Penny Buttonwick's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Penny Buttonwick crouched on a low branch and counted buttons in her palm. Three brass toggles. One shell button from the northern cliffs. She tucked them away and watched the path below, where her three recruits would soon pass. She needed one name from each. Just one. Without those names, the exchange she had been building for months would never open its doors. Down the way, near the old oak, a rival was already setting out shinier offerings. Penny's jaw tightened. She had planned for this. She always planned for this. She slipped down to meet her recruits at the bend. Two arrived with names ready. The third stared past her, eyes locked on a pink tent glittering near the oak, its tables stacked with buttons that caught every drop of light. "I need to think," the third said, and walked toward the glow. Penny did not call out. She reached into her satchel, pulled a folded leaf marked with a fourth name, and pressed it flat against her palm. Three names. The exchange would open after all. Penny looked up at the gnarled oak, its wide trunk split by a dark hollow, its branches spread like a wizard's crooked arms over every tent below. The merchant had chosen her perch well. Pixies drifted toward that hollow the way moths drift toward lanterns. Penny tucked the leaf into her satchel and turned away. She had her three names. But she had also lost a recruit to the oak, and the merchant now knew her plan was real. Penny circled back through the brush to see what had taken her recruit. On a velvet square sat a single button, rainbow facets ringed in gold, a gemstone burning at its heart. Her recruit reached for it without looking up. Penny did not flinch. She marked the merchant's move, turned, and walked home to send word to her three confirmed names. The first exchange would open at dawn — and the merchant, for the first time, would have to answer it.