kalloway @kalloway@fedibird.com

"Can you repair it?" the young man asked Cote, despair evident in his voice.

"I can repair the ring but I can't return its magic," Cote replied as he held the ring up to the light. It had obviously once been quite the powerful object, but that had faded and the stone had come loose.

Or perhaps the stone had come loose when the last of the magic had been desperately used...

A lesser power and Cote might've been able to do something...

"That's fine," the young man said quietly. "I just need it together.

"The funeral is in three days."

#MicroPrompt

"You, this is only for your kind, right?"

Rian slowly nodded at the trio of royal soldiers. He was in a town where he could keep his hood down at the market.

"This week, yes."

"Good, we'll take it all. We've been waiting for you."

Rian must've looked obviously confused because as two soldiers began packing things up, the third took pity on him.

"Fermented fruit is served on the first and fifth days of the feast and celebration," the soldier explained. "The third princess is marrying a demon, you see."

Rian still charged full price.

#MastoPrompt

Tadeo had been hired to mow the grass once a week, pick up branches, and otherwise keep the cemetery tidy. He wasn't spooked by the quiet, or by the odd grave.

It was set a little off from the others and still had old but pristine wrought iron posts and chains and decorations that Tadeo didn't recognize.

It gave him the distinct impression that something was being kept out.

Or in.

He mowed around it carefully and didn't linger. His chance to learn more about it would come.

He hadn't lived seven hundred years without caution.

He'd wait.

#wss366

#FanPrompt (12/7 Position, Dragalia Lost)

Yep, Cleo had caught them in an awkward position. And it was only an awkward position because Luca had slipped on a bit of Pipple peel that had gotten missed! They weren't up to anything right there in the kitchens!

Well, weren't up to anything except for snitching some extra snacks!

Cleo just frowned while Ranzal and Luca untangled themselves, got off the floor, and tried to explain.

In the end, she just shooed them out despite looking wholly unconvinced and like-

Like she knew something they didn't... yet.

(WSS 12/3 Alert)

Psyche could hear her datapad beeping as soon as she turned off the water, but she didn't rush even as alerts piled up.

Finally, once she was dressed, she wandered out to see what her so-called students had managed. Nobody had succeeded-

She'd left an obvious exploit, too!

But she only had standard blocked-attack beeps mixed with a few messages and Psyche sighed. Her field wasn't an easy one to teach.

She had to do something... Using the same exploit, she put an hour's freeze on every student's datapad.

Give them time to think.

(WSS 12/1 Direct)

There was, very nearly, a direct path between her home and the tavern and Brandi marched along it, determined.

She had not realized the path was there, decades before when her husband had chosen the home, but he certainly had.

It was convenient, at least, when a certain time in the evening rolled around.

She passed through the last set of shrubs and there it was, already lively.

But Brandi had her guitar with her and she was ready for anything. That path to the tavern had ended up paved in metaphorical gold.

(And beer, of course.)

(MastoPrompt 12/4 Hold)

Marwa smiled when she saw it. There, a ways along the trail, was a little wooden shelter and the Wind Phone.

It had been decades but she still knew the number without thinking. She'd had to call it every day at her first job and then wait and wait and wait, not allowed to doodle or read a magazine or anything else.

Both companies were long gone now, but she remembered...

She dialed the Wind Phone and then paused.

"Please hold," she said before setting the receiver down.

Marwa pulled a book from her bag. It felt oddly good.