The Mapmaker’s Vanishing North

On the morning of the Midsummer Survey, the Great City Map did something no map had ever done.

Its compass rose shuddered. The golden arrow spun past east, west, and south, then stopped at an empty place where north should have been.

Master Orra pressed it flat. “Old paper,” she said too quickly.

But beneath Ivo’s fingertips, the map beat like a frightened heart.