"Yes." The voice that answered the Accepted's musings was quiet and deep, rumbling across the water like distant summer thunder It came from a man who had not been there a moment ago, or at least had not been visible as he swam beneath the calm but deceptively deep water in the shape of a broad-winged manta ray. Now his head and shoulders rose out of the water, his long hair steely grey that shone wetly in the gentle sunshine like beaten metal. His skin was dark, making the emerald green of his eyes all the more startling as he considered the human on the shore. A circlet of gold and silver set with a single emerald kept his hair out of his eyes, while an emerald teardrop earring hung from his left ear.
He swam closer with slow, graceful strokes of his piscine tail, moving without hurry. As he did so the flash of gold on his skin winked dully beneath the water; scars that had been tattooed over with an ink that mimicked metal. A thick silver armband fitted snugly around one bicep, and he was bare-chested except for a harness that held several tools and pouches, as well as a trident of coral and gold with tines of starlight at his back. "No one knows the L'ma's preference," he explained when he was closer. "Which one would you chose for yourself?" At the very least it would do no harm
He swam closer with slow, graceful strokes of his piscine tail, moving without hurry. As he did so the flash of gold on his skin winked dully beneath the water; scars that had been tattooed over with an ink that mimicked metal. A thick silver armband fitted snugly around one bicep, and he was bare-chested except for a harness that held several tools and pouches, as well as a trident of coral and gold with tines of starlight at his back. "No one knows the L'ma's preference," he explained when he was closer. "Which one would you chose for yourself?" At the very least it would do no harm
