Year 18-5

Harris was stubborn about helping me hunt the fish people known as Limniads, but he was a man of his word. Reluctantly or not, he assisted me.

My brother’s part was simple. If the sea creatures didn’t come to me, Harris would use his abilities to move the water and bring them up. My brother’s gift was relatively weak compared to other more skilled mages, who had stronger, more restrictive vows. But after the few years since he had taken his vow, Harris was capable of more than cheap tricks.

With Harris’ aid, I was able to continue my hunt. We traveled from island to island, going around Sous for an entire day. The creatures were as Grinnell had described. Their anatomy was human enough to face them as such, but they possessed short claws, bulbous eyes, and gills that rendered them weak outside of the water. I had collected numerous heads before evening.

My plan to interrogate the creatures had been completely abandoned. I might have forgotten my strategy, or perhaps I lacked the patience to give the limniads time to speak. I knew the only thing Grinnell would care for was her boy, but after killing dozens of the creatures, extermination was more likely.

“There could be hundreds of them,” Harris complained while following me along the edge of a beach we had littered with remains.

I was exhausted, but heated still.

“Then pull them all into the sand,” I said, cleaning my sword of their salted blood.

“Drake, you have enough heads,” Harris added while holding his stomach.

My work hadn’t sat well with him, and the stench of it must have been drawing vomit up his throat.

“It’s not enough,” I barked.

How could I have been so daft? Why did I endanger my family’s life for a night I could hardly remember?

The sun was fading, and despite my efforts, I was neither closer nor further from the wishes of Grinnell. A hundred heads would never be enough for a grieving mother, but what more could I do? Continue to kill to make myself feel better? I knew better, or so I wanted to believe.

“We’re done,” I said, sheathing my father’s blade on my hip when Harris finally fell to his knees and fed the water with his disgust.

It was odd. Grinnell had correctly described the limniad’s appearance, but she couldn’t have been more wrong about their attitudes. The sea creatures possessed claws, but in almost every interaction I faced against them, they attempted escape before attack. They weren’t enticed by blood; they weren’t evil enough to kill unjustly.

Regardless of my findings, I had to draw my mission to a close. Without the missing boy’s body, there was no guarantee I’d receive the other half of my compensation, but I thought it best to move on.

When a hunter failed a mission, it often meant they had died. For a hunter to return empty-handed was like a fisherman returning without fish. I expected Grinnell to spread the word of my cowardice, or worse. When I returned to the market to deliver my news, I was dissolved of my responsibilities in the worst way.

Grinnell had stepped off the Sous market platform. Only hours after I agreed to help her, the poor woman took her life. She never believed her boy would come home.

Saddening as it was, at least I could leave.