I--- Adobe Illustrator 2020 -

Mira saved. She closed the laptop. On the screen, before it went dark, the Pen Tool cursor blinked twice—not a command, this time, but a goodbye.

It was her. Perfect. Finished.

“You’re rushing,” she told herself. i--- Adobe Illustrator 2020

“Glitch,” she muttered, and pressed Delete.

The entire face collapsed into a pile of disconnected paths. Then, in the center of the carnage, the —her own cursor—moved. Not under her hand. Mira saved

The portrait transformed. The client’s stern jaw softened into her mother’s gentle chin. The sharp eyes grew warm, crinkled at the edges. A strand of gray hair she had drawn a thousand times and deleted a thousand times reappeared, curling behind one ear.

“Okay,” Mira whispered. “One line.” It was her

Mira laughed, a short, nervous burst. “A haunted software update?”