The exercise:
Write about: getting back on track.
I would like to get over this illness now, please and thank you. It started with Max Saturday night, hit him hard on Sunday, hit myself and Kat on Monday, and finally took Miles down Tuesday night. Both the boys were back at school today but Kat and I are still competing for the Misery Championship.
3 comments:
Hmm, given your description it sounds like you should be recovered by the weekend -- I hope you are, or at least that it's mitigated enough by then for you to leave the Misery Championship before you win :) Is it a particularly bad cold, or something worse?
Well done with the comment catch-up! For this prompt I'm just staying on track with the main plot points instead of all these tangential issues I keep bringing up :)
Back on track
The Maestro's face when he arrived at the auditorium bearing Fabian's name was a mixture of surprise and anger and made Fabian extremely happy to see. He was sat in the second row of seats, a small stack of paperwork at his side, his feet up on the back of the chair in front of him.
"Ah, Maestro," said Fabian cheerfully, noting the team assembling itself slowly and quietly behind the Maestro. Rystin slipped in, looked just as startled as the Maestro had, and then a slow smile spread over his face. "Dread mentioned to me that we were doing an unboxing this morning and I thought I'd come and be your audience."
"A what?" The Maestro's words, both of them, were clipped and sharp.
"The opening of the stasis cylinders," said Fabian. "It seemed rather appropriate to me that the Director of the Museum be here to see what has been hidden from both the public and us for so long. Nearly fifteen years according to the records. Just after -"
"The Day of No Sun," said the Maestro sounding as though he had heartburn. He coughed, once. "You sound like a broken record bringing everything back to that, you know. Director."
"I feel that's a Director's prerogative," said Fabian smiling nicely. "Don't mind me, I shall be watching eagerly, ready to applaud your efforts and the teams."
"Really Director, you shouldn't be here. If anything goes wrong--"
"Oh, but how can it? You've spent days preparing with the team," said Fabian. "Dread is very proud of the work you've all done. I'm a little surprised you're not more proud yourself."
"Oh well, there is an ele--"
"Dread! Over here! Come sit with me!" Fabian interrupted the Maestro and waved as Admiral Dread entered the auditorium. His smirk was broad and vanished as fast as tears in the flame of a blowtorch. The Maestro's face turned a deep red that suggested his blood pressure might be a problem.
"Ah Fabian, you decided to join us?" Whatever the Maestro might have been getting ready to say vanished and the Maestro visibly deflated as the Admiral strolled across the auditorium, nodding to his mages, and sat down in a chair next to Fabian. "Have we started yet?"
"I think we're just about to!"
Despite the Maestro's look of fury throughout, his barely underbreath muttering, and stares that would do Medusa proud, he set things up with care and precision and as the figurines began their little dance and they unwove the magic that was concealing the cylinders Fabian found himself holding his breath. The first cylinder emerged from out of nowhere and the figurines tapped out a new routine and the cylinder shimmered and part of its curved wall slid silently open. Everyone leaned forward and the silence in the room was so intense it almost had pressure.
"A box," said one of the Maestro's assistants, carefully lifting it out. She set it on the front bench and opened the lid. "Containing... holy crap, it's the Scepter and Orb."
"Part of the Imperial Regalia," said Dread to a puzzled Fabian. "There are a lot of people who will be relieved to have them back. And at least six dead people who were executed because they were believed to have stolen them."
The second cylinder was brought forth and again the figurines pirouetted and posed and the cylinder slid open to reveal what, to Fabian, looked like a walking stick. Dread's clutching his hand and starting to rise clued him in to it being different, and Rystin's look of absolute horror made him start to come to his feet as well.
"A staff of Five Elements," whispered Dread, his voice choked.
Greg - hopefully nothing more serious, but it's certainly lingered long enough to be seriously annoying.
And have you been going off on tangents? I hadn't noticed...
Woo, things are certainly back on track now! And we're only two stasis cylinders in!
Also: truly enjoyed the Maestro's reactions.
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