Day 308 Writing Short Stories

Coalescent

Matter transfusion always caused her a headache. It was a delicate business that required full concentration. One wrong move and something could blow up or worse: shift reality to the wrong tracks. She had seen the latter several times, and it never amounted to anything pretty. Occasionally, it meant that demons from the other realms were let loose, and she and other transmitters would have to run around and hunt them down. Occasionally, the air around the matter transfusion shifted in the wrong direction, losing oxygen or other elements, creating spots no one should step on.

Today, she was shifting the elements of already coalescent material made of void crystals, copper, and ethereal metals. It was the hardest substance known to anyone. Something to make swords and armor from. But it didn’t quite work, hence her tinkering with it. It kept breaking instead of bending.

She used her stone to surge power into the elements to shift their composition. The substance trembled, then began rippling as it liquefied into lava from the basalt-like structure it had taken. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. It wasn’t meant to do so.

She glanced around. The other apprentices hadn’t seen her mistake. Not yet, at least. The shop floor was too busy. They were working on their own problems. The master was at the front shop. A manufacturer had come in to buy transmuted matter.

She calculated the odds of using the stone to reverse her process. It was slim, but it was better than this. The substance was already eating the iron pot it was in. Soon it would spill to the floor, and there only the Druids knew where.

The stone she used shone bright pink, flashing as she forced it to allocate all its power to the iron pot and its contents. The stone died, turning obsidian black. She couldn’t use it anymore. But the void crystal, copper, and ethereal metal cocktail had reverted.

She glanced around and found some of the other apprentices staring at her and her dead stone staff. They said nothing. They hurried back to their experiments. All of them knew that it could have been them.

Death Date

A woman falls in love with a man who has just shy of a year left to live. I skipped this one.

Create

What is the use of life if not exploring or creating? What is the use of life if not for thinking? Yet, here we are in the dullest century, exploring none, creating no value. We rush to perfect our bodies and material lives, only to stand in meaninglessness.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I’m not sure what to write here today. My mind is drawing a blank. I think I will head into the woods after work to listen to the spring birds sing their songs.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a day of creation and exploration!