A goose inherits the town bank and immediately eats its debts. The accountant investigating this financial disaster finds that every forgiven loan hatches into an actual possibility, including one future the mayor has spent decades preventing from arriving.
A disgraced bridge builder inherits a title that exists only on the unbuilt half of a crossing. Completing the bridge would let an ancient army claim the living shore.
A salvage vessel's adult intelligence is named heir to a failing planetary monarchy. Its crew must decide whether a ship can accept a crown without making every passenger a subject.
After her father's funeral, a repairwoman inherits an umbrella that everyone in his town claims belonged to them. Each claimant remembers a different, kinder man.