And of course, Pip, the heroic shrimp, who blinks contentedly from Mira's lap.
We sit in a rough circle and eat in comfortable silence.
This is a future I never dared to imagine. This ancient, jury-rigged shell holds more warmth and loyalty than the entire gleaming Royal Palace.
We are outcasts. We are something new.
Thalos polishes off his clam, licking the lingering salt from his wrinkled lips. His ancient eyes sweep across our small circle, seeing everything.
"The Council feared my voice," he says, the truth hanging heavy between us. "I spoke the truth they tried to drown. I exposed their rot from within the glowing spires. When my words were too loud, they banished me to the dark waters. But exile was not enough for their cruelty."
He pauses, rubbing his mossy beard, the gesture laced with old pain.
"They hired Oona. I thought they would steal my voice, as they've done to so many dissenters. But the witch is more creative than that. She brewed something foul, something unnatural. She trapped my mind, my very essence, inside the body of a mindless electric beast. My power, once used to expose their lies, became their perimeter defense. A slave to the empire I fought to unmask. I was told there was no cure. I had long accepted my fate."
His golden eyes turn to Pip, who blinks a contented blue from Mira's lap.
"For years, I was nothing but electric bursts and animal instinct. Then this brave little fellow found me. Pip couldn't speak, but he listened. Together, he helped me escape. Wemodified the cage to move using my own electricity and parts. We ran for the depths, and the cage grew as I pulled more scrap from the trench. Eventually, I ended up powering this garbage scow."
His eyes soften as they fall on Mira.
"Oona's death must have weakened the magic holding me captive," Thalos continues. "And that rusted vial of Mira's... it shattered the last of their spell. The tether snapped. I am myself again."
I smile at the beautiful, brutal symmetry. All of the Council's monstrous generators had been their undoing.
Then a cold realization sinks into my gut. My eyes fixate on the dark, silent engine sitting in the corner of the shell.
"Wait," I say, the words tasting like panic. "With you in your true form, the engine has no power source. How do we move the ship? How do we reach the Graveyard of Giants?"
Thalos throws his head back and laughs, a rich, rasping sound.
"Of course we can move the ship, Red," he says, gesturing around at our strange assembly. "We have a Basalt-Kin with a voice that commands the very ocean. And we have our very own old witch sitting right there."
His bony finger points directly at Mira.
Mira blinks slowly, her attention shifting from the bone chimes to our faces. A slow, wicked smile spreads across her gray lips, transforming her expression from peaceful to predatory.
She strokes Pip's smooth shell, and the shrimp clicks excitedly, his antennae twitching with anticipation.
"He’s right," Mira rasps, her voice stronger than it's been since she arrived. Her eyes gleam with a feverish purpose. "I spent decades studying. I may not have Oona’s supplies, but I have deep knowledge. I can brew a potion to power the core. Something volatile. Electric. We’ll mimic the eel's charge."
She looks at the dead engine, calculating, her mind already assembling the formula.
"I will need specific ingredients," Mira says, her voice gaining strength with each word. "Rare Fire-Kelp from the thermal vents. The paralyzing venom of a Ghost Ray. And I will need heavy, reinforced glass vials to contain the pressure."
I glance at Kael, a silent question passing between us.
Kael nods his heavy head, a wild, eager light dancing in his dark eyes.
The hunt has already begun for him.
"We will find them," Kael promises the hunter, his voice a low rumble of intent.
"Good," Mira says, leaning her head back against the wall. She resumes stroking Pip's delicate shell. "Then we can finally go home."
Chapter 24
A Perfect Team
