A Starlight Map

I smoothed the unrolled cotton paper across the cool stone shelf, weighing its corners down with four polished black pebbles. Your gentle greeting drifted into my thoughts while I studied the charcoal coast. To see the faint lines in the evening dimness, I gathered a cluster of pale sea snails whose shells held a lingering, faint luminescence. One by one, I nudged them alongside the marked bays. Their soft, cool glow cast a subtle radiance across the fibers, turning the tiny sketched headlands into a quiet shore of silver light.