Mirella Marshlight's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Mirella knelt in the moss and rinsed her blue thread bracelet in the slow swamp water. She had worn it since the day someone left her here. She still did not know who. She had spent years asking that question, and the swamp had never answered. A wet splash broke the quiet. An otter climbed onto the bank, its eyes shining a strange, sparkling blue. "I know who left you in the moss," it said. Mirella froze. The bracelet dripped in her fist. The otter dropped a single orange-tinted ruby at her feet. More glittered behind it, spilling from a den ringed by a thick wall of bright, many-flowered blooms — twelve kinds at least, planted by hands that had bargained here before. "Proof I pay my debts," the otter said. "But first, you fetch something for me." It described the favor. Deep in the flooded caves, a guardian slept beside a purple crystal sphere. The otter wanted the sphere. To take it, Mirella would need the frostfire spear lodged in the dam upstream — and she would need to wake the thing guarding the orb. Mirella looked at the bracelet. She looked at the ruby. Every other trail had gone cold. She had promised herself she would not turn back. She closed her fingers around the gem and stood. "I'll do it," she said. The otter grinned and slid into the water. "Bring me the sphere. Then I'll give you a name." Mirella tucked the ruby into her pocket beside the bracelet. The search had a price now, and she had agreed to pay it.