The world
Even the ones that shouldn't have.
Foma the fisherman pulled a golden fish out of the coldest cove on the coast. She promised him three wishes. He made one: "Let her grant a wish to everyone who is poor." The Fish moved into an old well, a village grew around it, and the village was named Bottomwell.
Once a year, on Coin Day, everyone dropped a coin into the Well and made a wish. At first they asked for a warm winter and a healthy cow. Later it was "make me the boss", "let the neighbour's cow die" and "more, more, more".
The Fish cannot say no. She cannot grant it all either. The wishes she couldn't grant sank and piled up at the bottom. There they went sour and began to come true by themselves — crooked, their own way, with teeth.
The sour wishes crawled up as monsters. In Bottomwell they call them the unwished. In the wet cellars under the Cornerbys' house the Mortgage began to grow, and every day she takes a little more.
The night the Well sighed and sank deeper, six-year-old Tommy Cornerby dropped a button into it. He had no coin. "Let heroes come and help us."
The Fish granted it word for word. In the morning, you woke up by the Well — made from a fairy tale Tommy was told at bedtime. And inside you there is one of her scales. Why she gave away her scales, and what it cost her, you will learn down below.
Crooked little houses around a huge stone Well. Lanterns that light themselves, a street that sweeps itself at night, a weathervane that forecasts the weather and lies. Someone wished for all of it once. The town mends itself with what you bring up from the bottom.
The Guild's lift
A talking bucket. He has been talking for over two hundred years, has carried divers down for fifty, and remembers each of them by name and smell. Grumbles. Brags about his grandfather, a washtub.
"Down again? Hold on to the handle. And don't rock."
The one who wished for you
Six years old, a ginger hat, draws heroes in chalk by the Well. His parents wished for the Mortgage. He wished for you.
"You're here! I knew it! Well, almost knew it."
Head of the Wishdivers Guild
Dived for forty years and keeps the book of those who never came back. Doesn't believe in "wished-for heroes".
"Diving isn't heroics. Diving is work."
Keeper of the Well
Knows everything and tells no one. She has a reason to keep quiet, and it is older than the town.
"Going down? Put a hat on. And don't make any wishes there."
The tavern and the gossip
Feeds everyone, listens to everyone and retells everything. Her favourite listener is Kuzmich: "he never interrupts".
"A pie on the house. Now tell me everything!"
The forge and runes
Dreams of forging the perfect hammer and just can't stop.
"One more blow and it's perfect. One more…"
The powers above
Wants to bring Coin Day back. For the economy, of course.
"One tiny town wish never hurt anybody!"
The codex of the unwished
Writes everything down. Even what never happened.
"I'll write that you slew a dragon. It was a rat? Doesn't matter."
Tommy put the heroes together from three old town tales. The tales are true, just long ago. You remember yours as your own life, and one thing in it was left undone. You pick a calling right away: it decides what kind of hero wakes up by the Well.
In the year 271 an unwished called "I want the boss to disappear" dragged Captain Watchley down into the Well. His guard became a diver and never found him. The warrior's shield is the lid of the town cauldron. He fights with it, throws it and catches it.
"In the tale they never found the captain. Bad ending. We'll fix it."
The Well Academy was closed when half a year's students turned into frogs over a badly wished exam. One student passed — on pure cheek. Ever since, the mage casts on a mix of formulas and cheek, and the classmates are still croaking.
"Half my year are frogs, and I passed on cheek. Time to pass for real."
Once, in Sleepy Lane, someone buried a coin instead of throwing it into the Well. An apple tree grew out of it — an ordinary one that nobody wished for. The druid doesn't wish, the druid grows. And when it's needed, becomes someone you'd better not anger.
"Everything here was wished for, even the lanterns. Fine, I'll plant something real."
Coming later: the Caretaker. They say he has the keys to every stairwell, and the tenants turn out for a clean-up day at his first word.
The Well is stacked by the weight of wishes. The deeper you go, the quieter the jokes and the more truth in them. Every layer has its own vice, its own monster and someone's very simple wish that went the wrong way.
Floors 1–3 · the Wet Cellars · impatience
Bottomwell's cellars, leaks, hasty skeletons. At the bottom, her: she grows with interest, builds a wall of debt and praises the contract with the small print.
A family wished for her. They only wanted a room of their own for the children.
Floors 4–6 · the Drowsy Library · sloth
Flooded shelves, falling books, reading rooms where everything is said in a whisper. Its Champion puts everything off till later. Even his blows. Especially his blows.
"I want the homework to wait." It is still waiting.
Floors 7–9 · Monday Morning · "starting Monday"
The classrooms and corridors of the Well Academy. Always five to eight, always Monday, a grey dawn in the windows that never turns into day.
A teacher wished for him: forty years he meant to become someone else. His daughter loved him as he was.
Floors 10–12 · the Neighbours' Gardens · envy
Mirror gardens where each plot copies the one next door, only a little greener. White picket fences, garden gnomes, pink petals in the air. Its master is always greener than you.
A boy wished for it. His father kept looking at other people's lawns. The boy wanted his father to look at him.
Once a season the Well sighs and sinks one more layer. Divers whisper about what lies below: a kitchen where the pots never cool, a theatre where the mannequins clap as long as you look at them, a maze of pillows where it is frightening to stand still.
And at the very bottom, in dark water among sunken coins, is the thing they call the Insatiable. She keeps asking for "more". Her voice sounds like the Fish's, only very tired.
