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“Why?” she asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. “What is going on?”
“They’re coming to help pack the house. They want me working in Alpha from now on.” He looked around the room,then grabbed a photograph of her mother, her father, and Alys. “Keep this, at least. The rest you can leave.”
“Dad, I don’t know what’s going on.”
“You have to go, now. They’re going to be here very soon, and they will see what I have built. There’s no time for us to talk, Alys.” He drew her in for a tight hug, his chin on top of her head and then the briefest press of a kiss to her skull. “I will miss you, my girl. But maybe there will be a way for us to send messages to each other. You never know.”
“I’ll try my best.” She squeezed him tight as well, trying to press into him how much she appreciated all his work and how much she would miss him, too. For all that he had done, he was still her dad. And he still had done his best to make sure that he not only got her out of this place, but that she was happy and where she wanted to be.
The future waited for her. Soon she would see Imber again, and all the creatures that had made her fall in love with the sea. She would live and breathe with them, even if her life would be a little different than before.
She’d thought she would be elated at this moment, but there was a bittersweet sadness to it.
“I love you,” she whispered against her father’s shoulder. “I really do, you know?”
“I always know.” He drew back and framed her face with his hands. Holding onto her as he looked. Just looked. Like he didn’t want to forget the sight of her face and it made tears sting in her eyes. “Just like you will always know that I love you, my daughter. The best thing I have ever made was you. And will always be you.”
A single tear dripped down her cheek before they both burst into movement. She held the photo tightly as they sprinted out of the house toward the abandoned dock where her father had been building. No one came over here. No one ever even lookedat their house, really, but they needed to make sure she was gone long before anyone else came.
Opening the top hatch, she clambered in before sticking her head out. “Dad!”
He looked back at her, an old man standing on an old dock, his shoulders curved and his body weighed down by time. “What is it?”
“How will I find them?” Neither of them had seen Imber or any undine in months. Not since the last time she’d seen him.
Her father grinned. “I think he’ll find you.”
She wasn’t sure how he was so certain of that, but... Well, she wasn’t going to question it. Alys slipped into the pilot station at the head of the massive ship he had built her. And really, it wasn’t a ship at all. It was a home.
She hadn’t gotten to explore the entire thing, but soon she would. And then she would be free. Really free.
Firing up the engines, she turned her new home away from the old one and set off into the sea. Alys didn’t know where she was going or how far she would need to travel to find him and the others. So she just... explored.
For weeks on end. Piloting her ship through all parts of the ocean she had never seen before. Endless darkness below her, wild creatures like whales and sharks and jellyfish that didn’t care when she moved through their masses. She saw perfect, glistening white sand, and so many forests of kelp and greenery that it seemed like they turned into emeralds in front of her eyes. So many creatures and plants that she’d never seen before. And she cataloged it all.
She spent most of her time cataloging all the things she found while she traveled. Alys had always wanted to have free rein of the sea and to go wherever she wanted. But she’d never thought it would come in the form of a pod that was her home as well.
Her father had done a miraculous job. It was large enough for her to walk from end to end most days around thirty times and feel a bit like she was getting some form of exercise. There was a bathroom with a small shower that filtered the salt out of the sea. The central area was mostly taken up by a large moon pool, but she rarely opened that, anyway. So it felt like there was a big empty space in the middle with three branches off of it.
The first branch had small stairs that went up to the bedroom with a glass dome over her mattress. She’d already started painting a mural around it, so it felt like she was sleeping in a bed of flowers.
The second branch went to her piloting area, which was mostly functional with many panels, buttons, and gadgets.
The last went to a massive garden. Or a greenhouse, she supposed. It also had a large glass dome surrounding it, so the plants got as much natural light as they were allowed. The rest of the UV light the pod provided. Already she had a ridiculous amount of food available, and she’d been spending her evenings canning vegetables and fruits, while also learning the fine art of drying herbs for flavor.
Who would have thought propagating plants was so interesting? But she found her new life to be thoroughly thrilling. She was the only one who could keep herself alive, and strangely, she had risen to that challenge with vigor and hope.
Of course, that hope wavered slightly the longer it took for him to find her, but... She was still holding on.
Tucking herself in at night was the hardest part. She settled in, pulling the down blankets up over her shoulders and staring up at the stars. She’d parked herself on a small rise tonight, a swimmable distance to the surface. For some reason, she really wanted to see the stars.
Tonight felt like she needed it. And it was a clear night, so why wouldn’t she see the beauty of the sky above her?
But this time, a dark shadow passed over the stars as she looked up at it. A shadow that wasn’t quite right for any of the whales and dolphins she’d seen before. It was... different.
Sitting straight up, her hair tumbling around her shoulders, she held her breath as the shadow got closer and closer.
“Imber,” she whispered at the same time the dark night sea lit up with a thousand sparkling emeralds.
