Chương 15: A Debt to Pay

Miriam had the rest of the day before Eoin would arrive with the ocean. Ever practical, she immediately began rummaging through Solas's belongings for anything useful. She found a hidden storage room behind the bed - it seemed Solas had been so paranoid that he put his own body between the world and his most valuable possessions. It was cramped and cluttered, with very little inside that she could identify as valuable.

She took the knapsack he had carried with him on all their excursions and filled it with food and two bottles of wine - seemingly the only thing the Wisp drank. The rest of the room was filled with bizarre trinkets and trash. There was one item she found that stopped her in her tracks. Immediately she moved out into the sand in front of the cottage and struck a fire with the abundance of nearby driftwood.

Once it was roaring high enough Miriam quietly walked back inside, picked up the portrait of Aisling, and tossed it unceremoniously on the fire. Miriam couldn't tell if the oil paints were just melting before catching fire or if the painting was weeping. Its eyes looked furious. Once the bonfire was ashes she kicked off into the swamp.

Solas had taken her into the bog a few times to tell various horrid tales of the misadventures of a young Wisp in the Amberline Channels, but never back to the cave where she had first crawled into the Tír. Miriam wasn't sure what she was looking for - perhaps a clarification for herself that the path she had taken into this world was truly one-way. The canoe was still there where Solas had left it and she made short work of untying it and pushing off into the swamp.

Looking at the bog with fresh eyes, she no longer saw a disturbing tangle of otherworldly dangers, but a complex web of life and fórsa intertwining. She saw the flow of the water in rolling channels and rivulets. On every bank and in the water itself she could feel the hum of life - grasses and fish bursting with their own fórsa. And, in the darker corners, in the bloated bodies of rotting rodents, in the fouled waters of poisoned holes, she was chilled by the endless touch of blight.

Finding the cave wasn't nearly as difficult as she'd feared, and with her powerful arms at the oar, she arrived in much less time than it had taken Solas. Standing now at the mouth, a gaping maw leading down into the belly of the world, Miriam took a moment to reconsider if this was really a good idea. She had not forgotten Solas's tales of dead men lost in the cave system. The last thing she wanted on the day she'd finally won her freedom was to give it up again to a giant hole in the ground.

In the end she could not stave off her curiosity and she descended. It was darker than she had remembered - had Solas had a torch? He must have. Gathering dry materials from the cave entrance she crafted a makeshift light source, but it wouldn't last long. She regretted that Eoin hadn't taught her how to make light with fórsa yet. After thirty feet and some singed fingers she gave up on light and just tried to feel her way down.

As the blinding light of the cave mouth receded, she found that she could see more than she expected - not much, but as a human she felt certain it would have been pitch black in here. Maybe another gift of being a dryad? To her further surprise she seemed to have a natural knack for retracing her steps. With near certainty she could tell if she had been there before, regardless of the lighting. It was as if her feet recognized the rock and dirt beneath them.

With far less time and worry than she had expected, a light began welling up from the floor ahead of her - the luminescent pool she'd first crawled out of. Miriam approached the water gingerly, lowering herself down to her knees to peer into the pool. Instantly she could feel the torrent of fórsa pushing out of the water - it was even blowing her hair about a little. She could feel it with grim certainty in her guts - there was no going back this way.

The current of fórsa was far too strong, even if her new dryad form could survive the trip. The vent truly was only one-way. Miriam was preparing to leave the pool once more when she saw movement from below the water. Startled, she peered deeper. The bright murkiness of the pool began to clear, like a disturbed puddle settling, and she could see what looked like a bright blue sky - the sky of her own world. Miriam's breath caught - had she been wrong? Was there in fact a way back?

Suddenly a face peered down at her from inside the water. A young woman in her twenties, with shoulder-length black hair and a child on her hip. It was clear that the woman was not actually in the water - she was completely dry. But still, she edged closer and closer.

"No!" Miriam yelled, suddenly panicking. She waved her arms, trying to catch the woman's attention.

"No! Don't come near the well! Go back!" It didn't matter that Solas was dead, that there would be no one on this side to pull this unsuspecting person and her child to the Tír. Miriam was suddenly struck by a panic that this woman would make her same mistakes. The woman jumped back, startled. With an uncertain glance back at the water she hopped out of view. Miriam sighed and relaxed back onto the rock. Who had that been? Had someone come to the Willow House? Or did the vent open in more than one place?

Solas had been luring children away for more than a century - Miriam would have known if that many kids in her community had gone missing. At least she had warned one unsuspecting person away. ✧✧✧ Night came as it always did with the flutter of fish against the window, but this time Miriam sat on the stairs, outside where Solas's wards had been. She couldn't make herself step back too deeply into the basement. Moments after the ocean arrived, the shimmering form of Eoin Daithi burst into being in front of her cot.

He was dressed as immaculate as ever, but his head darted around the space, frantic.

"Miriam?"

"Over here, Eoin." He whirled and smiled joyfully to see her on the stairs.

"Miriam! You did it! You're out of the wards! Solas?" Miriam nodded to the bundle on the floor she had tossed a blanket over.

"He came for me down here. He knew you had been coming to see me."

"Gods," Eoin kneed down to regard the blanket.

"I wish this projection could spit. How did you beat him? We never planned for this scenario - you would have had little access to your elements here." Miriam's throat was dry.

"He used his Reel. With it he could lock down my Water and Life fórsa. He knew you had been visiting me. Knew everything we had been doing. He told me one of his stories and started invading me with his Mind. He said you had done him a favor - my denser fórsa just made the Reel work better, or something like that." Eoin looked again at the bundle, this time with naked interest.

"That's… horrible, for sure, but… fascinating. I never would have imagined that to be the case."

"I was frozen. Couldn't move, could do any forms or activate my fórsa at all. Lucky for me, I found a way and then I… beat his head in with a heavy gear." Miriam was avoiding looking Eoin in the eye.

"How do I clear a fórsa nature? If I didn't like one I have woven?" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Eoin narrowed his eyes.

"You mean the Mind fórsa from the Reel? You should be able to blow that out of your system with either Water or Life."

"Yes, I did that… but when I was fighting Solas I had to grab onto a type of nature he didn't lock off with my remaining raw fórsa. I couldn't move, so the only form to focus with was stillness…" Eoin's eyes went wide and he flung the blanket off of Solas's body. He stood there, gaping at the blackened, bloated form of a corpse that looked to have at least a week's worth of rot on it.

"Blight. You took in Blight?" Miriam felt dirty, like when her father had caught her playing the wrong way with a boy in her teen years.

"What choice did I have? It was either that or die. Well, I didn't die, and now I want it out of me." He looked pained as he slowly dragged the blanket back over the body.

"Oh, Miriam, that's not how…" his eyes went unfocused for a moment, then he shook his head.

"Nothing I can do about it here. You need to get on that boat tomorrow, then we might be able to find somewhere we can do that." Miriam was left with an uneasy feeling. She'd trusted Eoin all this time, but new facts had emerged about the charismatic man that painted that trust in a poor light. There was something he wasn't telling her.

"I can remove it right? I don't want this… blackness in my heart forever." Eoin looked resolute again.

"Of course, Miriam. I will do what I can. It's not a common procedure, but I might have some ideas. But not if you're stuck in the Golden Swamp." His confidence was so swift and firm she might almost think she imagined her earlier mistrust. She had lived too long to mistrust her own instincts, and the wariness that had faded with the relief at Eoin's familiar presence started to return. There were unfinished issues she needed to address, and there would be no better time than now.

"Do you know what story he told me, Eoin?" Eoin caught the odd tone in her voice and turned to look at her.

"What does it matter? The tales of 'The Most Talented Wisp in the World' never seemed important."

"He told me about a thief he had met. A liar. A murderer - named Eoin Daithi." Eoin stood, his face darkening.

"You can't believe a word that wretch said, Miriam. He was using you for his own ends, and would have said anything to get what he wanted."

"He also said the stories he told me had to be true for the Reel to work." He rolled his eyes.

"Again. Solas was a bigger liar than nearly anyone I've ever met." Miriam stood.

"But you did meet him. You did build the Amethyst Reel with him." She walked closer to him, looking into his eyes for falsehoods.

"What about the steelworkers you stole from and left dead in their foundry? Eoin… what about when you told Solas that you didn't care how many children he lured in from the Realms Above and left him with the very object he needed to do so?" Eoin licked his lips, his eyes darting quickly away from hers. Miriam's jaw dropped in horror.

"It's true. It's actually true? Gods above, Eoin, I hoped with every fiber of my body that he was lying."

"It's… things were different then." Miriam nodded, her horror slowly being replaced with steel.

"I see. Thank you for your instruction, Eoin. I truly would never have escaped without you. The first day you showed up here you told me you were a scoundrel - I have not forgotten. Your fancy clothes and enthusiasm don't make up for the fact that your heart was as dark as Solas's was." Eoin scowled.

"That was a hundred years ago, Miriam. Longer even than you've been alive. I admit to my past misdeeds. I was young, impetuous… callous, even. I did things I regret for no other reason than that I had the power to do them. In recent years I have been taught… humility." Miriam snorted.

"You allowed Solas to prey on children because you weren't humble enough?" He took off his hat and flung it into nothingness. Eoin leaned wearily against the nearest workbench, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Miriam… I… I don't know if I can ever make you understand. In fact, you shouldn't. What I did here was unforgivable. I may not have lured those innocents from the Realms Above here, but I didn't stop it when I easily could have. You just… I didn't care, Miriam. I was the worst a High Sidhe can be. Arrogant, just because I was born in an inner ring, callous because… well. Everyone I met here was beneath me. And at the time, the Realms Above were just one ring even lower. I barely saw them as people."

Miriam shook her head.

"What am I supposed to say to that? Am I supposed to believe that you're a changed man now? That you've seen the error of your ways?"

"I have. But, no. I understand that is meaningless. Let no other evidence than your own eyes convince you that I have changed. I came here every night. I helped you when you needed it most. I know that alone isn't enough to prove it, but I didn't have to do this." Miriam turned away from him back towards the stairs.

"You didn't do this from the goodness of your heart. The man in Solas's story would have wanted something from me. Just tell me what it is so we can dispense with the idea that there was anything altruistic in your actions here." Eoin sighed deeply, with a level of frustration that surprised her enough for her to turn back to look at him again.

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"I cannot defend myself, so let's make this as transactional as it needs to be. On the ship you're going to board tomorrow is a prisoner. I want you to set that prisoner free."

"A prisoner? Eoin, you're really not helping rehabilitate your image in my eyes here."

"And were you not also a prisoner I helped set free?" His eyes were cold now, and for the first time Miriam really sensed the power behind them. Just how much stronger than Solas - than Miriam - Eoin was.

"The Líadan is a penance ship. At the bottom of the keel is a cold iron cage. The prisoner I'm asking you to free is trapped there. He was sentenced to a term of service in the Navy of Brugh, from the Second Ring. Before he could finish his time and get released, the ship was taken over by… well. It would be disingenuous to call them pirates. Gamblers maybe? So now my friend is a prisoner in private hands, unlikely ever to see freedom again."

"Under the keel? Does he not drown?"

"No. My friend is a Selkie - the same way dryads are tree spirits, Selkies are water spirits. He's usually as happy as can be in the water - but not when he's caged like that." Eoin grabbed Miriam's hand and held it tightly.

"Please. I am not the man you might have wished for a rescuer, but much of the work I put in to save you was with this moment in mind. Get on that boat. Find a way to free my friend - Iohannes is his name. With his help we can then find a way to purge the Blight from your fórsa." Miriam snatched her hand away.

"If I work with you, Eoin, it's because I have no other choice. And… I do have a debt to repay to you. But let's be clear - once we have freed your friend and cleared the Blight from me, I don't expect to see you again." Eoin nodded sadly.

"If that is what you wish. I have to ask… what happened to Solas's Reel? Just out of curiosity. It would be a fascinating object of study - though I would never use it, of course," he added quickly. Miriam frowned.

"Smashed it to pieces with a mallet I found in Solas's closet. The same thing I did to your Amethyst Reel." She didn't imagine the wince in his eyes, but it was so slight she might have.

"Very well. Probably for the best then." Miriam turned again and started climbing the stairs.

"I am going to sleep on the roof, under the stars. If I can't talk to you again unless we're both under water I suppose this is goodbye for a while."

"Indeed. Iohannes will have a way to reach me. I will await word from him." Eoin hesitated.

"I am glad you're free, Miriam." Miriam sighed softly.

"Me too. Thank you, Eoin." With that she climbed up to the roof, leaving the High Sidhe behind her in the basement as she moved above the surface of the water. The air was salty and chilled, but it felt invigorating rather than oppressive, as it might have when she was human. Above her the roiled oil-slick clouds were gone and there was a brilliant field of stars in the firmament. Two moons, one pale white, the other a swirling yellow and orange, with bright rings, huge on the horizon.

Looking behind her she could see a new beach, waves breaking against trees which had seemingly resisted the transformation to the Night Shoals. In front of her stretched an endless sea, glittering with reflective starlight, the surface broken by the occasional fin, or the back of an astonishingly long serpent. She was truly in another world, and once again she let herself bask in the majesty of it. Solas's pack - her pack now - she hugged to her chest as she lay down to sleep.

It was filled with food, wine, and any other bric-a-brac she thought might be useful or valuable enough to sell. Tucked within the very bottom of the pack, unbroken and weeping with eerie light, was Solas's Reel.