Page 64 of Beacon

Once within the cavern, I knelt beside the shimmering pool. With a deep breath, I dipped my hand into the water. It immediately responded to my touch to swirl with color and magic, which gradually settled upon the memory of the day I’d lost my voice.

Glimpses of my memory caressed the pool’s surface: the all-encompassing heartache following Mother’s death, the nightmares that had already begun to haunt my nights and taint my waking hours, the hours spent searching the horizon for Mother’s ship, and especially the effort to keep my words locked away until Mother returned.

These images gradually slowed to settle on the memory that had been haunting my thoughts:

My voice died with Mother. If I can never speak to her again, then I don’t want to speak at all; perhaps that will somehow make up for the chatter that annoyed her during our last interaction. My voice deserves to share her fate and become swallowed by the depths where it now belongs…with her.

I didn’t voice my wish out loud, afraid a single word would cause me to lose my resolve. But dipping my hand into the ocean was enough for it to sense my desires, a wordless connection the sea and I had created in all the time we’d spent together.

The water stirred, its ripples gathering to form a wave, which rose to eye level. Though the ocean couldn’t speak, our connection allowed me to sense its thoughts, so closely attuned to mine—was I certain this was what I wanted?

I’d never been more certain of anything. While my guilt would always remain, at least I could alleviate myself of the burden pressing against my throat, a connection to the magic that had stolen everything from me as well as my last tie to Mother.

The water glowed before reaching inside my throat to extract the words I’d grown to fear, leaving nothing but the lingering taste of salt and seaweed against my tongue.

The ocean withdrew, now carefully cradling a glowing bulb of light that was my voice. The water formed a box where it locked my voice away before slowly swallowing it up as the wave receded back into the ocean, taking my voice with it, stealing it forever.

And just like that, my voice was no longer my own, lost somewhere at sea.

My breathing was shallow as I stared at the enchanted pool long after the memory faded. It seeped inside me, acting as a key that finally unlocked the secret that I’d long kept hidden, even from myself, allowing me to realize the truth I’d never wanted to admit: the fierce regret over the decision to steal my voice and the wish that I could go back in time and make another choice.

* * *

Long after thememory from the enchanted pool slipped away, I sat on the shore staring across the ocean with Octavius nestled in my lap, close enough for the waves to wash over my feet. The lighthouse’s glow filled the approaching night as daylight faded, casting its light across the dark water, a beacon for the ships out at sea.

If only its light could also guide me, for I’d never felt more lost. Revisiting the memory of when I’d given up my voice had stirred every feeling I’d kept buried all these years. After all this time of patiently waiting, my emotions refused to remain silent any longer and had reemerged to stoke the desires I’d been afraid to examine, to once more possess my voice, even if I never used it.

As if attuned to my thoughts, the beacon suddenly shifted to no longer shine steadily across the sea but moved to cast its silvery glow across the rocky shore, as if there was something the lighthouse wanted to show me.

I stood and carefully navigated my way across the rocks, being mindful to avoid the hidden drop that plummeted straight into the cavern below. Once I was past this precarious section, I was able to move more quickly towards where the beacon’s light guided me.

I slowed upon noticing something glistening amid the lighthouse’s silvery glow. I crouched down to better see. A translucent stone was wedged between the rocks, almost entirely hidden from view, only visible by the way it glistened beneath the beacon’s illumination.

I tried to pull it out, but it was wedged in too tightly. It took a lot of wriggling and maneuvering to extract it. Once free, I brushed the dirt away to better examine it and discovered it was a pure white crystal, similar to those that gave the lighthouse power but a color different from the others, which meant it likely led to a new destination.

I stared at it, astounded to find one of the lighthouse’s crystals outside the mystical cave where they usually originated. My attention was quickly drawn to the waves washing over where the crystal had been hidden, making me wonder whether it had come from the sea…which meant the ocean had somewhere it wanted to take me, as if it’d heard my silent plea for guidance and was determined to fulfill my wish.

I held the crystal close as I rose and returned to the lighthouse. I took the twisting steps up towards the beacon where I inserted the crystal. Immediately the light began to glow, filling the room with white magic; it enfolded the lighthouse and carried me to its unknown destination.

The moment the lighthouse settled, I peered out the window to discover the lighthouse and I were entirely surrounded by ocean without any sign of land. The other windows revealed the same, making it appear that the crystal had led me to nothing but open water.

Puzzlement and curiosity guided me down the stairs, where I was greeted not by a beach but a foundation of silvery fog, magic which allowed the lighthouse to rest in the middle of the ocean.

I glanced around in search of any clues that would help me understand why the ocean had brought me to such an otherworldly place. The ocean silently beckoned in response, an invitation to come closer. I wandered to the edge of the magical fog and knelt to dip my hand into the water, where I waited patiently for the sea’s communication.

At first nothing happened. After a still moment, the water stirred, causing ripples to extend across its surface, similar to the enchanted pool within the secret cavern, as if the entire ocean was an extension of it. The water brought all the colors and sounds into one complete whole that allowed the image to come into focus.

The moment I recognized it, I yanked my hand away with a startled gasp, but unlike the cavern’s mystical pool whose contents were linked to my touch, this vision didn’t fade even after I’d pulled away; instead it lingered, making it impossible to turn away from the image before me: Mother.

I ached to look away—I’d already seen this memory play out far too many times for my heart to endure another moment more. But even if I wanted to turn away, I wouldn’t be able to escape, for the image played out not just in front of me but in the entire surrounding ocean everywhere I looked.

However, unlike the other times I’d chosen to relive my worst memory through magic, this one wasn’t of my last moment with Mother; it was of me as a child playing on the shore while Mother watched nearby, her gaze tender as my laughter filled the air as I played in the water, all while I chattered happily to her and Father, who lingered nearby.

Father rested a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn her gentle smile towards him instead, an expression both familiar and one that the passage of time had caused me to forget.

“She’s certainly a talker,” Mother said fondly. “I never tire of hearing her stories.”

“Neither do I,” Father said. “She truly is such a delight.”

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