Source: artstation.com

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Upon learning her brother had been kidnapped, Gina set off with the help of the mysterious fisher woman Maerith to find him.

To allay her fears, Gina asked Maerith how she and her husband Shelcor had met. Joy and sorrow intermingled in the beautiful woman’s face as she began her tale:

Her family were textile farmers who came to Kellansend three times a year to sell burbee-flax and danderwool. At first they’d embraced the idea of this big sinewy fellow marrying into their close-knit clan, but when they learned he was fisher folk, a selchie, they turned against him, forbidding Maerith to ever see him again. So Maerith and Shelcor eloped and were married at sea.

“And married ter the sea, as well,” Maerith told Gina, “for I’d fallen in love with its shining depths a’ green. When Shelcor an’ I returned ter Kellansend, my three elder brothers were mad for revenge, so they plotted ter murder us both.”

“That’s demented!”

“There on the shores a’ Kellansend Bay they waited with pitchfork, ax, and scythe.”

Gina gasped.

“Forth from the shadows they come.” Maerith’s eyes retraced the horror, not only of being assailed, but of being attacked by her own siblings. “Then out from behind a selchie craft rushes our lee brother Rell…an’ throws himself betwixt us.” She wiped a tear from her cheek with her heavy skin coat. “An’ in a moment that can ne’er be ta’en back, they pierced an’ hacked him down.”

“’A step you can’t untake,’” whispered Gina.

“Our family was undone. They returned to the farm, vowing ne’er to say Rell’s name again. Nor mine. I would rather a thousand times ter have died than my brother.” Maerith’s voice faltered. “But Uol granted Shelcor and me healing in one another.” She placed Gina’s hand on her stomach. “An’ wi’ pups ter come.”

Tears were streaming down Gina’s cheeks.

“And fairhap I’ve a lee sister now, as well?” asked Maerith.

“Oh, yes,” Gina replied. “Yes!” She wrapped her arms around Maerith. But before long she began to slump.

“Ah, yer drank much of the grownlings’ meeth and still ha’ not fully recovered. We’ll sleep awhile.” The fisherwoman walked Gina off the path and into a patch of bluebells. They reclined between two big protective rainbowwood roots that looked like the toes of a giant.

Within a few minutes Gina’s head had slid into Maerith’s lap. Maerith touched her hand to her heart, to her forehead, toward the sky, then slid the fishskin bottle off her shoulder, pulled out the wooden plug, and filled her other hand with liquid. She wetted her lips and patted the rest on her face.

Gina looked up. “Water?”

Maerith touched Gina’s lips with the solution.

“Oh,” Gina said in drowsy surprise, “salty.”

And then she slept. 

φ

Thoughts: Empathy, feeling what another feels, strengthens both the receiver and the giver.

To read the next episode, click here.