Jae found the map in his mother’s old sewing box. Across its top, someone had written ENDLESS YOUTH.
Below that were three blue springs, each tucked between rows of brown hills.
He took it to Tor’s map stall. The old man glanced at the paper and turned it over so the writing faced down.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was hers.” Jae touched the sewing box under his arm. “Can you take me there?”
Tor looked at the notice Jae had folded into the map. His uncle had given him a month to move out. Twelve days remained.
“Water won’t change that date,” Tor said.
“If I looked younger, maybe he’d let me stay.”
Jae hated saying it aloud. His uncle had taken him in after his mother died. Now the house was crowded, and the spare room was needed for someone else. Jae had begun to wonder whether he had only ever been another thing in storage.
Tor turned the map back over. Near the second spring was a little torn corner in the painted hills.
“I made this,” he said. “A long time ago. I ought to see what remains.”
They left the next morning. Tor paid for a room at the road inn for their return journey. As they passed the village workshop, he pointed to a new sign: APPRENTICE WANTED. ASK INSIDE.
Jae looked at the benches through the open door. Then he pulled his coat tight and followed Tor toward the desert.
The first day was hard. Wind drove sand across the path. They waited it out in a stone shelter, sharing their bread. Tor had brought enough food, but he had forgotten how slowly his legs now climbed.
Jae took the heavier bag. Tor gave him the map to check the next turn.
“These hills are the same,” Jae said.
He placed a finger beside the first spring, then the second. Both had the same torn corner in the painted ridge. Even a small line where the paper had once been repaired appeared twice.
Tor ate without answering.
“You copied one spring three times.”
“People wanted a journey,” Tor said. “One small pool didn’t sound like enough.”
“They wanted the truth.”
Tor put his bread away. “Yes.”
They reached the real pool the next afternoon. A guardian in a grey coat sat on its wall. She held out a bright metal token to Jae.
Tor took a dull token from his own pocket. Its shape was the same.
“One drink in each life,” the guardian said. “It makes your body one year younger. It does not change your birthday, your memories, or anyone else’s promise.”
Tor knelt and drank from the pool.
For a moment he sat very still. Then he looked at his hands. They were as thin and spotted as before.
“Your turn was used,” the guardian said. “That token will never shine again.”
“I hoped,” Tor said.
“So did I,” Jae replied.
The guardian gave Jae a cup. He filled it and watched the bright token reflected in the water. He could still drink. Nothing would punish him for it. He would be a year younger, but his uncle’s move-out date would stay the same.
“It won’t make him want me,” he said.
Neither adult answered for his uncle.
Jae poured the cup back into the pool. “Not today.”
Tor sat on the wall. He took out his pencil and crossed out the two false springs. Then he crossed out ENDLESS.
“People bought this,” Jae said. “You’ll have to tell them.”
Tor wrote his name beneath the correction. His hand shook enough to make the last letter crooked.
“I’ll put it on the stall.”
Jae spread the map on the wall. Beyond the true spring was a wide blank space.
“Can I use this part?” he asked.
“It’s your map.”
He drew the road inn and the workshop they had passed. He was no mapmaker. He wrote the names clearly so he would not mistake his own marks.
They returned by the same path. At the inn, Tor slept while Jae washed the dust from his coat. In the morning, they parted at the workshop corner. Tor went home with a copy of the corrected map. Jae still had days to find somewhere to live; an interview was not a room or a wage.
Inside the workshop, a woman was fitting a drawer into a cabinet.
“I’m here about the sign,” Jae said.
She looked at his hands. “Have you worked with wood?”
“A little. Not drawers.”
“Then we’ll start with questions.” She pointed to a bench. “Can you stay an hour?”
Jae folded his map and sat down.
Loading comments…