My Online Alien Merfolk is Real novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Plain Want

I swam down from the dome to the middle of the vault.

Five elders looked at me with five pairs of old gold eyes, and above them a stuck white machine blinked its red light.

Velun came to my side and stopped one tail-length away, as the law said he must.

His hand opened at his hip, and he did not touch me.

"I am Sorcha MacAuliffe," I said. "I am twenty-seven. I live on the inlet at Port Harlan."

"We know what you are," the eldest said. "Say what you want."

I had practiced it for eleven hours.

I had practiced it on the dock, and on the way down, and in the little room with my words on the walls.

I opened my mouth, and out came the speech.

"I want him to be safe," I said. "I want him to be free. I'll do whatever the court asks of me."

"I'll go back to the surface and never speak of this. I'll swear it. I'll make myself a promise."

The elder on her left shifted on his shell.

"These are things you will give," said the eldest.

"I..."

"These are things you will do. Where is the want?"

My face went hot in the cold water.

The red light on the sub blinked, and I knew eleven thousand people were watching me do exactly what I had done for two years.

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