Elowen Cask's Arc

Chapter 1 of 10

Elowen Cask had chased one debt for twenty years, and today it was worthless. The contract lived in her coat, sewn into a pocket over her heart. It named the fae lord who had cheated her mother out of her name. But a debt means nothing if you can't find the debtor, and no one in Dragontree knew where the lord kept his court. Elowen had asked porters, priests, and pickpockets. Each one shook their head and looked away. So she climbed the stairs to the girl who charted fae lords for a price. The noble sat behind a small table, pouring tea. Petra Ashveil wore a silk gown and pearls, and her smile did not slip when Elowen shut the door. Nobles hired her to track fae lords through Dragontree, to learn which court moved where and when. Elowen distrusted anyone who smiled that steadily. A steady smile hid a knife somewhere. "Sit," Petra said. "You've walked a long way to be disappointed." Elowen stayed standing. "I need the location of a court. One lord. I'll pay." "Everyone pays." Petra set down the pot. "But you can't pay in coin. Coin bores me." Her brown eyes moved to the pocket over Elowen's heart. "You collect debts in secrets and years. So do I. Give me ten years off your life, and I'll draw you the map." Elowen's stomach dropped. Ten years was a merchant's whole future. She had planned to spend those years collecting the very debt this map would unlock. "Five," she said. "Ten." Petra stood and curtsied, perfect and slow. A thin blade slid from her sleeve into her palm. She used it to slice open a wax seal on a scroll, then smiled up as if nothing had happened. "I don't bargain. I only measure. The court you want sits in a place three people have found. Two of them are dead." Elowen looked at the pocket over her heart. Twenty years of chasing. She could keep her ten years and keep chasing shadows, or spend them and finally stand before the lord who ruined her mother. She pulled a blank contract from another pocket and laid it flat on the table. "Write it," she said. "Ten years for the map. I sign now." Petra's smile finally moved, just at the corner. She dipped a pen and drew. The lines came fast: a river, a hidden gate, a hollow beneath an old tree where no light reached. She marked the court with a small black dot. Elowen signed. The pen bit her hand, and she felt ten years leave her, like breath in cold air. Her knees went weak. Her knuckles ached. When she straightened, she held the map. "He knows the debt is coming," Petra said, rolling her pen away. "A lord always feels the collector at his gate. You'll find his court. You may not find it unguarded." Elowen folded the map into the pocket beside the contract. She knew where he was now. That was the whole trouble.