#microfiction

Every spring, the children of Highmere climbed the palace hill to fly their kites.

They came carrying dragons stitched from red cloth, silver fish with ribbon tails, bright birds painted with berry dyes, and crooked little squares made from whatever scraps their families could spare.

Princess Elianor watched from the western balcony.

She was twelve the first year she noticed the broken ones.

Kites tangled in thorn bushes.

Kites split by sudden winds.

Kites whose owners sat quietly in the grass while everyone else continued flying.

The following spring, a small blue tent appeared beside the palace wall.

A wooden sign hung above it.

KITE MENDING NO COIN REQUIRED

Behind the table sat a girl in a plain linen dress with a basket of thread, glue, paper, and narrow strips of willow.

Few recognized her without her embroidered court clothes.

Those who did were sensible enough to say nothing.

One boy arrived carrying a magnificent green dragon with half a wing missing.

"Can you fix him?"

Elianor examined the damage.

"I can try."

"He's supposed to fly higher than the palace."

"That seems rude."

The boy considered this.

"Only a little higher."

"Very well."

They worked together until the dragon had a new wing.

It was not quite the same shade of green.

The boy frowned.

"You can see where it broke."

Elianor looked toward the sky, where dozens of patched and perfect kites danced together.

"Then everyone can see where someone cared enough to mend it."

The boy seemed satisfied with that.

By sunset, the princess had repaired seventeen kites.

The next year, three palace seamstresses joined her.

Then two carpenters.

Then the royal bookbinder, who claimed paper was paper regardless of whether anyone intended to read it.

Soon villagers began bringing spare cloth and thread.

The little blue tent became the busiest place on the hill.

Years later, when Elianor became Queen, foreign ambassadors occasionally asked why the royal banner flown during the Spring Winds Festival had a small patch sewn into one corner.

The Queen always smiled.

"Because," she said, "a kingdom should never be ashamed of the places where it chose to mend rather than discard."

And every spring, beneath the patched royal banner, the children of Highmere sent their dragons and birds and crooked little squares climbing into the sky.

"That's a tough one," said the book. "For me, I would say being re-read."

"Because it shows you were loved?"

"No, you can feel that at a first read. It's that I can show more than the first time round."

"It's more intimate?"

ALCHEMY LABORATORY

Beakers, flasks and stoppered jars line creaky shelves. There's equipment on the workbench beside a book. It smells crazy in here.

Exits TRAPDOOR.

>look book

Okay, reading rainbow. The book is is open to a recipe for invisibility potion.

>look equipment

There's a small brazier and an, uhm, alembic.

>look alembic

I mean, I think that's what it is. I'm pretty sure. There's some mixture residue left inside.

>drink mixture

Listen, that could be anything.

>drink mixture

You vanish completely. Hmm, really more of a disappearing potion. Oh well, that's wizards for you.

You have died. Restart? (y/n)

"Where are we going?" asked Lily.

Tara grimaced. "I really don't know any good places in Grymwald…."

"Then do you mind if I choose?" the demon girl asked. Tara agreed, Lilly grabbed her hands, and with a puff of brimstone, they were somewhere else.

Tara glanced up at the sign. "The Devil Made Me Eat It?"

I almost have a heart attack when I see her in my car.

"You're... you're supposed to be dead?!"

She smiles. "Yeah, well, it didn't stick."

I'm still staring as she climbs into the front seat. "How?"

"Immortality. Small perk." She pats my knee. "Stop looking so worried. You didn't kill me."

Guilt shoots through me. "I did try to expose your body, though..."

She raises a brow. "...Without gloves?"

"I panicked, okay?! I didn't mean to shoot you! I was monologuing, then my hand slipped, then—"

She begins to laugh. My cheeks flush.