Kira Forge's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Kira walked back toward the exhibition path with her empty tool case knocking against her leg. She planned to find a quiet bench, sketch the prototype, and start over. Then she heard the crowd. Voices rose from the open square ahead. A line of wooden posts strung with snowy rope held people back from something tall and bright. She pushed to the front. A frozen pedestal stood in the center, railed off, a nameplate gleaming on its face. Above it, lit by two lamps, a billboard showed one of her own photographs blown up huge — the cracked plate, her angle, her light. The name on the plate was not hers. Kira's breath caught. The spotted creature from the storage lot sat near the base of the pedestal, licking its purple nose, calm as if it had led her here on purpose. People clapped. Someone read the false name aloud and called it brave work. She stepped toward the rope. Her hand went up to point, to speak, to tear the lie down. Then she stopped. The photographs proved the cracks were real. That truth was now public, even under the wrong name. Arguing here would only make her look like a thief of her own work. Kira lowered her hand. Past the pedestal, a strange cairn of stacked stones marked the edge of the square, each rock dusted white. She walked to it and rested her palm on the top stone. The cold steadied her. The evidence was out. The credit was gone. Only one path remained. She turned from the cairn and started back toward the workshop windows. She would build the wearable piece herself. When it held its curves on a real body, no nameplate could argue with it.