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Elsi stood at her father’s tomb in the catacombs, still wearing the traditional Akerelleian celebration attire. It was customary to wear blue at a death celebration. Blue was the color of the sea as well as the color of the afterlife. They believed that all marine life was the souls of the dead. Fish of all colors and sizes represented the souls of all the Akerelles who had passed on.
Even the dark catacombs had been painted and carved to depict the sea. Blue, green, and silver coated the dusty walls. Carved fish, shells, and weeds embroidered the ground. Despite hearing the stories of the afterlife, they provided Elsi with very little comfort. She missed her father more than anything.
“Els,” came a voice from the darkness.
Elsi turned to see Vel standing alone in the dark corridor. “What are you doing here? Only family is allowed down here right now?”
“You’ve been down here for hours,” he replied, kicking a rock on the ground. “Let’s go to the shore and wait for him.”
“Wait for who?”
“Your father, I’ll bet he’ll come to say a last goodbye before he swims off into his afterlife,” Vel offered.
Elsi wasn’t sure what to say. All she could give was a small, tearful smile. “I don’t really know if I believe in all of that.”
Vel shrugged. “I don’t either. But I’d prefer to cry at the beach rather than this place.”
Elsi saw no reason to argue with that. Slowly, she nodded. “Alright.”
She took the young boy’s hand, and together they walked to the vast beach that surrounded the island. The sand was white and pure. In the moonlight, it looked like bone. Elsi knelt down in the swelling tides and waited. Vel sat beside her with his knees in the sand.
“Els,” Vel said. “Do you think I will become a fish when I die?”
“Why not? Everyone does.”
“All Akarelles do…but I’m not Akarelleian.”
Elsi thought for a second. Her seven-year-old brain couldn’t really wrap itself around that idea. She didn’t like the thought of Vel going anyplace where she wasn’t.
“Well, I don’t know what Tathians become, but maybe since you’ve lived so long with us, you will get to decide what you become.”
Vel grinned. “I like that. I’m going to be a shark.”
Elsi giggled. “Only warriors become sharks.”
“Then maybe I’ll become a ray, I like rays.”
She nodded. “Hmmm, maybe. I’d like to become a dolphin. They’re smart and friendly.”
“You’re not always so friendly,” he replied with a snort.
She scowled at her friend. “But I’m smart.”
“Fine, you can be a dolphin.”
The two young children fell into companionable silence. Together, Elsi and Vel sat in the shallow waves of the sea, waiting for something to happen. The moons moved across the sky, and Elsi began to doubt what they were doing.
“Maybe he came to the shores when I was in the catacomb.” Tears prickled in Elsi’s eyes. “Maybe I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
“No,” Vel said matter-of-factly. “He’s going to say goodbye, just wait.”
Elsi looked back towards the water. She felt hot tears run down her face and drop into the dark ocean.
“I hope I wasn’t too late.”
Only a few moments later, Elsi saw a dark silhouette break through the surface of the water. A single dolphin swam not far from the shores of the sea. Elsi gasped as the dolphin broke through the surface a second time. He swam around back and forth for several minutes. The dolphin jumped out of the water one last time before disappearing into the dark.
“I knew he would come,” Vel said triumphantly.
Elsi had been born to sail the seas. She had weathered days upon days of cruel, ceaseless gales and never-ending rains. However, the storm on the Similyan was different from anything she had ever experienced before. When the storm finally subsided, the little raft was in poor shape. The boards had loosened, and it was slowly beginning to sink into the dark water of the river.
Elsi had remained aboard but only barely. At some point in the chaos, she had pulled a dagger from her belt and stabbed it into the center of the raft. It was only luck–or the will of the gods–that kept her clinging to the dagger.
Finlay was the only other person who stayed aboard the raft. Elsi couldn’t be sure how he had managed to do so. Pan, Maude, and Caris had been cast into the water. Elsi attempted to save each of them, but she was blind and deaf in the storm.
In the fresh light of a new dawn, Caris was the first to find his way back onto the raft. His dark blond hair was plastered to his head, and his clothing clung to his skin. When he hauled himself onboard, Finlay immediately bombarded him with questions. Was he alright? Did he see Maude? Where could Maude have gone?
Pan didn’t catch up to them until much later in the morning–soaked and miserable. Maude never caught up.
“She has to be somewhere,” Pan gasped as he sprawled onto the deck of the raft. His wet hair looked like ink as it spilled across the wood.
“You didn’t see her out there?” Finlay asked. “Are you sure?”
“I didn’t see anything,” Pan replied. “But I was a little more focused on not drowning.”
Elsi worried for the young Meiren woman. However, she figured that perhaps Maude had simply swam to shore. She had grown up along the river, afterall. Likely, she was no stranger to swimming.
All morning, Elsi and the others called for Maude and searched the dark water. When twin suns reached their peak in the sky, it was clear that they would not find her. Finlay was in a state of wild panic. Caris was more reserved about his fear, but Elsi could see worry in his features.
“She has to be close, right?” Finlay asked for what must have been the millionth time. “The river is all moving south, so…where else could she be?”
“I’m sure she made it to shore,” was Elsi’s attempt to console him. “She’s familiar with this river, right?”
“Yes, but I’ve never seen a storm like that this far south,” Finlay explained. “I doubt she’ll know what to do if she makes it to shore…”
“She knows where we are going,” Pan offered. “I think the best thing we can do is to keep on track.”
“On track?” Finlay turned to face Pan. “My niece is missing, and you expect me to keep going south?”
“Well, she’ll be expecting-”
“No,” Finlay interrupted. He pointed a finger at the Bard’s chest. “I’m not going to keep going until we find Maude.”
For a moment, the entire raft fell silent. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle splash of small waves against the side of the raft. In the hours that passed since the storm ended, the little vessel was doing worse than ever. It moved sluggishly down the river. Any movement caused it to list precariously to one side.
“This raft won’t be afloat for much longer,” Elsi said carefully. While she knew Maude’s disappearance was concerning, she also recognized their own peril.
“I don’t care about the raft,” Finlay replied. “We need to find-”
“We won’t be able to find her if we sink,” Elsi tried to choose her words carefully. “We need to find a town and a better ship.”
“I don’t care about reaching Dawnellis. I-”
“Fin,” Caris interrupted his uncle. “Maude may have ended up taking a different route, but in the end, they all lead south.”
“She’s alone out there,” Finlay’s voice was quiet.
“And we’re no good to her if we drown,” Caris continued. “Elsi’s right. We need to find another ship.”
Elsi was surprised by the sudden support from Caris. Out of everyone, he had been the most reluctant to agree with her on anything.
“The Similyan splits off in a few different paths, right?” Pan asked.
Finlay nodded.
“And then it all connects up again?”
“In the delta near Dawnellis,” Elsi confirmed.
“Then, Maude could have accidentally swam down the wrong one?” Pan asked.
“Yes, that’s why we need to turn around and find her,” Finlay argued.
“That could take weeks,” Elsi began. “In that time, she could be waiting for us in Dawnellis.”
“You don’t understand-”
“Do you teach Maude the ways of the river?” Elsi met Finlay’s eyes. She had seen the same concern in Sauni’s eyes when she worried for Vel. Worry was clouding his judgment.
“Of course I did,” he replied.
“And what would you tell her if you ever got separated? Surely that was something you taught her.”
Finlay’s shoulders dropped slightly. “I told her to meet me…at a discussed location. Usually, it was the banks by our cottage.”
“Where do you think she’ll be looking for you?”
There was a long pause. Eventually, it was Caris who answered. “Dawnellis.”
“But what if she’s hurt?” Finlay argued.
“Then, we’ll work fast to find a better ship and go find her.” Elsi continued to meet his eyes, silently begging the Meiren man to trust her. “We’re hardly afloat as it is. Turning around to search for her is…impossible with the condition we’re in.”
Elsi could see the fight draining from Finlay’s eyes. He was still terrified, but he was finally beginning to see that they were no help to Maude in their current condition.
“As soon as we find a ship, we’ll find Maude,” Elsi promised.
The continued journey south was less of a journey and more of a slow crawl. The raft pulled to one side and struggled to stay afloat. Waves lapped at the sides, occasionally spilling water across the deckboards. Elsi wondered how much longer it would be until it gave up and sank into the Similyan.
As the raft struggled along, Elsi couldn’t help but think about Maude. She said a silent prayer to whatever gods the Meiren believed in and hoped she was alright.
“She’ll be alright,” Pan said ominously, nearly three hours after anyone had spoken.
Elsi turned to look at her companion. Pan, like many Bards, often had a way of knowing things. It was hard for her to tell if he was experiencing a vision or if he was simply trying to give Finlay and Caris some hope.
“We don’t know that,” Finlay replied.
“You don’t. But I do. I can feel it. She’s alive.”
“Alive isn’t necessarily, ‘alright’.”
Pan had nothing to say to that. Elsi was out of pleasant promises. She was exhausted from the trek from Fendrel, the endless days of travel, and most recently, the storm. All she wanted was to return to Dawnellis with good news. She wanted to embrace her mother and be promised that things would work out.
However, those were all dreams of a foolish woman. Elsi would return to Dawnellis, but it would not be with good news. She would sit with Chancellor Natalu and Sauni and tell them about the terrible things that had happened. If she were lucky, a war would begin. If she were too late, Dawnellis would fall before it had a chance to fight.
“She’s never been on her own before,” Finlay’s voice interrupted Elsi’s thoughts.
“Then this will be a great lesson for her,” the words came from her lips, but she felt nothing as she said them.
“What if she’s frightened?”
“Then she will learn to understand fear.” Elsi was sure Sauni had told her something similar.
“And if she’s in danger?”
“Then you must trust that you’ve given her the tools to find a way out of it–at least until we find her.”
“She’s not like you,” Finlay continued. “She doesn’t know how to fight or travel or-”
“I may have learned combat skills, but most of what I know has been learned from doing.”
“ Isn’t your family worried for you? I can’t imagine what they think of you being so far from home.” Finlay seemed to choose his words carefully.
Elsi stared down at the reflections in the passing water. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a parent. But I know that my mother trusts my judgment almost as much as she trusts her own. Otherwise, she never would have let me leave.”
Finlay said nothing.
“Besides, in Akarelleian culture, it is common for young people to go out on a journey of their own as they approach adulthood. We call it Teselia.”
“Is that why you left?” Finlay asked.
“Partially, yes. Many Akarelles in Dawnellis choose to pick a topic of study as their form of Teselia. I choose a quest.”
“What was your quest?” Caris asked.
“That is a story for another time.”
“Did you accomplish what you wished to?”
“No. I failed. I should be going home with excitement and stories…but I’m coming home with…nothing.” Elsi struggled to explain herself.
It was late when the little raft limped into Hullstead. The Meiren village was slightly larger than Henoble but not so different. It was another fishing village. However, since it was closer to Dawnellis, it was also a popular trading spot for Akarelleian merchants.
Small docks jutted out from the riverside town, filled with all manner of vessels. Lanterns hung at the ends of every dock, signaling what was there. The village was alive with the constant murmur of villagers. Tavern windows were aglow with warm candlelight.
People loitered by the docks and outside the shops. Vendors were beginning to shut down their stands and pack up for the evening. Shopkeepers were beginning to lock their doors and blow out their candles.
When Finlay docked the little, rickety raft, Caris was the first to jump off onto the dock. Elsi followed quickly after him.
“I think I know someone who can help us with a ship,” Pan said.
So curious about Elsi's journey and her failure--I wonder how long she's been away from home