Sunday August 19th, 2018

The exercise:

Write about: a change of plans.

3 comments:

Greg said...

Things just keep getting more ominous with these prompts! So the new normal has turned into something that did't succeed, and now there's a change of plans? So... child number 3 is on the way, and you're suing the hospital? Or hmm... you've been secretly doing the lottery without telling Kat for the last three years and you just won the jackpot? So you've decided to 'retire' and become a writer full-time? :)

A change of plans
Tomasz was visibly upset and trying hard not to show it. He had looked at Dignity's lined face, peaceful somehow despite her lethal injuries, and tears had made his eyes swim. He'd picked up her hand briefly then let it fall to the ground, where it bounced once and lay still, and turned away. Which didn't hide the shake of his shoulders.
"Milord," said Samual, clearly at a loss for words.
"It's fine," said Lord Derby. He sighed. "Well, it's not fine, but it's not exactly unexpected. And this is better than I'd feared to be honest: with all this talk of demons and magical holes in mathematical realities I'd expected to find out she'd died in far worse fashion."
"You mentioned sabotage?" Samual had no idea who Dignity was, nor why her death was upsetting Tomasz so much, and was worrying that he was appearing insensitive. He retreated to the thing he knew best: looking for useful work.
"Yes. There is definitely something magical in that pit, the darkness was barely penetrated by the light of my torch and it moved like oil and water mixing. If it didn't make me profoundly uncomfortable to think about it, I'd say it was somehow alive." He shuddered. "That's as maybe. I'm sure Andy would love a sample of it, but I've no idea how to procure one, so he'll just have to come visit Carcosa himself. But I think that has been somehow stilled, or denatured, and that Dignity was expecting it to take her somewhere." He sighed again, this time with frustration embedded in it. "God be blinded, Samual, why are we here when everything is screaming out for the attention of a mage?"
"I don't know milord," said Samual. Privately he thought that a mage would be asking all the same questions and had less chance than Lord Derby of finding answers to them. "What's in her satchel?"
"I don't know," said Lord Derby. He looked down at the body and his mouth twisted downwards slightly, hinting at sadness. "I picked her up and carried her out of the pit and now I find myself feeling like it would be defiling the dead to take her satchel and go through her pockets. Is that strange?"
"Strange would be to leave it all behind after getting this far," said Tomasz. His voice was wobbly. He turned around, drawing a hand across his face and not quite wiping away the glistening wetness where the tears had fallen. "She was taking it to someone who needed it, surely that job now falls to whoever finds her."
"Ouch," murmured Lord Derby.
"I have to get back. I have to tell -- to tell -- her daughter."
"Her daughter?"

morganna said...

Cancellation here, cancellation there
Hey, why don't you just
Announce the plans are
New and we can
Go with the flow,
Even now.

Marc said...

Greg - god, I wish it was the lottery one.

No, we were supposed to go camping for a couple nights. But there's so much smoke from the forest fires in the surrounding area that the air quality was utter garbage.

Plus Miles and Max came down with the stomach flu in the days leading up to going, so we decided not going was our best option.

Ouch, indeed. And a daughter? Goodness me, you packed that ending with all sorts of goodness.

Morganna - new plans instead of cancelled plans? I can get behind that kind of thinking!