Zia Sunroot's Arc

Chapter 11 of 17

At first light, Zia and the stranger walk west. The flute rides in her belt. The shard rides in theirs. The dome rises from the sand like a cracked egg, its glass dark with grit. A low stone basin sits beside the door, salt rings climbing its lip. Jarek built it to catch dew. It is dry now, but the salt proves it once held water for years. Zia steps through the doorway. Sand has poured in through the broken dome and made small dunes on the floor. A workbench leans against the curved wall. On it sits an unfinished creature, a tortoise built from a real shell, its cracks filled with cloudy quartz. The legs are only half-shaped from reed and bone. Jarek stopped in the middle of a stitch. The thread still hangs from the needle. She touches the shell. The quartz is cool. Beside the tortoise sits a small clay pot holding a single peyote cactus, dry but alive, its feathery tufts still gray-green. He had been keeping it watered. Someone had to stop, and he was the one who stopped. The stranger calls her from across the room. They are kneeling at the base of the wall, where a stone has been pulled loose. Inside the hollow rests a glass bottle, corked, a rolled parchment inside. Around its neck, a thin cord. Zia lifts it out. The cork comes free with a small dry sound. The parchment is short. Jarek's hand is careful. "To the one who comes after. The crater drinks. Feed it before it feeds. Do not go alone. If you are reading this, I did." Below the words, a small drawing of two figures, side by side, walking. Zia reads it twice. Then she hands it to the stranger without speaking. The stranger folds the parchment and tucks it into their bedroll. Zia lifts the unfinished tortoise from the bench and wraps it in cloth. She will finish it at her oasis, when they return. If they return. Outside, the dew basin catches the last of the morning shadow. She pours a swallow from her flask into it, a small offering, a promise to come back and fill it again. Then she steps out into the sand, and the stranger walks beside her.