Cancer Mercury's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Cancer Mercury felt the first crack split her vessel's hull an hour into the route. She kept moving through the dark water, watching the fissure spread along the curved wall. Her cargo of bottled memories rattled in their cases. She needed to find somewhere to land before the whole thing broke apart. The hull gave way with a sound like ice splitting. Glass bottles tumbled out into the black water, scattering in every direction. She watched them fall through the dark, each one carrying someone's grief or joy or regret. Some hit the sea floor and shattered. Others drifted intact, carried by currents she couldn't track. She let the vessel sink and swam down after the spill. A shipwreck rose from the darkness below, its frame curved like ribs. Purple lichen grew along its edges where coral had taken hold. The structure looked solid enough to shelter what remained of her cargo. She gathered the unbroken bottles one by one and carried them inside, stacking them in the empty hold. Each trip down felt heavier than the last. She dragged a massive anchor from the wreck's debris and set it outside the hull. The metal settled into the sand with a dull thud. This would be her resting point now. She had no route to finish, no delivery schedule to keep. The tears forming behind her eyes felt sharp. She pressed them back and went inside to count what she had left.