Namesake

(An excerpt from the novel, The Underwater Whispers, written by J. Flessa circa. November 2020)

There was a thud on the floor across from her, and Estel startled out of her half asleep stupor. She looked over to the other hammock, and her refugee for the night had fallen asleep. She had not even heard him come upstairs.

The boy's arm was hanging outside of the hammock, a sea worn leather journal brushed just out of reach on the floor.

Estel got up, and padded over to the book. The boy had found extra blankets, and created his own cocoon. He looked at peace, body finally relaxed after the long day of running. Estel gently took up the book, a charcoal stick rolling away at her feet.

She flipped it to the pages that had last been read, skimming through the passage at hand.

It was a fairy tale written by a father for his children back home as he traveled the seas. It spoke of a sea captain who had discovered an island where the vegetation had become overgrown with the faintest traces of wild magic in the air.

He had traversed the island, reaching the center and discovering a grand waterfall that cascaded into a still oasis.

Upon the captain’s discovery, he was met with a nixie who entranced him like a siren to enter the water. As he did he was transported to a new realm. A place of megafauna and fair folk that welcomed him like he was a king.

Despite his unnerving consciousness telling him he was in grave danger. He was enraptured by this newfound garden. Beautiful beyond anything the mortals of the Material Realm could cultivate.

So he stayed.

He offered himself, becoming a knight of the people, and protector of his new found home. The people welcomed his dedication, rejoicing in his desire to shed his mortality in favor for a long life under the world. He lived out his years happy with the nixie who had become his wife, and their eventual child.

That was until he was challenged by a proper knight of the Courts, and slain.

The nixie was punished for allowing a mortal to transverse their realm without the consent of The Council of Seasons. She was cast out of The Summer Court, and her son was taken to the Material Realm, forever separated from his people.

Before he was taken, the nixie had called to her son, telling him to be brave in his endeavors as he lived on without her.

The story had been written in the common tongue, but scrawled throughout were Elvish translations of words. A new word had been scrawled at the bottom in fresh charcoal.

O’callan.

The translation of what the nixie had told her son before they were separated. Next to it was scrawled, in the same fresh charcoal, a name.

'Callon.’

(An excerpted fairy tale from Keepers of Lost Light)