#flashfridayfictionalofficial

[incandescent-creativity]

@flashfictionfridayofficial I’m doing this one on time for once I swear

I thought this would be fitting for Ash’s realization that Zach is from… well, out there. Beyond. Etc.

Slowly, I say, “You’re in the City of Vanithea. On a central island separate from the local landmasses. Most of us live here in the city, although some human populations have settled closer to the shores.”

Something is wrong, though. I don’t know of any of the shore towns named Seahaven, and Zach’s smile has dropped. He looks like I just delivered bad news, but why?

“Do you have a map?” Zach asks. “Like a world map?”

Feeling the thrilling pull of a new mystery, I stand up behind my desk.

“Follow me.”

Technically, bringing him back into the private room I use to store all the materials I am currently studying is going above and beyond Help Center duties. But I keep a copy of Bordreau’s map to help me with my research, given that hers is one of the more academically accepted interpretations of voyage reports we have. And because I see her whenever I visit the administrative office, I can usually get up-to-date copies.

Zach doesn’t need to know all that, though. It’s embarrassing enough to have someone else see the disjointed spread of yellowed papers and notes tacked to each wall. I don’t need to go into detail about how I’m close colleagues with the mapmaker.

“Here it is,” I say, spreading it out. “And here is where we are.”

I don’t know what I expect him to do. The map matches what I explained earlier: the edges of various landmasses line the map to the east and northeast, and the scattered merfolk islands dot the south. In the center of the map is our island, with its shores drawn in significantly sharper detail than the sketched landmasses. It’s generally agreed that Bordreau is the best at walking the line between honoring what the voyagers who make it back have spotted from afar, and taking creative liberties.

Zach looks it over for less than a minute. I’ve seen the map before; I watch him instead. From what I can tell, he spends most of his time studying the illustration of our central island.

“The smaller islands,” he says, tapping the handful of islands located in merfolk territory. “What’s past them?”

“Hard to say,” I say with a shrug. “The merfolk don’t let us pass through. About a decade ago, the city council decided we had lost enough boats trying.”

Too bad Gran isn’t here to hear me deliver the news with such neutrality. With how many of my rants she has heard on the decision, she’d probably be proud of me. I’ll have to tell her later.

“Well, they should start up again,” Zach says with completely unearned confidence. “Because that’s where I’m from.”

“You’re from the merfolk islands?”

That would explain why he doesn’t know the city, but… Actually, no, it wouldn’t. He would have swam here, climbed ashore, and traveled to Vanithea, so he would know where he is. Not to mention that, unless Zach’s scales are just as pale as his skin, and are therefore rendered invisible, I can’t believe him.

“No, no,” he says, and now he does sound like he thinks I’m being silly. “Past them. I’m from… over here.”

He spreads his hand out and waves it over a portion of the map beyond the inked borders, indicating the implied landmass east of the merfolk islands.

I struggle to keep my face neutral as I consider the implications of what he says. If I believe him… If he is telling the truth, then Zach’s presence in my Center is completely unprecedented. Humans haven’t managed to establish any permanent settlements outside of the central island. Every time we try to sail east or south, the merfolk take issue with it, and voyages to the north have infamously met with disaster. And, as far as we can tell, there isn’t anything to the west.

At least, that’s what the voyagers of the past have told us. But few of them ever actually made landfall on any of the identified landmasses, precluding genuine exploration…

Points of connection between the revelation standing in my back room, and my ongoing thesis paper, begin to unfold in my mind. This could change the direction of the paper entirely. If Zach’s tale can be verified by someone, somehow, it could be the clinching argument I need to convince the City. The entire thing would be elevated from some opinion piece by a girl to a forceful argument by an academic.

Holy shit.

#my excerpt #my writing #flashfridayfictionalofficial #character: ash #character: Zach #lore series #lore book 1