Book 2: Chapter 24:
The Salmon of Capistrano (Bren)

Day 14 of Midwinter, Sunset

At Sea, Well of Wisdom

Annwn

I held tight to the currach as I sailed into the air, spinning violently. My sense of where the water ended and the sky began was completely upended. Anything that had been inside the boat had been ejected. The jib made a loud flapping noise that made me think it was badly damaged.

I was soaked from head to toe. It felt like I was standing in the middle of a rainstorm, only the rain was pelting me from every direction. Now that I was inside the water spout, I had the same sensations I'd felt riding a rollercoaster, though thankfully I was too disoriented to be motion sick. I couldn’t tell you how long I was flung about, but at one point, the amount of static electricity increased enough for me to feel the humming of my belt over the wind and rain.

I saw the flash before I heard the sound. Somehow my body was slower to recognize the superheated plasma coursing through me than it was to nearly be ripped apart by the boom of thunder at point-blank range. While my logical mind knew exactly what the sound was, my human experience was sure that it was the end of the world, possibly the entire universe. The rumble pierced my brain and rattled my bones. Lightning blinded me.

Needless to say, I was not prepared to be heated to what felt like fifty thousand degrees. I knew I should be dead. Luckily, the bolt of electricity seemed to be attracted directly to my belt. I wish I could describe the feeling accurately, but I was neither melted nor caught on fire by the lightning. Instead, I felt full to the brim with power.

My eyes were still blind from the flash, but the halo of light I could see had changed from a bright white to a very familiar blue hue. I felt the energy stream from my body in all directions, and I suddenly knew what had happened. I had simply been a conduit for the lightning, taking it in, converting it, and sending it back out into the world. The belt had not only acted as a lightning rod, attracting the energy, but it had also increased the capacity of my energy reservoir.

Thanks to my regeneration, the blur that pervaded my sight slowly began to improve, and I began to see exactly where I was. Vision and a falling sensation came together to paint a picture in my mind. The short version was that I had been expelled from the funnel cloud and shot into the sky. The longer version was that I still clung to the damaged currach. Holes riddled the sides and bottom of the boat. The water spout and ominous clouds that surrounded the storm were dissipating rapidly, spreading far and wide from a position in the sky that I could only guess was where I had released the energy of the bolt back out into the world.

I was hurtling through the air in both a downward and outward trajectory. I estimated I was at least a thousand feet up into the air, and it was going to get pretty serious in about 10 seconds. If only I had chosen Mancer Savant as Cai had! My brother was able to control the speed of objects based on the amount of their kinetic and potential energies. While I could try it, I knew from painful experience that unfamiliar magic wasn’t really the smartest thing to do when death was on the line.

Instead, I did the only thing I could think of. I created a thick protective energy barrier around me and the currach, filling the holes in the boat. I even placed a barrier between myself and the vessel. The sea came at me faster and faster. I felt a sinking sensation in my stomach as I hit terminal velocity before it all went black.

I'm not sure how long I was unconscious. Thankfully, none of the Bodach came for me while I was out. I supposed damaging your brain in a massive fall and going to sleep were two different things entirely when it comes to brain function. Of course, I wasn't thinking any of these things while I was out cold. It wasn’t until I came to and the sun was coming up that I began running through the nuances of my unconsciousness.

My energy barrier seemed to have survived the fall, and my body had healed any of the injuries I had sustained in the storm. The boat, on the other hand, was trashed. The only thing keeping it afloat was my protective barriers. The jib sail was practically torn in two, and while I could turn the tiller, whatever was connected to the handle that lived beneath the water had broken off. I was adrift in placid water with no way to steer what was left of the currach.

The sky was no longer dark. In fact, at that moment, I could see the sunrise over the nothingness lay to the east. That would have been the way back to Murias, had I had a working sail, or even a paddle. Everything in or on the boat had been destroyed or lost.

I drifted for a time, trying to keep my eyes on the eastern horizon so that I could find my way back to shore...provided a miracle appeared to deliver me there. I could feel my temper rising, threatening my normal cool demeanor. Just as I was about to lose it, I heard running water. I felt the currach begin to travel in a westward current.

Looking west, I saw the same thing that I saw facing east…endless water. Wait, no... not the same thing. There was the water and the horizon, but when I looked closer, I did notice a slight difference. To the west, in the direction of the rushing water, I could see some sort of hazy section between the placid ocean water and the sky. It wasn’t until the sun rested on the western edge of the sky that I could identify what the sound and the haze truly were.

As I traveled with the current, I got a closer look at what would be my inevitable demise. Annwn didn’t appear to be a globe at all. The Otherworld appeared to be flat, and I had nearly arrived at the western edge where the water plummeted off the side. Eat your heart out flat-earthers!

Despite my situation, I had to laugh. I guessed that I had at most 20-30 minutes before the boat literally fell off the side of the world. I needed to somehow reverse course.

My mind flew into action. I could probably shoot a blast of energy in the opposite direction and use it to propel myself eastward. But how much it would work and for how long, I didn’t know. And eventually, I would need food and water.

Sticking my left hand into the water, I started to conjure up an energy blast. Before I could summon much energy, though, I was distracted by the sight of a large fish jumping from the abyss on the other side before falling back into nothing. It looked exactly like salmon from Earth, jumping upstream to mate... only this particular fish was the size of the currach I was currently sitting in.

The first time it jumped, it fell back down into the abyss. Its second attempt was more successful. The salmon made it up onto the edge of the Well before disappearing under the surface of the water. I tried to remember the story Manny had shared with me before he ditched me... something about his Uncle Ogma and the salmon of the Well. I was so lost in thought that I was surprised to look up only to find the fish had surfaced next to the currach and was staring at me.

“Um… Hello, large fish,” I said, my voice cracking. “Fancy meeting you here.” The fish appeared to be studying me. I frantically focused on what I could remember of Manny’s story.

He had said, “Ogma’s wisdom came from the salmon he attracted with his velvet tongue. The fish connected him directly to the weave itself and granted a sort of divine inspiration.”

It occurred to me that velvet tongue was another way to say someone was a smooth talker. Had Ogma read the salmon poetry or something?

I decided it was worth a shot, and endeavored to take a stab at a stanza or two. After all, the fish was a captive audience and I could use some divine inspiration at the moment. My mind went to the first dramatic reference that the moment inspired. I cleared my throat and began.

“I would like to travel someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano…” I paused, about to continue, when the fish splashed water into my face. “What?” I said, flinching back.

Okay, I thought. No movie lines, despite the obvious connections. Maybe some classic poetry…I cleared my throat again. “There once was a man from Nantucket…” The salmon slammed its head into the boat, rocking it. I fell back away from the side.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry… Jeesh. You have NO sense of humor.” I thought hard for something that wasn’t just a collection of words. I'd never liked free verse, but writing rhymes wasn't something I could do off the cuff. At a loss, I thought about how Morias and I used to write silly haikus for our restaurant servers over the years…

I am a lost man,

Always letting down my friends.

Now, I am alone.

The salmon shifted its position in the water so that it was looking at me from its right eye. It opened its mouth and I was briefly taken aback by the size of its many, many teeth. It let out a sound that I had never heard from an animal before like bubbles being released or drops of water slowly falling into a pool. I didn’t know what the giant fish was trying to communicate, but I took the gesture to mean that I should continue.

Manny is a prick,

His boat is the worst.

Now, I am alone

I felt like I could keep going, now that my creative juices were flowing. But the salmon sounds increased, growing into a salmon song, one that I realized I could understand. It was strange, as the fish wasn't speaking words. Instead, it conveyed a feeling that my mind seemed to know how to parse.

We kept on like that for a time, speaking in different languages, but fully understanding one another. It was then, as I drifted closer and closer to the edge of the world, that I understood why this ocean was known as the Well of Wisdom.