight whine of a translator chip being created. It might be the last one that the robot had, in which case, she would be stuck not knowing the entire language for the rest of her life. But still.

Seventy-two percent was a lot of a language to know.

The little drawer on the side popped open and there it was. Her salvation and perhaps the end of how she saw everything. It didn’t matter. Now she could talk to him. She could understand what the fuck was going on.

And that would have to be enough.

She wasted no time tapping it against the side of her head. The blinding pain seared through her skull. Simultaneously the worst headache she’d ever had mixed with the sensation of someone taking a fork to her brain and twirling. But it didn’t matter. She’d endured this before.

Mira opened her eyes a few moments later. She’d fallen onto her knees, clutching her head between her hands as if trying to contain the feelings rolling around in there.

It was over.

“Really,” Byte muttered. “You humans and your dramatics.”

“It’s not exactly comfortable, you know.”

“Endure it. You’re learning a new language in seconds. Of course your brain is going to complain.”

She could have argued. She could have wallowed in the shitty feeling of her period and the knowledge that she was going to keep bleeding into her wetsuit for the foreseeable future.

Instead, she laid down on her back and stared up at the ceiling, knowing that she’d be able to understand him for the first time. It wouldn’t sound like a song when he popped his head back up. She could know what he was saying in response to literally everything she said.

And damn. That felt good.

OceanofPDF.com

Twenty-Two

Arges

Though he wished for it, Arges knew he couldn’t stay with her forever. They weren’t getting anywhere on his mission to learn more about the achromos, and he knew the other People of Water were losing their patience with him. He was supposed to either lead the pod, or find them ways to harm the achromos. That was his purpose in life.

And yet... It was so hard to consider doing either of those when he was so well and truly obsessed with her.

She’d taken the time and energy to continue healing his wounds, no matter how long it had been or how much it was healed. Even now, a full week after he’d been injured, she still made him show her his shoulder as though it would somehow open up again. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that his people healed so much faster than hers.

She wouldn’t believe him, anyway. His kairos was decidedly bossy and ordered him around whenever she got the chance. He rarely listened to her, of course, but he still appreciated her bravery.

Soon enough, they had a routine of where they were moving, and why. She didn’t even mind it when he came to get her, apparently more than prepared to move every two or three days.

Arges just wished he knew of a place that would be safe for her. A place that wasn’t directly in the line of his kind, while still being nowhere near hers. If he brought her back to that place, that glowing monolith under the sea, he had a feeling he would never get her back.

So when he popped his head into the air in this newest cave, larger than the others, he was pleased to see she was ready for him. She didn’t even seem to mind that they were underwater anymore, although there had been a few days where she’d been less than excited. At least she wasn’t yelling this time.

“Arges!” she said, pleased to see him. Her eyes lit up and sometimes he swore she knew what he was saying to her. Unfortunately, her robot friend hadn’t gotten any closer to creating the translation chip for her.

“Hello, kairos,” he replied, swimming a little closer and propping his arms on the edge of the stone. “Are you ready for your next journey?”

He looked over at the box and waited for it to poke its head out. He wasn’t sure if he thought of the creature more like a crab or a turtle. Some days it was prickly like a crab, far more likely to nip at him with its claws than it was to be kind.

The box did not show its face. In fact, it had been suspiciously quiet these days. Choosing to linger inside of its shell rather than look at what was happening around it. He found this new behavior to be rather disturbing. Byte always seemed to want to be involved in everything.

He supposed it wasn’t worth the energy to be suspicious of the two of them. In all the time he’d spent with Mira, he had never once thought she was trying to deceive him. She was honest to a fault, it seemed.

Mira rubbed her hands up and down her arms, and he caught the faintest shiver trail down her spine before she stopped herself. “Is there anywhere warmer?” she asked. “I know that’s a rare thing to ask in the ocean, but I’ve been struggling a bit lately. I can’t seem to get warm, and my hands...”

She held out her hands for him to look at, and he could see how the joints were curling in on themselves. Was she sick?

“Do your people have some illness I need to know about?” He reached for her hands, still speaking even though he knew she couldn’t understand him. “You achromos are so fragile.”

She made a soft snorting sound, and he looked up in surprise. Was she picking up on his language, after all?

But then she shook her head with a wry grin. “I can only imagine you are scolding me for not taking care of myself. Is that right?”

It was close enough. He nodded before gesturing to the water. “There are hot springs that come out of the vents in the sea. Many of the creatures there are startling, but they will leave us alone if I am close to you. You can get warm there, but we cannot take the heat with us.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion, but then she smiled at him and he forgot how to breathe. “I trust you, Arges. Wherever you plan to take me, I will go.”

Again, that blind trust that he hadn’t truly earned made his hearts race. This woman, she gifted him such wonderful trust without ever needing him to prove himself.