The Prince of Salt and the Ocean's Bargain
Novelette 9,619 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
"There’s a story that sounds completely fantastic and yet is true. It happened here and in the neighboring lands. It goes like this: Once upon a time, there was an ocean, deep and cold. And in the ocean there was salt. For a long time, salt did not know itself to exist. But then, beneath a wave, under a dark and bitter brew of the sea, it stirred."
Content warnings 1
pregnancy-loss
Quasar links out; the story lives on Uncanny, where the author gets the click.