Natsuki Subaru's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Natsuki set the relic on her workbench, its cracked surface catching the morning light. For fifteen years she'd searched for her mentor, following leads that she sometimes hoped would disappear. Now the relic sat before her, waiting to be opened before her customer arrived in twenty minutes. She pulled the two halves apart. Inside, tucked in velvet, lay a photograph. Not a map. Not coordinates. Not a clue to where her mentor had gone. The image showed her mentor standing beside a woman Natsuki had never seen, both of them laughing, arms linked. On the back, three words in her mentor's handwriting: "I found home." Natsuki's hands shook. Fifteen years of searching, and her mentor had simply chosen to leave.