Aliénor's Song

My Heart Broke All Over Again

Given the likelihood that Cayn was still near the ocean floor, Mairi and I set off. I swam along the bottom of the ocean, following the current and carrying the net over my shoulder. Mairi swam a couple meters above and slightly behind me carrying a spear. From her position, she could watch my back as well as search for Cayn.

We swam in a mostly straight line for a few hours then we adjusted our position and swam back on a slightly different path.

We saw so many wonderful things on our search, but the truly horrifying object of our search that I was so desperate to find was proving very difficult to locate.

Finally on our fourth or fifth pass- honestly I was losing count and beginning to be terrified that my darling husband would be lost to the sea and to myself forever- Mairi called down to me.

"Aélienor! There's something ahead!"

I squinted my eyes but I still couldn't see what she was gesturing toward. I suppose her position from higher up had given her an edge when it came to visibility.

After a few minutes I could make out a larger shape drifting peacefully a few inches from the ocean floor. I could see red billowing out from below it as is hung suspended in the water, floating along with the current. I was filled the strangest mix of dread and hope. On the one hand, this was my husband. This was a man I loved more than anything and who loved me in return more than his own life. I wanted so badly to find him and bring him home to rest beside me forever as we had promised to do in our vows. On the other, this was my husband, my protector, my best friend. The possibility of seeing him dead filled me with such sorrow that I stopped in my tracks and couldn't move for a moment.

Mairi swam down to me.

"Are you ok?"

"I can't do it," I whispered.

"Aliénor.."

"I know. I know, but right his second I can't. That could be the love of my life over there Mairi. Please go see."

"Aliénor," she put her hand over mine. "I dont know what he looks like. That could be anyone."

"He has a watch. He kept it in his breast pocket. It was a gift from my father. Its inscribed with a C and an A. Go see if he has Cayn's watch Mairi, please."

Mairi nodded and embraced me briefly before she left. That embrace felt almost rigid. I could tell that Mairi wasn't accustomed to affection. That made the fact that she was willing to comfort me break my heart just a little more.

Cayn was my everything, but now I knew I had Mairi too.

I watched as Mairi swam over to the man drifting in the waves. She fumbled around for a second, then she hung her head. I let out a sob. I knew what that meant. This had to be Cayn.

Mairi came back and handed me a familiar silver time piece. I turned it over and looked at the inscription. My name and his next to each other where they belonged. I felt a terrifyi g spike of hatred in my heart for the man who took him away. We should have had a life. We should have had a family. I should not be looking at a lifeless body in the ocean and contemplating the best way to give my husband an underwater burial before his 20th birthday.

I would make that man pay dearly for what he took from us.

But first, I had a job to do.

Mairi took my hands in hers. "Are you ready?"

I set my jaw and met her fierce blue eyes with a determination the reached my very core.

"I am"

I looped the chain of Cayn's watch around my neck and fastened ot so it hung like a pendant in the hollow of my throat. Then, still grasping Mairi's hand, I swam forward to recover my husband and bring him home.