Flash Fiction February 2025 Day Twenty-Six: You Stole My Horse! (Isabelle)

A/N: Newbie assassin very confused about ghost man and his demon horse and weird friend who has her same first name.

Flash Fiction February 2025 Day 26 Prompt: You

There is a flash of bright blue and purple light as suddenly a portal opens and out steps, or more accurately stumbles, a strange man. I’m not sure if he is actually a man at all…or at least a living one. He looks like your average young man, except for one very obvious difference, which is the fact that he is semi-transparent and blue. Astrid looks very pleased at the turn of events where the man does not. Dressed in a set of robes with a hood, pants, and a pair of shoes with a sword at his side the what I assume to be a spirit of some sort looks both like he would fit right in at the sanctuary and looks perhaps two hundred years out of date. Nearby a horse as black as midnight with eyes that would look more fitting on a Dunmer given their red color, which almost seem to glow slightly, makes a noise as it stops drinking from the small pond by the sanctuary's entrance. Seeming to recognize the noise the semi-transparent man turns to Astrid with one hand on his sword as if he is about to draw it. “You! You stole my horse!” he accuses angrily. “I leave for all of five minutes and Issy goes to deal with another world ending problem and you steal my horse!” Astrid neither confirms or denies the accusation, only giving him an unamused smile. “Isabelle, this is Lucien LaChance. He served the brotherhood in life, and continues to do so in death. He is a servant of the Night Mother and faithful child of Sithis, should you need assistance that spell will summon him.” Astrid explains to me confirming my suspicion that the man is in fact a sort of ghost or spirit as I expected. As she concludes her explanation he very obviously does not seem happy with the idea of being summoned at random. She then takes her leave going back inside, leaving only me, the strange rather upset ghost, and the horse. Ignoring me he goes instead over to the horse petting her and talking to her, at one point I notice he slips her an apple- where he got that I have no idea. “You know, one of my good friends is also called Isabelle, though I’ve always called her Issy. So, you’ll be Isabelle and she’ll be Issy to differentiate between you two. Otherwise it would be confusing- two Isabelle’s with black hair who are part of the brotherhood, who would have thought?” he continues petting the horse “And this is Shadowmere, my old friend. I was wondering what happened to her after Issy went off and when she came back there was no Shadow waiting for her. My guess she was taken was correct, it seems.” That’s peculiar, though I can see how such a thing could happen, and it certainly explains why the ghost and Astrid do not seem to be on the best of terms. Horse stealing and rule breaking and unprompted summoning all seem like easy ways to get on this very strange spirits bad side. I allow him to take his horse back, as I already have one myself. To be honest, I’m glad he takes her back…I find her a bit creepy with the red glowing eyes. To each their own, I suppose? Now that the matter is taken care of we have things to do, and I quickly find that the ghost is not much for conversation but will make comments, rhetorical questions, and general remarks nearly constantly. It could be worse, he’s only around for a limited time before going back to wherever it is he goes, and this time with his beloved horse after too long a time apart.