“A splinter.” Maria holds it out to show me. I make a motion to take it from her with my remaining whole hand, and she nods. The splinter is long enough to be one of my absent fingers, and it takes two tries to pull it free. A drop of blood wells up in its path. “My mother used to kiss my cuts.” She stares at her own blood idly, remembering home or food or what I do not know.

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Read “The Alchemist's Feather” by Erin Cashier, in Issue #25

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Erin Cashier is a registered nurse in the Bay Area. She's been published by Shimmer, Abyss & Apex, Writers of the Future, Escape Pod, Podcastle, Neil Clarke's Upgraded anthology, and numerous times in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, including "The Alchemist's Feather" in BCS #25 and the Best of BCS, Year One anthology.

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