Elder Margaret's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Elder Margaret held the baby up to the morning light, studying the tiny embroidered mark on the collar of her nightgown. A pattern she'd seen before, though she couldn't place where. The stitching was fine work, the kind that took time and care, and people who abandoned babies didn't usually dress them in clothes made with such attention. She turned the fabric between her fingers. The thread was silk, dyed a deep forest green, and formed the shape of three overlapping leaves. She carried the baby to the window and looked closer at the pattern. An acorn, she realized. Three oak leaves arranged around a small sprouting acorn, the kind with a pale shoot just beginning to push through. Margaret glanced across the clearing toward the woods, where the old oak stood with its carved sign. Her chest tightened. Someone had dressed this child in a message, not just a nightgown. Someone who knew what the oak meant, who understood the clearing as sanctuary. The baby wasn't just abandoned. She was sent here on purpose, and Margaret would need to find out why.