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 moretightly 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."
