Photo © Artycaptures
Haraea watched his hand for unexpected movement, but no demon possessed it except pain. Yesterday, half his body was charred. They soaked him in Carenna’s divine grace–any expense for the Taen’s remaining war-mages–until all was healed. Yet today, the hand hurt again.
Marli took the brunt of it. They buried her last night. A healer brought Haraea mead, cooing sympathy for his loss.
He’d studied for years to repay them for rescuing him. Other orphans were not so lucky. All those hours memorizing ancient phrases, practicing complicated gestures until they were second nature. Then yesterday, in the midst of casting, Haraea’s fingers had cramped, spasming uncontrollably.
They assumed Marli’s shield had failed. Nobody realized the blast originated behind the shield.
Their superior marched in. “Ready to return?”
I’m broken. I can’t trust myself.
If Haraea couldn’t cast, they’d give him a pike and send him down to fertilize a random battlefield. No, he’d have to find other healing, other drugs. Some longer-lasting cure.
I’m so sorry, Marli. It won’t happen again.
“Let’s go.”
Word count: 175. Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers flash fiction challenge. Thanks to Priceless Joy for hosting! Click here to see the other stories inspired by the prompt photo, and feel free to join in yourself!
Tales from Eneana 
Too late, I fear.
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Too late for Marli, indeed. And I’m afraid that despite Harraea’s promise to the contrary, it seems likely to happen again. Thanks for reading, James!
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Woo, spooky. You’re a wonderful storyteller. I am intrigued! What happened? What’s going to happen?
I got a little confused who “he” was throughout. The gender of the characters is not clear from the unfamiliar names. (which, by the way, are beautiful names). Maybe it’s that I missed some earlier stories, if so, sorry! Time to catch up!
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Thanks for letting me know the pronouns were confusing, Heather. All of the “he’s” refer to Haraea, the main character (Marli is female, and I never identified the supervisor, who only has that one line). I was trying to avoid starting every sentence with his name, but maybe I should go back and sprinkle it in a few more times. And no, you didn’t miss anything — if a story ever refers to characters from earlier stories, I always include links. What happened was that Haraea’s hand glitched out in the middle of a spell (arthritis maybe, or nerves), and he accidentally killed his partner and almost himself. But nobody knows, and if he admits his weakness, he’ll get demoted from war mage to army grunt, with a life expectancy of “next week.” What will probably happen is that he’ll get hooked on the magic version of opioid painkillers, trying to keep it from happening again, and end up having another accident anyway.
Glad you liked the story, thanks so much for reading!
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This is a great story really. I am amazed at your imagination to think of something so unreally real! Fantastic writing!
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“Unreally real” — interesting phrase, I’ll take that! Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks so much for reading!
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He could cause more havoc but I can’t say I blame him, given the alternative…
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He’s definitely not in a good situation, but now he’s putting those around him in an even worse situation. Lose-lose. Thanks for reading Ali!
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Great story! Wonderful writing Joy! You can really make the characters come alive.
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Thanks PJ, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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Great title for this story, Joy. It fits it perfectly. Not being able to trust his own hands to cast the spells required must be hard indeed.
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Thanks for noticing the title, Sammi; you know I’m such a stickler for them. 😉 Yes, he’s in a terrible situation. It reminded me of real-life soldiers who fear that their nerves will fail them in the crucial moment and their fingers won’t obey them.
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How long before he can no longer hide it? Great stuff.
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Good question. There are only so many ways that this can end, and most of them are pretty bad. Thanks for reading, Iain!
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Great story Joy, so well written.
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Thanks for reading — glad you enjoyed it!
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I love your unique, wonderful world .
Hope he finds the long-lasting cure, soon.
Great story , Joy .
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Thanks so much! I fear that he will not find what he’s looking for, and that things will not turn out well…. but there’s always hope.
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What a vivid imagination! This was fantastic, Joy.
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Thanks, glad you liked it Varad! I do like to give my imagination as free a rein as possible. 🙂
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Brilliant. And a bit reminiscent of Jon Snow in ASOIAF flexing his sword hand. I’d love to hear more about this world.
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Thanks for dropping by – glad you liked it! And if you’d like to hear more about Eneana, well, here’s a whole blog filled with stories about it — take a look around when you get the chance!
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And yes, shout out for ASOIAF! Always happy to bring up Jon Snow, whatever the excuse. 🙂
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I absolutely will!
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If we allow ourselves to feel for this character . . . really feel . . . then the only word to describe it is ‘harrowing’. Which adds to the ‘like’ tag
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He really is in a harrowing situation, I agree. And I worry that his decision to soldier on (pun intended) will only make it worse. Glad you liked it — thanks for the comment!
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Excellent story! I can really feel the tension in Haraea’s situation.
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He’s really in a bad place, I agree. Thanks for the comment!
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