Page 56 of Secrets of the Void
"In this facility?"
"In the back rooms. There were some people who stayed here, even after the storms drove everyone under the water. People who continued their work throughout all of it until they died." Ellie swallowed hard. "There is more, I believe. I'm just not capable of finding it all."
"And you want us to help you? Why?"
Ellie looked at Proteus, but he merely gestured for her to continue. So she bit her lip before replying, "Because it would help you more than me. This is our world, but I'm... I'm not really part of it."
She met each of their gazes, holding them until the redhead nodded. "We need some time to talk. We'll be back." Then she held up the binder and shook it. "I'm taking this with me."
"I thought you might."
The group placed the binder in what she assumed was a waterproof bag and then headed back into the ocean. Leaving Ellie alone with a very, very angry god and the silence that burned around him.
Twenty-Three
Proteus
He waited for them to leave, seething but not wanting them to realize. Proteus wasn't even sure if he was angry because she had defied him, or because he knew she was right.
Ellie had been alive in this era, and he had not been. Why he hadn't thought to even ask her opinion about this plan was one of his own failings, a reminder that even as a god, he was not flawless. She was the one who would have given him the direction that he desperately needed. She could have poked holes in his plan, and yet... Perhaps she did not feel comfortable doing so.
It was complicated to acknowledge that he had failed her. But the weight of this responsibility was his alone to bear. He wanted this world to go back to the way it was meant to be, and he did not have the ability to do that without others helping him.
Ellie understood that. She saw through his decisions, and she helped him get to where he needed to go, that was an honor. It was wondrous that she would even think to interrupt so that he didn't royally fuck this up.
But she was terrified of him. As the others slipped into the water and disappeared, he could see that Ellie wouldn't even look at him. She kept wringing her hands, pressing them so hard against her sternum that he feared she would hurt herself. She looked everywhere but at him. The water. The sand. The ceiling that was still lit up from a sun that would soon disappear as another storm barreled toward them.
She feared he would be angry with her. But he wasn't angry with the woman who had saved his plan. He was angry with himself.
"Come here," he ground out through teeth that ached as he clenched them so hard.
"My pod is at the bottom of the sea," she whispered, still not looking at him. "I feel as though I should remind you of that."
"Why would you—” And then he understood.
Proteus stiffened. Every part of his body wanted to scream at the knowledge that she wasn't just frightened of him. She thought he would harm her again. Hadn't he been trying to prove that harming her had shamed him beyond reckoning? Never again.
"I wouldn't," he said, his voice low with emotion. "I gave you my word."
"What does the word of a god mean? The world ended. People starved. The gods did nothing." She swallowed. "After all I have seen, it's hard to imagine that gods even exist. I believe the people who just left feel the same."
"I suppose you are right." He uncoiled his tail, the bones already glowing with emotion as he hooked his fluke around her back. Ellie looked a little uncomfortable, shifting as if she wanted to make space. There was nowhere in this room where she could escape. He was too large.
Proteus reeled her into him until she bumped into his chest. Her hands planted firmly against his warm skin, and she stareddown at the sight of her pale fingers against his strangely colored flesh.
The bones there glowed, too. He knew it relaxed her to watch his hearts beat in alternating thuds that calmed her mind.
"Listen to me, Sisu. I promised you that I would never harm you again, but I promised myself that I would never allow someone else to harm you either. I am in your debt." He laid one of his massive hands over hers, the long digits covering up her fingers. "I should have asked you about this long before now. You see the world in ways I do not, Ellie. I should have known better than to believe I would know all."
Finally, she looked up at him. As though his words had made her come alive, those bright eyes blinked up at him in shock. "What?"
"I am not angry at you. But I must admit I felt a great deal of fear when you walked out of that room. If they wished to claim you as their own, they certainly could. You are human. They will want you to be with the humans and I..." Proteus breathed out a long hiss. It wheezed out through the holes in his cheeks and down his throat, as though his entire body rebelled at the fear that rioted through him. "I do not wish for you to leave my side."
"That wouldn't be their choice. They don't get to tell me where to go or how I live my life." Her tiny hand came up, pressing against his cheek. "I... I think I'd rather stay with you. Here. I want to explore all there is to see in this world, and you're the only one who can give me that."
"The humans will be here. Above. And there is so much more here for you to discover without me."
"No. I don't want to know what there will be. I want to know what once was." She smiled, and that soft expression nearly broke his heart. "You're the only one who can give me that, I believe."
