Somewhere in her stories, likely around the dog, the other undine showed up.
Arges hauled himself out of the water, sliding across the floor toward Mira and wrapping his tail around her. Maketes did the same, although he hauled Ace across his tail like that was where she was meant to be. Her cheeks turned bright red, but she leaned into him.
They'd done that a hundred times before, Ellie realized. The other two were looking at their mates intently. Daios clearly checked Anya over for any harm. And Fortis looked at Alexia like he worshipped the ground she walked on.
Finally, her gaze flicked to Proteus, and everything in her froze. Because the expression on his face was so soft. She'd never seen him look at anything like that before. He had been waiting to catch her gaze, so that all the love he felt for her could shine through his eyes.
Biting her lip, she tried to hide her grin before continuing on to tell them every detail.
The undine males who had joined them had a lot of questions about that massive dog thing that could have killed her. Proteus answered most of the questions about that. After all, he'd been a lot closer than her. And they all started guessing what these creatures meant.
Their words and theories started overlapping. They were all speaking at the same time, their thoughts and expectations of Above growing more outlandish by the minute. She could tell that Alexia was going to argue against their going up there at all. Surprisingly, it was Anya, sweet, quiet Anya, who was arguing the most adamantly that they should go Above, regardless of the danger.
Finally, it was Proteus who got them all to stop talking.
The sharp, whip crack of his voice lashed through the dome. "You don't have a choice! To save your people, you must go Above."
They all turned to stare at him, and at least it seemed Proteus now understood why.
"I will help you as much as I can, but I think we all know that there is no guessing what has survived up there. I would hazard a guess that the last decade of experiments that went on in that facility would shock all of us. We can discover as much as we can, but in the end, there is nothing we can do to change what we will find out there. There must be weapons developed, facilities fortified. And then we can move forward."
More quiet, until Alexia spoke next. "I can oversee the weapons construction. Tau had plenty of those, and they weren't all aimed at killing the People of Water. Plenty of those can be used in a physical fight, and if we arm enough people... Well, it doesn't matter. I'll start training soldiers. Many clones have already shown interest in it."
Anya nodded, her gaze far away as though she were reading something on the screen of the droid attached to her head. "Ithink the records from the experiments give me a good start in guessing what we might encounter up there. I'll start pulling together diagrams and assess with Daios where these creatures might be weakest."
"Droids will be helpful," Mira said. She nodded over at Ace. "The two of us can get them going. We'll need flying droids, probably for the first time."
The others continued to talk about all their plans, moving seamlessly together. They were a team, but more than that, they were a family. Ellie watched them all bicker together. But none of the arguments had any bite. None of the insults seemed to stick. They ribbed each other and joked about who would be best at doing the jobs.
Alexia pushed off the wall, coming toward Ellie with clear intent in her gaze. "And you? What are you going to do to help us, Ellie?"
Everyone quieted a bit, looking over at her. But Ellie was looking at Proteus.
It was as if he'd already read her mind. She could tell that he wasn't pleased with what she was going to say, but nodded at her anyway.
She swallowed and said, "I'd like to lead the expeditions heading to the other facilities. I just... I want to know what's out there. I want to see the world and to know what we're bringing people into. And then... Well, once we get a stable place to live, I think I'd like to stay in Sanctuary. I can be close to Proteus, and welcome people to the land as they arrive. I think I'd be good at that."
Alexia grinned. Pride turned her expression a little warmer than before. "I think that's a great idea. You know, most of the people who have volunteered to go Above are clones. Just like you. They all saw it as a chance for a new life, to start somewhereno one knows who they are or where they came from. I think you'd be the perfect person to welcome them."
As the others started talking again, more plans bursting through the air, Ellie felt something inside of her click into place. A puzzle piece that she had been missing, maybe. Or perhaps a reason for being that she hadn't had before.
Quietly, she moved through the crowd of people and walked over to the water's edge.
There wasn't any privacy in this room. But when Proteus flicked his tail and came closer to her, it felt like they were the only two left in the room. She sat down on the edge, and he braced his arms on either side of her body.
With a gentleness only she got to see, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and asked, "Happy?"
"I think so. Are you?"
He nodded. "There is a future for us here, Sisu. Not an easy future, but I don't think either of us would like a happy ending handed to us, all wrapped up as you humans dream of."
"No," she replied with a soft laugh. "I don't think either of us would like that. We need a purpose."
He nodded toward the others. She knew he was saying something, but all she could focus on was the strong line of his jaw and the hard look in his eyes. A muscle on his jaw jumped, and she wondered what happened to it when he fully opened his mouth like she'd seen him do so many times. Was that muscle one of the ones that helped peel his mouth open like a flower?
He looked back at her, and a hint of amusement made her blush. "Did you hear me, Sisu?"
"No."
