“Workshop space,” I said. “Room for both of us to work simultaneously without getting in each other’s way. Good ventilation for the compound mixing. Natural light for the detail work.”

  “Storage for materials. Proper storage, not the makeshift shelves we’ve been using at Erasmus’ shop.” Felix pulled out his notebook. “Temperature control for the sensitive compounds. Humidity management for the paper stock.”

  I nodded. “A customer area. Somewhere comfortable for consultations. People who commission custom ward work want to feel like they’re getting personal attention.”

  “Display cases for standard products. Quick-sale items for customers who don’t need custom work.”

  Rose listened to us build our vision piece by piece. Her expression held something I couldn’t quite identify. Interest, certainly. But something else underneath.

  “What about living space?” she asked.

  Felix and I exchanged glances.

  “Upstairs,” Felix said. “That’s always been the plan. Separate apartments for Marcus and Sarah, and for Katherine and me. Connected to the workshop but private enough for actual lives.”

  “The building would need to be substantial,” I added. “Two full residential floors above the commercial space. Room to grow.”

  “There’d be room for five,” Rose said quietly.

  The words hung in the air. Felix looked at me. I looked at Rose. She met my gaze with an expression that tried for casual and did not quite succeed.

  “Rose.” I leaned forward. “Would you want to join us?”

  Her composure cracked. Just for a moment. Just enough to show how much the question meant.

  “I thought about asking.” Her voice came out smaller than usual. “But I didn’t want to assume. You and Felix have your own plans. Your own partnerships. I’m just the little sister.”

  “You’re an artificer apprentice under one of the best masters in the kingdom. You’re learning the merchant trade from Father. You designed resonance chambers that changed how an entire region communicates.” I reached across the carriage and took her hand. “You’re not just anything, Rose. You’re family. You’re part of what we’re building.”

  “But I still have a year left with Master Aldwin. I can’t leave my apprenticeship unfinished.”

  “Then we plan for a year from now. We build a space that has room for you when you’re ready.” I squeezed her hand. “Room for five. Marcus and Sarah. Felix and Katherine. And Rose.”

  Rose’s eyes glistened. She blinked rapidly and looked out the window.

  “I’d like that,” she said quietly. “I’d like that very much.”

  Felix smiled from his seat across from us. “Katherine’s been hoping you’d agree. She has ideas about converting one of the upper rooms into a proper artificer’s workshop. Temperature controlled with good ventilation and space for the delicate mechanism work you do.”

  “Katherine thought about this?”

  “Katherine thinks about everything. You’ve seen her lists.” Felix’s smile widened. “She said, and I quote, ‘Rose is too talented to waste her abilities in someone else’s shop. If we’re building something, she should be part of it.’”

  Rose wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Katherine said that?”

  The carriage rolled on. Outside, the countryside shifted from the unfamiliar terrain of Keldrath toward landscapes I recognized. We had crossed the border sometime during Rose’s wedding planning assault and now traveled through Valdris territory. Home grew closer with every mile.

  “Tell me about the network,” Rose said after a comfortable silence. “Thomas’s reports are thorough, but they lack context. What did it feel like to use the communication system across such distances?”

  “Strange at first.” I thought back to the check-ins from Dunmarch and Veldros. “Hearing Thomas’s voice when you know he’s hundreds of miles away. The technology works exactly as we designed it, but using it still feels like magic.”

  “It is magic,” Rose said. “Just magic we understand.”

  “That’s what makes it strange. We built it. We know how every component functions. But standing in a Keldrath town square and hearing Thomas ask about our progress feels impossible even when you know exactly why it works.”

  “The impossible becoming routine.” Rose nodded slowly. “That’s the goal, isn’t it? Making things so reliable that people forget they’re remarkable.”

  “Father would say that’s the mark of good commerce. Products so dependable that customers take them for granted.”

  “Father would also say there’s a profit margin in reliability.” Rose smiled. “He’s not wrong. Our network is going to change everything. Communication. Coordination. Commerce itself. Whoever controls the infrastructure controls the flow of information.”

  “Which is why we’re not charging for basic access,” Felix added. “The network belongs to the communities it serves. We maintain it and expand it, but we don’t own it.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “That seems a little idealistic, doesn’t it?”

  “Practical,” I corrected. “If we tried to monetize the network directly, someone with more resources would build a competing system and undercut us. By making it a public good, we become essential partners instead of targets.”

  Rose considered this. “Merchant thinking applied to magical infrastructure. Father would be proud.”

  “Father is proud. He told me so before we left for Keldrath.” I paused. “In his own way, which involved a detailed analysis of the economic implications rather than actual words of affirmation.”

  “That’s how Fairwinds express love. Through comprehensive financial projections.”

  Felix laughed. “The Penwrights express it through disappointed silences and formal correspondence. I’m not sure which is worse.”

  “At least you know where you stand with a financial projection,” Rose said. “Numbers don’t lie.”

  The sun had begun its descent when Felix mentioned the building.

  “There’s a property on the southern end of Millbrook,” he said. “It was vacated about six months ago. The previous owners moved to the capital for business reasons.”

  “I don’t remember hearing about that.”

  “It happened while we were dealing with the dungeon crisis. Thomas mentioned it once, but we were too focused on other things to pay attention.” Felix pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I asked him to send details before we left for Keldrath. I drew a sketch.”

  The paper contained a rough sketch of a building with three stories. It had street frontage on the main commercial road, and back access to an alley for deliveries. The proportions suggested exactly the kind of space we had been describing.

  “It’s perfect,” Rose said. She studied the sketch with professional interest. “The ground floor layout would work for both workshop and customer areas. The upper floors have enough square footage for multiple residential units.”

  “We don’t know if it’s available,” I cautioned. “Or what the asking price might be. Or who even owns it now.”

  “Details to investigate when we arrive.” Felix tucked the paper back into his bag. “But it’s worth looking into. The location alone makes it valuable.”

  The conversation drifted to other topics. Millbrook gossip that Rose had gathered from her correspondence. Updates on Thomas’s research and Tom’s smithing projects. Speculation about what Katherine had planned for Felix’s homecoming.

  But my thoughts kept returning to the building on the southern end of town. To the sketch Felix had shown us. To the possibility that our someday dream might become a real address with real walls and real potential.

  Room for five.

  The words echoed in my mind as the carriage carried us toward home.

  Millbrook appeared as the morning sun crested the hills.

  The familiar silhouette of the town rose against the brightening sky. The mill wheel turned in its eternal rhythm. Smoke rose from chimneys as families started their day. The smell of fresh bread drifted on the breeze.

  “It looks different when you’re thinking about living here,” Rose said softly. She leaned toward the window. “More real somehow.”

  “It’s home,” I said.

  Somewhere in that cluster of buildings, Sarah had already started her morning at the bakery. The ovens would be hot by now and the first loaves cooling on the racks. Maybe she thought about me the way I thought about her for weeks.

  Today there would be reunions and embraces. Stories to tell and questions to answer. Katherine would claim Felix immediately. Sarah would be waiting. Tom and Thomas and everyone else who had become family over the past year would gather to hear what had happened.

  The driver called out that we would arrive within the hour.

  Felix gathered his things and Rose straightened her travel bag. I watched Millbrook grow larger through the carriage window and felt something settle in my chest.

  More than relief at returning or anticipation of seeing Sarah. Something deeper that felt like the beginning of a new chapter in a story that had only just started.

  Room for five.

  A building on the southern end of town.

  A future waiting to be built.

  The carriage rolled on toward home.

  Chapter 45

  Small World

  The royal carriage drew attention.

  People stopped in the streets to stare as we rolled into Millbrook. The royal crest on the doors caught the morning light. The polished wood and brass fittings gleamed. The matched horses moved with the precision of animals trained in the capital’s finest stables.

  “So much for a quiet return,” Felix murmured.

  “You’d think they’d be used to it by now.” I watched another face appear in a window. “This is what, the fourth time a royal carriage has dropped us off?”

  “Fifth, if you count the one after the dungeon.”

  “Still draws a crowd.”

  “Royal crests tend to do that.” Felix shrugged. “At least this time we’re not covered in monster blood.”

  Word spread faster than we traveled. By the time we reached the town square, a small crowd had gathered. Familiar faces turned toward us with expressions that ranged from curiosity to excitement. Someone shouted my name. Others joined in.

  The driver brought the carriage to a smooth stop near the Brass Monkey. I opened the door and stepped out into the morning air.

  Millbrook smelled like home. Millbrook smelled like home. Like wood smoke and baking bread and the earthy scent of the river that powered the mill.The sounds were familiar. The mill wheel creaked in its steady rhythm and merchants called to passersby and the town went about its ordinary business.

  Then Sarah pushed through the crowd.

  She wore her bakery apron over a simple dress with flour dusting her sleeves and her hair escaping its braid in several places. She looked like she had run directly from the ovens without stopping to make herself presentable.

  She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

  “Marcus.” She stopped an arm’s length away and her eyes searched my face.

  The distance between us disappeared. Sarah stepped into my arms and I held her close. She smelled of bread and cinnamon and something that was simply her. The weeks of separation collapsed into nothing. The letters and longing and endless miles of distance all fell away.

  “I missed you,” she said against my shoulder.

  “I missed you too.” The words felt inadequate. I had written them in letters a dozen times. Saying them face to face meant something different. “Every day.”

  “Good.” She pulled back enough to look at me. Her smile carried warmth and relief and something deeper. “Don’t leave again for a while.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Try harder.”

  Behind us, Felix had been claimed by Katherine. She had appeared from somewhere with lists already in hand. Questions tumbled out of her faster than Felix could answer them. Had he made the decisions? Did Rose really help? What about the processional music? The candle placement?

  Felix looked overwhelmed and happy and slightly terrified. The expression suited him.

  Rose descended from the carriage and immediately found Katherine. The two of them embraced like old friends reunited. They had met before, of course. But something had shifted. Rose was no longer just the little sister visiting from the capital. She was a collaborator. An ally in the endless campaign to organize Felix’s life.

  “She solved the flower question in five minutes,” Felix told Katherine. “Five minutes. I’d been stuck on it for weeks.”

  Katherine turned to Rose with an expression of profound gratitude. “I knew I liked you.”

  “It was just logic.” Rose shrugged with false modesty. “Once you eliminate the impossible options, the right answer becomes obvious.”

  “That’s what I keep telling him. He refuses to eliminate anything.”

  “Because every option has merit,” Felix protested. “How am I supposed to choose between things that all have merit?”

  “By choosing,” Katherine and Rose said simultaneously.

  They looked at each other and laughed. The sound carried genuine delight. All those letters had built something between them. Rose had found an ally. Katherine had found more reinforcements.

  “You two are going to be terrifying together,” Felix said. “I can already tell.”

  “We prefer efficient,” Rose said.

  “That’s exactly what Marcus calls it. I don’t believe either of you.”

  Katherine linked her arm through Rose’s. “Come. Tell me everything about the wedding homework. Every decision you helped him make. I want to know exactly how much progress we’ve achieved.”

  They walked toward the bakery together. Felix watched them go with an expression caught between relief and concern.

  “She’s staying with Sarah’s family for the next two weeks,” I said. “Mother and Father arranged it. They thought Rose would enjoy helping with the wedding planning.”

  “Rose will enjoy systematically reorganizing Katherine’s entire approach to wedding planning.” Felix shook his head. “I’m not sure whether to be grateful or worried.”

  “Be both. It’s safer.”

  Tom appeared from the direction of his smithy. He must have spotted the carriage from his workshop window. Soot streaked his face and his leather apron still hung from his shoulders. He crossed the square in long strides and clasped Felix’s arm in greeting.

  “You’re back. Both of you.” He turned to me. “In one piece?”

  “More or less.”

  “Good enough.” His smile broadened. “Thomas has been insufferable. Checking the network every hour for updates. Running calculations on your travel time. You’d think he’d never had friends go on a trip before.”

  “Where is Thomas?” I asked.

  “The workshop. He wanted to come but he’s in the middle of something delicate. Said to tell you he’d see you tonight.”

  “Tonight works.”

  The crowd began to disperse as the initial excitement faded. People returned to their business. The royal carriage no longer seemed quite so remarkable once they realized it had only delivered familiar faces.

  Master Whitmore joined us at the Brass Monkey an hour later.

  Our mentor looked older than I remembered. The grey in his hair had spread. The lines around his eyes had deepened. But his gaze remained sharp and his posture retained the precision that had always defined him.

  “Journeymen.” He nodded to Felix and me. “You’ve caused quite a stir.”

  “We didn’t ask for the royal carriage,” Felix said.

  “I meant in Keldrath.” Whitmore settled into a chair across from us. The tavern’s afternoon crowd gave us space. “Word travels through Guild channels. You saved a prince and broke a trade conspiracy. That kind of work draws attention.”

  “The helpful kind or the dangerous kind?”

  “Both.” Whitmore accepted his drink from the server. “Prince Adrian has been vocal about your contributions. So has Prince Duncan. When two royal houses speak well of the same journeymen, people take notice.”

  “We were just doing our job.”

  “You were doing far more than your job, and everyone knows it.” Whitmore studied us over the rim of his cup. “The question now is what you do with the reputation you’ve built. Doors will open. Opportunities will present themselves. Some of them will be genuine. Others will be traps.”

  “Traps?”

  “You’ve made enemies. The consortium may be broken, but the people who funded it are still out there. They’ll remember the glyphwrights who cost them their operation.”

  “We didn’t set out to make enemies.”

  “No one does. But you disrupted something that took years to build. That kind of loss breeds resentment.” Whitmore drank slowly. “Edmund Gray is cooperating with Duncan’s people, but he was just the face of it. The disease runs deeper than one man.”

  “So we watch our backs.”

  “You watch your backs and you build carefully. The shop you’re planning and the partnerships you’re forming matter more now than ever.” He set down his cup. “But that’s a concern for another day. Today you’re home. Today you should rest and reconnect with the people who missed you.”

  Sarah’s hand found mine under the table. I squeezed gently.

  “How was the network while we were gone?” I asked. “Thomas mentioned he was busy.”

  “Busier than expected. The eastern anchors you established before Keldrath have been performing admirably. Several villages have started using the system for coordinating trade schedules. It’s changing how they do business.”

  “That was always the goal.”

  “Goals and reality often diverge. Yours aligned.” Whitmore finished his drink. “The mayor has mentioned wanting to discuss formal municipal support for the network. She sees the value in reliable communication infrastructure.”