The Commander's jaw locks tight behind his iron helm. His eyes sweep across his collapsing infantry line, now drowning in the churning gray tide of frenzied shark-mers. His eyes lift to the relative safety of the upper defensive boundary, a glittering promise of survival.
He makes a calculated, cowardly choice.
"The shield wall is breaking! Fall back!" The mental command rips through the water, sharp and merciless. "Leave the Reds! Fall back to the upper defensive line right now!"
Leave the Reds.
The cruel words hit me harder than the shark's teeth did. They strike deeper than the bone, a venomous poison that paralyzes what little fight remains in my body.
Paralyzing horror sets in as the glittering line of iron pikes recedes into the shadows. Taren hesitates for a fraction of a second, his silver eyes meeting mine with a flicker of regret before he turns his cowardly back, following his orders to survive. Mira screams something unintelligible, fighting the scarred Sergeant dragging her backward. She thrashes until two more soldiers seize her arms, hauling her into the retreat.
They are leaving me to be eaten alive.
I am nothing but trash to them. Disposable, decorative debris. My crimson fins, once a symbol of my people's pride, are now nothing more than a target painted on my back.
I stop kicking my tail. My shredded shoulder burns with a cold, sickening, venomous fire. My golden vision is tunneling. The bright edges of the world turn a bruised, flat gray.
I am going to die here.
I am going to die alone in the freezing Wastes, betrayed by the very light I always worshipped.
I close my heavy eyes.
I am so sorry, Kael,a weak thought forms, letting the darkness take me.I tried to be a bright signal for you. I only managed to be a meal.
The water surrounding my sinking body churns. The ambient pressure shifts.
Something grabs me.
It's not a set of teeth.
It's a hand.
Strong. Desperate. Trembling.
I force my heavy eyes open.
Kael is there.
He bleeds from a jagged new gash on his high forehead, dark blood diffusing into the water around his face. His chest heaves with exertion, each breath a visible struggle in the cold. But his dark eyes are locked onto mine, burning with a fierce, terrified possessiveness that anchors my fading soul to this broken body.
He has abandoned the fight with the Great White. He has abandoned the defense of his glowing Shell. He has come straight for me.
His hand, strong and trembling, grabs my good shoulder. His fingers dig into my uninjured skin, the pressure a desperate anchor in the churning chaos. He shakes me, the movement sharp and urgent.
Wake up,his frantic eyes scream at me, the words forming only in my mind, not in the water.
I try to smile at him, the effort splitting my lip. "You came back," I whisper, the words barely more than bubbles escaping my lips.
He doesn't answer me. I know he can't.
He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling my broken body against his broad chest. He feels solid. Real in a world made of lies and false promises.
He glances over his scarred shoulder. The shark-mer swarm is regrouping below. The towering Great White turns back toward us, his dead eyes black with feral rage.
Kael stares down into the abyss.
The conch Shell grinds its heavy way up the steep slope, its copper cage inside pulsing with a frantic, blinding blue light.
