Tome Thursday: Wave Song

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back.

 

Tonight, we're taking a brief look at how it all began.

 

See, I tend to do these things in the correct, chronological order to the best of my abilities.

 

Unfortunately, however, I didn't even know there WAS something to read before the main books of the series until the last one of said series was published.

 

I know, I know. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.

 

Anyway!

 

Since it's really starting to pick up in terms of heat waves here, it's time to head under the sea to cool off a little. And it's time we meet the two individuals who basically started it all, when you look at it that way.

 

The waves are calling, and we'll answer, in Wave Song.

 

Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual! 

 

Emma Hamm's Deep Waters series concluded this past April (or did it ... ?) but that doesn't mean we can't still thoroughly enjoy the stories of her undines, aka the sirens who lure people away from their own to fight for a better world with them, when we take a look at the prequel novella that was released alongside the main books.

 

Wave Song tells the story of the two skeletons we see in Whispers of the Deep when Arges takes Mira to an underwater living pod that will eventually be the start of their brand new village where humans and merpeople can live together.

 

The skeletons have names.

 

They're Alys and Imber.

 

Alys, the first human (that we know of) who falls for an undine, is the daughter of the man responsible for building the cities under the sea surface, as she was born and raised on land. However, the land is becoming uninhabitable, and so they have to start thinking about evacuating down below.

 

As she's always loved the sea, this doesn't pose a problem to her whatsoever.

 

Besides, she meets Imber there, too.

 

Imber is the undine who randomly stumbles across her while she's out exploring in her little submarine, and he's as fascinated by her as she is with him.

 

Together, the two of them slowly peel away layers of what they're interested in, and she also figures out how to create a translation chip so the two of them can speak to each other.

 

Imber's people are a little different from the ones we meet later on, residing in shallower waters, and equally a lot more open to different species, aka humans, than the others will be later, although that will also be because of what the humans do as time goes by.

 

See, while Alys and Imber are facing challenges of how to stay together when the very sea is slowly killing her since she wasn't born to exist within it, Alys' father has pretty much given the more corrupted people up to blueprints for how to take what they want without consideration for anyone else.

 

And Alys overhears how that's going to go.

 

She rushes to warn Imber, apologizing for not having more power and being able to stop what's happening, as some of their hunting grounds are already compromised, but more than that, his pod's home is directly attacked and they have to relocate if they wish to survive.

 

Alys is determined not to have anything to do with those who are taking through violence as opposed to trying to co-exist in harmony, though, and she promises to return to Imber with a solution as to how she'll be able to survive underwater.

 

Telling her father - who nearly drops of a heart attack when he meets Imber himself - results in her father building her the place she'll later be living in, and which will be Mira's home years in the future.

 

Because her father knows about the undines, you see.

 

So do the ones who're pushing to build the cities on the sea floor.

 

They know, and they don't care, believing that they have a right to survive and the ends justify using any means, which breaks Alys' heart.

 

Her father isn't coming with her, either, leaving her to go to her new future alone, and Imber and she build a life together under the sea, away from his pod, who are also not that keen on sharing with a human after everything that happened.

 

Still, she gets to know his sister and his niece fairly well, as we get to see in the epilogue years later when she's older, and we also know she's as happy as can be with the person she loves most.

 

Byte also makes an appearance, the little droid we know and love from Mira's companion story making the most of the pages it's given.

 

And thus we leave them, living their happily ever after away from everyone else, because this was what THEY chose for themselves, the freedom to do so still within their grasp.

 

I was mesmerized by the skeletons Arges finds in Whispers of the Deep and had to look up the novella in the anthology it was originally published in.

Knowing it's now also a standalone warms my heart just like Alys and Imber.

And oh, OH that epilogue. Be still, my heart.

10/10, no need for more. You get the love story that started it all, learn where Byte comes from, how humans moved under the sea, and how happy undines and achromos can be together.

What more could you want? 

 

xx

*image not mine

 

Whispers of the Deep - Song of the Abyss - Echoes of the Tide - Call of the Fathoms