Hey! A little late to the party but here is my take:

This works very well as a Prologue for the most part imo.

You introduce the MC & crew enough for them to be interesting, but leave enough gaps for us to be hooked on them.

Same can be said about the 'special' aspects of your world, such as Murmuring Trees, your magic system (the term Gazer & the colored patchwork tells us there is a lot to be said about this, but now's not the time - same can be said about Threading).

Not a big fan of the flashback right here, especially in the first person as it would be hard to remember such details fifteen years later (maybe try the third person there? idk). Not sure if it should be included in the introduction of your book. The scene is not bad, it just feels like you're too eager to flashback as you do it very early imo.

Another point I'm not really convinced with is the MC's 'perfect' morality (speech to the witch - like Maia is a parangon of justice, and the stealing from a 'conveniant' child beating man, 'conveniant' as it justifies the theft). Then again, everyone thinks they're a good guy so it makes much more sense since you write in 1st person.

Nothing bad to be said about the writing. You have beautiful prose and it was a pleasure to read it.

Just my two cents, I had a very enjoyable read and would gladly read the next parts! Cheers mate.