The Mapmaker’s Vanishing North

Back at Atlas House, Master Orra was waiting.

“I erased Northbank,” she admitted. The council had threatened to close Atlas House and replace its living maps with obedient printed ones. “I thought one hidden neighborhood was better than no honest maps at all.”

Ivo wanted to be furious. Instead, he saw how tired she looked.

“A quiet lie can protect something,” she said, “and still be a lie.”