The inn doors opened hard.

  Cold air rolled in with boots and cloaks.

  Seraphine entered like she owned the building, her people fanning out behind her with practiced spacing—too clean to be comfort.

  The party was still scattered from the clearing.

  Mud on knees.

  Blood on sleeves.

  Mina held herself like she was afraid her arms would come apart.

  Kara stayed close enough to catch her if they did.

  Lenora’s eyes stayed on the doorway, then on Seraphine, then on the empty space where Derpy should have been.

  Seraphine’s gaze flicked once toward the group.

  Then it landed on the absence.

  She didn’t ask where he was.

  She already knew.

  Her fan snapped open.

  “Sit,” she said.

  No one moved.

  Lewd’s voice came out low. “We’re not your soldiers.”

  Seraphine’s eyes narrowed.

  “I’m aware,” she said. “That’s why you’re still breathing.”

  A pause.

  Then, quieter—still sharp.

  “And because he earned something from me.”

  Lenora’s jaw tightened.

  “A favor,” Seraphine continued, as if the word tasted wrong. “For proving he isn’t disposable.”

  Her fan angled slightly.

  “And for making two of my Sinister Seven—Ace and Joker—yield.”

  The room shifted at the names.

  Like the inn itself remembered the forest.

  Footsteps came in behind the first wave.

  Soft.

  Uneven.

  Vambasta entered.

  Not as a wolf.

  Not as an alpha.

  Human.

  Pink hair.

  A blue dress that looked too gentle for the way her cuffs sat on her wrists—spiked black bands that didn’t belong on anyone who was trying to breathe.

  She didn’t lift her chin.

  She didn’t take space.

  Her eyes darted across the room like every sound was a threat.

  Then she moved.

  Straight behind Vemi.

  Like she could shrink into his shadow and disappear.

  Vemi stiffened, then shifted his stance without thinking—blocking the sightlines.

  Mia climbed onto the table edge, eyes wide.

  Sphinx sat near the hearth, tail tight, ears angled toward every door.

  Lenora’s voice softened by a fraction.

  “Vambasta. What happened out there?”

  Vambasta’s fingers curled together in front of her.

  She stared at the floor.

  Her voice came out thin.

  “Copies.”

  Lewd’s eyes sharpened.

  “Explain.”

  Vambasta swallowed.

  “They looked like Riven,” she said. “But they weren’t her.”

  Riven stood near the wall, still as a blade left on a table.

  Her hands flexed once.

  Vambasta continued.

  “One shot magic beams from her mouth. She called herself Ruin. Mk.1.”

  Mia’s breath hitched.

  Vambasta’s shoulders drew in.

  “Another fought with fists. Brown. Mk.2.”

  Her voice shook.

  “She hit me until my magic broke.”

  Vemi’s hand twitched like he wanted to reach back and steady her, but he didn’t.

  Vambasta’s eyes flicked to her cuffs.

  “They activated.”

  The room went quiet.

  Everyone knew what that meant.

  Seraphine’s gaze didn’t soften.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  But it did sharpen into something more focused.

  “And Derpy?” Lenora asked.

  Vambasta’s throat worked.

  “Taken.”

  The word landed like a stone.

  Lewd’s shoulders rose and fell once.

  Controlled.

  Barely.

  Vespera sat at the far end of the table, pale, one ring on her finger.

  She kept touching it like it was a wound.

  “Riven tried,” Vambasta added, voice smaller. “A red one stopped her. No stitches. Called herself Mk.3.”

  Riven’s eyes stayed forward.

  But something in her posture tightened.

  “And Mk.4,” Vambasta finished. “Black. Carrying him.”

  Mina made a small sound.

  Kara pulled her closer.

  Seraphine’s fan closed.

  The snap was final.

  “Good,” Seraphine said.

  Lenora’s head turned.

  “Good?”

  Seraphine’s eyes didn’t move.

  “Good that we have designations,” she said. “Good that they spoke. Good that they’re proud enough to label their work.”

  Lewd’s voice cut in. “Work.”

  Seraphine leaned forward.

  “Yes,” she said. “Work. Program. Division. Whatever name the Elven Empire uses to hide the fact they’re building weapons out of people.”

  Vespera’s fingers tightened on her ring.

  One.

  Only one.

  Seraphine’s gaze flicked to it.

  “You’re awake,” Seraphine said.

  Vespera didn’t answer.

  Seraphine didn’t wait.

  “We’re having a meeting,” she said. “Now.”

  Lenora’s voice came out flat.

  “We don’t have time for politics.”

  Seraphine’s eyes turned cold.

  “This isn’t politics,” she said. “This is triage.”

  She lifted her hand.

  Her people moved—chairs pulled, table cleared, maps and paper placed like the inn had always been a command post.

  Mia hopped down and pressed close to Sphinx.

  Sphinx’s head lowered, protective.

  Seraphine pointed at the center of the table.

  “Derpy is a target,” she said. “Not because he’s weak. Because he’s rare.”

  Lewd’s jaw clenched.

  Seraphine’s voice stayed controlled.

  “They didn’t grab Mina. They didn’t grab Vespera. They didn’t grab me.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “They grabbed him.”

  Lenora’s knuckles whitened.

  Seraphine continued.

  “So here is the move.

  We split.”

  Seraphine drew two lines on the page.

  “Team One,” she said. “Go team. Pursuit and entry.”

  Her gaze swept the table.

  “Lenora. Lewd. Mia. Sphinx.”

  Lewd didn’t flinch.

  Lenora didn’t argue.

  Seraphine’s fan angled.

  “One of mine goes with you. Not as a leash. As payment.”

  Lenora’s eyes narrowed.

  “Who.”

  Seraphine’s answer came without hesitation.

  “Ace.”

  Seraphine’s Ace stepped forward.

  Ace’s posture was relaxed in a way that meant she wasn’t relaxed at all.

  Seraphine tapped the paper.

  “Team Two,” she said. “Hold and stabilize. Protect the pieces that can’t move yet.”

  Her gaze landed on Mina.

  Then Kara.

  Then Vespera.

  Then Vambasta—human, hidden behind Vemi.

  “Team Two keeps this inn from collapsing,” Seraphine said. “And keeps my people from doing something stupid while I’m not looking.”

  Lenora’s mouth tightened.

  “You’re staying,” she said to Seraphine.

  “I am,” Seraphine said. “Because someone has to keep the board from flipping.”

  Vespera’s voice finally came out.

  Small.

  Controlled.

  “I only have one ring.”

  The admission hit the table like a dropped blade.

  Mina’s eyes widened.

  Kara’s hand tightened on her shoulder.

  Seraphine’s gaze stayed on Vespera.

  “Then you don’t go,” Seraphine said. “You anchor.”

  Vespera’s jaw tightened.

  “I can still help.”

  Seraphine’s fan lifted.

  “You will,” she said. “By not dying on the road and leaving us blind.”

  Lewd’s fingers flexed.

  Lenora’s voice came out low.

  “When do we leave?”

  Ace answered.

  “Now,” she said. “Before they stitch another circle.”

  Lenora turned to Vambasta.

  “Tell us everything,” she said. “Every detail.”

  Vambasta’s eyes flicked up—then away.

  Her hands twisted together.

  “They spoke like they were reading,” she said. “Like they were trained to say the same lines.”

  Lewd’s eyes narrowed.

  “What lines.”

  Vambasta swallowed.

  “They asked where the calamity book was,” she said. “But they didn’t look for it like thieves.”

  Seraphine’s gaze sharpened.

  “They looked at him like a subject,” Vambasta whispered.

  Vemi shifted, blocking her again when her voice started to shake.

  Mia’s small claws dug into the table edge.

  Sphinx’s ears pinned back.

  Lenora’s voice stayed steady.

  “And the circle?”

  Vambasta’s breath hitched.

  “It looked stitched into the ground,” she said. “Like thread made into runes.”

  Seraphine’s fingers tapped once.

  “Stitchborne,” she said under her breath.

  Lewd’s head snapped.

  “You know that word.”

  Seraphine didn’t deny it.

  “I know the shape of programs,” she said. “And I know what elves do when they want to pretend they’re clean.”

  She looked at Lenora.

  “You want your friend back,” she said. “So do I.”

  Lenora’s eyes hardened.

  “Why.”

  Seraphine’s answer was simple.

  “Because I owe him,” she said. “And because if the Elven Empire can make copies of calamity users, they won’t stop at your party.”

  A pause.

  Then, colder.

  “They’ll come for my kingdom next.”

  The inn shifted into motion.

  Team Two stayed.

  Vespera sat back, one ring catching the light like a warning.

  Mina didn’t let go of Kara.

  Vambasta stayed behind Vemi, breathing shallow, eyes tracking every footstep.

  Seraphine stood at the head of the table.

  Her people waited for orders.

  Team One gathered at the door.

  Lenora checked her weapon.

  Lewd rolled her shoulders once.

  Mia and Sphinx stayed by her side—exactly where Derpy would’ve put them if he were here.

  Ace moved like she owned the road.

  Seraphine’s voice followed them.

  “Bring him back,” she said.

  Lenora didn’t turn.

  “We will,” she said.

  Lewd’s voice came after.

  “And if we find the ones who made those copies—”

  She didn’t finish.

  She didn’t need to.

  The door opened.

  Cold air hit their faces.

  And the first move of Book Four began.

  Echoes in the Stitchwork — 2.5: Ace on the Road (Revised)

  The road didn’t care who you were.

  It stayed cold either way.

  Ace stepped into it like she was stepping onto a stage she already knew—shoulders loose, hands empty, weight balanced just wrong enough that anyone watching would underestimate her.

  She didn’t look back at the inn.

  She never did.

  Lenora walked a few paces ahead, eyes forward, hand near her weapon but not touching it. The kind of posture that meant she was already planning three fights ahead.

  Lewd moved quieter than the road deserved, boots landing where the ground was already broken.

  Mia and Sphinx flanked her, close, deliberate, exactly where Derpy would’ve put them if he were here.

  Ace clocked that.

  Good instincts, she thought. Or good orders.

  Either way, it made things cleaner.

  They didn’t speak at first.

  That was fine.

  Ace preferred silence—it made liars itch.

  After a mile, she broke it.

  “You should know,” she said casually, “Seraphine doesn’t send me out unless she expects blood.”

  Lenora didn’t turn.

  “We expect it too.”

  Ace’s mouth pulled slightly.

  That wasn’t bravado.

  That was grief wearing armor.

  Lewd glanced sideways. “You worked with those copies before?”

  Ace shook her head. “No. I’ve seen the paperwork.”

  That got Lenora to slow.

  “Paperwork.”

  Ace nodded. “Design trees. Iteration chains. Cost-to-output ratios.”

  She rolled her shoulders once, loosening tension.

  “They don’t call them people,” she added. “They call them returns.”

  Mia’s small claws flexed.

  Sphinx’s ears flattened.

  Lewd’s voice dropped. “And Derpy?”

  Ace’s tone stayed level. “Listed as ‘viable asset.’”

  That did it.

  Lenora stopped.

  Turned.

  Her eyes were sharp enough to cut glass.

  “You knew.”

  Ace met her stare without flinching.

  “I suspected,” she said. “Seraphine confirmed it when you didn’t come back with him.”

  A pause.

  Then Ace added, quieter, “If it helps—he changed the math.”

  Lenora frowned. “How.”

  Ace looked down the road.

  “Assets don’t break chains,” she said. “They don’t make commanders hesitate.”

  Her jaw tightened slightly.

  “He did both.”

  Lewd exhaled slowly.

  “That’s not comforting.”

  Ace shrugged. “It’s not meant to be. It’s meant to be accurate.”

  They resumed walking.

  The forest shifted around them—denser, quieter, threaded with something wrong.

  Not magic exactly.

  Pattern.

  Ace felt it like pressure behind the eyes.

  “Circles,” she said suddenly.

  Lenora nodded. “Stitched.”

  “Thought so.” Ace knelt, brushing dirt aside with two fingers. “They’re moving in modular arcs. Short hops. Pre-loaded exits.”

  Lewd’s mouth tightened. “So we’re late.”

  Ace stood again.

  “No,” she said. “We’re on time.”

  She glanced back once—toward the inn, toward Seraphine, toward a board already half on fire.

  “They’re testing him,” Ace continued. “Not breaking him. Not yet.”

  Lewd looked up. “How do you know?”

  Ace’s expression hardened.

  “Because if they wanted him gone,” she said, “we’d already be too late.”

  The road bent.

  The air thinned.

  Somewhere ahead, thread touched ground.

  Ace’s hand twitched—ready now.

  “Next circle’s close,” she said. “From here on out, we move like we’re already seen.”

  Lenora drew her weapon.

  Lewd rolled her neck once.

  Mia and Sphinx fell into step without being told.

  Ace’s mouth pulled again—small, certain.

  “Good,” she said. “Let’s go collect a debt.”