My wall.
She blew a hole through my wall.
Pink fills my vision as my tentacles pulse beneath my skin, slipping from my exposed arm until they have covered my wound. I spin on my heels intending to grab hold of that human and shake her for this damage. How dare she destroy a portion of my home?
I never get the chance.
Love materialises from their void, a long teal-coloured tentacle piercing the pink haze clouding my judgement and wrapping itself around me. They pull me deeper into the bath until I am standing at the epicentre of the mess. All around me, chunks of marble and dust will take days to clear and rebuild. It only makes my anger grow, makes the etching on my arms glow with power until there is nothing but blinding light.
“Our heart, breathe,”they rumble.
“How dare she?” I seethe. “She has ruined it.”
“Look again. What do you see amongst this marble? How do you think a human was able to do such an act?”
My chest heaves with each breath I draw, but I do as they ask. I look at the cracked tiled floor of my bath, and amongst the rubble, I see them. Lost between hunks of marble is a spatter of broken pearls. The small gemstones are useless in this state, but I know where Delphini was able to harness the strength to break down the wall.
Love gave her the power.
“Why would you do this?” I ask, my body falling into the tentacle. Any fight I had washes away as I stare at the broken mess at my feet. Betrayal coats my heart, my soul, like fresh snow. Everything is cold and dead.
“She is the one,”they state with glorious finality that brings tears to my eyes.“To protect herself and to declare her as one of us. She has a determined soul.”
The tone of Love’s voice softens, and it sickens me. It is as if they are swimming away from me, diving into a pool I can’t follow. They gave a part of themselves to her as if that will make it harder for her to be removed from my ship. My body shakes when I swallow the sickening lump that settles at the back of my throat.
As darkness settles inside of me, my body dips from our dimension.
I am in Love’s void. Around me, their eyes float in harmony, and their tentacles slide against one another. The scent of pomegranate in the air is intoxicating. My body relaxes further with every breath I take. A thick tentacle holds me aloft before my true god, my Love.
“We have spent centuries waiting for her, heart, but do not think of us like your gods of old,”they admonish me, and heat fills my cheeks.“You were first to call us Love, and it is a name that we present forth with honour and pride. For to have the greatest of all emotions bestowed upon us is no simple prayer or offering. It is a gift we cherish.”
“Don’t leave me.” It’s all the words I can muster up as I stare into the depths of their dark eyes. My heart beats erratically out of control as I try to maintain some kind of useless facade in front of the one being I have ever loved.
“Your anger awoke us, our heart, but your love for us sustains us. Do not doubt what your devotion means to us.”
Tears slip down my cheeks as shame washes over me. How could I? They are my Love, and I am their heart. We are inseparable. Their tentacles encase my body, holding me while sobs wrack through me. They purr in the low light of their void until my mind rests. A small tentacle swipes across my cheeks and under my nose with tender care.
“With you, we shall rise again from the darkness and bring forth the new age together.”
As soon as I appear, I blink and the void is gone. The mess of the bath is still at my feet, and Love is still wrapped around me. I sweep my hand over the length of them, collecting the slick that coats their tentacles to rub into my gasping shoulder wound. They are with me, they are mine. The slime warms my skin and I watch how it stitches my flesh back together. The etching on my skin connects once again as though they were never sliced apart.
Finally, I do as I am told and take a deep breath, cycling through them until my world is at my feet once again. The pink clears from my vision and my tentacles slip beneath my skin. There is nothing I cannot handle or fight off.
As Love slips back into their void, the tip of their tentacle catches my cheek as if to kiss it. They are still mine. No one else in the crew has the connection we share. It has been uniquely mine for millennia, until she arrived.
I grab hold of the fallen sleeves, gripping onto it and the blood-stained shoulder of my jacket, before marching out of the bath. The rest of the crew gathers in the main hall by this point. They stand apart from Delphini as she removes the last of her acrylic nails and drops them in the trash.
“Crew, the bath is closed for the weekend.” My announcement is met with a chorus of groans. “If any of you lot are artistic enough, it appears we are in need of a new mural. Hamako will handle all the ideas.”
Several faces light up at that, but I know what they are more concerned about.
“As for the prisoner, she will remain with us for a while longer.” I turn my gaze to her for a moment, and that mistake has certainly given away that my emotions towards thischosen oneare not as clear cut as they should be. “Aoife, assign her tasks to keep her busy and set her up in a room.”
“Captain?” Nargol pointedly looks at where I am holding onto my shoulder. “You need somebody to look at that?”
“No, and I don’t want to be interrupted for the rest of the night. Drink a glass to my health at dinner, why don’t ya?”
The crew hollers at that as I leave the hall to head towards my quarter. I pass Delphini, and there is a pull to her I can’t resist. There is no reason for me to address her directly. I have made my remarks to the crew, and I should spend the rest of my evening doing something fucking worthwhile with my time.
