The marbling tray

Original fiction extract.

The bookbinder set a shallow tray beside the window. Its surface looked almost motionless until she touched it with the first drop of colour. I leaned forward, expecting the drop to sink. Instead, a blue circle spread outwards and remained on the surface. She added red, then a narrow streak of yellow, leaving the colours separate for a moment.

A small archipelago had appeared in the tray. Each island carried a bright coastline, pushing gently against its neighbours without quite losing its border. The bookbinder drew a fine point through them. The islands lengthened into slow flames, their tips following a wind which existed only in her hand. One blue patch curled around a thread of red, making a little whirlpool that did not move any water. I tried to remember the first circles, but the surface had already become an elaborate disagreement with its own beginning.

She lowered a sheet of paper, waited, and lifted it by two corners. The pattern came with it. In the tray, a few broken traces remained, thin and suddenly unimportant. On the paper, the blue curl held still. I watched it while she laid the sheet aside, surprised that something which had seemed so restless could be carried away without changing again.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to describe the changing pattern in the marbling tray.

Write about 200 to 250 words.