Chapter 1
Chapter 1
“Only a whore would be disgusting enough to show their ankles,” Nevi said with an accusatory finger.
“Shut up, it feels so much better when the water touches your skin, instead of letting the membrane copy it back. It’s not the same,” Drensae said.
Nevi shook her head. “The BledMother will be so furious she’ll punish you.”
“That will never happen because I’ll never tell her. Which means you’ll have to tell on me, and little old you would never let me get into that much trouble,” he said.
A wave shoved them back like a bully, the beach’s frothy surface steaming white.
He embraced the aggression, his arms up as the water rose to his chest. She was closer to the shore, only feeling the push against her waist. What he’d said was a lie, she could feel the icy cold of the wind upon her skull, and the warmth of the ocean. The membrane reflected everything as it was supposed to.
“Want to hear something amazing? On Mettali, I heard the water is actually cold.”
She scoffed, “I don’t even know what that means.”
“The Winter Grandmother would find peace there. The water is so cold ice doesn’t melt when touched. Instead of burning away to steam, the ice sits, floats, it even grows. It grows so high it becomes land, even the Goddesses have castles there.”
Nevi frowned, a brow raised.
“If everything is cold, the ground, the sky and the water… then how does nothing die?” she asked.
Drensae grinned, perfect white teeth, gleaming. He was so picturesque she wanted to capture him upon a canvas, the frothy waves passed by his shoulders. Steam fogged the area as hot water battled icy air, half hiding his sharp face. Playful, nonchalant and dramatic.
Meanwhile—
Nevi’s cut short platinum blonde hair did nothing to blanket against the cold. Nothing was photogenic about her. Big eyes, big cheeks, nothing but gauntness in between, and with a squashed face that made Drensae an idol compared to her.
Unlike him, who was far too visible, around her was a sleek black layer of biomass which she had turned black like a skin suit stuck to her head. Her black protection turned translucent, cutting out her face up to her neck.
“That’s because the sky in the First World is warmer,” Drensae said with a shrug.
“That makes even less sense, I swear, even Tayr could grunt out a better story.”
His face changed.
“You didn’t message Tayr while we were running away, right? You said you would keep it a secret. It’s me and you, okay?”
“Tayr wouldn’t come.”
“He would for you. Like you did for me.”
He smirked, she frowned.
“Stop playing and let’s find this metal.”
He threw his hands up, defeated.
“Fine, are you sure you got enough air?”
“Depends.”
Her eyes unfocused, information splayed over her eyes. Her air reserves were at 100%, based on her rate of breathing she would have at least an hour of air in her membrane.
“Yeah. I got fifty minutes.”
“It will go faster when we dive.”
“The Goddesses are on my side, Drensae. How about you?”
“Always more than you,” he said with a grin, she could have smiled, but there was something too free about his face for her liking. Like she was missing something.
It was the ankle thing. Like there was a madness in him that was overflowing in him, enough to have his feet actually show off dark gray sand upon his legs, without fear. Like he would not have minded if it had been touching his true skin. But just the idea felt silly, it was literally impossible, but to make the membrane there translucent as if to pull it back, as if to have the grit touching him! It was infuriating.
“Drensae, I am being serious. Is your membrane saving air? Drensae, you really covered up, yes?”
Her warning just made his day. Laughter bubbled out of him. The most ridiculous face formed. Pouty lips pointed out, his head tilted, forwards and bobbing, and with those sharp features, he looked like a handsome bird of prey.
“Are you worried I have pieces of me hanging out? You scared the evil of the outside might slip between me and my membrane?”
“YES!” She yelled, “Stop being naked. It’s bad!”
“Why? Am I going to be eaten?” He mocked.
Nevi was sure of it but had no idea why, only that something assuredly would happen, but she couldn’t say that because that would make her sound like a baby, which appeared to be exactly what he wanted to call her. She couldn’t even hit the bugger, only one year apart and he could pin her in every wrestling move that had ever existed.
He could catch her fist in the air from any angle. Her gut ached from the brutal helplessness.
“Because it will lose you your blessings!” Nevi cried out.
Had the words worked? Because they’d put a stutter to that smile. It had been a wild target to aim for. Or, perhaps, it had been all about the tone, her desperation.
But it didn’t last, something about his new smile produced an oily unease to her stomach.
He retreated from the sea as if abandoning a friend, wading straight to Nevi, their size difference had her looking up at him. Drensae kissed her forehead, cupping her cheeks, squishing them hard enough that her lips puckered against her will.
He kissed those puckered lips, meshing their lips together. It was odd. Kissing like old people wasn’t new. But there was something entirely new about their touch. He let go and smiled.
“What was that?” She asked.
“A kiss,” he said simply.
“No, Drensae!” She screamed. “That was your skin, was it not?”
“You want another?”
“No!” She lied with the outrage of the guilty, but she would rather die than say that. Because for some reason all she saw was death.
She turned away. If she got in trouble, if he hated her for it, if they never saw each other again. He would be alive.
The water splashed as she stomped and kicked it out her way with little effect beyond loud dramatic splashing.
“No Nevi, wait! I’m sorry, I should not have done that.”
“It’s not that.” She hesitated, having said that a little too quickly for her liking.
“Then what is it?”
“Drensae, you’re going to die, and I don’t want to help you die. So I’m leaving.”
“But what if I promised you that I won’t die?”
“Am I six?”
“No, but I’m not a liar.”
“You know how many times you get to be wrong about that?”
“You’re not BledMother Mire!” He snapped.
“So you don’t know,” she said without missing a beat.
He rolled his eyes.
“Fine! You only get to be wrong once and everyone else has to live with your death.” He groaned.
She pulled off her most disarming face, one declaring that he listen to the BledMother’s wisdom or at least the words leaving his lips after she worked so hard to make him speak them.
“Nevi, please listen, there’s metal here. Good steel, I found it and I need your help.”
“You need the Goddess’s blessing.” Nevi pleaded.
“Look at my membrane, it’s not even reflecting the water. I have the Goddesses’ blessing, what I need is you.”
She turned back to him. He’d said the worst thing she could imagine, it cut right through her.
“Promise me, you’re protected by God’s gifts.”
He nodded, but that wasn’t enough, “Of course, Nevi. I have the blessings upon me. I am covered from head to toe.”
She watched as that long flowing blonde hair retracted like rope being pulled in by an invisible sheet.
He still looked the same, his whole face, hair, skin and outline was just a little bit tighter. The golden hazel lost a fraction of its gloss. She would never have noticed the change before. She had always thought his membrane was a little more translucent than everyone else’s. The idiot was just exposed, all the damn time! She was furious… but he was listening.
“I will do everything you want to get ready if you do one thing for me.”
She didn’t even get a chance to answer as his hands were already on her cheeks and squishing. Their lips met.
It was surreal, the softness, the clear texture of skin. It wasn’t smooth, it wasn’t rough, he was soft and almost sticky with the way he clung to her lips.
And, just like that, he slowly pulled away, hands still on her face.
“After that, I guess I have to marry you now,” he said before diving in.
Marriage, how could he say that so flippantly.
They were under the surface the heat accumulating as they swam, hands cutting into the water, with her strokes yanking her downward.
The membrane around her eyes expanded as a bubble and glowed. It painted the world in a tinge of teal. She could see Drensae up ahead, he sliced through the water, gliding and wiggling his legs so smoothly, she had to wonder if he was swimming at all. One thing was certain, he would definitely have more oxygen saved than her.
Nevi wasn’t frail, nor weak, she knew that. He’d called her for a reason. The membrane issued its warnings, words flashing in front of her eyes. Worries over the rate of her breathing, numbers tied to the water pressure and the ocean temperature.
There were bubbles rising in streams like pillars around them.
“I can hear you panicking.” came Drensae’s voice. It sounded like it was coming through a tunnel and directly in her ear at the same time.
“You’re wasting energy.” She warned.
“I will always have more than you. So I never have to worry.”
She could have punched him in the neck, hit him with something long and heavy but it would never happen. She just had to deal with the gut busting frustration.
“How did you even find metal here Drensae? Did you see the engine heart or something?”
She could hear his laugh. The notion was just ridiculous, but being laughed at riled up a battle cry inside her.
“Variklis’s flame. No, not at all.” He was wistful, as if remembering it, the unseen tool that gave them all light. “I saw something fall. And I know it landed here.”
She grunted as she kept swimming. There was something terrifying and new about the silence of being covered in deep waters, the membrane did its own work to create silence, and filter sounds. But it was nothing compared to being underwater. Like having one’s head under the pillow or being sat on, but from every angle imaginable, leaving nothing spared as she was squeezed.
But she was following Drensae, which always felt perfect, like he was drawing the line in the sand with a finger and then pouring water into the line. She was the water and the water, following through the line.
Could Drensae feel her? Feel the way he pulled her along, how she slid and rolled the way he wanted.
Drensae was such a monster for saying what he said, mentioning marriage. But what kind of wedding could BledMother create? But he had shown her his ankles, his nakedness. That was only meant for the married. But then again if they did get married. Then he wasn’t a monster.
Was that the difference between a hero and a monster, meaning it?
If BledMother said no about the marriage, would that be a failed promise? Would it make her the monster?
Yes, because the more Nevi looked at Drensae, the more she flowed after him, the more blessed she felt.
Only monsters could take away her blessing.
====================
Next time:
Drensae promised Nevi good steel beneath the waves. He was right.But the sea is holding more than metal.
