Threadbare Crown
fantasy◐ TeenMira's first thought was simple: run. She dropped the broom, ducked under the loom, and bolted out the back door into the crowded market. The guards shouted behind her. If the Loom really wove her face, the whole kingdom would soon be hunting her, and she wanted answers before she let anyone put a crown on her head.
Mira squeezed through the market crowd and slipped into the old dyers' alley. An old woman with ink-stained hands grabbed her sleeve. "You're the new face," the woman hissed. "I weave for the palace. The Loom doesn't lie, but people do. Come, before they catch you." She pulled Mira toward a low blue door.
What happens next?
2 ways forwardInside the blue door, the old weaver showed Mira a hidden book of past tapestries. "Every true face has a tiny flaw the Loom always adds," she said. "A crooked stitch behind the ear. If your woven face has it, you're real. If not, it's a fake meant to control you." Mira's heart pounded. She had to see her own cloth up close.