Tag: fantasy

curse of the magi 1

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The cards flew around the poker table as the Wizards silently reveled in their minds, darkened by years of maltreatment and oppression. Nobody talked. Nobody wanted to. But the cards were dealt, and they were ready to play poker.

Violeta was first. She glanced at her cards, but before she could bet, Thor gave her a double push. He had pocket aces, could she really have better? She didn’t; she had a 2 and a 7 of different suits: not good enough for a shield, and Violeta was a 29, not strong enough
for a bluff like that.

She folded.

Thor was next. His pocket aces gave him a double shield: not even Rei’s two spades could get him to fold, but he would wait for the flop to raise. Gerhardt had a 3 and an 8 but enough brute strength to bluff, and foolishly, he did. Elia hardly used any shield or push
with her king and queen of hearts, but despite Thor’s pocket aces and Gerhardt’s unrefined bluff, she called Gerhardt’s raise and made it to the flop. As she dealt the flop, Gerhardt shook his head.

“I could really use a smoke,” he remarked. Elia laughed.

“Shit, Gerhardt, only rich people smoke.” He shrugged.

“I’m rich enough.” The poker table lapsed into a stony, cavernous silence. The words in every downcast eye seemed to scream, don’t make me say it! But Gerhardt foolishly waited for an answer. Elia smoothed over the silence with a rough compromise.

“But you’re a wizard,” she answered, yet the dreaded words still rung in the
cavernous silence: You’re not a person.

pentacle 3

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PART 1 – THREE OF SWORDS (cont.)

Abby rested her head on her hands. She watched a small group of children screaming outside the coffee shop window. She may have only been just out of high school but she already had a feeling that she had missed out on life, that her nose was too far buried in books, school books, fantasy books, romance novels, and she had missed something critical that couldn’t be found in those pages.

“Getting contemplative again?” asked Angel from behind. Abby shook her head.

“It’s nothing,” she responded.

“It’s not nothing,” Angel replied, “but we don’t have to talk about it.” Abby frowned, always a bit peeved at how quickly her friend Angel could see right through her.

“Got your favorite,” Angel said, setting an Americano in front of Abby and sticking a straw into her own sugary concoction. Abby leaned closer.

“Are those…sprinkles?” She asked.

“They are!” Angel grinned and continued to happily suck up the multicolored excuse for coffee. “So,” said Angel, slamming her drink dramatically on the table, “did you hear about Adrian’s uncle.” Abby looked up.

“Adrian’s uncle?”

“Yeah,” Angel said, “you know, Bahir?”

“I heard that he died,” Abby respond looking deep into her drink.

“Committed suicide,” Angel corrected around a swig of sugar. “Apparently he shot himself. In the head.” Abby didn’t look up.

“That doesn’t seem -“

“Like him at all?” Angel cut her off. “I know! Do you think they did an autopsy?” Abby was beginning to feel sick.

“I don’t know…” she faltered. Angel’s demeanor softened.

“We shouldn’t be talking about this like this,” she said more soberly. “Bahir was amazing.” Abby felt her eyes prickle with tears.

“Yeah, he was,” she said softly. The earth trembled softly.

“Huh,” said Angel, looking around her, “a tremor.”

there are monsters in small places 6

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It’s important to keep in mind that sirens are not beautiful. They don’t even sing beautifully. They just know the right notes to get you to throw yourself into them. They know how to convince you that the world’s a shit show and that everything will be okay, just come to them, they know how to make it better, just sink yourself and they’ll save you.

Sirens are almost never beautiful, and the sirens of Brightview are no different. Hazel sees them before anyone else

“Look, Ray,” she brags, “sea monsters.” Ray gets the balance back in his tottering legs and puts his hand on his hips.

“Those are sirens,” he shows off. Hazel puts her hands on her hips too. “Yeah? Then how come they aren’t singing?”

there are monsters in small places 5

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Ezrah as long as he had lived in Brightview had never seen the top of Deadman’s Boulder – even though Evander would scramble to the top ever since he was seven and Ezrah was three, even though ever since then Evander would sneer down at Ezrah.

“Coming up?” Ezrah would not respond.

“What are you, scared? Do you think there are…monsters up here?” Ezrah still thought there were monsters under his bed, and even though Evander didn’t think that, Ezrah would sleep much better once the monsters decided to move out.

“Monsters?” Ezrah whispered. Thinking exactly of the variety that lived under his bed.

“Oh, yes,” Evander grinned, “big scary ones.” His cruelness made Ezrah feel alone. “Are you gonna come up or are you gonna be a sissy?” Ezrah shook his head and shrank back to be alone somewhere else, every time really convinced that there were monsters up there, big scary ones.

That’s why Ezrah was immediately jealous when he found Ros at the top of Deadman’s Boulder only three weeks since she had come to Brightview. The edge of his voice cut towards her through the wind.

“What are you doing up there? You know there are monsters,” he snapped. “Big scary ones,” he added, only half convinced of it himself. Ros did not get angry at him. She was silent like she had joined the soft green moss lining this rock.

“No there’s not,” she responded after being moss for a long time. “There are sirens.” Ezrah was about to start high school and had long since stopped believing that there were monsters hiding in the jagged peaks, but he had never considered sirens, and he thought had heard something from the peak of the boulder that he could not see. “Come see,” Ros invited. Ezrah paused with his foot on a pedal-like out hang for a second he heard Evander instead of her. “Are you coming?” she asked and the moment broke like water over the boulder.