The Well

I. Legend

Love was not allowed between a mortal and a faerie.  The difference in lifespan tended to make things messy enough, not to mention that in all of history not a single story ended happily when such a relationship was involved.

Unfortunately, faeries were never known for following rules.

--

Love was a stupid thing, especially when one didn't know the subject it was directed towards at all.

For years she'd watched him from afar, for he was the very epitome of what a gallant knight should look like. And whenever he looked her way, she felt her breath catch in her throat. She told herself it was simply the momentary fear that her invisibility spell didn't work, but she knew she was lying.

And then one day, he rode off and simply didn't come back.

She sat in her cave and brooded, waiting for the day he would return, wondering what the difference between love and obsession was, or if there was one at all.

--

It wasn't the war, nor was it from highwaymen. He hadn't done anything stupid, or even of questionable judgment. It had simply been sheer bad luck that his horse had tripped and he was a battered, awkward heap by the side of the road.

It was sheer good luck, though, that the faerie had a friend who lived nearby. It was even better luck that she happened to be visiting the friend that day. It was most lucky that she happened to fly by where he was lying while on her way home.

--

She fluttered over him constantly, willing her spells to work faster, and cared for him when he became conscious again. And slowly, she felt herself truly falling in love with him, for not only was he handsome, he was charming and considerate as well.

There was just one problem: he loved someone else.

--

He was getting married. But not to her. She was invited to the wedding, of course—it was never a good thing to offend a faerie. And they also gave the best gifts.

Hers was the granting of a wish each to the knight and his bride. The knight wished for happiness. The bride wished for infinite wishes.

From that wish, the well was created. And everything went downhill from there, for it was never a good thing to offend a faerie.


II. Consequences

Years passed, until the knight's castle crumbled to ruins, and even the faerie fell victim to time. But the well stayed intact, and remains to this very day, in this age when science has replaced magic and faeries died out long ago. People far and wide come to wish upon it, for stories have spread about the miraculous well that grants all it is asked for.

The boy watches the people come and go with pity, for what the stories neglect to tell is how the well corrupts the wishes. Only those who wish out of greed ever come to the well, and the wishes born of greed consume them. So the faerie said it would be, and so it is.

But just as nothing can withstand time, no spell is cast that cannot be broken.

--

For the past few days, the girl has lurked at the edges of the crowd around the well. She appears contemplative and sweet, and the boy has come to dread the day she drops a penny in.

It is night when she finally makes her wish. There is no one else at the well but her; the boy is hiding a short distance away. The well reveals its magic in the dark; it emits an eerie blue light so bright that only one star is left visible in the sky. But the girl is not afraid. Slowly, deliberately, she lifts her hand, opens her fingers, and lets the coin fall. He sees her lips move just slightly as she speaks a single word.

Then the well is shaking, more and more violently, and he dashes out and pulls the girl aside just as it explodes. Glowing chunks of stone fly by, narrowly missing them both.

He tells her she has broken the curse and that he's sorry she didn't get her wish. She smiles and tells him not to be so sure.

Years pass, and the two are never far from each other. One day he asks her what she wished for.

She smiles and replies, "love."