Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
Proteus
Proteus had never expected himself to go back to the domes without an explicit plan to destroy their homes for good. He still wanted to tear into them, and ripping through every single person there would satisfy some ugly part of him that longed for vengeance.
He had proven that he was worthy of worship. But the undine here didn't care if he was worthy or not. They weren't going to do it.
And that was a strange feeling. Proteus's entire life had been framed around the fact that he was the son of gods. He could see the future just like the depthstriders, if he wished. He had simply stopped using that ability since he... he...
He looked down at the sleeping human in his arms and he realized he'd stopped using it since he'd met her.
Proteus didn't want to see the future anymore. It had always been vague anyway, but he enjoyed knowing that he knew nothing about his future with her. He didn't want to ruin these quiet moments.
Like right now. With her resting in his arms, exhausted, in an ill-fitting wetsuit that had clearly been designed for a man. Yet she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
What would it have been like if he had ruined the moment where she had taken him into her body, shocking him, but also opening up his world to a whole new kind of pleasure? No, that would have been foolish to ruin that.
She made him enjoy the spontaneity of life. She made him want to keep trying to see and find new things, because he had never done that before.
He wanted to live, Proteus realized. Not as a god worshipped by all who met him, but as a regular man with the woman he loved.
The undine knew he was approaching the domes long before he reached them. He would have been disappointed if they hadn't. They were all warriors, hardened by years of fighting against the humans. They, at the very least, should know when there was someone in their waters.
The red one was the first to approach. He still wore that metal arm, and flexed it at his side as though he prepared for a fight.
"You are not welcome here," he boomed, his voice carrying across the waters.
As expected, it was far too loud. Proteus nearly scolded him but then was far too busy trying to manage the flailing woman who was bound and determined to heave herself out of his arms.
"Drop her," the red undine snarled. "If that's what it takes to get you to pay attention to me."
"She can't swim," he replied, glaring at the other male as Ellie finally settled in his arms. "By all the gods of the sea, woman, settle down."
She did so, but pressed her hands to her ears. "I can feel his voice vibrating through the water, Proteus. And now, you as well. Both of you quiet down."
For a moment, he swore this wasn't the first time the red undine had been told that. All his lights illuminated at once, tiny dots that sparkled like red stars before he coughed through his rib gills and they all turned back off.
When he spoke again, the words were much quieter. "My apologies. I often forget that human ears are so delicate."
Proteus glared at him, ready to scold the much younger male, but he didn't have to. Ellie already pointed at him and said, "Aren't you the one married to Anya?"
Saying the name was like lightning had struck the male. All the lights burst into radiance again, illuminating the water around him until even the plankton had a red glow to it. "That is my mate, yes."
"She's nice," Ellie said. "Hard of hearing?"
"Completely."
"Interesting. She was very helpful when I was in your home, and very pretty."
By all the gods of the sea, Ellie learned quickly. Proteus was shocked to see how the dangerous male in front of them preened at her words. His fins even fluttered at the compliments she lavished upon his mate.
"She is strong and capable," the male said. "I have seen her through much hardship. She is a warrior, far more than I."
"I don't doubt that. Would you mind bringing us to see her again? Proteus has come around to the whole plan, but I would like to chat with everyone else." She looked up at him, asking permission for likely the first time since he'd met her. "Do you mind?"
"I do not, Sisu. If you wish to see the others, then that is what we will do." He shifted her in his arms, holding her a little more tightly as he turned a glare to the other male. "I am not here to fight."
The lights all went out at his words, but the red male gave him a stiff nod.
He followed the undine and wondered when his life had turned to this. Proteus was born to be worshipped. A god among smaller males, those who would see him as a creation of the ancients. And now? Now he was following another male like he had been summoned.
This tiny woman in his arms sure had changed a lot.
They approached the domes, and he was pleased to see that the undine had armed themselves. So, they weren't planning on allowing him to just enter their lives without a fight. Good. They should have guessed that he would be furious with them for the trick they had played.
He bared his teeth at the first wave of them that all floated in front of their home, spears in their hands and armor on their bodies.
He didn't remember the undine ever wearing armor, at least not when he’d been around two hundred years ago.
These metal plates would keep them safer from his claws, but nothing would stop him from dragging them into the abyss if he wished.
A few of their grips changed on their spears as he swam past them, preparing for the moment when he would change his mind and fly at them in a rage.
Fools. All of them.
But then that blue bastard appeared, and it took everything in Proteus to not toss Ellie onto the ground so that he could attack the male who had taken her from him.
The blue undine before him lifted his hands for peace. "I didn't have a choice in the matter, and you know it. You didn't give us an opportunity to speak with you."
"I am a god. I do not have to speak to any of my supplicants." If he had been above water, he would have spat after the words. It was an insult that he was even here.
But Ellie placed her hand on his chest, and he looked down at her, finding peace and steadiness in her gaze. "I'm going to talk with the other humans. Perhaps you should fix what has been broken here."
"Nothing has been broken."
"Proteus." She shifted in his arms, lifting her hands to cup his face and leaning closer so no one else could hear her.
Her voice was so quiet, even he had to strain to listen.
"You have a choice. Do you wish to remain a god, and thus alone, forever?
Or do you want to start a new life now? With them.
With family and friends and a future that is more than you sitting in a temple all alone? "
He thought about her words as she kicked away from him.
A few undine reached to help her, their touch tentative and their gazes on him.
Perhaps they knew that anyone who touched her ran the risk of his wrath.
But he nodded, and one of the females, a pretty one with a bright lavender tail, tugged her toward the dome with a soft push that helped Ellie float toward the others of her own kind.
That left him in the water with all the other undine. They didn't seem thrilled that he was here. He wouldn't have been either.
Holding his arms out at his sides, he tried to show them that he had no weapons on him.
But they could see the massive spines that extended out of his elbows, currently flat against his arms. They likely knew there were more on his spine, and that he had enough poison in his body to put them all to sleep this instant, and then he could do whatever he wanted with them.
Tilting his head to the side, he shrugged at the blue and red undine before him. "So what are you going to do with me now?"
"Not worship you, that's for damn sure," the blue one replied.
"What is your name?"
"Arges."
"Who are you here?"
"I help lead."
Proteus nodded. "So you are the one I need to speak with then."
More undine came from the back of the domes. Apparently they had been preparing for him from all angles, but these were a few he recognized. The purple depthstrider, Fortis, had helped him start all this. He wondered if the male regretted that. And of course, the yellow male he had nearly killed.
Proteus grinned at the last one. "How are your gills?"
"Better."
But he winced as he said it, like taking that deep inhalation was a little more painful than he wanted to let on. The yellow one certainly didn't want to admit any weakness with all these oafs surrounding him.
Grunting, Proteus shook his head. "You know the green algae that grows in the warmer areas? Gets stuck on coral if you can find any skeletal remains of a reef."
"Yes." The yellow undine tilted his head to the side, obviously confused about where this conversation was heading.
"Put it in your gills. It will help."
There was a moment of stunned silence as everyone just... stared at him. Like he'd lost his mind. Or perhaps as though they had lost theirs. Surely they hadn't heard him correctly. Surely he wasn't giving advice on how to heal them.
The frown on Arges's face deepened. "We have never used that algae for healing."
"No, you haven't. It was considered a holy substance long ago, and even though it could heal, it was only used in dire circumstances.
But it is abundant and very easy to find.
You likely haven't heard of it because so many did not wish to use it because they were afraid the goddess of the sea would smite them.
" He snorted. "Even my parents, the ancients, went along with it. They thought it was funny."
More silence. More stares. Likely because they were all realizing how much of their life had been manipulated by creatures they revered. And he called them his parents.
The red undine snorted. "Arges, do you hear that?"
"I did, Daios."
"And all this time we'd been thinking it was poisonous." He scratched the back of his neck with a metal hand. "Perhaps there is some use to this man who calls himself a god."
Fix this, Ellie's voice whispered in his mind. You can choose right now to be something else.
Somebody else, he supposed. He had been created just like her, he realized. The searing thought burned through him. She was a clone. A doll, like she said. And here he had been, telling her that she was so much more than that.
Maybe he was more than the ancients’s tool. Maybe he was meant to have a life and a future and a family, just like she said.
He coughed through his gills, clearing them out of sediment that had built on them for far too long.
And then he said, "Perhaps I have no interest in being a god any longer.
I have lived a long life. Longer than most could ever dream of.
This world no longer needs a god to rule it, but it does need a group of people who see the future and plan accordingly. I would like to be part of that."
Arges snorted. "By ruling over us? We have no interest in a king."
"By living among you. By learning what you know and teaching you what I know. By being part of this world, rather than only seeing it as a thing to be... manipulated."
He knew they wouldn't believe him. Not immediately. But he had to try.
For her.
For him.
For a future that neither of them had ever had much say in, but one that he hoped to see come to fruition.
He took a deep breath, the gills along his ribs hurting.
"It is a start to tell you what I know. About the algae.
The places where you can hunt that are still fruitful.
The areas of this sea that are hidden from your sight, but that I can still feel.
I will help you in whatever way you ask of me.
I renounce my godhood, however, because I have no wish to be a god any longer. "
Fortis swam closer to him, flicking his tail with annoyance as he headed toward Proteus. "You'll have to excuse me when I say I need to prove that."
Ah, so the priestly one wanted to peer inside his head. To prove once and for all that the god before them wasn't lying. He was truly blessed by the gods if he was capable of such gifts.
Proteus nodded. He even held his hands behind his back, so there was no threat when Fortis planted a hand on his chest.
The depthstrider glowed. Bright dots spiraled up and down his body, flickering with the power that ran through him. The lights were pretty, but Proteus liked to think his were prettier as his body reacted to the sensation of another person's mind scratching against his.
The priest would find no lies. Only exhaustion as Proteus finally released the last tie he had to his parents, and perhaps to the sea itself. He had fought for hundreds of years to scramble back to the person he had once been, but he was so tired of that person.
For once, he wanted to rest. Of course he wanted to help them, but his purpose had always been to see the People of Water get the best life they could get. That was all.
Fortis hummed low under his breath. "What is this I see about warning us? Something to do with Above?"
"That is a conversation for all of us. For the undine and for the humans. Because it's..." He sighed. "Complicated. Everything in regards to the humans is complicated."
And for the first time in his life, he felt a comaraderie with the People of Water. There were quite a few of them around him who shared a look with each other, all of them agreeing that their mates, their humans, were a complicated bunch.
He chuckled and flicked his tail to head toward the dome, where he knew Ellie waited for him. "If you're done with all this, perhaps we should join them so we can tell you all everything we know."
The males followed him without complaint, and Proteus wondered if they would ever be comfortable around him.
He supposed it didn't matter. In the end, all he needed was her.