“Explain to me again why we ever approved sending the children up to Rome?” Thetis said, rubbing her temple. She crossed her legs, and the changing green-blue fabric of her dress rippled.
Her companion smirked. “I recall you being quite insistent about it, Thetis. I seem to vaguely remember your desperation with that little nymphan revolt. Why, is Calista proving less than tractable for your plans?” Laughter rumbled in Neptune’s chest. “Just choose an Atlantian to succeed you as Waveguide.”
Thetis lazily gestured for one of her crimson-robed attendants to refill her and her companion’s chalices with wine. “You know as well as I the spoiled indolence of Atlantians. A child related to you by blood would hold intrinsic power. Had I had a daughter, she would inherited from me, as it were...the girl is the only young woman who has been Above and I am too tired to wait another sixteen years before I begin training an heir.”
“But what is sixteen years when you have lived an eternity?” Neptune snapped his fingers. “A moment flashing through time.”
“I want what I want and I want it now. I will not have my plans overturned by a stubborn maid.” Her lips thinned until they were only a faint line on her dark face. “She throws the title of Waveguide away as if it were coal.” The stem of the chalice snapped into two jagged pieces. Wine sloshed over the rim.
“We must surmount this,” he said.
Thetis pursed her dark lips in thought. “I must persuade her. Bribes have not worked and neither have threats. And if we are to lend any credence to that bought prophecy, we must make some effort to have her—not the boy; the Waveguide must be a woman—contribute to Atlantis. Atlantis must seduce her. Hadrian has thrown himself into that effort, although I do not know how long I can persuade my son to keep up this farce.”
“Has he told you anything of interest?”
Thetis shrugged. “Just that she longs to return to the home where she was raised, but that is to be expected.” Thetis grew quiet in thought. “Perhaps if I were to make her my attendant, let her follow me as I performed my daily tasks, it would allow her the chance to fall slowly in love with Atlantis and the idea of being its ruler.”
“Cheers,” grinned Neptune.
A smile softened her austere features and she raised her goblet to the lord of the seas. “To the future and success of Atlantis.”