Kira Forge's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Kira heard the news while pulling a gather from the furnace. Someone else had done it — solved wearable glass, ready to show the world. Her hands kept moving through the familiar motions, but her chest went tight. She'd been fighting this problem for two years, wrestling with curves that refused to match skin and bone. She found the workshop three days later, drawn by the frosted windows and the shapes visible inside. The building stood narrow and tall, heat bleeding through the glass despite the Siberian cold. Through the window, she could see finished pieces mounted on forms — a collar, a sleeve, something that looked like it could curve around a shoulder. They were beautiful. They were done. Kira pressed her gloved hand against the frost and watched her own breath cloud the view. The exhibition was set for the ice mansion at the edge of the tundra. Kira got the invitation like everyone else — a public debut, open to all glassworkers. She held the card in her workshop for an hour, turning it over in her fingers. The material had beaten her, but someone else had won. She could stay away, protect herself from seeing it up close. Or she could go and learn how they'd solved what she couldn't. She pinned the invitation to her wall beside three failed breastplates. The choice was already made. The day of the debut came sharp and clear. Kira walked across the frozen ground toward the mansion, her boots cracking through the top layer of snow. Outside the entrance stood a sphere of ice with a mannequin frozen at its center. The figure wore a breastplate of glass that curved perfectly against its torso — no gaps, no awkward angles. The piece caught the light and threw it back in blues and whites. Kira stopped ten feet away and studied it. The glass followed the body like it had grown there. She circled the display twice, looking for the trick, the compromise, the cheat. But the work was honest. Someone had beaten the material into submission while she was still losing. She turned toward the mansion doors, her jaw set. If they could do it, so could she.