Mia M Dre's Arc

Chapter 2 of 13

Mia turned the vial over in her hand, watching the shimmer dust catch the light. She'd checked it twice against her shop stock this morning. The match was exact—same grain, same glow, same faint scent of kelp and copper. Only three customers had ever bought this particular blend from her. She pulled out her sales records and spread them beside the ledger. The first two names she crossed off immediately—a coral farmer who'd moved to the deep trenches last spring, and a young mermaid who'd bought it for her wedding decorations. The third entry made her stop. A shop on the surface, run by someone who straddled both worlds the way she did. The Seashell Antique Trader. She'd sold them shimmer dust four times over the past two years, always through tide pool drops, never face to face. They dealt in heirlooms. They knew her inventory. They would have known exactly what her grandmother owned. Mia locked the records in her drawer and checked her tide charts. The shop opened at dawn. She'd be there when they unlocked the door, and this time there would be no anonymous transactions. She needed to see who'd been writing those letters.