It was the edge of nighttime, and as she approached the dock she began to realize that her commute to the sea had begun to feel more natural than the commute to work. She waved to Theo, as usual, who was always in the process of closing the boat shack whenever she arrived. He had not yet confronted her about the sudden increase in nocturnal sailing, so every short exchange was still charged with the potential that someone might finally question her recent behavior.
Jess had made a few pointed remarks about how she "never saw (Y/N) anymore," but the good-natured lilt in her voice gave away her intuitions. Jess always had a way of figuring out when people had gotten into relationships, but rarely asked for details or justifications; she was satisfied enough with her ability to read others. (Y/N) was almost certain that Jess had ascertained Orm's identity in a deflected sort of way: she had given him vague identities before, during conversations with Jess, as a way to vent her frustrations or ask for advice from behind a smokescreen. As for the whole truth, it was unlikely Jess would ever deduce the full picture.
At the end of the dock, in her boat, something white caught her eye in the dark. She crouched on the planks of the pier to see a note in her boat, held down by a chunk of pale rock the size of her fist. On the note was drawn, in deliberate and controlled strokes, an aerial map of the coastline heading north from where she was. Just past the bay where she stood at the dock, there was the indication of a rocky outcropping. Past that, she could see their semicircle cove drawn in a small arc—the one at the foot of the cliff where her house was—and then the coastline evened to a straight line for some distance. Past that was another, slightly smaller semicircle, the indication of a second cove. There was an arrow drawn smoothly from the dock, around the outcropping and directly towards the second cove. She climbed into the boat and set the rock aside, holding up the map. The ink glimmered in the light of the low-hanging moon, almost glowing back at her with an otherworldly iridescence.
She looked back towards the boat shack, but Theo had already gone. She knew who had drawn the map, but wondered how he had managed to sneak it past the old man. With a pull on the cord of the boat's old engine, she was off.
As she skimmed the surface, her path forming the curve of some great invisible circle, she wondered at how quickly she was passing through the dark blue expanse. For a moment, the image of leagues and leagues of empty water directly beneath her sent a shiver through her. She moved, suspended, between the blue depths of the sea and the blue void of the sky. Her grip on the map grew a little firmer.
Before she knew it, she had left their cove behind. Now, off to her left, the only coastline was great black cliffs which plunged straight into the sea below. She had taken this path only once before.
When she had first bought the boat, she had made it her personal mission to scour the coastline for any points of interest. Towards the south, she could easily sail to the next few coastal villages within a day. She had spent more than a few weekends like that, sometimes with Jess, sometimes alone. To the north, she had found significantly less to do or see. Almost immediately, she found a route to the cove beneath her house. Once she had done that, she took a first and final trip further north to see what was there. For an hour or so, she had sped past the cliffs without paying much attention to them. There was something foreboding in the dark cliffs, which had discouraged her from looking too closely at them. Something about the stark drop between land and sea made her feel like an intruder in a space that was never meant to be explored too thoroughly. She was content visiting the cove or the southerly villages after that, or just drifting a few hundred yards out at sea.
If it were not for the glow emanating from the fold in the cliffs, she would have entirely missed the second cove. Having sped past it at first, she wheeled right towards the ocean and looped back towards the coast, headed straight for the light. As she approached, she could identify multiple glowing dots arranged on the walls of the little cove, set in the dark face of the rock like tiny stars.