Threadbare Crown
fantasy◐ TeenMira's knees shook, but she did not run. The guards bowed low, right there on the dusty workshop floor. "Your Majesty," the older one said. "The Loom has chosen you. You must come to the palace at once." Mira swallowed hard and nodded, deciding the safest thing was to play along and learn the rules from the inside.
The palace was all marble and whispers. A sharp-eyed advisor named Lord Castet greeted Mira with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The coronation is in three days," he said. "Until then, you'll do exactly as I say." Mira smiled back and quietly decided Castet was the first person she needed to watch.
What happens next?
1 ways forwardThat night Mira searched Castet's study and found a stack of sketches: her own face, copied again and again, each one practiced. He had drawn her likeness for weeks. The real Loom hadn't chosen her at all. Castet had forged the cloth to put a poor, friendless girl on the throne, a queen he could control. Mira pocketed the proof.