Dragonfired by J. Zachary Pike

Author:J. Zachary Pike [J. Zachary Pike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Gnomish Press LLC
Published: 2023-08-31T18:30:00+00:00

Kaitha stared at the vial of golden liquid on her dining room table.

The salve inside the bottle sang to her. It whispered of delights that she had once known, hinted at joy that had slipped away, promised to reveal secrets that she had forgotten.

Chief among those lost secrets was how the bottle had arrived in her apartment. Kaitha could not recall buying the salve. She was sure she had been shopping for an entirely different purpose—though she couldn’t recall what—and had been surprised to find the potion in her bag upon returning to her apartment. But now it was there, smoldering in the lamplight, waiting to provide sweet, sleepy warmth to anyone who needed it.

A part of Kaitha knew these tricks, these clever little ruses she set up to absolve herself and place the guilt for her transgressions firmly with circumstance. Part of her screamed that she had worked so hard to come this far, and she couldn’t give in now. It willed her to stand, to walk across the room yet again, to flee from the apartment and the infernal bottle that filled it.

But she paused at the door, her hand on the handle without turning it. How far had she come, really, the other side of her asked. How many days of emptiness had she endured just for the right to endure another one? How many priests and therapists and support groups had heard her struggles and passed them along? How many times had she searched for the only one who made it different, calling to someone who would never reply? What did it accomplish? Why not take the happiness the bottle offered her if it was the only bit she could find?

She walked back to the table and froze with her hand on the bottle. Gorm had warned her that Johan would strike soon, that the whole party would need to assemble as soon as the king revealed his scheme. The weight of responsibility pressed her hand to the table, and she set the bottle down.

The Elf shook her head. She needed to leave.

She almost made it to the door before her doubts came rushing back with the desperate intensity of a carnival barker about to lose a fare. Why bother? What could she and Gorm really change? What could Johan actually take away from her when her life was this empty?

He could take a lot more away from other people, she reminded herself as she set her hand on the door. Others were depending on her.

Others who would be gone soon. The party would wither and perish as all mortals do, and the memories of them as well, replaced by different mortals with new concerns, while she—

“No!” Kaitha growled. “Impermanence is not insignificance!” She moved to open the door handle, and found that she wasn’t grasping it anymore. The bottle was in her hand, and she was back at the table. She dropped it like it was made of fire and backed toward the door.

Though, there wasn’t really a good reason to be scared of it.

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