Mara Quill's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Mara Quill knelt in six inches of gray water and counted the broken glyphs on the tunnel wall. Last night she had set forty. This morning twenty-two were smashed, and a fresh crack ran through the stone where her charm-anchor used to hold. Someone had come down here after her shift. Someone knew what she was doing, and she had told no one. She had been working this tunnel for eleven months. Above her, in the old plaza no one crossed anymore, a heart-shaped billboard hung dark on its iron mount. Forty years ago it had lit the whole quarter, and every witch in the city had gathered under it that last night to watch it die. No one talked about why it went out. Mara had decided, alone, to bring it back. The wiring for the billboard ran down through this sewer, through the wall she was rebuilding, into a charm-focus she had spent her savings to buy. If the wall did not hold, the focus would not hold. If the focus did not hold, the heart stayed dark. She waded to the crate where she kept her tools and pulled out the wrench. The wooden sign she had nailed at the tunnel mouth still read Under Construction in her own paint. Below it, in smaller letters, she had written Municipal Repair, Do Not Enter. That was the lie that kept the inspectors away. It should have kept everyone else away too. Mara did not go for the guards. She did not go home. She sat on the crate with the wrench across her knees and waited. Six hours passed. Water dripped. Around midnight a boot scraped stone at the far end of the tunnel, and a lantern swung into view. The figure stopped when it saw her. It was an older woman in a charm-worker's coat, hood up, hands empty. She did not run. She said Mara's name like she had known it for years. "You shouldn't be doing this," the woman said. "You don't know what that light was for." She set the lantern down and stepped into the water. "Go home. Tomorrow the wall will be gone. The day after, the focus. I will keep coming until you stop." Then she turned and walked back into the dark, and Mara heard the far grate clang shut behind her. Mara stood in the water a long time. The sabotage was not random. Someone in the city remembered the heart, and wanted it to stay dark. She waded back to the broken wall, picked up the first cracked stone, and began setting it again.