Short Fiction Fridays #16: Magic
Knives, fairies in salt-shakers, Honda Civics, and more...
Welcome to another Short Fiction Friday! This issue's theme is Magic. Powers beyond our wildest dreams are common in SFF, and in fantasy stories those powers are often called magic (any sufficiently advanced technology and so on). Almost as common is the emotional counterbalance to that power: these magic in these stories has limitations, prices, and unintended consequences. The stories also contain printing presses, a Honda Civic, wings, a tiny fairy in a salt-shaker, and more...
“The Magician's Apprentice” by Tamsyn Muir
Cherry is thirteen, and has just become the apprentice of magician Mr. Hollis. She spends her days learning to perform magic, and finding ways to sate the terrible hunger that comes with it. Fans of the Locked Tomb series may find Mr. Hollis interesting (later, he goes by his first name: John) and the emotional arc reminded me strongly of Vita Nostra. Painful and unfair, but not unexpected.
CW: Murder, cannibalism, parental neglect
Magic feeds off your soul, said Mr. Hollis. There’s only two ways to not be hungry, Cherry. I’m sorry.
Read "The Magician's Apprentice" in Lightspeed
“Hundreds” by Mari Ness
In this flash-length version of Sleeping Beauty, the magical slumber never ends, and the princes who answered the call now wander the halls as ghosts. The first ghosts tell of the dragons they fought while the last prince speaks of printing presses and guns. The dust of ages grows ever deeper. Melancholy, quiet, and fading.
CW: Death (mentioned)
It was supposed to be one hundred years.
The ghosts are not good with time, but they know they have walked about the castle for longer than that. If it can still be called a castle at all.
Read "Hundreds" in Flash Fiction Online
“The House of Linear Change” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
Ada lives in a house that no one in their family has ever left. In this house, change moves in only one direction. That is how it has always been, except for the cat… Slippery, stifling, and perpetual.
CW: Death, abuse
I step over my father’s body. Already, he is becoming something else—a new stool, a new wand, a person with the ability to love. In this house, things do not return to what they were before.
Read "The House of Linear Change" in Lightspeed
“Fantasy Is A Metaphor For The Human Condition: A comic about having a brain injury” by Erin Roseberry
A short comic about a little fox-witch trying to regain her magical abilities. The artist notes that this was drawn “when I was in a very difficult place emotionally as I was relearning how to draw post-brain injury.” Frustrating, true, and deeply touching.
CW: None
“Witch-daughter, we have heard that you have suffered enough. But some of us have bodies marked with curses that are not possible to fully heal.”
Read “Fantasy Is A Metaphor For The Human Condition” in Fox-Teeth
“Creek Bed Charms” by Gretchen Tessmer
A poem about the limitations of magic and the strength of nature. Ephemeral, sturdy, and flowing.
CW: None
my hands gather up
those mud violets
and press them to my cheeks
my eyes
Read “Creek Bed Charms" in Apparition Lit
“Magical Makeover” by S. Woodson
In this work of interactive fiction, inspired by old Flash “girl games” and even older fairy tales, you must give yourself a makeover so that you can be beautiful enough to go to the ball! Results may vary, and it gets worse from there. Sugar-coated, fun, and lightly disturbing.
CW: Body horror, violence, probably other things (there are 10 different storylines)
You button up the lacy pink shirt and slip on the fitted pink pants. You shove your feet into the pink-and-white boots, and loop the snapdragon necklace below your collar. You look like a flower-bouquet become animate. None of the components of this outfit are individually bad, but they combine into a sickeningly frilly, flowery, pink horror. This is good. This is fantastic! It will draw attention away from the proboscis on your face.
Play “Magical Makeover” on Philome.la
UP NEXT
It's that time of year again! By which I mean awards recommendation list season. The next issue's theme will be 2023 Favorites.
THANK YOU FOR READING
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