Chapter Text
When Moira’s family said they were marrying her off to James MacTaggert, Earl of Muir, on her thirteenth birthday, she cried.
On her thirteenth birthday she walked into the sea and let it take her. She hoped to be dashed by the waves into the cliffs that surrounded the beach of Brimstone keep.
When a man’s hands wrapped around her and dragged her to shore she assumed it was Shinobi Shaw, heir to the Brimstone estate and an avid swimmer. He was also a womanizer and a lout so she just wanted to die even more.
Yet she heard a voice in her head, a man’s voice.
‘Is your will to live truly so low?’ He asked.
Moira had little time to think.
As she surfaced she began to hyperventilate and his grip on her tightened.
She opened her eyes to see a handsome young man staring down at her. His long dirty blond hair dripped down on her. He wore a loose tunic that clung to his skin.
“Keep staring up until I say so,” he said.
Moira for a second thought he’d take advantage of her, here, now, on the beach.
Instead he got up and made some truly strange sound before splashing into the water.
“You may look now,” he said.
She sat up and looked up at the man and noticed he sat in the water in such a way as to obscure his legs.
“It’s a condition I was born with,” he admitted.
“Wise of you to play to your strengths in the water. You might outswim Shinobi Shaw,” Moira said.
The man laughed.
“Tell me why did you attempt to take your life?” He asked.
“They’re marrying me off to James McTaggert of Muir Island. I’ll be cut off from everything,” Moira said.
“There is a secret current between Brimstone and Muir. I could visit you,” he said.
“You’re as much of a stranger to me as my future husband,” Moira snapped, “at least tell me your name.”
The man smiled a smiled that made Moira think he might be a fay but he finally said: “Call me Charles.”
“I’m Moira. Moira Kincross,” Moira said.
Charles frowned as he did not disclose his own surname but then reached to shake hands.
Moira waded in, letting her skirts get wet again and shook it.
His hands were slippery with fish scales.
“Brimstone is looking for maids,” Charles said.
“No thanks, I know what happens to those maids,” Moira said.
Then she spun around splashing droplets everywhere: “I want to run away and become a midwife!”
“Why not a physician? In my town, women are just as often healers as men,” Charles said and he glanced behind him into the ocean.
Moira sincerely wanted to run away to Charles’ island town in the middle of the ocean where women could be physicians, but instead she sighed and resigned to meet her destiny with dignity.
“Will I see you again?” Moira asked
“Think of me and I’ll be there,” Charles said.
When Moira looked back she briefly saw the biggest fish she’d ever seen splash into the water.