Page 69 of Secrets of the Void
She shook her head, and bubbles erupted from her rebreather like she was laughing. "I don't think I've ever seen so many colors in my life. How long can we stay?"
Proteus estimated they'd already been here for a few hours, but when he lifted his head out of the water, all he could see was the hurricane barreling toward them. "Not long now. But I did want to show you one more thing."
"You have another gift?" she asked, her voice filled with awe. "What did I do to get spoiled today?"
You exist, he wanted to say. You exist, and you see me as someone more than a monster.
Instead, he grinned and reeled her closer to him so he could gather her up in his arms. "There's an old human temple here. It's been sunk into the sea for years, but I think you'll like to see it."
Twenty-Eight
Ellie
Ellie still had no idea what she had done to be given gifts like this. Truly, it was the most incredible thing she had ever seen in her life. Being able to float above the fish, watching them dart around each other, had made her rethink everything.
Sure, it had only been one experience. And she'd seen fish before. Malcolm, the scientist who worked with her in Tau, loved to look at the fish he kept in tanks in his office. She'd watch them swim around for ages until he yelled at her that she had work to do. But that wasn't the same as seeing them in their natural environment.
Somehow, watching them live in this world made her feel like they were more than just pets. They were real, impressive creatures who had so much personality. They darted around each other, clearly getting into little spats and arguments, but then heading back to their homes.
Every fish on this reef seemed to know its place in the world. They all had jobs and had relationships with other fish that theyknew or recognized from daily life. They lived in such a way that it was very obvious they were all a functioning part of a whole.
So when Proteus said he wanted to show her more, she wasn't going to say no. How could she?
"A place of worship?" she asked as they darted through the water.
They were so close to the surface, she could see when the rain reached them. The water above her head went from wavelike patterns to holes made by the rain that drilled into it. She was so enthralled by the texture that she didn't notice when they'd arrived until Proteus laughed in her ear.
"Come on, Sisu," he said with another chuckle. "I think you'll like this better than the rain."
A flash of lightning illuminated the sunken building. It was impressive, with columns easily three stories tall that were still white as bone. It looked like buildings she'd seen in old myths and legends. The kind of building where gods would be worshipped, and statues would be built that were ten men tall. But as Proteus headed inside, she realized that it was quite modern.
A door had been sealed long ago, and as Proteus entered a pattern of complicated numbers, it slid open with a rush of air bubbles that made it hard for her to see anything at all. She threw an arm up, trying to keep her rebreather in place while Proteus forced the two of them into the airspace.
The door must have sealed behind them, because they were tossed into a space that suddenly had air.
She blinked a few times underneath her goggles, trying to reconcile the fact that she had just been in the ocean, but was now very much in a space that almost felt like it was... heated.
Proteus had gathered her in his arms, making sure that she wasn't ever thrown too far or injured. But now she was lying on top of a god, while realizing that the floor beneath him wasentirely gold. Not just gold in color, but the metal that reflected the expression of shock on her own face.
She lifted her head, staring at the wealth surrounding them. Everything in here was coated in gold. The floor, the ceiling, the walls. All of it. They were inside a gold box, essentially, with very few items left.
But she could see there were areas where more feet had tarnished the gold. Smudges were still in certain areas where people had likely knelt to worship the god of the sun. There were benches against the far wall, all of them equally coated in what she could only assume was gold leaf. But those benches looked old.
The walls were mostly left bare, plain, reflecting the people who were within the temple rather than having any murals or artwork that depicted the god itself. Except one wall was entirely glass.
She stared out into the sea, knowing that this likely wasn't what the people who were here before her had looked at. A massive drop off plummeted from the base of the windows, leaving her staring into an abyss, while what the previous worshippers must have seen was the surface of the sea itself. They must have stared into the glittering light of the sun reflected upon the waves that made this whole room glow.
The more she stared into that dark void, the more nervous she became. It felt like something was staring back at her. Something she could not see.
Proteus rolled onto his stomach, helping her stand as he did so and then bracing himself on his arms to look out the window with her.
"Ah," he murmured. "So it's still alive."
"What is still alive?"
But then she saw it. The tentacles that were waving in the sea. She hadn't noticed them because her mind skittered awayfrom the possibility that something like that was real. It couldn't be real. She wasn't looking at a real life sea monster that was sunken into the bottom of the abyss, just waiting for unfortunate prey.
"Your people used to call it the kraken," Proteus murmured as his arms came around her. He'd coiled his tail beneath him like a snake, using the weight of his lower body to allow him to almost sit up straight.
