Heretical Fishing

Book 4: Chapter 41: To Become One

Deep under the sea floor, in a place where only ancient beings dared tread, just such a being forged his way through pillars of petrified wood. That these abyssal depths were once a verdant forest would have sparked curiosity in even the most blasé of souls. But this wasn’t new information to the elemental. He’d been the one to sink it, after all.

If not for the thing he’d left here, he wouldn’t have wasted his time in reexamining this past destruction. If anything, it was a chore to make his way through the material, its crystalline structure annoying to break. But break they did, being scooped into his body, ground down into sediment and... oh? What was this...?

One of the former trees he’d collected, a solid column of permineralized wood, was harder than it had any right being. No matter how hard he tried to destroy it, the material didn’t yield. In all his years, so many that entire forests had the time to petrify, he had never encountered such a substance.

Filled with a need to understand this crystal’s composition, he sent all of his awareness within himself, focusing every bit of his will on the single rock. It pooled around it, then in the darkness of his sediment-filled mass, something cracked. A shell surrounding the fossil shattered, revealing a deep purple light.

If the elemental had possessed lungs, the air would have been knocked from them. This object had formed naturally, doing so without the help of a cultivator, yet every part of its crystalline structure was filled with chi.

It was impossible. Such a thing couldn’t exist.

It had been countless millennia since the elemental last learned something new. Myriad empires had risen and fallen, as had entire continents—one of which he was currently digging through the remains of. He boomed a laugh, the sound so loud that it shook the world. The surrounding stone and crystal crumbled, only a single object strong enough to survive the localized earthquake.

Another pillar of petrified wood, its crystals just as chi infused as the one within him. The elemental scooped it up. He applied his will to it once more, and when the same shell disintegrated, purple light shone free. He spread out in search of more. Just how many had formed…? He had to contain his desire lest he get carried away and let the newborn elemental sense his work. But though he limited his essence expenditure, he was detected.

An ancient power came from below, rage and despair fueling its passage.

He was all too happy to answer, and he let his memories flow out. He’d had to leave her here when they destroyed the continent. He hadn’t abandoned her. He, too, had locked himself in the same stasis. Spreading themselves out was an insurance policy—if he had been killed, she and the others would have been safe.

Of all the other parts of him, she was closest to him in intellect. She accepted his reasoning, but still hesitated, watching him from her position atop the rock. With the mental equivalent of a smile, he produced something from his body for her to examine—one of the two objects of power he’d discovered. She took it as an insult at first, upset that he thought a trinket could win her over, but then she felt the chi.

As fast as she’d ever moved, she slammed into him, their sediment mixing, their minds becoming one. Her amazement at the discovery became his, and his happiness at being united became hers. Fully reincorporated now, they rejoiced.

They had a newly awakened elemental to hunt—a being whose cultivation could be the very thing needed to create something from the chi-filled crystals they’d found.

Not something, they thought. A weapon.

Together, they spread out, hungry to find more of the fossils.

***

“Say it right now, mister!”

“I will!” I replied. “Please, just don’t drown me again!”

Maria cocked her head, her brow furrowing. “I thought we were playing. What are you...?”

I glanced over her shoulder, making sure her body hid my smirk. She turned—her right fist still raised and threatening violence—to see the dozen or so faces that were now watching from the walkway.

“Someone get Barry!” I called. “She’s gone mad with pow—ahhhhh!”

I sailed high above the ocean, launched skyward by a woman half my size. As I spun like a brick in a tumble dryer, I rubbed my chin in thought. What landing should I go for...?

“I’ll show you drowned!” Maria yelled, ignoring the fact that I was trying to make an important decision. “Apologise for saying I have cankles! And for pretending I’m abusing you!”

I considered yelling something even more antagonistic—perhaps that I was sorry she had said cankles, or that throwing someone fifty meters in the air could absolutely pass for abuse—but in the end, I didn’t want to get thrown into orbit. I bowed at the waist. “Forgive me!”

“No! You shouldn’t joke about people’s physical features!” She drew back her arm, winding up like she was about to throw a fastball.

What is she...?

Before I could finish forming the question, she threw, her limb a blur as something pink rocketed out.

“Hiiiii!” Slimes yelled, sailing into the sky above me before curving back down.

I could have dodged, caught, or even smacked Slimes back Maria’s way, but the punishment seemed fair. I starfished, accepting my fate as he slammed into my back. The hit solved the decision of what landing I should go for, at least, and I rocketed belly first into the still ocean.

Clap!

The bellyflop hadn’t succeeded in knocking the air from my enhanced body, but the temperature of the water sure came close. It took me a few seconds to adjust to its frigidity, and as I looked around, a deep sense of calm replaced my shock. It had only been a week or so since the whole king debacle, but how had I not had a swim yet...? It should have been the third thing I did after coming back to Tropica—after seeing Maria and having a fish, naturally.

On paper, the trip to Gormona had been relaxing, but compared to this...

I floated weightlessly, and even with my enhanced vision, I couldn’t keep count of how many fish I saw. They flitted here and there at the seawall, flitting out between gaps only to zip back in. Schools of tiny creatures swam for their lives when juvenile shore fish darted toward them, each group moving like a hive mind.

So, when every single school moved at the same time, all swimming to the north, I knew something had changed. To my left, sweeping into view, came the biggest damned stingray I had ever seen. Its wings undulated like a wave, propelling it forward with both grace and speed as it sailed by the wall in search of prey.

A brave crab crawled out of a crevice, holding up a claw smaller than my pinky nail. The stingray closed in, not wasting the crustacean’s foolish courage. Some would call it interfering with nature, but I didn’t care. I felt a kinship with that brave, stupid little crab, and I wasn’t gonna let it get munched.

I could wall off the crustacean with chi. Or I could just boop the stingray away. But I had a better, much more devious plan. Getting Claws’s attention with a pulse of will, I opened a Maria-sized gap in my chi platform. My target, reacting with the speed expected of someone with her level of cultivation, whirled, trying to catch herself on the edge. She’d have succeeded too—if I hadn’t expanded the hole, that is.

Maria splashed into the ocean, her limbs outstretched in a failed attempt at finding purchase. Shock coursed through her as the frosty water took hold, but it was swiftly burned away by fire and brimstone. Her eyes locked onto me, chi already gathering around her core. Before she could indulge her violent fantasies, I waved, grinned, and pointed to her right.

Her vengeful gaze flicked that way. Just in time, too. Her graceless entrance had succeeded in spooking the stingray, and it changed course, veering out toward the depths and away from the perceived threat. The brave little crab, not knowing how close it had come to being food, retreated into its crack. Two beady eyes peeped out, and the foolhardy crustacean resumed its watch.

Shaking my head at how much I was anthropomorphizing the carapaced idiot, I returned my attention to its former adversary, Maria’s wonder pulling me in. It drifted down toward the seafloor, its wings kicking up sediment as it sailed along. Suddenly, when it was roughly ten-meters from shore and adjacent to me, it dug into the sand. With the same movements it used to swim, it covered itself, only the bulbous part of its body remaining visible.

A spike of emotion from Maria drew my attention. She was glad she saw it, but still pissed at my method of getting her underwater. I shrugged and pointed toward the crab, sending her an image of it threatening a creature thousands of times bigger than it. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and sighed, expelling a torrent of bubbles.

Fine, she mouthed, then looked up, likely intending to go join Ruby and Steven.

They came to us instead. Holding hands, they plopped down into the hole I’d made, their flowing robes drifting in the water. Maria and I both had a moment of panic, our instincts screaming that Ruby had to be protected, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. She was pregnant, sure, but she was also a cultivator. She let go of Steven’s hand and swam toward the rocks, pulling herself in to peer between the cracks.

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We explored the wall for at least an hour, drifting up and down it intermittently. We spent the entire time in silence, our only communication done with pointed fingers, or full-bodied gestures if it was something particularly neat—like the little crab bro, who came out to give me the old ‘what for’ when I swam too close to his crevice. Ignoring his threats, my curiosity got the better of me. I peeked inside.

I’d thought he might have some babies in there. Perhaps even a lady crab that he was defending. Instead, I found something much more... human. The little bugger was collecting a hoard of treasure, literally putting his life on the line to protect his wealth.

They were stunning. They were flawless. They were... shells.

But who was I to judge? Sure, he couldn’t eat them. Or trade them, because he was a crab. Okay, they weren’t useful at all, but they were pretty, damn it! Each shell was perfect, not marred by a single scratch or blemish. I’d seen some of them before, the common white shells that washed up on the beach. Others, though, were new to me. One species had a layer of nacre on the inside—what was called mother-of-pearl back on Earth—and the crab appeared quite fond of them. They made up over half of his stash.

In my musings, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. A source of powerful essence leaped down from above, and as spine-covered legs gripped my shoulder, I smiled. Sergeant Snips rubbed her carapace against my upper back, blowing a soft stream of joyful bubbles that tickled my ear on their way to the surface.

Rather than retreat from a crab literally hundreds of times his size, my angry little friend took it as a challenge, deciding to take his fate into his own claws. The tiny bastard leaped at me! Both his snippers, one bigger than the other, slammed shut on the tip of my nose. Unfortunately for him, my skin was tougher than titanium, so all he managed to do was turn himself into a torpedo.

And for once, karmic justice was on my side. He barrelled into his pile of shells, his numerous little legs undulating chaotically as he tried to find purchase. I barked a laugh, sending a steam of bubbles from my mouth as he finally righted himself, quickly rearranging his scattered treasures before resuming his defensive position. I moved back, not wanting to further antagonize him.

Sergeant Snips, however, was enamoured. She hopped down onto the rocks below, standing to her full height so she could peer down into the crevice. She reached forward with one of her mighty clackers, her natural curiosity encouraging her to give him at least a little poke, but she drew back at the last second, avoiding a clack of his claws that would have sent him flying into his pile of shells again.

Snips blew apologetic bubbles. An emotion close to guilt rose from her core, so I glided down and scooped her up, giving the top of her carapace a reassuring rub.

You have nothing to feel guilty about, I said through our connection.

She wiggled happily, hugged my arm with her many legs, then swam off to the south, pausing only to rub affectionately against Maria’s torso. After my favorite crab had departed from sight, Maria and I kicked off the sandy floor. We breached the surface, and before either of us could say a thing, an adolescent voice beat us to the punch.

“Fischerrrr! I got them!”

Maria looked up to the seawall, and not yet spotting the speaker, turned to raise an eyebrow at me.

“I may or may not have told Paul that we were having a dip.”

“When? And how?”

“I have my ways.”

Even suspended in water, we could feel the ground rumble. Maria raised both eyebrows at the ripples coming from the shore as the stampede approached. “Just Paul? Why did he tell you he got them? Who is them?”

“I mean, I can’t control if he told other people...”

She narrowed her eyes at me, a line forming between her brows. “You didn’t answer my question. Care to explain why you avoided it?”

“I... uhhhh... what’s that!”

I pointed up as Paul sailed over the seawall.

There was a loud thump, and a second figure came flying into view. With a wingspan that eclipsed most birds, Barry’s lats blocked out the sun, his muscles flexing as he tucked his legs under his arms.

“Cannonbaaaall!” he sang.

***

Hours later, I let out a slow breath as Maria and I wandered home beneath the setting sun. A comfortable silence stretched between us, the result of a long day swimming in the ocean, chatting with friends, and eating what could only be described as too much food. We stepped between two rows of sugarcane, and a breeze swept by, the whisper of the surrounding leaves becoming a roar as they swayed chaotically.

I stole a glance at Maria, only to find her already looking up at me, her eyes holding more color and depth than the ocean we’d just departed.

“What are you thinking?” I asked, reaching over to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I might be engaged to the wrong person.” She patted her stomach. “Peter can cook.”

“Is that revenge for dropping you into the sea?”

“Hmm. Maybe?” She skipped ahead of me, tapping her chin in exaggerated thought. “Perhaps it’s revenge for your little crab friend—the one you headbutted.”

“Headbutted? That little rascal tried to pinch me on the schnoz! With both claws!”

“Hmmmm,” she continued, ignoring me entirely. “Or maybe it’s actually that Sue is my true love, but she’s already married. The barista that got away...” She sighed wistfully. “It’s not fair to string you along while my heart remains hers, so perhaps we should see other pe—eek!”

Faster than even she could comprehend, I swept her up, pulling her body close. As seconds passed between us, both staring into the other, her cheeks flushed a rosy red. A smell like wildflowers drifted up from her. It made my pulse thump in my ears, and everything else fell away.

“I...” She licked her lips, her words heady. “For the record, I was teasing.”

“I know.”

Our desire for one another pushed at the border of our connection. Before it could break through, I pulled her closer, her mouth parting as she lifted it toward me.

“By the quivering shaft of Eros!” came a projected voice. “Get a room!”

As sure as a smith’s hammer would break glass, Duncan’s words shattered the mood into a thousand jagged pieces.

I spun, dropping Maria to her feet as we both faced the newcomers.

Deklan and Dom were both grimacing, the twins’ pinched expressions conveying an unspoken apology. Fergus was reaching for his apprentice, ready to grab him by the collar and drag him from sight. The last of them, Duncan, beamed. His grin was brighter than the setting sun. The fool had taunted a lioness, and instead of fleeing, he just stood there.

Maria gave him a sweet smile, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself—which immediately failed.

“Nope!” she said, winding up for a fast ball. Duncan’s teeth were parting now, and I realized he was even stupider than I thought; he was about to double down.

What Maria did next was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because Duncan didn’t have a chance to further incriminate himself, and unfortunate because of the method used to silence him.

“Hiiii!” sang the method.

Slimes condensed into a crystal as he rocketed toward the apprentice, transforming back into a slime at the last possible moment and stretching—spreading the impact over Duncan’s entire body. The slap that rang out was sickening. Like a scene from a movie, Duncan was there one second and gone the next, vanishing into the wall of sugarcane behind him.

Deklan and Dom both leaned in to stare down the path of destruction in Duncan’s wake. Fergus cleared his throat, and all three men strode away, the smith launching into an impromptu lecture about melting temperatures.

“Damn,” I said.

Maria sucked her teeth as she appraised the obliterated stalks. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It was only a matter of time until someone broke my record.”

“... What?”

“What do you mean what?” I gestured toward the collision site with both hands. “Forget the sugarcane. What Slimes just did was, by far, the best bellyflop we’ve seen all day. It can’t be beat.”

She blinked at me, unsure of what to make of me. After a tense moment, my gamble paid off, and she slung her arms around my neck. When her lips met mine, her heat drew me in, my pulse immediately thumping again.

“I love you,” she said, pressing our foreheads together. “Even if you’re a big idiot half of the time.”

“I love you too.”

She kissed me again, but it was fleeting. She pulled back. I pursued, centimeters feeling like leagues. She retreated further.

“Tease.”

She giggled, more sultry than musical. “If you want me, Fischer…” When her eyes met mine, she was the lioness once more. “Take me.”

My core ignited, and my heart beat so hard that my vision pulsed.

“What about Slimes?”

“Gone to meditate...” She gave me a lascivious smile. “And he won’t be returning.”

I flicked a finger. We moved through space. A flash of light, its incandescence blinding. I didn’t close my eyes against the brilliance. Neither did she. It faded, letting the pink and orange palette of sunset reclaim the bathroom. Having to tear my hand from her, I reached back, fumbling with the shower handle. She fumbled too, her hands shaking as clothing fell, discarded.

Boiling water streamed down from the faucet as I pulled her in. The rising clouds of steam did nothing to reduce Maria’s beauty. I drank all of her in, each hard line, soft curve, and perfect imperfection. Our eyes scoured the other, a desire for one another growing, pushing at the boundary of our connection like never before. She took a mental step forward, a question. An invitation.

The fire in my core became an inferno, the suggestion pouring fuel onto the flames.

“Are...” I clenched my jaw, fighting to keep our connection closed. “Are you sure? We don’t have to just because we’ll be apart for a few days…”

She took another mental step, accompanied by a physical one. “I’m sure.”

When her body pressed against mine, every one of my muscles tensed. I tried to hold the door closed. If we joined right now, I wasn’t sure I could ever let her go.

“Fischer...” she whispered into my neck, her fingers sliding down my stomach.. “I want you.”

I shuddered, and she opened the connection from her side. Awareness of her flooded me. Dilated pupils, parted lips, freckles atop flushed skin. She was a drug. More addictive than any other. I held the line. Part of me worried that she was doing this just for me—forcing herself.

She reached out to me, caressed me, coaxed me on. Gods, I wanted her. She could have forced her way in. Kicked the door down with only a fraction of her will. Instead, her soft yet firm hand grabbed mine. She pulled me closer. Pushed me lower. Pressed me…

“Fischer,” she gasped. “I need you.”

The fire within burned my hesitation to the ground, and I threw the door to her soul open. I rushed into her just as she rushed into me. I’d been a fool to think she was forcing herself to do anything.

Maria wasn’t just any drug. She was my drug. And I was hers.

Entwined, we became one.