“So that’s it. That’s what we’ll do.”
I start listening again at that point as my father lays their plan out.
“Raine and Tanuk will gather and protect the humans beneath her shielding power. Ragnar and I are going to attempt to restore the barrier.”
“I thought nothing could breach the barrier,” I murmur. “I guess Raine must have left some of her magic down there on the human planet.”
“This is NOT my fault!” Raine declares in the way people do when something is very much their fault. “Tanuk went down there too.”
“It is probably my fault,” Tanuk smiles quite cheerfully. He does not mind being blamed for things. He seems to enjoy it. I have no idea how Raine puts up with him.
“Fault is irrelevant now,” Helios interjects. “What matters is repelling Entity. We will muster the gods and goddesses with defensive and offensive capabilities and make short work of Entity’s forces.”
That sounds encouraging. This will probably be over by tomorrow. Or even this afternoon. I’ve heard bits and pieces about Entity over the years. My mother fled Earth because of it, and Raine and Tanuk and Sapphire were almost killed by it, but that was on Earth. This is Okeanus. Nothing bad can happen here. That’s pretty much built into the whole premise of the place.
“Lucy.” Helios gets my attention by saying my name. “You will go to Triton until this war is won. Do not fear for us. We have faced greater foes than this.”
“Uh, excuse me? Why would I go to Triton? Is Raine coming too? And Sapphire?”
“I just told you, Raine will be aiding us in battle, and Sapphire also…”
“A ten-year-old is going to help you, but you’re sending me to the depths of the ocean?”
“You’re beautiful,” Helios says. “But you are no war maiden. Go to Triton. Be safe.”
“What about Sapphire?”
“I can fight,” Sapphire says. She’s sitting up on a barrel of something, playing with a slingshot. “I’ve been fighting Entity since I was born.”
“I doubt you fought Entity when you were an infant.”
“You’d be wrong about that,” Raine interrupts. “Sapphire’s powers are strong.”
Sapphire smirks at me and pokes out her tongue. She’s a brat, that’s what she is.
“Come, Lucy. Time is of the essence,” Helios insists. He has me by the arm and he’s already urging me toward the exit of the burrow.
I barely have time to say goodbye to anybody.
“What about mother?”
“I will guard her,” Helios says.
“Can't you guard me too?”
“It’s better to split up,” he says. “If the worst was to happen, we do not lose the entire family in one strike.”
I saw the invasion. I watched Entity’s missiles land. But nothing has made this situation seem as real as those words coming out of my father’s mouth. He wants to split the family up, so we don’t all die. That means he thinks some of us may die.
That is the darkest thing he has ever said. It’s the darkest thing I’ve ever heard. And that includes the time… well, suffice to say, this is very dark.
My mother comes forward to embrace me, and I feel her fear. She's trembling. Entity is very real to her. It is the monster from which she has been running all her life, and now it is here.
“Be safe,” my mother says. “I love you.”
“I love you too, mom.” There are tears in my eyes. I don’t want to cry. I am not pretty when I cry.
“Don’t die,” Raine says with a casual wave of her hand which I know masks her very real concern. Raine has tried to die for me on many occasions. She just doesn’t like to make a big deal out of it.
“Yeah, Aunty Lucy, don’t die!” Sapphire sings out. Again, she’s a brat.
“Don’t you die either,” I tell her smiling little face.
“I won’t. I’m good at fighting.”
I wish I had her confidence. I wish I had her strength. I've never cared about being weak before. It used to just feel like being feminine. Everybody loved me and everybody thought I was pretty and nothing bad ever happened to me. It never occurred to me that I might need to know how to defend myself.
I suppose I still don’t. They’re going to send me to Triton. God of the oceans. He will look after me. But the price of being looked after is exile.
Helios ushers me out of Tanuk’s den, and down toward the beach. Entity is still focusing its attacks on the golden palace. I can see flashes of light and flame in the distance, away from Tanuk’s island. Helios built the grandest structure on all Okeanus. It’s not surprising that Entity chose to target it. The prettiest things are always at greatest risk of destruction.
I suppose I should be flattered that I have been chosen to be saved, but I’m not. I want to stay with my family. They’re all that matters to me.
“Helios? Father?”
He looks at me, then away again. I don’t think he wants me to see the expression in his eyes. Especially if he feels even a fraction of the pain I do at the notion of our family being torn apart.
“I want to stay with you. I want to fight alongside you. I will make myself one with your war effort. You can teach me to fight. I can bring light.”
"We have enough light.” Helios’s voice breaks as he bends down to cup my face in his hands. “You have always known you are my… favorite does not cover the sentiment. It sounds petty. You are my daughter. The only child of my lineage. I will protect you with everything I am, and everything I have. And so will Triton.”
“Why? I’m nothing to him.”
“You know that is not true.”
I feel the ocean surge behind me. Triton is here. They must have already summoned him, without me noticing. I have no idea how that is even possible, but the ways of gods are always mysterious and never more so than when there is danger involved.
“Helios, please. Can we not wait and see how the war progresses? It could be all over within a matter of minutes.”
Triton bursts from the water behind me, foam dripping down his muscular body, his bulky ancient physique completely timeless. I don’t need to look at him to know what he looks like. The image of this god is burned into my heart and mind. The hard lines of his face, the bright aquamarine of his eyes, the resplendently bedraggled swath of hair which becomes a fierce mane when he is beneath his waves. He is handsome in an entirely primal and elemental way. His features are mature, yet not aged. It is a trick of the gods to appear ageless. He could be twenty five, or fifty five depending on the lighting, but in truth, he is eternal. When I am in his presence, I feel the deficit of every bit of my nineteen years. He makes me feel young and small, and ever so soft in comparison to his infinite roughness.
This is far from my first time meeting with Triton, but we are not friends. It’s not actually possible to be friends with an ancient ocean god who views you as nothing much besides an annoyance.
I don’t want to be in Triton’s care. I’d rather my father picked a god at random than sent me down beneath the waves.
“I don’t want to go with him. Please, choose anyone else. Anywhere else,” I beg my father as quietly as possible while still being loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves.