Just An Apprentice

The brigands had captured the young woman, and after tying her up, were arguing about how best to make money off her. As they argued between selling her into slavery and selling her to orcs for food, the fire flickered and turned blue for a moment.

She sighed and leaned back in her ropes.

"You idiots might want to ask for forgiveness now!"

They looked at her and were about to say something when the wind blew the fire out. As they began to look around, she began to cast another spell while they were distracted, her hands now looser.

Emergency Powers

The phone call came in just before midnight, so I was the one to answer it.

Therefore I was the one in emergency charge, much to my scheduled shift replacement's chargrin.

I got the game plans from the safe and began to execute them. I watched on the screen as the numbers began to change, and the computer began to create the lines from the data so I could see the flow of things.

And quickly, I realised I had only one choice. I hacked into the records and changed the call logs to say the call came after midnight.

Splitting Headache

I awoke with a splitting headache. I attempted to patch it up with coffee, aspirin, and a long hot shower, none of which worked. But, because I wanted to continue to eat going forward, I tried to power through it and headed into work.

Rarely for me, work was actually fairly quiet and I got through it without snapping at anyone too important.

But the headache continued, and as I tried to leave work, I guess I blacked out?

I woke up in a hospital bed, getting discharged as there was, apparently, nothing wrong.

Now my wallet is split apart.

Long Play

The Dark Mage strode into his hidden antechamber deep within Goldsmoke Mountain and glared at his minion. The Minion was bent over the device, a long coffin looking box, ornate with jewels and intricate designs.

"Is the sleeping chamber ready?"

The minion yelped as they dropped their tool, but quickly recovered.

"Yes Sire. Once the spell is finished fully, you will sleep, undisturbed and undetectable, for 200 years, when you'll awake as you are now. But what of the war, Sire? We are not yet defeated, surely?"

The Dark Mage chuckled as he sat down in the open box.

"This is how I will win the war, idiot! With this, and this."

The Dark Mage cast a spell.

"I've just increased the magical ability of the entire Golden Kingdom. Every citizen can now cast magic almost as powerful as their finest wizards."

"Sire?"

"When I emerge and then remove the spell, they'll have forgotten how to do anything without magic, and victory will be child's play!

Or they'll destroy themselves, either or."

"And what of us, Sire?"

The Dark Mage considered this.

"Your deaths should be interesting, at least."

The Dark Mage forgot the Minion had to finish the spell.

Butterfly Drive

When they created the time machine, before the scientist team told anyone, they had an intense discussion on if they had a moral imperative to go back and fix things in history.

They agreed that while not trying to stop the actions that led to massive loss of life was regrettable, it could cause massive timeline divergence. But on the other hand, perhaps their intervention in key points had happened, and failure to do so would cause the issues?

They ended up trying a test of going back and changing a minor detail years earlier.

Forgetting they carried evolved bacteria...

Trying It

On our first date she asked me for my experiences with recreational drug use, and I was honest, explaining I didn't use but didn't have a problem with it. As I said it I sensed it was a negative but not a deal-breaker, thankfully, as the rest of the date went great.

Over the weeks, she saw that I wasn't lying as she'd use and I'd be chill about it.

But eventually, she began to needle me, as it were, about trying it. So I tried a couple, hated them.

And it turned out that was a deal-breaker for her.

Uneasy Sundays

The knock on the door came every Sunday, a minute past six in the morning. Through experimentation, I knew if it got to half past he'd stop, but most Sundays I wasn't willing to put up with it, so I would answer. He'd ask the same thing every time, if I wanted to go to church with him. I tried politeness, logic, anger, random noises and even sarcasm to get him to stop, sarcasm being a particularly bad idea since he took me on face value and practically dragged me.

And there I met her, and things got more complicated.