1.
I was once a koi who leapt the Dragon Gate and became a goddess.
To repay Elias Henson for sparing my life long ago, I came down into the mortal world for a hundred years, disguised as an ordinary woman, and married him.
Then the droughts came, year after year, and I used my divine arts to bring the family's dried-up well back to life.
Hundreds of households in town lived off the water they bought from us, but my mother-in-law raised the price from ten coins to a hundred.
Plenty of them couldn't pay, and died of thirst. I couldn't bear it, so I said one thing:
"Mother, times are hard for the neighbors. Take a little less."
She grabbed a fistful of my hair, dragged me out into the street, and screamed at the people who'd come to buy water:
"Merciful heavens! This wretched woman won't let me sell water to any of you!"
"With a heart that cruel, I say the sky won't rain because she's cursed it! Burn her, and the rain will come!"
The townsfolk were so desperate for rain that they knelt in a crowd at the gate of the county court:
"We beg you, my lord, order this wretched woman burned!"
Elias Henson listened to all of it, and not only did he not say a single word in my defense, he swept his robe aside and knelt too, his face full of righteous purpose:
"If the county court will pay three thousand taels as compensation silver, this humble man will offer up his sinful wife, and ask only for good weather and gentle rains!"
I smiled coldly and said nothing in my own defense.
Did they have any idea?
When a god is angered, mortals are left to rot unburied for a thousand miles.
……
I had watched my mother-in-law crouch at the well, draw barely half a gourd of water, and demand a hundred coins for it. I couldn't help but say something.
Her face changed, and she seized my hair.
The force of it dragged me sideways, and I went down onto the ground.
Elias Henson didn't so much as reach out to help me. He only looked irritated. "You shouldn't have upset Mother."
Meaning I had it coming.
It still wasn't enough for her. She jabbed a finger at my face and spat:
"You eat the Hensons' rice, you live under the Hensons' roof, and you still dare to lecture me and show me that face in my own house?"
I pushed myself up off the ground, my hands shaking and unable to stop, though it wasn't from the pain.
It was from how cold my heart had gone.
I turned and ran back to my own room, dug a single scale out from under the pillow, and pressed it hard into my palm.
I reached out to the old immortal who had once secretly sent me down to the mortal world.
A moment later came a lazy voice from the other side. "Well, well. You finally deign to call on me?"
"I'm done playing at this. I'm coming back up to the heavens now."
I didn't even hear what the old immortal answered before my mother-in-law was pounding on the door.
Her voice was loud enough to make my ears ring through the wood. "Locking your door in broad daylight? What have you got in there you don't want anyone to see?"
"Who do you think you are, putting on airs! Do you have any idea how bad the drought is out there? This whole town lives on the water the Hensons sell, and it's my silver that feeds you!"
Elias Henson made a show of holding her back. "Mother, that's enough."
She only cursed harder. "Enough? Enough nothing! You know how to dote on her, all right. You've spoiled her until she thinks the rules don't touch her!"
"Serena Lyle, you listen to me. Come out and kneel and beg my forgiveness today, or don't ever set foot through the Hensons' door again!"
Elias Henson gave up, lowering his voice. "Nia, you heard her. Come out and admit you were wrong to Mother. It isn't such a big thing."
I pulled the door open and walked straight past them.
Elias Henson froze, then came after me and caught my wrist. "Where are you going?"
I shook him off and didn't look back. "To get the divorce papers."
He gave a short twist of his mouth, as though he'd heard a joke, and then his face went cold. "Eight of the ten wells in this town have run dry. The two that are left are both the Hensons'."
"If you dare walk out today, I'll put out the word this instant. Anyone who gives you water will never buy from the Hensons again."
I shook his hand off.
"Don't worry." I gave a cold laugh. "Even if I die of it, I won't come to you for a drop."
Then I raised my hand and threw the divorce papers in Elias Henson's face.
He glanced down at them and hesitated, not picking them up.
My mother-in-law bent, snatched them up, and shoved them into his hand with a sneer. "Sign. Let her go!"
"I'd like to see whether she can survive out there, dry as it is."
"When she's starved or died of thirst outside, or when she comes crawling back to lick my shoe and beg me to forgive her, then she'll know who was right and who was wrong."
Elias Henson stared at the paper, gripped it for a few breaths, then took up the brush and signed.
I took nothing with me, and went back to the river where I had lived before I ascended.
By now it had run dry too.
I walked to the middle of the riverbed, and water vapor began to seep up out of the cracked, parched ground.
The scale burned in my palm. Word had come from above.
My divine throne still stood. I could return whenever I chose.
