Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(10) Taiki: Something to Fight For

I don't get a chance to talk to either leader of Follow the Moon until after my people have bedded down the next morning. I need a moment of quiet again—and space to pace out my growing restlessness and frustration—so I leave Satomi and Naina in charge of keeping peace and excuse myself into the tunnels of Roshaska. My fins carry me to the main cave in some combination of habit and intentionality. I almost immediately run into Hentea, who intercepts me with a look like he was hoping to talk.

"You didn't join us," he signs.

It's not accusatory, at least that I can tell. And I know. My people missed the evening's Unity Song, opting to sing it on their own in the cluster of side tunnels we've been settled in. It's been bothering me ever since.

"They didn't want to join," I sign.

"They don't follow the islanders so closely?"

"They've been together less than seven moons."

Hentea nods understandingly. It's uncommon for a Shalda tribe to split over any kind of activity, but Ande's village and my tribe aren't that integrated yet.

"It'll take time," signs Hentea. He doesn't look concerned. "They'll come around."

I certainly hope so. But I don't think it will be as easy as he thinks he understands. I want to talk to Qi'u. I want to know more about Follow the Moon's history so I can bring that evidence and perspective to my people, though I doubt that's what Qi'u wants to talk to me about in return. I'll just have to find my opening.

"Qi'u is ready to talk to you, if you are," signs Hentea. I nod wordlessly, and he leads me through tunnels I only half know. We're moving towards the outer wall of the city again. Soon, I can no longer see corals along the walls, and the once-bright mosaics fade back into crumbling, patchy stretches of blackened mortar over floors littered with fallen shells. For having been here for so long, Follow the Moon hasn't actually restored much of the inner city. Though if they're trying not to be found, I guess that much makes sense.

We find Qi'u in a small room with entrances that overlook the open water. She's talking to another deep-water Karu-Kel like her, with a white tail and skin as pale as mine was after most of a moon in the Shalda-Ki-Tu. Not quite as ghostly as people who never see the sun at all, but I doubt she can venture close enough to the surface to need to worry about sunburn.

The other Kel isn't one I recognize, but I've only been here for five days—six now, I guess—and I've avoided people for most of that time. Qi'u notices our arrival and wraps up the exchange. The other Kel checks the water outside, then vanishes back into the darkness. I shudder to think of swimming down over Roshaska without lights to guide me. None of the deep-sea Karu have them. At least, none of the ones I've met.

Qi'u is never one for greetings, and this is no exception. "We'll be gaining more people starting tomorrow," she signs to Hentea. "The hurricane migrants are moving back early."

I have no idea what that means. Hentea nods, then signs to me, "If your people don't like crowds, they may need to stay out of the main spaces for a little while longer. I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Qi'u hasn't cracked a single readable expression since we swam in. "Either they join the alliance and the Unity Song, or they can find their welcome back out in the three-moon deep. We don't have the resources to coach people through this if they don't want to stay."

I clench my fists to anchor myself mentally. Qi'u's stance doesn't bother me—if anything, I agree, and it's reassurance that my people won't be forced to stay. But I really do want them to, unless they're willing to migrate to the stone forest instead. Ande started this alliance with the goal of gathering enough Kels to test the power of the Unity Song, and my tribe might be small, but so is Follow the Moon. We've got to start somewhere. And the fact that this is my work now doesn't bother me as much as it did yesterday. I'm not sure what has changed. But I noticed something had during this morning's Unity Song.