Lumis Sphereward's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Lumis returned to the studio after searching three neighboring workshops for more marked orbs. They found nothing. The other caretakers worked in cluttered spaces, their tools scattered across benches, their repair logs nonexistent. None of them kept records. But Lumis did. They moved through their own studio with fresh attention, scanning shelves and surfaces they'd stopped seeing years ago. The tall storage cabinet against the far wall had always been there, its welded seams crude but functional. Lumis had assumed it came with the space. Now they opened the doors and saw symbols carved into the wood backing—variations of the mark from inside the orb. Some were crossed out. Others circled. Someone had been testing. The anvil sat in the corner where Lumis shaped repair wire. They rolled closer, light angling across its stone face. The same symbol, hammered deep into the metal surface. Dust filled the grooves—old work, done long before Lumis arrived. The scattered metal shards around its base weren't theirs either. Someone had worked here. Someone had left marks everywhere, and Lumis had been too focused on fixing what was broken to notice what had always been whole. Lumis positioned the obsidian mirror on their workbench and began documenting. They reflected the anvil's mark first, then each symbol inside the cabinet, capturing the light patterns that made the etchings visible. The studio wasn't theirs. It never had been. The creator hadn't just made the orbs and vanished—they'd worked in this exact space, testing and marking and building. Lumis had been living inside the answer, repairing orbs at the same bench where they were likely first conceived. The search hadn't led them somewhere new. It had circled back to the only place they'd ever called home.