Mira Threadwell's Arc

Chapter 11 of 13

Mira pushed open the storehouse door with the refined diagram still in her hand. Inside, the air had changed. Someone had cleared the long bench and arranged a row of spiral ice carvings along its edge, each one catching the lamp light and throwing it onto her preserved panels. The panels were laid out in order, pinned flat, ready to be carried. A figure stood at the far end, hood low, holding a small crystalline model of a spired observatory. They lifted it so Mira could see the tiny shelves inside, each one stacked with folded cloth scraps. "I kept every piece you threw out," the stranger said. "The work is mine to finish now. You lost your seal at the ring." Mira stepped closer and saw a small birch arch set up behind the bench, its posts carved with running runes. Pinned to its crossbeam was a guild apprentice token and a stitched sample that matched the locking stitch on her diagram. The ally was a guild-trained sewer, working in secret, ready to register the panels under their own hand by morning. Mira set the diagram on the bench between them. "Finish them with me, or finish them alone and fail," she said. "The stitch is mine. The hands can be both." The stranger lowered the crystal model. After a long breath, they pulled back the hood and reached for the thread. The panels stayed on the bench. The partnership was made.