Page 29 of Music of the Ocean

“Um, I’m not sure I understand—”

“It’s like having noise-canceling headphones on as someone wants to speak to you. You can either take the headphones off and listen to what they say or shake your head no and ignore them,” Callie said. “Also, here are some clothes.”

“Oh, okay, that makes sense.” Saxby took the bundle.

It was a jumpsuit, or at least, a close cousin. The material was soft and slick. Saxby stripped off the clothes Vance had given him, handed them to Indigo, and then he dressed in the new ones. There were no shoes. In fact, no one seemed to wear shoes.

“Thank you,” Saxby managed, the words bubbling out of him with less resistance now. “I’m Saxby.”

Callie grinned. “Oh, I know.”

Indigo rolled his eyes as Callie handed him a smaller package, then set about unspooling her net. A few of the orbs drifted free. They gave off a faint warmth, and the scent in the water changed to a sharp, mineral tang of deep salt and the sweetness of kelp sugars.

Callie plucked one, bit into it, and then offered another to Saxby.

Food, Saxby realized. The orbs were food. He hesitated as he reached for the orb and let it hover against his palm. The membrane was thin. The inside was a viscous, clouded blue.

He bit down, and his mouth flooded with a flavor so complex it nearly knocked him off his feet. It was sweet but also kind of sour, and there was something else there, something savory but not like meat. He had no idea how to explain it.

The taste hit harder than the salt slushies Vance had given him back on the ship, but it wasn’t unpleasant. A sharp, clean hum spread through his veins, a jolt of pure energy like the first perfect sip of coffee on a cold morning.

“First bite’s a trip,” Callie said, voice bubbling through the water with a laugh. “You get used to it. The color changes depending on what your body needs. Indigo, you still doing the red?”

Indigo’s lips quirked up. He reached for an orb that glowed the color of arterial blood of a human and bit into it. The blue light along his tendrils flared a little brighter.

The tension in Saxby’s shoulders unraveled some. He let the next question tumble out. “How long have you been here, Callie?”

Callie shrugged. “Since I was twelve, in Koslia age, so ten years, planet time. I was a staff brat on a big corporate science ship. They were trying to escape pirates and ended up getting shot down here. They were killed in the crash. I wasn’t.”

Saxby shook his head. “Gods above, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, it sucked. I touched the water and that was that. Indigo kinda adopted me, I guess. He raised me.”

The words were matter of fact, but Saxby knew it hadn’t been as simple as she described it. It couldn’t have been, but she wasn’t offering details, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask.

He thought he knew her species when he first saw her and he was right. She’d been a child. A child who lost her parents.

Saxby looked at his own hands, the webbing now more translucent than ever, the bones lighter and tougher under the skin. What had he been doing when he was twelve years old? “You ever want to go back?”

Indigo stiffened, his tentacles jerking.

Callie flashed him a look. “Oh, stop. It’s a fair question, Indigo. And one asked by the newly made often. So, to answer your question, Saxby, no. Not really.”

“Can I ask why?”

“We can’t survive outside the ocean for long. And yes, I know this for a fact. I saw what happens when one resists the call. They died. No one leaves. It’s home now. The faster you accept that, the better for you.”

Saxby tried to imagine what that would be like, to stop wanting what he’d lost. He’d always had a way of adapting to new ships, new crews, new everything. But this was beyond that.

It was erasure, a total overwrite with no way back. He wondered if he’d ever stop feeling the loss.

Callie watched him, then smiled. It wasn’t pity but close. “You’ll feel better once you’ve settle in. The anger goes away, too, mostly.”

Indigo thrilled.

“What?” Callie rolled her eyes. “I said mostly.”

“Right,” Saxby said. “Mostly.”