by Strange Atlas
Marygold Papertrail is having a bad morning. Her student is late. Again. The principal knows exactly which student she chose and is judging her accordingly. And the enormous red-marked soldier assigned to their group has somehow ended up sitting across from her at a chessboard while Mary desperately attempts to behave like a functional adult. Then her ring starts glowing. Something in the soldier’s armor answers. Mary’s flat, paper-like body erupts into a towering mass of crystal and living water. His dark visor fills with violet constellations. And he asks her a question she cannot answer. Why you? In a world where people can look sketched, painted, sculpted, elemental, or rendered with impossible realism—and nobody considers that unusual—Mary thought she understood the rules of reality. Apparently, there are rules she hasn’t met yet.
