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Everyday Drabbles #632: Hand of Glory

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The Hand of Glory was a disreputable, backwater station in solar orbit somewhere between Neptune and Uranus. It was built in that fanciful period of space exploration when engineers had abandoned the utilitarian designs of previous stations in favor of something more baroque.

As its name implied, the station resembled a giant’s hand, with docking facilities in each fingertip, and the central habitation hub floating like a pearl in its upraised palm.

As my ship began an intercept orbit, I readied my blaster and checked my supplies. Hands of Glory were lights in the dark, but not without their dangers.

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Everyday Drabbles #631: Angel of Music

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She is, quite literally, an angel of music. Her duty among the celestial people is to play for the gods, a servant and an artist in one. She takes this duty very seriously and has mastered a variety of instruments to serve her masters in any way.
She is always surprised when she meets outsiders, who always assume that her talents are ingrained. They treat her as though she were a vessel filled at the moment of its creation. The truth is always more complicated and less satisfying.
How do you get to the Divine Hall of Spiritual Harmony?
Practice.

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Everyday Drabbles #630: Mermaid Statue

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She rose from the water, a being of fire and light, birthed from the sea by a goddess’s will. Her upper half was human, a beautiful woman limned in streaming lava and sputtering flame. Her lower half resembled a fish’s tail ending in a forked fin that trailed in the water.
The creature sat on a rock and pondered her fate as she inexorably cooled into lifeless black stone.
The Mermaid Statue was later found by human explorers. They marveled at the craftsmanship, believing it to be the work of some lost civilization.
Which was exactly what the goddess intended.

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Everyday Drabbles #629: How the Magic Works

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This is how the magic works: For one night a year, he is immortal and all-powerful. In those brief but infinite hours, he races through the sky, spreading goodwill across the world.
When the last present is delivered and the final stocking is filled, he sits and watches the sunrise over the ocean. As the sky lightens, he gradually forgets. He forgets where he left his sleigh (the reindeer look after themselves.) He forgets the many places he visited. And finally, he forgets himself.
The mission will return next Christmas. But until then, that is the price of the magic.

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Everyday Drabbles #628: Father Christmas

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The morning sun was already peeking over the forest as he climbed the snowy hill. He was running late. He pulled the fur-trimmed red robe tight around his wizened frame and doubled his efforts.
The workshop was old, carved from black stone and blue glacial ice. No reindeer pranced or helpers scurried about. There was no sleigh.
The songs and the stories, the presents and cookies were not the magic. They were embellishments.
A circle of light stood in the center of the cavernous structure. He sat down in the center and began the song that would renew the world.

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Everyday Drabbles #627: Festival of Light

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It was the longest night of the year, and the village gathered to celebrate. The visiting anthropologist, who came from a small, distant planet called ‘Earth’ couldn’t help but think of Christmas.
Lights were hung on the big tree in the center of the lake, and families set little vessels with lit candles on the water.
“Does this ritual bring back the sun or appease the dead?” he asked his host sponsor.
Xe blinked and tried to form a satisfying answer. The human came from an advanced civilization, but he was weirdly obsessed with superstition.
“It looks pretty?” Xe ventured.

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Everyday Drabbles #626: The Fountain

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The ship’s crew huddled around a monitor as the probe beamed back the first images of an extraterrestrial city.
The scale of the abandoned ruins dwarfed anything human. They stared at a fountain, hundreds of meters tall. A crowd of humanoid figures stood on a plinth. A brown, murky liquid streamed from wide vessels where their heads should’ve been, dripping into cups in their hands. The pilot carefully brought the robot close enough to take a sample.
“What do you think it means,” he asked. The chemist frowned at her tablet.
“Well, we know they liked their coffee,” she replied.

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Everyday Drabbles #625: The Woman of the Woods

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They call her the Woman of the Woods. Although few have seen her, everyone knows the signs of her passage. The old forest is filled with good, well-maintained paths, hidden caches of supplies, and emergency shelters.
She’s almost a figure of legend, a helpful wanderer out of the golden age when immortals walked the world. They say she can sing the forest to sleep and heal with a touch.
Nobody sees her gathering herbs or surveying routes. There is little true magic left in her.
But hard work makes her eternal life bearable when her grief is all that remains.

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Everyday Drabbles #624: The Heart of the Swamp

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We set the airship down in the mossy water as the sun dipped towards the swamp. The skiff was all elegant lines and swooping sails. It barely made a splash entering the water. The island was close.
We’d buried the chest here long ago, trusting the safety of our treasure to flowing water and shifting geography. We disembarked and broke out the shovels.
The Lich’s heart was still where we left it, pulsing with an eerie scarlet light. I nodded to my partner. It was time for us to make our move.
But I never expected him to betray me.

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Everyday Drabbles #623: The Alliance

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The forest existed in both worlds, making it the ideal spot for the two kingdoms to negotiate an alliance.
The knight arrived in shining silver armor, with a jeweled longsword on his hip. The dragon descended from the canopy, its serpentine body stepping on thin air as they bowed to their counterpart.
The spot was a hole in the fence between realities, and they each had a vested interest in keeping it small and well guarded.
And yet, the dragons coveted the human kingdom’s wealth, and the humans desired mastery over the dragons’ magic. The alliance proved tenuous and brief.

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