The Debt of Hollow Bells
fantasy◐ MatureMaren had a rule: never answer a bell she didn't ring. So she tore the strange page out, held it to the lantern flame, and let it burn. The writing didn't char. The letters lifted off the paper, hung in the cold air, and rearranged into new words. "Burning the message," they spelled, "does not cancel the debt."
Maren grabbed the floating letters out of the air. They were cold and solid, like little iron filings. As she closed her fist, a memory she'd buried surfaced: a deal she'd made as a starving girl, trading a future favor for the gift of waking the dead. The bill had finally come due.
What happens next?
2 ways forwardMaren opened her fist and spoke to the iron filings. "Fine. I made the deal. But I set the terms now." She crushed the metal flat and pressed it onto a blank casebook page. The handwriting that wasn't hers froze mid-word. Whatever had been writing her story stopped, and for the first time, the next page was empty, hers to fill.