Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Beginner’s First Steps

Yune continued toward the Black Coffin. The buildings ahead were much lower, wooden lofts, all the famous landmarks along the way destroyed by Vaga, who seemed to have not the slightest reverence for ancient relics.

Watching how effortlessly Vaga manipulated Yune, I almost forgot about old Will. I didn’t know how Vaga had killed him, and she wouldn’t say. We moved Will’s body into the cargo hold and started the refrigeration. Both traitors, yet Salvador remained unharmed. When you’re not strong enough, life and death are at the mercy of others; choices matter, but so does birth.

Lamia gazed out the window, watching as the city crumbled under Vaga’s destruction. Salvador and Betty slept, exhausted; the clanging and crashing outside seemed almost soothing, lulling them into slumber.

After a long hesitation, I said, “Commander, earlier in the elevator, I heard you say… something like ‘I love you.’”

Lamia asked, “You love me?”

I replied, “You said ‘you love me’!”

She smiled, “Isn’t all this talk of love a bit cloying?”

It was, but for millennia, humanity’s heritage has been built upon these sentimental, hollow vows. We dress up our inner desires with words, call it love, adorn it with poetry and song, yet it remains an innate, primal urge. Is it ugly? Not exactly. Is it beautiful? Not really.

Lamia asked, “Back then, I remember being in your arms. I can’t recall exactly what I said…” She was denying it? Perhaps she still resented that I hadn’t admitted to being fooled by her feigned death. She was a cunning huntress, unpredictable, not easily conquered. She still refused to relinquish the initiative—did she require me to bow before her?

Maybe I should change tactics, take the initiative to yield. In the game of love, sometimes advancing by retreating is more effective.

Lamia continued, “…and then you disappeared. There was no trace of you in the elevator. I… panicked. I was terrified. I saw a black hole appear in the wall, but when I touched it, it vanished. I thought I was hallucinating, like being dead drunk, unable to tell reality from illusion, and then I lost consciousness.”

I said, “But I heard you clearly—you said ‘I love you!’” In truth, it was so noisy I hadn’t understood, but I could say what I pleased.

Lamia pursed her lips, smiling. “That isn’t the point.”

“It is the point!” I insisted.

She tried to compose herself. “The point is, you vanished into thin air. When I woke again, we were all safely ashore. I heard you arguing with Vasilisa. I knew clearly it was you who saved us.”

Naturally; there was no other possibility.

Lamia said, “You once told me about the ‘fish’—how it destroyed the Waterless Village, how it’s hunting you. You seemed afraid, so I didn’t ask more. But now things are different between us. Will you tell me?”

“What do you mean ‘different’? Commander, please explain yourself.”

She replied, “I mean… I can trust you completely, and you can trust me completely.”

I suddenly decided to stop playing games. “Marry me, and I’ll tell you everything.”

For an instant, Lamia’s face flushed as if set alight. Vaga glanced at me, then continued driving as if nothing had happened.

Lamia asked, “Longinus! Are you making fun of me?”

“I’m proposing to you. Look at my solemn expression,” I said. I needed to settle this before we reached the Black Coffin—who knew what might happen then? She held a unique position in the tower, and I was determined to rely on her as my support.

Lamia began to stammer, incoherent, “I… still injured… haven’t bathed in days… my body’s dirty… I’m half-cybernetic… and… and… I have many important things to do. This mission… I haven’t reported to the Consul yet, I’m very busy, I… I… have no time…”

Her excuses were weak. I decided to take the initiative, took her hand, and asked, “Commander, is there someone you love in the Black Coffin? Is that why you refuse me?”

Lamia lowered her head, shook it gently, then added, as if afraid I’d misunderstand, “There’s no one I love.”

“Then do you have many suitors?” I pressed. I understood those men—when they see a young, beautiful girl, they swarm like hateful flies to carrion.

Lamia shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

She was either lying or sending me a hint.

“Then agree to marry me!” I exclaimed.

Marriage is but a human invention, a ritual to glorify primal instincts—a lofty yet ethereal concept, sanctified by faith. Thus, when I proposed, I felt like a brave war god.

Lamia took a deep breath; in an instant, all hesitation and confusion vanished. “Tell me about the fish.”

“Only if you accept my proposal,” I said.

“What more do you want me to say? Just tell me,” Lamia replied.

I was helpless, even a bit dejected—she still wouldn’t agree, treating my terms as if they were nothing.

Vaga interjected, “Don’t be dazed, Mr. Fishbone. You can kiss her now.”

“What?” I asked.

Vaga said, “It’s basic logic. She can only hear your secret if she marries you. If she decides to hear your secret, she’s agreed to marry you. Must I spell it out?”

I hastily looked at Lamia. In this moment, her pale face seemed incomparably beautiful, heart-stirring. Our eyes met, and then she closed hers.

I suddenly felt Vaga shouldn’t be watching, so I tried to make a screen with my clothes. Lamia laughed, “Why are you so troublesome? I’ll count to three! One, two…”

Ah, in these fatal times, everything is so rushed, life so brief, the border between life and death so thin—and the world already destroyed. We humans should let go of scruples, rules, laws, morals, and give ourselves wholly to propagation, to the growth of our kind—not out of lust, but for our future, like Moses leading his people out of Egypt. We must take this step—quickly, early, decisively, powerfully…

Lost in these tangled thoughts, the kiss lasted as long as my contemplation. It wasn’t that she was especially sweet or tempting, but I was caught up in reflection on life’s truths and forgot to stop.

Lamia fulfilled her promise, so I told her everything—about Dalia, about Orchid, about the family I’d lost, about the ever-lurking Black Fish. I even revealed its danger—when I woke in the wilderness, still weak, and was captured by bandits, it was the Black Fish that destroyed them. I escaped, was taken in by kind wanderers, and they too were devoured.

The Black Fish is a calamity, bringing destruction. That is why I fear it, why I want to escape it.

When I finished, Lamia asked, “So the Black Fish saved you? What about Dalia?”

“Who knows?” I answered.

“Don’t you care about her? She’s a good girl, loves you deeply. I think… I can’t compare to her,” Lamia said.

“Now you’re my wife, and she… belongs to my past,” I replied.

But deep down, I felt Dalia was still alive. I couldn’t explain why, but perhaps the Black Fish would, in gratitude for being summoned, grant that wish.

She’d said she loved me, wanted to be my wife forever, but I hadn’t agreed. Even at the brink of her death, I hesitated, thinking of her lingering feelings for Milsay.

I am not a magnanimous man.

Lamia said, “Maybe you should seek her out one day—I won’t mind, and I’ll help you. I trust your loyalty. I just want to help.”

“No. Once I’m inside the tower, I’ll never leave again. I’ve had enough suffering,” I said.

Whether callous or cowardly, I was like a sailor long at sea, yearning only for a safe harbor.

As I spoke, looking at Lamia, my spirits lifted, our hands tightly clasped.

I resolved to abandon the past, to think of nothing more.

“Guess what? Abel seems to have killed the Black Fish for me. The curse has vanished from my life. At last I’m free of it; my fate has turned,” I said.

Lamia replied, “But the fish saved you many times. Isn’t it a bit ungrateful, thinking this way?”

“Ungrateful? That fish is surely the most terrifying monster—unpredictable, uncontrollable, unstoppable. If I’m not ungrateful, sooner or later it will harm you, or those I love and trust. So, shouldn’t I cut all ties with it?”

Lamia nodded. “You make a good point.”

She gazed out the window at the scenery; I watched her flawless profile, my excitement settling into calm.

“You promised to marry me. I won’t allow you to go back on your word. Once we return to the tower, we’ll wed immediately,” she said.

“I wouldn’t dream of reneging. From now on, my life depends entirely on you,” I replied.

She stifled a laugh. “Dream on.” After a pause, she asked, “Aren’t you curious why no one courts me? Why I’ve never married?”

“I must be blessed to have caught such a rare koi,” I answered.

She said, “After Sami and I escaped our enemies, I was taken in by a ranger officer. They… tested me, thought I was suited for extensive augmentation. You’ve seen my body…”

“I think yours is beautiful. It’s exactly your body that drew me to you. Do you remember me drinking your bathwater?”

She finally laughed. “Did you like it?”

I said, “1024.”

At that moment, I heard a distant call. Yune slowed to a stop. Ahead, I saw the towering Black Skyscraper, magnificent and grand beyond anything I had ever imagined.

At last I had survived endless hardship and arrived at the novice village I had longed for night and day.

—

End of Volume