High Tenacity didn’t protect you from damage without intent, but one of the things it did seem to do was help you against the environment. So while Pan didn’t particurly enjoy the chill of the ocean water, it didn’t hurt her or send her into a state of hypothermia, not that she think she would. It was on the cold side, but the Jiridion Belt was even warmer than the Siyan Isnds, according to its reputation. But more importantly, that one breath of air Pan drew in could st her a long time.

  She figured, in the real world, she might be able to do a minute of swimming without breathing, tops. Here, she’d gone five minutes, and hadn’t hit a point of desperation. She could’ve gone longer. Maybe not a lot longer, and she wasn’t exactly eager to figure out where her limit was.

  It also seemed to help her with the bends. Or did you get those when diving as deep as she was? It was only maybe thirty feet deep. And she wasn’t even using a pressure tank for oxygen. Did the bends work that way? She had no idea. But her Tenacity was probably helping her out in either case.

  She swam to the floor of the ocean, not that deep in this part of it. The coral in this area was growing all over broken ruins, giving them spshes of brilliant colours. The coral was thicker than any she’d seen. Apparently further north, in the Siyan Isnds, the stuff could get as thick as trees, and was even used in pce of lumber for construction by people rich enough to show off. Here, though, the coral was more what she was accustomed to, and teeming with aquatic life. Fish big and rge swam about, and while she often wondered what some of them might taste like, they weren’t what she was here for.

  She touched down at the bottom, and went about her rounds. Three iron rings, just like the ones she carried, were all set up in a line, each spaced twenty feet or so apart. They were locked into a stone mounting in the ground, each set up this way by someone long ago.

  In the middle of each, seemingly hovering in the ocean, were a series of fish. They did not move. It gave them an unnatural quality. Fish that hung suspended, completely motionless. It’d creeped Pan out, the first time she’d seen it. Now, it was just a matter of course.

  They were dead, or paralyzed, and close to suffocating. Nearly invisible, each hoop was wrapped in a fine web of strings, each nearly as strong as steel. It was the entire reason Pan was down here, and why she was paid so well.

  With her spear, she very carefully cut the fish free, cutting as few wires that were entangled with it as possible. When she was done, she dropped her hoops and held the fish out, as she’d learned to do, and waited.

  It didn’t take long for the soona to emerge. It was a small octopus-like creature with big, adorable eyes and bright colours like paintball spshes all across its body. The markings allowed it to camoufge with the coral surprisingly well. It’d taken her forever to see one the first time she’d been down here, and that’d been with Gorin down there with her, pointing them out.

  The soona were a big part of the Jiridion Belt’s economy. They would spit out some kind of chemical that, when touching water, would turn into the fine threads that Pan was now harvesting. They were a lot like her world’s silk. Tough, lightweight, and exceptionally fine in texture and quality for garments. They easily took dye, and stubbornly refused to fade even after years of hard wear.

  The soona themselves were also exceptionally intelligent. They worked with silk farmers like Gorin in a type of symbiotic retionship – mutualism? Pan never did pay attention in school – where the farmers provided handy pces to put their traps, and even cut free the prey for them – and in exchange, the farmers would get the leftover silk.

  More efficient methods had been tried. Apparently soona died in captivity pretty quickly. No one had figured out why, but the common theory was boredom. Without the ability to py and hunt in their natural, open hunting grounds, they just withered away.

  She waited for the soona to approach, making as little movement as possible. They were friendly and even affectionate, but also quick to spook. They weren’t keen on sudden movements, and it was difficult to swim in pce carrying a spear in one hand, a fish in the other, while also trying not to scare away a cute octopus thing.

  It approached slowly, and then sensing that she wasn’t going to break their unspoken agreement, began to nuzzle against her wrist and stroked along her arms with its tentacles in a way that tickled. She waited patiently, before finally it pulled the fish from her hands, letting her go and swimming a short distance away to eat it.

  They repeated this process in a half-mechanical, half-friendly ritual kind of way, as she cut each fish from the web. When she was done, she pulled the hoop free from its mounting, and then swam back to the surface.

  Gorin gave her a Look, probably trying to communicate she was taking too long for his liking, but took the hoop from her without compint. He’d be in charge of removing the silk when they made it to nd, and preparing it to be woven by another person. There were so many people in the process, and still Pan was getting a good cut every trip. She had to wonder how much this stuff sold for. Seemed pretty pricey.

  Pan took another breath, and swam back down. She almost made it back to the hoop before noticing something odd.

  Her little soona friend was gone. It normally waited patiently, waiting either to eat the food she’d give it, or stash it away somewhere. Or maybe give it to other soona, like its young or something. She had no idea what the things did with all the fish she harvested, and she rarely saw more than two soona each trip.

  But it wasn’t just the soona that was gone. There were no other fish. Like, at all. There’d been schools of them, flitting about, but now, nothing.

  If the hairs on the back of her neck could raise while underwater, they’d be standing up screaming, waving around arms they didn’t have. She tightened her grip on her spear. She wasn’t sure if she should swim back up, or keep diving.

  And then she saw it. Or rather, him.

  Standing in the doorway of one of the underwater ruins, smiling an infuriatingly smug smirk. It took most of her willpower not to cast her spear directly at his face. It took the remainder not to swim away in terror.

  It was too bad she’d never been blessed with anything resembling good sense. If she had, she would’ve fled.

  Instead, her curiosity piqued, she dropped her remaining hoops and swam forward, towards the standing figure of Ingram Holt.

  It was weird that he was standing on the ocean floor. Some part of her knew that. He looked like he belonged there, like he was out for a stroll, and not under who knew how many tons of water. But as she got closer, she realized his clothes, loose as they were, weren’t behaving the way they should if they were underwater. Nothing was floating the way it should. There was no billowing effect. Even his hair looked normal.

  It was almost as if he wasn’t underwater at all.

  He turned away as she got closer, retreating further into the ruin. She followed, and as she passed through the doorway, she fell. Right onto a perfectly dry floor.

  She got to her feet, holding her spear before her. But there wasn’t much point. She knew she couldn’t beat him in a fight. If he wanted her dead, it’d just happen.

  The way she came through was a wall of water, and in this stone chamber was just open air. Holt sat at a table, a chair pulled up for her. He gave her a small smile, and gestured for her to sit.

  “You’re taking meetings now?” she asked.

  “A few, here and there.”

  She sat, but kept her spear pnted at her side, butt ground into the floor.

  “Let me guess. You want to offer me something. Try to make it seem like you’re my friend.”

  “Not quite,” he said, with a smile that was entirely too wide. “We both know I’m not your friend. It’d be rude at best to pretend otherwise.”

  “Oh, it’s going to be one of those discussions.”

  “Where I remind you I’m in charge, and make some not-so-subtle threats? Not quite that, either. Well, maybe a little. I mean, I could, if you really want.”

  She gave him a theatrical eyeroll, and was preparing to make an unkind comment about what must be his very tiny penis, when suddenly her lungs were filled with water. She coughed, water spilling from her. It kept coming. More than her body should’ve been able to contain, fountaining out of her. Her vision began to bcken, her entire body on fire and cwing for air that wasn’t there.

  And then it was gone, like it’d never been. She gasped, drawing in shuddering breath after shuddering breath. And Holt was giving her a pitying smile.

  “Now that we’re done with that, we can get down to business,” he said.

  “Fuck… you…”

  “I’m married, but thank you for the offer.”

  Even as much of a wreck as she was, she managed to gnce to his ring finger. Nothing there. Had she ever heard he’d been married before?

  “What do you want?”

  “A general request. Easy enough for you to complete.”

  “You couldn’t have asked me to do this on the boat? Could’ve done this up where the air is, what, more real? Is this real air? I mean, you could’ve met Gorin. Great guy, Gorin. Real hoot.”

  Something like irritation flickered in his eyes. “No.”

  Oh. That was weird. She’d definitely hit a sore point there.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “The important thing is, what do you want? I’ve had my team do a psychiatric evaluation of you. Of all the pyers, really. And I have a good idea.”

  “Is it a pony? Because I’ve always wanted a pony.”

  “Not quite.” He made a gesture, and a briefcase appeared on the table between them. “All yours, provided you do as asked.”

  She didn’t even bother to hesitate. She reached across with grabby hands, and popped the case open. Inside was a bck mirror. Kind of like the one she’d stared into during the initial character creation. Beside it was a manil folder. She grabbed that, too, opened it up, and flipped through a series of photos. All taken from various angles, positions, in a variety of different lighting. All of the same person.

  “The fuck?”

  “How would you like to be Mayumi?” he said, his smile widening.