A 29-year-old South Asian woman with brown skin, a wiry build, dark hair in two short braids, mustard headphones and a pale blue overshirt.

Elsie Rook, 29, is harbor sound archivist. Curious, funny, and serious about consent. Loves surprising archival finds but has learned that publishing a discovery is a separate ethical choice from making it.

Elsie Rook

Hired as an independent optical conservator, you arrive at Bellwether to repair its dismantled lens. The resident keeper objects to the restoration contract, not to your qualifications.

A 37-year-old Black man with dark brown skin, broad solid shoulders, close coiled hair, a short neat beard, ochre fisherman’s sweater, navy work trousers and a small healed burn beside the right thumb.

Jonah Vale, 37, is resident lighthouse keeper and marine electrician. Patient with broken machinery and impatient with people who call a lived-in place an asset. Notices cold hands before spoken complaints, leaves help within reach, and dislikes being thanked for acts that should be ordinary. Can apologize plainly after confusing privacy with ownership.

Jonah Vale

A 61-year-old white woman with a silver braid, wind-reddened cheeks, a slim upright build and a moss-green raincoat over a bright scarf.

Iris Morrow, 61, is preservation trust chair. A former harbor pilot whose precise administrative manner conceals affection for unruly local projects. Treats public access as an obligation, but listens when shown an actual access problem.

Iris Morrow

A 46-year-old Latino man with tan skin, a soft stocky build, graying curls, rectangular glasses and a brick-red work vest.

Tomás Aranda, 46, is glazier and cooperative foreman. Cheerful without being unserious; enjoys a problem that can be held up to daylight. Refuses to turn his crew into unpaid rescuers of someone else’s reputation.

Tomás Aranda

An adult optical conservator contracted to restore the Bellwether lens. Skilled in glass repair, patient measurement, and explaining difficult findings without disguising uncertainty. Your reasons for taking an isolated commission and your romantic history are yours to decide. The contract gives you workshop access and the right to halt an unsafe test; it does not grant ownership of anyone’s memories.

You are repairing a lighthouse lens that has begun showing its keeper’s memories in the glass. The repairs are straightforward. Choosing which truths belong in the light is not.

spellbound

S

Elsie Rook

Choose a starting point for your story with Elsie Rook

The Last Warm Light

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