Avery Rhiannon's Arc

Chapter 17 of 17

By morning, the shard outside the clinic had changed. Avery saw it from the path and stopped. New points had pushed up from its base overnight, a jagged cluster rising around the original stone. The colors inside it pulsed slow, matching the breath of the cocoon inside the wall. She did not know if the growth meant healing or harm. She needed a way to measure it without guessing. From her bag she took a small glass vial of clear liquid Tom had pulled from the river weeks ago. She set it at the base of the spire and watched. The liquid swirled pink, then blue, then settled pale. Avery built a small watch post a few steps back from the spire. Metal panels. Two slotted windows. A camera aimed at the shard, another aimed at the vial. She would not stand close. She would not touch. She would only record what the stone did each hour. Inside the clinic, she checked the cracked mirror above the basket. The creature's split reflections looked the same as yesterday. Bristles steady. Breath even. Whatever the shard was doing outside, the cocoon was not worse for it. She wrote the time. She wrote the color of the vial. She wrote: not harmful. Not yet understood. She closed the notebook and looked out the slot at the bright, growing stone. The sanctuary now held a question it could not answer. She decided that was allowed. The creature was safe. The watch would continue.