Infinite Wishes + Legs: Two Stories About Captivity, Love, and the Cost of Getting What You Want

This episode of the Light Speed magazine podcast presents two short stories that, despite their very different settings—one a fairy tale, the other a science fiction horror—both examine what happens when one creature holds power over another, and how the captive responds to that power.

The Fairy's Bargain

In Christine Catherine Rush's "Infinite Wishes," Rachel has spent five years tracking down a hidden glen where she can trap a fairy and claim three wishes. She has planned everything meticulously, including decision trees for what to ask if her first choices fail. Her third wish, as she learned from fairy tales and books, was always going to be for more wishes—the classic loophole that would let her keep healing and helping indefinitely.

Her first two wishes are for her younger brother Ryan, whose spine she shattered when she was four years old by shoving him down a flight of stairs. The first wish makes him walk again, confirmed instantly by her friend Candace waiting outside the glen. The second wish is more subtle: that his life would be as good or better than before, in friends and love rather than wealth. The fairy warns her that this one cannot be verified—Rachel will have to trust her.