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I blink, realizing how he turned the question around on me. “No, but – well, we humans use tools instead. Like spades and spears and things.”
“And oars.”
It’s strange, how he quips back as intelligently as any human or dark elf. There are no deficits in his reasoning except for concepts which he’s not been introduced to. Like ‘guilt’. “Yes, oars, too. Do you use tools?”
“I have no need for them.” He seems to settle onto the writhing mass of tentacles beneath him. I can’t quite figure out what are supposed to be his legs and what is extraneous.
A thought strikes me that brings the heat to my cheeks, and I glance away before I find myself staring. Among the briny rubble are scattered pink and white shells. They litter the space along with the bones of fish. It almost seems intentional. It speaks to the sentiment of a being with an eye for beauty as well as function. “Do you live here?”
His low rumble comes without delay. “Yes.”
I nod, looking the place over with new eyes. The glowing flora above even looks well-manicured upon second glance. Why didn’t I see it before? “It’s beautiful.”
Laiken says nothing in response, quietly studying me.
I look behind him at that yawning darkness beyond. I think I see a twinkle of illumination. It piques my interest, and I rise again, running my fingers through my drying hair. “How deep does this cave go?”
He moves in response, almost with caution. It’s strange, how his eyes flare and how he orbits me without coming too close. His mouth moves as if he means to provide an answer, but nothing comes of it. Does he even have the words to describe depth or breadth?
I move to find my own answers, noticing how the barnacles conceal the shape of a wide door frame. It’s too neatly cut to be part of the cave. “What was this place?”
He follows me like a shadow as I press into the darkness beyond.
But even here, the light isn’t completely gone. Clusters of glowing mushrooms lead deeper into the gloom, where it seems the sea has had its way with the tunnels. The air is still sticky and warm, but the barnacles haven’t yet moved in, leaving the polished walls bare to the eye. I gasp, noting the ancient marks that once depicted a sprawling mural, blasted by the salt waters over a millennium so only the barest traces of images remain. Spiraling columns give way to a vast, open space that could have once been a temple’s main atrium.
At the center sits a circle of sand and a tree that has no place down here. Its branches have long since withered, but it remains a petrified testament to the creatures that once inhabited its halls. Above it is the open ocean, suspended by a dome of magic.
I gasp at the view.
All manner of ocean creatures swim above us, the scene more beautiful than it has any right to be. I don’t think even the architects of this temple could have calculated its magnificence, once the ocean came over it. Laiken transformed this place from a ruin into one of the great wonders of Protheka. From the murals, I get the sense that whoever built this place wasn’t the dark elves, and they appear nothing like Laiken, at least by their own depictions.
He has made this sunken temple his own.
I feel the press of his company at my back, and when I find my voice, it’s barely a whisper. “Is there anyone else here?”
“No,” comes his answer easily.
I don’t expect I’ll get much of a tour out of him, but curiosity has gotten the better of me, and I push past the open-planned cells into closed quarters. Ones that might have been the high priest’s personal chambers. Here, he has set up a nest of sorts, and a heaping pile of bones that have been picked clean.
Now, this is more like it, I think, suppressing a shudder when I spot a few bones that could easily pass as human. “Am I the first person you’ve brought here?”
No answer.
I turn around to face him, surprised at how close he’s come. He towers over me in a way that makes me strain my neck to look into his bright yellow eyes. His hand shoots out, and I wince, making him pause before reaching for me again.
I brace myself when he coils a lock of my dark hair around one digit. The tips of his fingers chase over the line of my jaw, his gaze flitting from my mouth to the curve of my neck. I rub the spot as if to conceal the point of his focus, but I realize it’s not like it should be.
The skin is different, and I’m shocked to find delicate folds against my neck rather than the tawny skin I’m used to. I feel both sides, starting to realize what he did to change me.No wonder I wasn’t choking on water.My heart skips a beat.I have gills?
Laiken knows.
His looks are of concern and hesitation. He can’t take his eyes off me as if I’m going to keel over at any moment. Ididalmost die when he dragged me under, and Ididfeel the press of his lips, the sharp bite of his magic. I know now it wasn’t a dream at all.
The lights dancing across my skin have faded now, but he’s left a permanent mark on me. One that makes me not quite human anymore. I take a ragged breath, trying to steady my racing thoughts. “You did this?”
He nods solemnly, letting his arm drop to his side.
What else is he capable of, if he can change my form on a whim? It reminds me of the dark elves’ magic and all the horrible things they do to humans in their clutches. I could have been that for Malachi, but it was fortunate that he did not possess very powerful skills. Laiken, on the other hand… I’m not entirely sure what he’s capable of.
