Chapter 4: The poisoned spring
Selling what should be free
The pull led Lu through three days of rocky hills before she heard the sound of running water. Her throat was dry, her wings tired from flying against harsh winds that seemed to push her backward with every mile.
When she crested the final ridge, Lu gasped.
The Spring of Clarity lay in the valley below, but it looked nothing like the sacred waters she remembered from the old stories. What should have been a place of peaceful gathering was now surrounded by high metal fences topped with cruel spikes. Guard towers rose at each corner, and long lines of desperate creatures waited outside the gates.
Signs hung everywhere: "Water by permit only." "Payment required in advance." "No charity cases."
Lu landed behind a cluster of rocks and watched the scene unfold. A family of what looked like deer-mice approached the main gate, their young ones drooping with thirst. The guard, a large, moss-covered creature, shook his head and pointed to a price board covered in numbers too high for most to afford.
The family trudged away empty-handed.
Lu's heart ached. Springs like this had once been free to all. Her grandmother had told her stories of the great gatherings, where creatures from every realm would come to drink from waters that healed both body and spirit.
"Terrible sight, isn't it?"
Lu spun around. The moss-covered guard stood behind her, having approached so quietly she hadn't heard him. Up close, she could see he was made of living stone and plant matter, like a walking garden that had learned to feel sad.
"You're the guard," Lu said, flowers blooming nervously at her feet.
"I'm Moss. And yes, I guard this place." His voice was heavy as earth after rain. "Though guarding and protecting aren't the same thing anymore."
"You don't seem happy about it."
Moss looked back at the spring, where more families were being turned away. "Happy? No. But a creature's got to survive. And the Merchant Guild pays well for those willing to keep the desperate away from what they need."
"The Merchant Guild?"
"They own the spring now. Bought it fair and square, they say, though I remember when nobody owned water any more than they owned air." Moss settled onto the ground beside her, his movements careful and tired. "I used to be a spring-keeper. Spent my days making sure the waters ran clean and free for all who needed them."
Lu stared at him. "You were a keeper? Like me?"
"Different kind. I tended the threshold between thirst and satisfaction, between sickness and health." His mossy shoulders sagged. "Until the Winds came and whispered that sharing was foolish. That kindness was weakness. That resources were scarce and only the strong deserved to drink."
"But the springs aren't scarce. Water flows from the earth freely."
"Ah, but that's the clever part." Moss pointed to the pipes and pumps that surrounded the natural spring. "The Guild doesn't control the water itself; they control access to it. They've built their barriers so close to the source that creatures can't reach it without going through their gates. Then they spread fear about 'contamination' and 'proper management' until people believe they need the Guild's permission to drink."
Lu felt a familiar chill. The same surgical precision she'd seen at the Archive, the same targeted destruction of connection she'd witnessed in Wellspring. "The Guild works with the Harsh Winds?"
"Works with them? Child, they profit from them." Moss's laugh was bitter as winter bark. "Every community the Winds divide creates more desperate families needing water. Every friendship they poison means fewer places for people to help each other. The more isolated and afraid people become, the more they're willing to pay for what used to be free."
The realization hit Lu like cold water. "They're not just profiting from the division. They're helping to create it."
"Now you're understanding." Moss stood slowly, his rocky joints creaking. "The Guild sends their people to struggling communities, whispering about scarcity, about the need to 'protect resources from outsiders.' They offer to 'manage' essential services for a fee. Before long, neighbors stop sharing wells, villages stop helping each other, and everyone comes crawling to the Guild."
Lu stared at the spring, seeing it with new eyes. The natural water still flowed as pure and endless as ever. But the barriers around it turned abundance into artificial scarcity, connection into isolation, gift into commodity.
"I have to try something," she said.
"Don't." Moss's voice was sharp. "I know that look. I used to have hope like that. But the Guild's barriers aren't just metal and stone: they're soaked in the Winds' poison. They'll turn your own magic against you."
But Lu was already moving. She spread her wings and flew toward the spring, landing just outside the fence. Flowers bloomed where her paws touched the ground, their light reaching toward the trapped water.
For a moment, she felt the spring respond. The water pulsed with recognition, remembering what it meant to flow free. Her flowers grew brighter, their roots stretching toward the source.
Then the barriers flared to life.
Pain shot through Lu's body as her own flower-light was twisted back on itself. The metal fence hummed with dark energy that took her gift of connection and turned it into isolation, her healing into hurt. She gasped and fell backward, her flowers withering to ash.
"Lu!" Moss was beside her in an instant, his strong arms lifting her away from the fence. "I warned you. The Guild's magic feeds on hope and uses it as fuel for despair."
Alarms began to wail. Guard towers lit up with harsh spotlights that swept the area where Lu had fallen. Voices shouted orders to find the intruder.
"This way," Moss whispered, carrying her into the maze of rocks behind the spring. They moved quietly through passages he clearly knew well, until the shouts faded behind them.
He set her down in a hidden cave, where the rock walls wept clean water from hidden springs the Guild hadn't found yet.
"Drink," he said gently. "The water here still remembers freedom."
Lu cupped the precious liquid in her paws and felt her strength return. But the pain of having her magic turned against her lingered like a bruise on her spirit.
"Come with me," she said suddenly. "You know these places, know how the systems work. You could help me find others, help me understand how to fight this."
Moss shook his great head. "I'm done fighting, Lu. I spent years trying to protect the springs, trying to keep the old ways alive. All I managed to do was watch everything I loved get bought and sold and poisoned." He gestured toward the distant lights of the Guild's compound. "Now I take their money and do their work because at least that way I survive. At least that way I don't starve."
"But you helped me."
"One small kindness doesn't make me a hero." His voice was heavy with shame. "I'll keep taking their coin tomorrow, and the day after that, because I've forgotten how to believe things can change."
Lu looked at this broken keeper, this creature who had once tended the threshold between thirst and satisfaction, and saw what she could become if she let the world's poison into her heart.
"The water here still remembers," she said softly. "Maybe you can too."
She left a single flower by the hidden spring before she flew away. Not bright enough to be seen from outside, but strong enough to remind Moss that some things refused to be bought or broken or forgotten.
As Lu followed the pull northward, leaving the lights of the Guild compound behind, she carried with her a deeper understanding of what she faced. The Harsh Winds weren't just destroying connection: they were systematically building the very systems that profited from division.
But she also carried hope. Hidden in caves and secret places, the old waters still flowed free. And sometimes, even broken keepers remembered enough kindness to help a stranger escape.
The pull grew stronger with each wingbeat, drawing her toward whatever waited beyond the mountains. Toward answers, perhaps. Or toward others who hadn't yet forgotten how to fight for what flowed free.
🎧 What I Used To Be
I used to let the water flow To anyone who needed drink Now I watch them beg and go While I count the Guild’s gold clink I used to be a keeper true Of springs that healed the sick and weak Now I guard what I once knew Was meant for all who came to seek What I used to be Is dead and gone What I used to be Won’t carry on Just a monster now Taking Guild gold What I used to be Is bought and sold One small kindness Doesn’t wash away The shame I carry Every single day
🦊 About Lu's Story
Lu is searching for her family in a world that's forgotten how to be kind. When the Harsh Winds turned communities against each other, Lu's people were scattered like seeds. Each step of her quest reveals how deep the corruption runs, and what it will take to heal it.
The waters still remember. They can recall us to ourselves.