Ribbert Lotus's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Ribbert Lotus pushed through the brambles behind the old grain mill, looking for what most people overlooked. He needed another safe house. The network was growing, and refugees needed places to disappear while he arranged their next move. The mill had been empty for years, or so he'd been told. But someone had planted sunflowers along the western wall, each one turned inward toward the building instead of following the sun. He crouched beside the nearest bloom and felt his stomach drop. A bright blue eye stared back from the flower's center, blinking once before going still. He'd seen this before. Watchers. Someone was using this place for something they needed protected. Inside, the mill was cleaner than it should have been. Ribbert moved carefully across the floorboards, testing each step. A faint glow pulsed from the corner where old grain sacks should have been rotting. Instead, a device sat on a cleared patch of floor, projecting rings of light upward into spinning patterns. Star maps, he realized. But not of any sky he recognized. He knelt and saw the leather journal wedged beneath it, the pages filled with frantic handwriting about blood and transformation and revenge. Ribbert backed toward the door, weighing his options. The mill was perfect for what he needed, tucked away and large enough for families. But whoever owned that journal would come back, and refugees couldn't hide in a place that already belonged to something dangerous. He left the way he came, already thinking of the old chapel two valleys over. It would take longer to prepare, but fast didn't mean safe. It never had.