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I tap the communicator so that I can have privacy.
Questions claw up my throat.Where she had been? Why had she severed our connection?But she would not recognize this form, and I do not want to cause a scene in my true form here.
Besides, I need to make sure that her worries were not because of an external threat.
“So beautiful,” I say.
She lifts those luminous eyes toward me. I could get lost in them. As dark as the polished jewels of Lemuria.
She smiles. “This is one of my favorite exhibits.”
My gaze flicks to the underwater scene behind the glass before meeting hers again. “That’s beautiful, too, I suppose.”
She lifts her eyebrow, her lips twisting into a smirk. “Clever.” She salutes me with her champagne flute and walks away.
I’m left standing there, trying to process what happened. She’s halfway across the exhibit before I hurry after her. “Wait! I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She doesn’t slow her stride. “You all never do.”
Now, what does that mean?
Maru’s voice buzzes into my ear. “She’s safe, sir? Our mission is over, then?”
Ignoring Maru, I follow Kaia’s path, who quickly melts into the crush of people all wearing this damnable formal black attire.
* * *
“What do you mean,you lost her? Is there an enemy assailant?”
I ignore Maru’s disbelieving tone. “It’s not like I can cause a scene and knock down all in my path.” Tempting, though it may be. “Stand down and hold your position. I’ll find her again soon enough.”
I will not lose her this time.
Her appearance was a surprise, that was all. That’s surely why I fumbled my encounter with her so terribly. I’ll do better next time.
I home in on her, feeling for our connection. The echo of her drifts toward an open gallery where there are several posters on display.
Of course. I’ve been looking for actual boats on display for this auction. I should have realized that there would be reproductions on display.
Instead of looking for Kaia, I look for the display of the Oceana. Relief floods me once more when I see her speaking to a few people in front of her table.
I remind myself that she does not know this form, and so I must work even harder to win her trust. Undeterred by her previous rebuff, I approach her once more, circling the tables so as not to make her feel uncomfortable.
Kaia speaks to a group that wanders over to the table. She smiles at the gaudily dressed folk, answering their questions, but I can tell that her smiles were disingenuous. That same flutter of anxiety that I felt from her before bubbles within me once more.
When the group drifts away and Kaia is alone once more, her face falls into a scowl. The clipboard seems to be the source of her ire. Whatever she sees, I wish to banish it from her vision.
“Has that clipboard offended you?”
Somehow she looks down upon me, even though I’m fully a head taller than she was.
“In principle, yes.”
“Anything I can do about it?”
She shrugs. A false note rings from her throat. “Oh, I don’t know? Maybe you can buy my boat so that I don’t have to endure speaking to vapid, social media influencers who are looking for their next viral video campaign.”
I don’t understand half of the terms she uses, but I understand the meaning behind the words. I nod as if giving her request some consideration. “And you don’t believe that–” I scan the names on her auction form “–McKinley is open for deep sea exploration?”
