The Wishing Well Pt. 4

The Wishing Well

Part 4 of 4

Part One :: Part Two :: Part Three :: Part Four

The story, at least for now, draws to a close. I will return to Gwen and the many questions this story has left unanswered but only after I have arrived at them myself. For the moment, enjoy the conclusion to "The Wishing Well".

The sun was closing in on the zenith when Gwen spotted the magician, now sporting a wrinkly pointed that would have matched her earlier robes, sitting with her back against the well and her eyes on the horizon. The woman was still save the steady movement of her chest with every breath. The woman's calm demeanor only made the girl wonder more about the frown on the woman's face.

"Old memories," the woman said as she turned her head in Gwen's direction.

Gwen tilted her head slightly and shifted her dark eyes to meet the woman's blue ones. For a long moment, neither of them looked away. Then, the girl's dark orbs filled with a silent understanding and her eyelids fell, breaking the contact.

"I know you, don't I?" Gwen asked of the woman.

The woman nodded slowly before answering in a soft voice, "In a way."

The dark-haired girl moved towards the woman and sat herself next to her with her back against the well. They passed the time in silent contemplation, each lost in her own thoughts. It wasn't until the setting sun bathed the wood with the embers of its dying light and the charcoal of its shadows, that the silence was broken.

"How?" Gwen questioned, having failed to come up with the answer on her own.

The woman looked towards the girl without moving her head. Her lips moved, then paused, before she finally said, "It is the well that connects us."

At the girl's curious gaze, the woman gave an amused huff and continued, " I lied to your grandmother earlier. No one can turn the well to their will. The well is not confined to these stones we lean against. Rather, it seeps into the world around it. You are the well and the well knows me."

"Do you mean to say that I hurt those people?" the girl asked horrified.

The woman looked pained at the question but answered, " When you push an ill thought from your mind Gwen, it must go somewhere. For most people, this means gone. For you, it means to the greater part of your consciousness."

At this, the girl's thoughts took a dark turn. Her voice quavered as she spoke," Then, my human form is the cause?"

Blue eyes met the girl's frightened ones sharply before the woman snapped, "That would solve nothing. As you came to be so another will, given time. So long as people foolishly reside here, the danger will never be past."

"Then what?" the girl asked weakly.

"Your plight, others have endured before you. As all magic users, you can learn to master the magic that you were born from. If you achieve that, you will be able to keep the magic from acting in unexpected ways. For the moment though, your presence here is dangerous. I must ask you to come away with me and become my apprentice."

"If I leave, everything will be all right?" the girl asked as hope returned to her.

"The horrors you unleashed in response to the trespassers will remain and continue to do as you unknowingly willed them. However, these are nothing compared to what you could unleash in a fit of jealousy or rage. You must distance yourself from this place and these people, for a time, if you wish to preserve them."

Gwen nodded in understanding as tears collected on her chin. Her voice cracked as she asked, "Why are you here? Why do you want to help?"

In the growing darkness, the woman closed her eyes and said, " I am trying to undo the harm my father recklessly caused after my mother's death. This growing pool of magic is his doing and I am the only one left to be held accountable if it continues."

"That man," the girl trailed off into the memory of the face in the well.

"Yes, you do remember him," the woman whispered before they lapsed into silence for a time.

The sun had fallen below the horizon and the woman rose from the ground with a stretch. She pulled at the hat on her head and it tumbled into the form of the cloak she had worn in the square. Without a word, she headed into the shadows of the wood. The girl looked towards the woman's fading form, then back to the light of her village, before stumbling to her feet and blindly running in the direction she had seen the woman go.

Gwen had been in the forest many times before, but never had she found herself beneath its shade after the sun had fallen. Where once she had felt safe under the light that filtered through the trees and in the comfort of voices familiar to her, she felt weighed down by the gaze of the dark forest and suffocated by its unusual silence.

Eventually, from the darkness of the trees, grew the shape of a door. It was carved from a clear crystal that bent and caught the cold glint of the stars above. Gwen took a step back at the same time as the woman raised her hand against the cold gloss of the door. The girl expected someone, just as cold as the thing looked, to answer. However, the door merely swung open soundlessly and the woman stepped into the fog beyond. Gwen, fearing the now unfamiliar forest, found herself with no choice but to follow into the unknown.