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✦ story by marlowe_ink
The Lantern-Bearer of the Fog Coast
A drowned fisherman still walks the cliffs with a green lantern, guiding home the boats that once left him behind.
They say Bréanainn drowned the night the whole fleet turned back without him.
His widow lit a lamp in the window every dusk after, until she too was gone. But the lamp never went dark. On fog-thick nights the villagers see a green glow moving along the cliff path, and every boat that follows it finds the harbour mouth safe.
Leave a lantern unlit on your sill, the old folk say, and by morning it will be burning — trimmed by a hand that knows the cost of being left behind.