After admiring the crystals for a moment more, we push deeper into the cave system, following a passage that slopes gently downward. The air grows thicker with moisture. Gradually, the sound of running water gets louder. The tunnel opens into a second cavern, smaller than the main pool chamber, but no less beautiful.
This one is different. Where the main cavern has its vast, open pool, this space is filled with a series of smaller basins, carved into the rock like natural bathtubs. They cascade down from a high point on the far wall, water spilling from one to the next in a gentle, musical waterfall. Each pool is a slightly different temperature, the water ranging from warm to pleasantly hot. The minerals give each basin a different tint. The highest pools are a clear pale blue, but as the water cascadesdown, picking up different minerals along the way, the colors shift through turquoise, aquamarine, and finally, in the lowest and hottest pool, a deep blue.
A'Vanti makes a soft sound filled with wonder.
"This is it," I say immediately. "This is where we're spending the day. I'm calling it."
"You cannot 'call' a sacred geological formation."
"Just did. Called it. It's ours now."
Her laugh echoes through the chamber, bouncing off the rock walls and coming back multiplied.
We don't swim right away. Instead, A'Vanti leads me along the perimeter of the cascading pools, pointing out geological features with the barely contained excitement of someone who is deeply, passionately nerdy about something and has finally found a willing audience. I love watching her like this. She is animated and bright-eyed, her hands moving as she explains how the different mineral compositions create the color variations, how the water temperature affects crystal formation, how the cascade system is essentially a natural filtration process that purifies the water as it descends.
On the far wall of the chamber, half-hidden behind a curtain of mineral deposits, I spot something that makes me stop mid-stride.
"A'Vanti. Come look at this."
She's at my side in an instant. I angle my flashlight at the wall, and we both stare.
Carvings. Dozens of them, etched into the dark basalt in careful, deliberate lines. Some are simple – geometric patterns, spirals, what might be representations of the twin suns. Others are more complex. Figures with long limbs and angular features, clearly Cerastean, arranged in scenes that tell stories I can't decipher.
"I've read about these," A'Vanti whispers. She reaches out and traces the edge of a spiral with her fingertip, just short of touching it. "Very old. I believe I was told that they are over five thousand years old."
"What do they show?"
She moves along the wall, her eyes scanning the images with focused intensity. "See this section here? These figures around the pool, this appears to depict a presentation ceremony. See the two figures facing each other? And this symbol between them?"
I look where she's pointing. Two tall figures stand facing each other, hands raised, palms touching. Between them, an intricate knot-like design connects them at the chest.
"That symbol represents the joining of two lives," A'Vanti continues. "It is one of the oldest symbols in Cerastean culture. We still use a version of it today – usually on mating jewelry." I make a mental note to ask D'Rett about mating jewelry when we return to the base.
A'Vanti moves further along the wall, and reverence crosses her face. "And here… you see? Couples in the water together. Bathing and… embracing. The springs were not just a place to pledge the bond. They were where mates came to celebrate it." Her fingers hover over a carving of two figures intertwined in a pool, their bodies curved toward each other with unmistakable intimacy. "It was believed that sharing the waters deepened the connection between mates. Body and spirit."
The weight of that settles over me. We made love here last night. In exactly the spirit as it was meant to be. In a place where A'Vanti's ancestors have been coming for thousands of years to pledge themselves to each other and celebrate that bond in sacred water.
"I knew the springs had spiritual significance. But I never explored this deep." She turns to me. "Many Cerasteans still came to the springs for their Presentation Ceremonies. But whenthe community center was built, more and more couples chose to hold them there instead. We're the first to see these carvings in a decade. I feel like we were meant to share this together."
"Yeah." My throat feels tight. "I think so too."
She takes my hand, threading her fingers through mine, and we stand there in silence for a long moment, surrounded by the whispered history of her people.
We try the smaller pools after that.
A'Vanti leads me to one of the cascading basins, a natural hollow in the rock, smooth-edged and barely big enough for two, with water spilling into it from the tier above. Like a hot tub carved by the planet itself. She tells me the traditional practice was to move through the pools in sequence, each one a little hotter than the last, preparing the body gradually.
We don't make it past the second one.
It's barely big enough for two, which suits me just fine. I lower myself into the water and reach for A'Vanti's hand, pulling her in after me and settling her onto my lap. She comes willingly, her back to my chest, the water lapping at our shoulders.
She fits against me perfectly. Her head tips back into the curve of my neck, and her hair fans across my shoulder in a river of gold. The blue-green light from the deeper pools below us plays across her scales, and she practically glows – radiant and luminous and entirely mine.
I wrap my arms around her waist beneath the water and press my lips to her temple. She hums, a low, contented vibration I can feel through my chest, and her fingers trace lazy patterns along my forearm.
"Your heart is very fast," she observes, her head still resting against my neck. Of course she can feel it. Her whole back is pressed to my chest like a living stethoscope.
"Yeah, well." I tighten my arms around her. "You're sittingnakedin my lap in an alien hot tub. My heart's doing its best."
