The Payment

     "Huh."

     Iphri rolled head over heels through the dirt, just keeping hold of her twin daggers. She twisted upright, skidding to a stop in a crouch.

     "Impressive," her opponent said.

     He shouldn't have been able to touch her at all. She was slow today. Eyes narrowed, Iphri charged. She dropped, sliding into his legs. With a yelp, he clattered on the ground. Iphri spun and leapt. The man rolled out of the way. Her weapons hit earth.

     Both of them clambered to their feet, breath heavy. Her opponent smirked, gesturing for her to attack. Bouncing towards him, she dodged to the side, pirouetting. This time, he predicted her move and jerked, elbow catching her in the back. She slammed down face first, breath gone. She coughed once. Twice. Then rolled, catching his sword with her crossed daggers.

     He grinned, pressing down. "Say it."

     "Never." Her daggers slipped, the blade inching closer.

     "How long have you two been at this?"

     They looked over in unison. Hovering above them was a woman with a thick braid of red hair, hands on her hips.

     "Um. A while," Iphri said.

     "We got bored," Grez said.

     Selna rolled her eyes.

     Iphri kneed Grez in the groin, twisting her weapons. Groaning, he fell over, sword skittering away. Iphri rolled above him and thrust a dagger at his throat. "Say it!"

     "No." He squinted at her. "You cheated."

     Iphri leaned forward. "Say it. Or I'll tell everyone what happened at the McHayden job. Princess Squishems."

     An exasperated sigh. "You are the queen of fighting. I bow to your superior skills. I'm unworthy to even kiss the ground you walk on."

     Hopping up onto her feet, Iphri sheathed her daggers at her hips. "Damn right."

     "I forget why I thought this was a good idea," Selna said.

     "Did you really need both of us anyway?"

     Selna grabbed Iphri's hand, pulling her close. "I missed you, br'akteth." The kiss was soft and sweet.

     "And him?" Iphri jerked a thumb at Grez.

     "Enh, just in case. We're being paid well to recover this gem for the Admiralty. May as well do it right."

     Still lying in the dirt, Grez said, "Thanks. Nice to be appreciated."

     "Come on, kids," Selna said. "Let's get this over with."

#

     The morning sun bled through a thick mist, mountainous horizon ablaze with colour. Atop the edge of a crumbling tower, Iphri held Selna, who was resting her head on her shoulder. Grez was nearby, studying a deep red gem cut into a faceted tear drop. It glittered within its infinite depths.

     "That was no fun," Iphri said. "I didn't even get to stab anybody."

     Selna gazed up at her. "Just think of all the violence-free gold you'll be getting."

     "Fair point."

     Twisting the gem this way and that, Grez asked, "Are you sure we have to give this back to the Admiralty?"

     "Yes," Selna said. "Trust me, it's much saf--"

     The stone slipped from his fingers. They all watched it fall to the ground far away.

     "Oh--"

     It shattered. An electric flash of red light exploded around them. Then the world dropped away, tower and all.

     "--crap."

     It was dark as they lay among the stony rubble.

     "Grez," said Iphri.

     "Yes?"

     "What did you do?"

     "That's a very good question."

     Selna groaned. "Did I forget to mention that was a portal stone?"

     "You may have neglected that, yes," Iphri said.

     "Artifacts are your thing, lady," said Grez. "We're just mercenaries."

     Standing, Iphri dusted herself off. Then she helped Selna to her feet. "So. Beloved. Where are we?"

     "Well..."

     "You don't know?"

     "I have a theory?"

     Iphri glanced over to Grez. He was holding up a hand for help. She ignored him.

     "Okay. Let me think." Looking around, Selna said, "The shadows are too thick. What do you see, Iph?"

     "The remnants of an ancient tower."

     "Iphri..."

     "Fine. Some ruins, I think. Things skittering around. And then a whole lot of nothing else."

     Grez wandered up to them, straightening his tunic. "Let me guess. Into the ruins?"

     "To the ruins," Selna said.

#

     The soft grey stone of the fragile buildings was textured, characters from an unrecognisable language carved into their surface. Selna and Grez followed close behind Iphri, who navigated the treacherous environment with care. They passed through an arch of rubble and stepped into a large, open chamber.

     Torches burst into life. Iphri yelped, shielding her sensitive eyes. A booming voice echoed around them in a strange tongue.

     Selna said, "I think that was 'Welcome, travellers. State your purpose.'"

     "You seriously understand the language of some ancient underground portal dimension?" Iphri said, still blinking.

     "Apparently." Selna cleared her throat. "We're lost. We simply seek passage home."

     Mouth hanging open, Grez pointed across the room. "You two see that, right?"

     Iphri glanced over. In front of an ornate, gilded mirror was an apparition. Blue and wispy and in the vague shape of a... cat?

     "Ah yes, I recognise those words. I know the world of which you speak," said the voice. The cat's voice? It came from no particular direction. "Very well. Passage can be arranged, for the correct payment."

     "What payment do you require?" Selna asked.

     "Something of value. Something that cannot be replaced."

     "Anything?"

     "Yes."

     The trio looked at one another. "Give us a moment to confer," Selna said.

     Iphri furrowed her brow. "So, a life?"

     "No," Selna and Grez said together.

     "It went okay last time."

     Selna shook her head. "There's no coming back from here, br'akteth."

     "Then what?"

     Grez said, "A memory?"

     "Memories can be replaced."

     "Some can," said Selna. "Not all."

     The two women exchanged a glance. Iphri sighed. "The night we met."

     "No," Grez said. "No, surely there's something else."

     "You can't replace a first meeting like that," Selna said.

     Silence fell. Iphri's mind scrambled for alternatives. She could tell by their expressions that the others were doing the same. Nothing.

     "What will it do to our other memories of us?" Iphri asked at last.

     Selna pulled her close, burying into her chest. "I don't know, beloved."

     Lifting her chin, Iphri kissed her. Forceful. Desperate.

     When they parted, tears were falling down Selna's cheeks. She turned to the cat spirit... thing. "We're ready. We've decided."

     "Your offering is acceptable."

     Another flash of crimson light. The trio stood where the tower once did.

     "Some day. Some day a job will go as planned." Iphri was checking everything was in place, then caught sight of Selna beside her. "Are you alright? Why are you crying?"

     Wiping her face dry, Selna shook her head. "I... I don't know."

     Iphri's chest ached, so sudden it knocked the breath from her. As she stared into Selna's emerald eyes, she felt empty. Confused. She turned to Grez. "What's going on?"

     A wistful smile. "Just a normal day for the three of us."

Flash Fiction: Sub-Genre Mashup

Here's a fun unpolished and unfinished bit of flash fiction I did a while back. I was using a prompt from Chuck Wendig's blog to randomly mash two genres together. I got Weird West and Shapeshifters. Anyway, it was meant to be 2,000 words but I got close without being near finished... it reads as the start of something much longer. Then I never went back to it because.. life. Anyway, it was a great little challenge to play with.

As for me, I'm back hard at work on the novel, so I don't know if I'll have much to publish here. Depends on time demands between uni and writing, but I want to do more flash fiction or other writing challenges if I can. I'm also finally brave enough to start workshopping my writing, which is terrifying and very exciting. But what I can learn definitely outweighs the terror. I am pretty determined to keep growing and improving as a writer.

~ ~ ~

     Dust kicked up at my heels as I walked along the edge of the deserted main street, creamy orange rays of sunshine peeking above the horizon. I took in a deep breath of the cool spring air, savouring this quiet moment to myself. On the boundaries of the small town lay the brand new schoolhouse, unpainted wood still bright and fresh. I moved to the frontier to teach just four weeks ago, lured by generous pay and solitude. The steam trains connecting the far reaches of the continent with the capital city were still months away at best, so we relied on a fortnightly courier to carry our mail, replenish supplies, etc. It was all very old fashioned, and my family scoffed when I’d announced my plans to leave the familiar comforts of the city behind, but it suited me just fine.
     I was about to bounce up the front steps of the building when I noticed a trail of small, dark splashes on the ground. Curious, I followed them around back to find a figure slumped in the grass against the school’s foundations. I gasped and ran over, dropping my small lunch basket in the process. My gaze was immediately drawn to the blood soaking through their rough spun shirt, their face hidden by a worn broad-brimmed hat. Their breathing was shallow and laboured, but I was relieved to see they were still alive. I thrust my hands over the wound to put pressure on it and stem the bleeding. Slowly, the stranger roused and looked up at me in response.
     I managed to keep my hands steady and on task, but my eyes went wide. The hat may have rested on what you’d recognise as a head, but the face was like nothing I’d ever seen. The eyes seemed to contain only grey wispy clouds, no other colour or pupil. The opalescent skin surrounding them was nearly devoid of features entirely, though there were the faint shadows of a nose and mouth. As I studied them, it felt as if my eyes couldn’t focus, everything about the creature constantly shifting.
     “Thank… you…” I wasn’t sure if the mouth had even moved at all, but I could clearly hear a voice come from it, though it was weak. It snapped me out of my shock.
     “Y—you’re pretty badly injured. We need to get you to the doctor right away.”
     It shook its head. “No… no doctor. They…” it paused, taking in an obviously painful breath, “They couldn’t help.”
     I glanced down at my hands, now bright red. The wound was very deep, the pressure I was applying not actually doing much to slow the flow of blood.
     “It—it is too late. But I thank you… for your kindness…”
     They were obviously fading quickly. They were right. They wouldn’t last long. My mind raced. There was one thing, a last resort— No!, I thought. I swore I wouldn’t. Never again. Last time… last time…

     But they weren’t human, that much was obvious. It might not affect them the same way, and it was their only chance. They were dying already, so wasn’t it worth trying? If it did go wrong, though— no, I couldn’t think about that now.
     I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I concentrated on the feel of them beneath my fingers, on the blood I felt pulsing out of them with every heartbeat. Heat began to radiate outward, flowing from my core through my palms and into the wound. In my mind, I could see the damage within, body ragged and torn nearly all the way through. The heat intensified and slowly, so slowly, I began to mend the flesh and organs as if sewing them back together again. I’m uncertain how much time passed while in my trance, but it was a while later when I finally finished and fell forward heavily onto my hands, exhausted.
     Healing always drained me, and this wound was particularly bad. I trembled and gasped for breath, weak from the effort. I felt the creature shift beneath me. Turning my head to look up at him, I was surprised to see the rugged face of a human man staring back. He appeared the same as any frontiersman you’d see in town, a solid build and a little rough around the edges, but he had very kind blue eyes framed by thick, brown waves of hair.
     His mouth was agape. “You’re… I didn’t think there were any of your kind left.”
     I knitted my brows. “My kind? Am I like you?”
     “Ah.” He smiled softly. “You’ve saved my life. The least I can do is explain what you are. Though, let’s get you inside somewhere. You’ve obviously exhausted yourself with your magics.”
     I had no energy to protest as he gently extricated himself from beneath me and helped me to my feet. Neither of us were going to make it back to my little house on the other side of town in this shape, so I directed him up and into the schoolhouse. I wrote a quick note on a chalkboard tablet on the door, there for that purpose, stating I was ill and there would be no school today, and then locked us securely inside.
     The stranger sat me down on one of the benches the students normally used, and I gratefully leaned against the nearby desk. Sitting at the other end of the bench and facing me, I still couldn’t get over his change in appearance. I wondered if I hadn’t somehow hallucinated the vague face I saw at first.
     He reached out a hand towards me. “I suppose it’s only polite I introduce myself. I’m Cailan.”
     His grin was infectious, and I was surprised he seemed so chipper though he must still be weak from loss of blood. My healing mended flesh, but it still took time to recover. Still, I took up his hand and he shook it firmly, but gently. “My name is Evelyn Padstow.”
     His face formed a look that was all too familiar to me. “The Padstows?”
     Even this far away from the capital, I could never quite escape them. My great-grandfather was the first great industrialist, having invented the steam technology that now ran the backbone of our great nation. The pride, of course, was the steam trains which allowed the expansion out west, ever furthering our borders. If I never heard again about how wonderful and important my family was, it would be too soon.
     I nodded a bit curtly at Cailan.
     “Sorry. Sore subject, huh? I’ve just never met anyone—“ he paused, thinking carefully, “well, anyone so highbrow. I guess.”
     I raised an eyebrow. “I’m just a teacher, nothing more, Mr.—“ I realised he never gave me a family name.
     “Just Cailan, Miss Padstow.” He tipped his hat as he said this.
     I laughed. “Then call me Evelyn. Now, I believe you owe me some sort of explanation for saving your life. Was I imagining that you looked different before?”
     “No. You saw what I truly look like. I’m a Shifter. We can take many forms, but what you see now is the one I use to blend in.”
     Unthinking, I reached out to touch his arm, reassuring myself he was actually real. He smiled at me. “There are more like you out there?”
     “A few, yes. Not nearly as many as there used to be, sadly. You, however, are truly rare. I haven’t heard of one of your kind having existed for the better part of a century.”
     I looked down at my hands, almost afraid of what he was going to say next. For years I hid my magics, and not just at the behest of my family, though they were certainly frightened of my abilities. No, I’d sworn never to use them again after— I shook my mind clear. It didn’t matter now. I was simply relieved nothing had gone wrong this morning.
     Cailan must have sensed my conflict, softly putting his hands over mine. “Let me guess, you and that steam technology your family invented don’t get along so well.”
     “No, definitely not. That’s part of why I moved so far away. How did you know?”
     “Magics and tech are two sides of the same coin. They don’t live in the same space well. As tech has taken over our society, magic has been slowly dying out. To put it bluntly, you shouldn’t really exist.”
     “That doesn’t really explain what I am.”
     He gave a lopsided grin. “You’re a Witch, and I’m guessing quite a pure one, at that. The healing you performed on me is some very powerful magics. It’s no wonder it drained you so thoroughly, untrained as you are.”
     “A witch? With the green skin and broomsticks and black cats?”
     Cailan laughed heartily. “You have looked in a mirror recently, haven’t you? Obviously, none of that is true.”

~ ~ ~

If you got this far and actually would like to see where this goes, comment below. I wouldn't mind continuing to expand on this. :)