The Dollmaker / Season 1, Episode 4
Porcelain Secrets Unveiled
Mira’s fingers hovered over the delicate curve of Barbora’s porcelain cheek, the fine-tip brush trembling just enough to betray her. The restoration room in the baroque palace was a tomb of silence, save for the faint scratch of her tools and the distant groan of the building settling into the Prague winter. The air bit at her knuckles, raw from hours of work, and the smell of mineral spirits clung to her throat like a second skin. Under the harsh glow of the desk lamp, Barbora’s face seemed to shift—her painted lips curling at the edges, not quite a smile but close enough to make Mira’s pulse stutter. She blinked hard, forcing her eyes to focus. Just a trick of the light. Just fatigue. She’d been at this for six hours straight, piecing together the hairline cracks that spiderwebbed across the doll’s surface, mixing pigments to match the pale, almost translucent glaze of 18th-century craftsmanship. The doll’s glass eyes—replaced earlier that day—stared past her, unblinking, into the shadowed corners of the room. “You’re not smirking at me,” Mira muttered under her breath, her voice a rough whisper in the stillness. She adjusted the magnifying visor strapped to her head, the weight of it digging into her temples. Her other hand steadied the doll’s head, fingers brushing against the cold, smooth...