[EoE]
Mashrin rubbed his eyes, readjusted his glasses, and stared blearily down at his own notes. Scott waited patiently. They’d encountered the big bull Relk earlier in the day, and his father had done his best to translate the creature’s urgent message. It had been one part myriad of sounds and another part frantic fin flicking. Scott had only an inkling about what was being communicated, and that was only thanks to Vian’s statement that the Locks had some sort of presence on this sheltered world. Permission for a visitation had only been granted to him because his father was the leading biologist of the team that worked there, mostly to ensure the peace and to avoid another Leothin incident.
“Something about going into the deep caverns, with an emphasis on deep.” Mashrin muttered. “If I understood him right, vortices randomly occur and a kind of slip stream is created where they’re able to pass through deeper water regardless of pressure. Underwater passageways?”
“Did he say what made them?”
“No, only that they occur randomly – well, some occur randomly, there seems to be some consistency with others, according to the pod’s scouts.” He played footage of the encounter back again on the nearby screen. “Something about dark… data. Dark halls?” Mashrin’s words hit a key with Scott, and he recalled Vian’s study.
“The Black Library.”
“I suppose that could be it.” Mashrin peered shrewdly over his glasses at him. “Do you know what this is?”
“Not a clue. Keeping going, what else did he see?” Scott prompted him.
“I couldn’t well decipher the description. Just halls, lots of darkened halls. He wouldn’t say much more about the location beyond that. What he DID say, was that he encountered a random underwater pathway and went through it, down into the caverns. He said it was… a reverse pathway though. Something about stars underwater, about something coming up from the deep. A giant, dark maw with endless teeth.” Mashrin took of his glasses and cleaned them. “Which is, I assume, why you’re here.”