I bring the fruit to my mouth.
I bite down into the soft flesh.
The reaction is terrifyingly instantaneous.
It does not taste like fruit.
A shard of pure, jagged ice violently explodes in the back of my throat. It's a profound, horrifying absence of sensation. The numbness strikes my vocal cords first, freezing the muscle instantly. The cold rapidly races upward, flooding my inner ear and paralyzing the intricate resonance chambers I use to hear the deep.
I float backward, dropping the remains of the fruit. My heavy tail thrashes against the rock of the Anvil, kicking up a massive cloud of dark silt.
"Kael?"
Vaelis's voice sounds muffled. It sounds completely distorted, as if he is shouting at me from the other side of a stone wall.
I claw frantically at my own throat. My black eyes go wide with genuine, primal panic. I knew the poison would silence me, but the sheer speed of the paralysis is staggering. The icy numbness is actively creeping into my jaw, locking the heavy muscles tight.
I open my mouth to gasp for water.
I try to draw a heavy breath across my gills to create the low, sub-harmonic hum of my species. I need to orient myself. I need to feel the trench wall.
Nothing happens.
There is absolutely no vibration. There is no sound. The gills flare, but the biological instrument is completely broken. The water passing through my neck is dead.
"Kael! What's happening?"
Vaelis surges forward, his striking face twisted into a mask of pure terror. He reaches out, grabbing my heavy forearms, his fingers digging desperately into my skin.
The venom has fully saturated my auditory canals. The roaring hum of the distant thermal vents vanishes. The rushing sound of the middle currents disappears. The entire ocean goes terrifyingly, absolutely silent.
It's like being buried alive in an unmarked grave.
I look down at Vaelis. His lips are moving rapidly. His golden eyes are wide and spilling tears into the cold water. He is shouting my name. He is begging me to tell him what is wrong. He's trying to hold me up, trying to support my massive, staggering weight.
I can't let him see any more of this.
I can't let him watch me degrade into a thrashing, deaf, mute animal. If I stay here, he will drag me back to the Reef to find a healer. He will take me straight to the guards. The entire lie will unravel, and he will be destroyed by the crossfire.
I have to make him let me go.
I forcefully rip my arms out of his desperate grip. The sudden, violent movement throws him backward in the water.
Vaelis catches himself, looking at me with absolute shock. He reaches for me again, his mouth forming the shape of my name.
I bare my teeth.
I force my face into the ugliest, most terrifying snarl I can manage. I let my eyes go completely flat, mimicking the mindless, feral hunger of the trench hounds. I lunge forward, snapping my heavy jaws inches from his sharp face.
It's the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life.
Vaelis flinches violently. He recoils, his hands flying up to protect his throat. The pure, unadulterated terror in his golden eyes physically breaks my heart in two.
He finally sees the monster he was always taught to fear.
I don't wait for him to recover. I don't give him the chance to reach for me again.
I turn my back on the only light I have ever loved, and I dive blindly into the crushing abyss.
