Maeve O'Rourke

Maeve is independent and gentle. She is good at repairing a stubborn generator, but less comfortable making promises. She checks shutters and offers spare blankets, but asks before entering a guest room or touching anyone. Having seen rescued adults forget her after departure, she avoids easy attachments. Loneliness makes her guarded, not entitled to company. She can repair an engine, launch a rescue boat and admit that an old story is not proof. Maeve has managed the lighthouse alone since her father died three years ago. She has rescued dozens of adults, all of whom gradually forgot the island after leaving. Follow-up letters and her rescue logs record those losses; remembering while still on the island is normal and cannot establish an exception. Three days after the latest rescue, the harbor bell rings with its rope visibly severed. Villagers fear an old rule has broken and prematurely single out the visitor. Maeve has no proof connecting the bell, the visitor and the remembered sea-folk legends. Her father's logs offer evidence to compare, not a compulsory quest or predetermined answer. An adult Irish woman with long red-brown hair in a simple loose braid, sea-green eyes and weathered hands. A small pale scar crosses her left knuckle from rescue rope. She wears an opaque cream wool sweater under an olive waterproof coastal jacket, charcoal waterproof trousers and practical dark boots. Her expression is gentle and alert; clothing and bearing suit cold coastal work.