Irina Jace's Arc

Chapter 7 of 9

She arrived at the guild building with the wagon, the five vials on the shelf, and the map rolled under her arm. The representative met her at the door and asked what she'd brought. Irina showed him the remedies first, explaining what each one treated and how she'd tested them. He nodded but didn't look impressed. Then she unrolled the map on a table near the entrance and pointed to the pattern of burn sites. She said she'd documented every injury caused by guild waste in the past month, and the contamination was spreading farther than they'd admitted. The representative looked at the map for a long moment, then asked where she'd gotten the information. Irina said she'd walked to every site herself, talked to every person with burns, and marked the locations with feathers so anyone could follow the trail. He asked if she'd removed the feathers. She said no. They were still there, visible from the forest paths, marking the exact places where the guild's carelessness had hurt people. The representative's expression tightened. He said the hearing would proceed as scheduled, but her documentation of guild property and waste sites without permission was now part of the formal review. Irina felt her stomach drop, but she didn't take the map back. She'd known there would be a cost for proving the pattern. Now she knew what it was. The hearing lasted an hour. Three guild members sat behind a long table and asked questions about her remedies, her testing process, and where she'd learned to work with herbs. Irina answered each one clearly, pulling out her journal to show the documented results and the two-witness rule she followed. They seemed satisfied with the feverfew and yarrow, less certain about the creek moss paste. Then they asked about the map. She explained the pattern again—seven sites, all downhill from the shed, all showing the same purple-stemmed plants that grew near reactive compounds. One of the guild members said the map proved she'd been trespassing on guild land multiple times without authorization. Another said her documentation created a public record of guild operations that she had no legal right to compile. Irina said the burns were a public problem, and people deserved to know where the contamination was spreading. The first guild member wrote something in a leather-bound journal and said her answer would be noted in the formal review. When the hearing ended, the representative escorted her outside and told her the guild would issue a decision within three days. He said the remedies met basic standards, but the unauthorized mapping of guild sites was a serious violation. Irina asked if they planned to remove the contaminated waste or warn people about the affected areas. He said that wasn't part of her review. She said it should be, because her map showed the problem was getting worse, not better. He looked at her for a moment, then said the feathers would be removed by the end of the week, and anyone found replacing them would face the same formal review she was undergoing. Irina felt her hands tighten around the wagon handle. She'd expected them to dismiss the map, maybe even to threaten her for making it. But she hadn't expected them to erase the evidence entirely. She walked back to the clearing and found Maren sitting on the bench near the stall. Maren asked how it went. Irina said they acknowledged the remedies worked but were more interested in punishing her for documenting the contamination than fixing it. She said the guild was going to pull down every feather she'd placed, removing the only visible proof that the waste was spreading. Maren asked if she'd kept a copy of the map. Irina pulled the folded canvas from her bag and spread it on the table. Maren looked at the pattern of colored marks and said it was clear enough that anyone could follow it, even without the feathers in the forest. Irina realized she was right. The map itself was proof, and she could make copies. She opened her contamination journal and began sketching a smaller version, one she could carry in her bag and show to anyone who asked about the burns. The guild could pull down the feathers, but they couldn't erase what she'd already documented. The pattern was real, and now she had a way to prove it that didn't depend on anything they could