Chapter 18Stones clattered loudly across the desk, their hoary old teacher standing above, pouring them out from a red velvet pouch, indifferent to where they fell, indifferent to the sound of their fall, their sole visible eye looking out at the children before them, each one surrounded by a sea of empty desks.
“Each of these stones has a letter carved upon it, a rune,” they announced, reaching down and snatching up the first stone they found, holding it up for all to see.
From where Miki sat, she could make out a small grey pebble smoothed over by the ocean waves, a sharp line with two descending branches. A thought crossed her mind, the idea that these symbols, these strange lines must have the same origin as the letters she used in everyday life, but such a thing seemed oblique to he
