Posted by cassowary on Feb 13, 2026
Below is a short story by member Phoenix for Flash Fic Friday in February
During the colder parts of a year, the skyline of this city does something amazing. Stars in the aether streak across the sky, shining even through factory smoke.
It was easiest to see down here, near the docks. As the buildings duck out of the way of airships, the glow of the sky only becomes brighter. And yet… Such a wondrous phenomena and the Black-Eye wasn’t even glancing up into the sky.
He was instead looking around the street, at travelers and tourists distracted at the sky. The mark should be around here somewhere, rumors were swirling in the catacombs about a rich Visitor with little sense and only some caution.
Easy prey, good payday, though something in it triggered Black-Eye’s intuition. The hairs that raise on the back of his neck that this seemed… Too easy. Still, he had to get food this week, pay off the mister for a night, feed that blasted spider (as if he doesn’t love it), get replacement teeth, etcera. The usual dues and taxes of living, and even a few sovereigns off this Visitor would cover him for ‘yonks.
Best he could do? Keep his eyes out, his legs prepared to bolt, and have other tools that Doctor gave him at hand.
Speaking of the Visitor, if the rumors are right then he spotted them. In beautifully trimmed robes that seem to flow more than the water just a few meters away, and had the light bend around it to always be highlighted. There were no bad sides to the Visitor, merely sides where the robe hasn’t caught up to yet. Despite this, the robe still had visible pockets, and in one of them…
A glittering green gem, a rarity this side of the ocean. This wasn’t just a few-sovereign-type payday-- no this was like owning a castle to someone as poor as Black-Eye. If sold to some arcana merchant, some experimenter, hell one of the Tri-Academies (when they and he stopped bickering about resonance theory). Any and all of them would pay a mint out to get their mitts on it.
He approached from behind, slowly and at a diagonal as to seem like another crowd-goer. The closer he got, only the more intense the robes got, as even the ground the Visitor walked upon became golden steps. What was going on?
Drawing on what he learned in academia, the robe was clearly arcane. Seemingly, it replaced any need for self awareness with resonant embroidery. On a intellectual level Black-Eye respected the craft, but on a more feeling level it was annoying to deal with your mark seemingly never being in reach.
Colors bloomed as the streets fell away, only leaving rising golden steps as the Visitor marched forward. Blissfully lost in the world, contrasting Black-Eye’s growing frustration. It was a very, very good defense against some two-bit criminal, not to say Black-Eye wasn’t one. However, he had one up most two-bit criminals, arcane know-how and the technical skill required to… Manipulate it a bit.
Reaching out and whispering quietly, he spoke mathematically, holding a crystal in his other hand. Each word spoken casted a variety of spells- all very minor ones, barely perceptible except to the smallest of creatures (he whispered a quick apology to the local insect and trout population). With each spell, reality around him and the Visitor normalized, as the arcana around them was swept up and consumed. Meaning the robe simply had no power source to transform reality, leading to its glyphs failing.
All of this lead him closer, and closer. When in the range of being pick-pocketed, reality fully normalized. The Visitor noticed this, whispering something about “damned street witches” and straightening the robe. With a four-finger convincing (his fifth finger had gone the way of Lauritz, a small disagreement became painful separation) he had the gem, and at first the Visitor did not turn around.
But that’s because their guards, one with a rifle and another massive, instead set upon him. He did not waste a second when he heard the sounds of armor and shouting, he did not waste another moment blending in (not when his eyes would give him away, he forgot to bring his goggles), he simply ran. Softened leather boots echoed less than their harder metal boots, gracefully giving him the means to track them.
Unfortunately, they were gaining. Despite Gunner’s armaments and Massive’s sheer size, he could not solve this with speed alone. As he ducked into an alley, a quick peek behind him proved that much, but especially worrying was Gunner aiming their rifle. An obstacle fixed by some flash-powder thrown behind him, making Gunner to stumble and overcorrect. But a shot still rang out, causing a steel ball hit one of the walls next to Black-Eye, stumbling him and letting Massive lunge to catch him as he fell.
A bit of fast thinking saved this venture. He caught Massive’s ankles with a blunt knife-boot (a boot with a knife in the sole, illegal to possess or make), then a quick spin, and they were flat on the floor with Black-Eye getting back up. He then pushed himself back into a full sprint, cutting back into the streets as another gunshot misses him.
As the echoing of curses against Black-Eye and fate faded, he cut through the streets and ducked into a few other alleys. Heart failing to keep still, adrenaline still pumping, gem still held and gripped so tightly it cut into his hands. All mental checks came clear, he had escaped with something that had suspiciously low security for its sheer worth…
Perhaps (he had thought between dodging Watch patrols for unrelated reasons) the gem had been a fake? His remaining academia skills told him it was real, but maybe it was merely a fake, a decoy. A tracking scry and carvings, under the pretense that he would immediately bring this to procurers or other criminal elements. A clever ruse if so, and one that made more sense the more he thought about it…
Set up a rumor mill for a notoriously unobservant tourist, give the minimal security, track the gem when its stolen, bust a ring…
But that leaves the question:
What to do with it?
… Perhaps selling it to the Tri-Academies would be worth-it revenge.