A Beautiful Thing

by J.L. Rowan -

Elmerin stood within the shadows of an abandoned corridor and gazed down its length at the little girl cowering behind a broken table.  She squeezed shut her eyes as though her inability to see the world would protect her from its evils.

He’d been spying on her of a night, when his duties ended and he was free to take his rest.  Tegan was small, smaller than any other child on Avenir, and undernourished, a mere wisp of humanity, leaving her easy prey.  But she’d surprised him.  She knew more places to hide than the engineers who had built the ship.  He left food for her in those secret places, but it was no longer enough.

A scrape of metal and a muttered curse drew his gaze to the end of the corridor.  A trader stalked in, a strap of leather in his hand.  “Where are you, you brat?  I know you’re here!”

Elmerin clenched his fists and stepped into the light of the Whale.  “No one is here, sir.  No one but me.”

The trader started back.  “My lord wizard, I—a girl came this way—”

“No girl came here,” Elmerin said.  “Leave.  The next Approaching will soon be upon us.  I require solitude.”

A look passed over the trader’s face, a panoply of rage that stopped the breath in Elmerin’s throat.  With a snarl, he spun on his heel and disappeared.

Elmerin crossed to the table and knelt.  “He has gone, child.”

Tegan uncurled, blinking, lifting her teary gaze to his.  Her eyes widened, and she stared at him.  “She told me you would come.  She showed you to me, and told me you would come.”

A chill seized him.  “Who?  Who told you this?”

“I don’t know.  She lives in the waves, and comes when I sleep.”  She touched his face gingerly, as though he would vanish if she pressed too hard.

A sharp, bitter taste surged in the back of his throat.  “They speak to you?  A child?”  He could hardly whisper the words.

“She said you would save me.”  And she threw herself into his arms and clung to his neck.

He closed his eyes.  He couldn’t let jealousy take from her the only beautiful thing she had ever known.  He held her close.  “Of course I will save you.”  He rose, lifting her in his arms.  “No one will ever hurt you again, I promise.”

The Final Approaching

by J. L. Rowan -

As the waves swallowed the pod, Elmerin felt himself a boy of ten Foundings again. The sense of excitement and adventure that had faded with age returned with a force that startled him and left him slightly breathless. He pressed his hands to the glass of the viewport, his eyes narrowed. Perhaps now, after all this time…surely now…But as the Whale grew dim and the waters darkened, the aches and pains of elder years returned, and childish fancy bowed its head to hard-earned experience. He lowered his eyes and shuffled amongst the other passengers to his assigned seat to await the pod’s arrival at Zirconia.

He studied the water outside the porthole next to him. As black as space, and as deadly. He quashed the thought with a stab of guilt. The seas held something space never would—the sentient creatures he had spent his life trying to reach. Trying, and failing.

And now, there would be no more trying. He’d told his fellow wizards that he was retiring to Zirconia, but that wasn’t quite true.

Death had stalked him for months, and his failure at the last Approaching had made it clear that he would never realize his dream. No more Approachings awaited him—none but the Final Approaching, the journey all wizards must take.

So many years, and nothing to show for them. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes. It was a foolish thought, coming here to die. If he hadn’t achieved contact in the prime of his—

A vision blossomed behind his eyelids, a vision of colors and sensations, of joy and welcoming. He blinked, and saw outside the porthole a school of blue and golden fish that fairly glowed. They moved as one, and when his eyes met theirs, he was enveloped by the greatest peace he had ever known. They hovered beside him, shimmering in the darkness.

Come. The intense feeling washed over him, stronger than mere words. Come with us.

His throat closed up, and tears spilled onto his cheeks. Was it possible? After all this time? Their gaze seemed to confirm his deepest dream. A smile spread across his face, and he loosed a soft breath, releasing with it the heartache of years now distant. “I am ready when you are.”