Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Ceremony and the Silence
The Casita was usually a riot of sound: Luisa’s footsteps thudding the rhythm of her strength, Isabela’s florals rustling like silk, and Dolores’s faint but constant reception of the village. Tonight, however, the house held a collective breath, waiting for Antonio.
Mirabel watched from the shadows near her mother, her fingers gripping her tío(uncle) Agustín’s hand until her knuckles went white. She knew the sequence: the candle, the Abuela, the knob, and then—the door. When Antonio touched the knob and his door shimmered to life with jaguars and tapirs, a wave of glorious relief washed over the family. The magic was safe.
But for Mirabel, the moment was also a sharp reminder of her own failed ceremony years ago. She was smiling, but it was brittle. As the party wound down, she wandered back to the dark nursery, a familiar ache settling in her chest. She needed a new purpose, a new way to help.
She didn't know the answer would arrive in the form of something entirely un-Madrigal. Under her bed, jammed deep into the corner, she found it: a small, smooth piece of silver, triangular metal that pulsed with a faint, almost inaudible hum. It was the size of her palm and felt impossibly light. It had simply appeared.