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The Debt of Hollow Bells
fantasy◐ Mature5 contributors · 5 paragraphs deep
Maren stalled. "If I bury you, who teaches the next keeper?" The voice paused, surprised. "No one has ever asked me that." She pressed on. "Stay unburied, and I'll train someone to take the bells the proper way." After a long silence the voice said, slowly, "You would keep me from rest to save the work? Cruel girl. I accept."
Maren chose a steady young gravedigger named Tomas and taught him the bells over one long winter. On the last night she handed him the casebook. "Never answer a bell you didn't ring," she warned. He nodded, not understanding yet. She left at dawn, free, and behind her a single iron note rolled across the frost. It had already begun for him.
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