Chapter 113: Chains of Silk
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Sunrise spilled honey-gold through lattice windows. Mia woke stiff, armour dents imprinted on skin, eyelids gritty. The world felt hollow to her, yet a strange ember glowed inside her chest. It wasn’t hope, exactly; more stubborn refusal to let hope die.
She washed swiftly and braided. Her heart was tight, donned a training tunic and cloak. First appointment: review casualty scrolls at Bastion archivum. But before duties she detoured to parapet where desert could still be seen.
Wind carried distant bell chimes from the temple district, rites for the dead had begun. Tiny black figures moved along boulevard preparing pyres of jackal carcasses, drake hides, and ant brothers alike. Mia pressed hand to heart plate.
"I will bring you back," she whispered to morning sky. "One way or another."
An unbidden memory surfaced: Kai teasing her after the mine, "I’ll invoice later." Lip quivered; she squared shoulders. If Kai was captive she would find him; if he was dead she would carve justice into the world’s bones.
She inhaled, crisp dawn burning nostrils, and turned toward the council wing to requisition scouts, no matter how far Mantira runs. She will find it and kill it
Far below, in catacombs of desert glass, a lone ant plotted similar return; destiny had not woven its final thread. "I will return alive."
Morning light filtered through the honey-amber dome of the High Audience Rotunda, tinting every marble block and mural panel the color of burnished topaz. Princess Mia stood alone at the center of the circular floor mosaic, an ancient map that showed the deserts and the broken rivers between them. Her polished boots trembled on the depiction.