Cornwall Comb

Morrigan delved into the spirit mind of Jogging Tom. She searched for the answers he wanted. If she could help him, she could also gain Jonas' trust, for it was the boy who she was truly after. A boy who could speak to the dead.

She imagined all the possibilities that would become available to her if she could tap into that power. Sure, she had delved in necromancy and could even call on the spirits of her family at will, but there were always consequences. This boy, this cute, paranoid, clueless boy, got nothing but help in return. Or so he said. She needed to make sure it was the truth.

Getting what she needed from Tom's spirit, she moved on to his daughter's belongings. A dirty pair of blood stained socks. Ew. It wasn't even her blood, but there was enough of her DNA left on the sock that she was able to locate her imprint. It was like finding the story of her life on TV. As soon as the images began to enter her mind, she transferred them to Tom.

His eyes bolted wide and a smile grew on his face from ear to ear. Morrigan showed him his daughter's life, at least what was deeply imprinted into Time's essence. He saw her high school graduation and her college one too. He saw her first date and her first kiss. Morrigan skipped her close encounter with a man. Hey, a girl's got to have some privacy. But she showed him her wedding and the birth of his grandson.

As events started to coincide with the present, Morrigan slowed down her transfer. Imprints of recent events become much more detailed and she was able to show him what his daughter Leena was doing just last week. He watched her get up for her day and make her son breakfast. She got ready for work, drove her son to daycare and went on with her day. She was a lawyer. She lived in New York City. She was happy.

Tom had tears in his eyes when Morrigan let go of his hands. "Thank you! Thank you so much. You have no idea what it means for me to see her. She did it. She really did it. She's happy."

Tom got up and started to jog away. His figure began to blur and fade out.

"Wait!" Jonas yelled, forgetting he was in a library. He got a few stern looks from the people and staff nearby. "Tom, wait. You're supposed to help me with something now." He said more quietly.

Tom smacked his head and jogged back over to Jonas. He cleared right back up, leaned over onto the table. "What do you need to know, I'll help any way I can."

"The curse. I need to know how to break the curse. I've got the witch, but what do we do now?"

Tom stood up and thought. At least, it looked like he was thinking, or searching for an answer. Jonas was unclear how this ghost would know anything about his family's curse. But all the dead were connected. And all their thoughts formed a giant pool of information on the other side.

"Got it," Tom said. "Jonas, to break the curse you need to find the Cornwall Comb. It belonged to an ancestor of yours. It was used to make the curse. You need to find it and break it."

"The Cornwall Comb? What is the Cornwall Comb?"

"Sorry Jonas, I gotta go. My rides here." Tom turned, jogged away and slowly disappeared.

"Did you see that! Holy smokes, Jonas. That dude just crossed over! Oh man, so it's true! You help them, they help you and then they go off into the light." Morrigan realized she may have gotten too excited. She calmed herself, straightening out her clothes and hair. "Cool, hey?"

"I guess." Jonas was smiling at her though, which she took as a good sign.

"Hey, what did you mean by 'you've got the witch'? You were referring to me, were you not?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry. But I'm not really sure what he was talking about. Does the Cornwall Comb sound familiar to you?"

"Well, no. Not really. At least not the comb. But Cornwall? Yes, I've heard of it." It was actually the birthplace of Morgan le Fay. "That's kind of cool, my ancestors are British too. Or maybe it was Wales. Aren't they the same?" she said, playing dumb.

"I think so. So, Cornwall, it's in Great Britain?"

"Yeah, it sounds familiar. Let's look on-line."

Jonas pulled out his phone and logged into the library's wireless hotspot. Morrigan was hyped. She couldn't believe her luck. Not only had she snagged a cutie who could commune with the dead, but he was also connected to Cornwall, just like she was. She almost wanted to tell him. But not yet. She had a pretty good idea that he still needed her help to find this comb. She hoped it would take them on a trip together to see where her family had come from. Even if she didn't like all the things that they did, they were still hers.

And she wanted to spend more time with Jonas, get to know him more and his powers. How many dead people would she get to see crossover? What happened to the dead who didn't get to crossover? She thought of her late ancestors, then realized she may already have an idea of what was in store for the damned, and it wasn't pretty.

Jonas typed in CORNWALL and clicked search. There it was. The southernmost point in England, right on the coast of the Atlantic, or the Celtic Sea they learned it was called by the Celts.

"Man, how are we supposed to find some comb all the way across the Atlantic in an area that big?" Cornwall itself covered almost 3500 square kilometers. "Do you think you can find it, Moonlight?"

"Let's try the internet first. See what comes up under Cornwall Comb."

"Do you honestly think something will come up?"

"Won't hurt to try, brainiac."

Jonas typed in CORNWALL COMB and clicked search.

"Oh my god." Morrigan looked over Jonas' shoulder to see what the search provided. The second result read: Celtic Fairytales - A Mermaid and a Magic Comb (A Cornish Folktale). The book included a bunch of other tales too.

"Look it up in the library catalog!" Morrigan added.

When they did they were ecstatic to see it listed as "on-shelf". They went searching for it and Morrigan found it right away. She was used to the library stacks. She wasn't brilliant all on her own.

She handed it over to Jonas who began flipping through the pages until he found the story they were after. They sat back down at their table and he began to read it aloud.