Flash Fiction February 2026 Day Two: What A Steal! (Kit)

 

1. Flash Fiction February 2026 Prompt: Steal (a thief discovers the item they stole was meant for them)

There’s nothing quite like wandering the streets of Vivec City, with all its busy passerby going in and out of each Canton throughout the day. One can find merchants, mages, priests, and more, as well as plenty of guards always on patrol. They’re not the friendliest bunch, the Ordinators, in fact they’re rather intimidating. Despite the harsh words and heavy armor lurking around every corner it’s still possible to find ways of getting things I want without others realizing. The foreign quarter in particular is the easiest and most accessible area as I blend right in with the rest of the visitors to the city-within-a-city. On a rather miserable dreary rainy day while walking through the main market area something shiny catches my eye. A small silver necklace inlaid with precious stones lays out on display at one of the merchants' stalls, and she appears to have gone for lunch. Careful not to be overly dramatic I pretend to stumble in order to deliberately bump into the side of the stall. The move allows me to grab hold of the necklace and slip it in my pocket before getting up and walking away, all while remaining entirely undetected. What a steal! She’ll never know what happened and might never even notice the piece of jewelry is gone with the vast amount of inventory. Happy with my newfound shiny object of the week I admire it upon returning to where I’d been staying these past few weeks. While inspecting the quality stones under better lighting I notice there’s a letter on the bed with my name on it. Opening the letter I read it, then reread it, and read it again a third time after that. Well that takes all the thrill out of it! The letter states my newly stolen item of choice has really belonged to me ever since last weekend, when Yuuri bought it with the intention of giving it to me. He hadn’t yet picked it up, and figured I would notice it on display, so he left it there for me to “steal” on my own. It’s a beautiful gift, really, it’s just more fun to have a bit of a strategy for obtaining such things, and hopefully avoid any Ordinators.

Flash Fiction February 2026 Day One: Elsewhere (Anna)

 Welcome back to another year of flash fiction February!

Flash Fiction February 2026 Day 1 Prompt: Elsewhere (a character arrives somewhere they are absolutely not supposed to be) 

This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. How did I even get here to begin with? Where is here anyway? Still in the realm between sleep and wakefulness I begin to come to and become aware that I’m in something moving. It doesn’t feel like a boat, maybe some sort of cart? It’s cold, with a seemingly relentless wind. My head feels funny and the last bits of memories I can recall are fragmented. The crossing itself had been fine as had the rest of my journey up to that point then suddenly all hell broke loose in the middle of the night. There was shouting, and sounds of fighting, then nothing. All I know is that I should be somewhere, elsewhere, anywhere, just not here. Moving my hands slightly I feel the harsh biting of rope against my wrists and a panic begins to rise internally. Was I kidnapped? Is someone going to murder me? Will anyone ever find me? Then I hear a voice that says something drawing me out of my half-conscious fogginess and I force myself to open my eyes. As presumed I am in a cart, with my hands bound, but I’m not the only one. In fact there are three others all seem to have their hands bound like mine, and a scary looking fellow next to me has a rag stuffed in his mouth to keep him from making noise. Two soldiers drive the cart along the poorly paved road. Whatever I’ve gotten myself into I don’t have a good feeling about, and I really should be elsewhere. Wherever this cart is headed that is somewhere I am absolutely not supposed to be. With no reasonable plan of escape it seems the only thing to do is wait and find out where the final destination is, and hopefully not meet the same fate as whoever these other three seem to be traveling to- one almost unbearably slow creaking wheel turn after another. 

Yule Log (Naomi)

 A/N: This prompt has been sitting in my wip list for literally three years and a very short idea finally came to me in the small hours of the morning. Happy holidays, enjoy.

 Prompt: Yule log

“What in the world is that?” Lukas asks, obviously confused, pointing at the log shaped cake sitting on the table for the library's annual holiday party. “It’s a cake, in the shape of a yule log, and it has chocolate inside.” I explain making sure to note the mention of chocolate. On the small list of foods Lukas will eat, and the even smaller list of sweets, chocolate makes the list…though only dark chocolate. With what the thing on the table is squared away Lukas now asks what a yule log is- a natural question, I didn’t know what one was until a few years ago thanks to a friend inviting me to a similar party. Apparently the tasty treat is meant to resemble one burned in the fireplace to keep the chill of winter away, made with a light cake and covered in chocolate scraped with a fork to mimic the texture of tree bark. It’s clever, really, as well as delicious. With the remainder of the staff and other important friends of the library finally here the festivities can truly begin, having been greetings and small talk for the last half an hour. Cake is cut and eaten, presents are exchanged, a speech or two is made, and the party lasts late into the evening. Thoroughly tired from a busy and very social day it finally comes time to say good night to one and all. I, for one, look forward to having a few bits of potato fried in oil, and taking a nice warm bath, before falling into bed. Lukas, if I had to guess, is likely doing the same, though rather than sleep he will more likely stay up reading any of the number of new books he was given at the party. The question is now, which will he start with? Will it be the one on the weather cycles? Or the stars? The analysis of the concept of libraries? Or perhaps he will go through his mothers recipe book, attempting to uncover the origins of the Yule Log, both desert and holiday tradition. Reading really is its own form of magic, in his case, after all- unlocking a world of possibilities and helping to make sense of the new and unknown. Whatever it is he gets up to, I hope at least my dragging him to the party wasn’t too bad…he did seem to almost enjoy himself, and that’s something I haven’t seen in a long, long time.

Blood Over Ice (Ben)

 Prompt:  Over ice 

I had never made it to Windhelm while I was alive, and I now find I was not missing much. The stones are cold, the townspeople ignorant and racist, and the snow seems to never stop. What business Valan has here I don’t know the specifics of, only that he had summoned for help, and out of all the ancestors I tend to be the one to answer the most. If anything he doesn’t need help with whatever task brought him to this frozen city, as much as he needs help getting around. The cobbled streets are covered in snow and ice, not the best terrain for a blind person, even if they have some usable vision left. I act as a sighted guide of sorts, leading him through the ancient stone city with its intimidating walls and magnificent palace that once held great kings long ago. Now it holds a traitor and a coward, who sits on that cold stone throne with a heart of ice. To think he ignores the fact there are now splatters of blood over the ever present ice due to a recent string of murders in favor of making war, he would not last two days in Vvardenfell. The inn thankfully is a reprieve from the cold, at least for Valan, as I cannot feel it in my current state. As he sits and eats a well deserved if mildly questionable hot meal I feel myself beginning to slip from this world, though that feeling ceases when the spell is cast again. Having eaten and gotten out of the cold Valan decides to attempt to sleep, or at the very least crawl under the pile of blankets provided. I bid him goodnight and tell him to stay out of trouble, something he never listens to me or his mother about. With my time now quite over in this world I decide to go for a walk through the cold, silent city. Perhaps I will uncover whose blood has spilled over the ice? Or the one responsible? I walk through the graveyard, and the market, past the inn where Valan sleeps soundly, all the while humming a traditional tune to myself in the quiet darkness. Many of the guards pay me no mind, though my presence unsettles a few. Quietly humming I walk by, ignoring them, preferring to look up at the moons shining brightly and the snow falling pilling up over the sheets of ice that cling to the houses and walls. I wander through a residential section, passing under a strange house where I sense things even stranger, and continue until I come to the grey quarter. This slum used to be called the snow quarter, how it has fallen into disrepair saddens me greatly. My, how the mighty have fallen. Continuing to hum I quietly walk down the steps and through the quarter, nodding silently to a young man coming home late from work who notices me and bows respectfully. After that informal greeting he goes inside, leaving only me to continue wandering through the streets with only my thoughts and my song, until my time is up. As I reach the top step leading out of the slum I feel the end of my adventure has come, and with one final breath of crisp icy air, fade away into nothing.

Getting Old Isn't For The Weak (Valan)

Prompt: getting old isn't for sissies

“It’s not easy being four thousand years old, you know.” Fyr tells me as he gets up from his reading chair and tries to stretch, with there being an audible crack at one point. “You okay?” I ask as he continues to try and shake out the stiffness. “Just old bones, my joints aren’t what they once were. At some point your body decides to turn itself into a musical instrument at random when trying to move.” he responds casually with a few more popping and cracking noises before having decided he’s stretched sufficiently. The book he had been reading is discarded into a pile with the others on the floor next to the chair and he motions for me to follow him. Getting up from my spot on the carpet of the study I place a marker in my own braille book and follow him. “Where are we going?” I ask running a few steps to catch up as he continues down the hallway. “To have tea.” is the only thing the old wizard responds with as we get to the landing and head down to the first floor. “Don’t we usually have tea earlier in the day?” I begin to form another sentence remarking how at least Neloth and I usually have tea in the early afternoon but after getting a look that could probably kill the average person I hold my tongue. 

Once in the little kitchen Fyr puts the kettle on and goes to rummage through one of the cabinets looking for something to eat with the tea as well as checking the selection of tea available. Coming back with the large wooden box full of various kinds of tea leaves and other make-ups of imported teas the two of us look through it, deciding on one that allows for multiple steeps using only a very small amount of the tea itself. “Are you sure you don’t want me or one of the girls to put that back?” I ask and try to help Fyr as he goes to put the heavy box back in the cabinet though he just laughs “I’m old, not useless!” and puts the box back himself. “I wasn’t implying that” I tell him and he just waves a hand at me with a slight smile. “I know, I know, I know. Still, I’m not wrong. I may be old, but I’ve still got a lot more left in me than the average young person nowadays. Who else do you know that could figure out how to clone cells into not one but four fully functional people?” He does have a point, I would trust him in a fight far more than I would trust the average person my age, regardless of military or other training. Four thousand years gives you lots of time to pick up lots of skills. The kettle then makes its shrieking sound now that the water has boiled “Ah! Waters ready.” Fyr gets the water while I finish setting up the tea table. The first steep is discarded and given to the small ceramic animals, in this case a rabbit and a dragon. With the second steep done we can now drink the tea, and have a small snack along with it.

 Upon the first sip Fyr sighs, the warm drink probably helps any achiness that resulted from sitting looking through old spell tomes for hours. “I remember when I got this tea actually.” Fyr tells me in between sips “It was back when I was still at the Arcane University, there was a little market nearby that sold tea and other goods hard to find in The Imperial City.” That would have been hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, as Fyr got kicked out of the University a very, very, very, long time ago. It’s good tea though, I can understand why he bought it. 

With tea and a light snack eventually finished, Fyr and I head back up to the second floor, and do a bit more work in the lab along with some help from Alfe. It's amazing that Fyr can get around as well as he does and is still seemingly completely sane…okay maybe not completely sane but I don’t think any member of house Telvanni is entirely sane, myself included. It comes with being a member of the house, you’re either an insane wizard, a mad scientist, or in the case of Fyr and Neloth, both. With the lab cleaned up after inventory is taken and experiments created and left to sit Fyr takes his leave, telling me he’s going to take a nap and I’m free to continue working, hang around the tower, or head back to Sadrith Mora. With the sun beginning to set I decide it’s probably best I head back to Sadrith Mora so I get there before night has completely fallen. Saying goodbye I take my leave and manage to get back to the town without much difficulty. I might as well go check in with Neloth since I have some time before dinner. 

Getting to the top of Tel Naga I find Neloth pouring over his current experiment plans and knock on the door lightly to announce my presence. “Oh it’s you. I assume you have the groceries I told you to get?” Groceries? Ah yes, the groceries. Neloth had asked me to get some sload soap along with a few other things and some kind of ointment for his joints. Reaching into my satchel I find what he had asked for. “Here you go.” I hand him the bundle and the vial of ointment both of which he takes and sets aside before going to retrieve some gold to give me. “What’s the ointment for if I might ask? The alchemist looked at me funny until I told it was for you.” Neloth looks up from counting the money “Huh? Oh. It’s for arthritis, my knees aren't what they once were.” Given the fact that Neloth can run almost as fast as me now I wonder what he was like when he was young, he was probably also much less grumpy. Neloth drops a small pouch of gold into my hand “Don’t get old, it’s an awful time, really.” He tells me and unlike Fyr there doesn’t seem to be any sarcasm in it. Noted, I guess I’ll just find a way to stop aging, Fyr discovered cloning, Neloth has made more than one important discovery when it comes to magic staffs, I guess that will be my contribution to House Telvanni, the house full of grumpy old wizards.

Daydreaming (Anna)

Prompt: Daydreaming

 

 “Are you daydreaming again?” A voice asks and draws me out of my thoughts. I must have spaced out, though for how long I have no clue. Looking in the direction of the voice I find Farkas watching me with a slight smile on his face. “Remember what I said about windows and studying?” he asks after a moment. “Too distracting.” I reply with a sigh. He’s not wrong, looking out the window as I’d been doing can be distracting, but it’s infinitely better than attempting to read whatever’s in this old tome. At this point I only just realize he’s been doing his own work the entire time we’ve been in the library. “Where’d that come from?” I point to the pile of papers stacked in a haphazard pile nearby, to which I only get the reply that I’ll find out later, maybe, and if I manage to get my work done. I’m convinced he has some sort of enchantment on that satchel of his based on how many seemingly random objects appear. I wonder what else one could enchant to store more than meets the eye?

 This book doesn’t offer much information on the matter, only an overview of basic ward spells, a majority of which I already know. Between pages I look around the library, there are a few of my classmates sitting about doing their own reading, professors come through every now and then, and the old, rather grumpy, and sometimes even rude librarian patrols like a dutiful watchman. Farkas looks a bit out of place among the mages, yet not too out of place, enough that one may be confused for a second upon seeing him there but go about their business quickly once realizing he’s doing exactly what everyone else is- working. Or…everyone except myself I suppose. The architecture of the library provides its own sort of distraction with the stone carvings and my favorite part, the large blue stained glass windows. Do they provide the best insulation? No, of course not. But there is a certain quality that makes staring at them and getting lost in one’s own head remarkably easy.

 Watching the wind swirl the snow outside begins to draw me back into my earlier daydream, something I can’t quite remember aside from a weightless feeling and my head feeling heavy at the same time, foggy almost. Pictures float across my vision, abstract at first before falling into place and beginning to take the form of a narrative while the rest of the world falls away into a quiet nothingness, with only the howling of the wind in contrast to the silence of the library. Then, another sound breaks through the silence, a snapping sound, and the images in my mind recede back as quickly as they’d appeared. “Oh would you stop that?!” I question Farkas with a tone bordering on minor annoyance. “I’d like to daydream in peace.” I add with a crossing of arms and the most convincing frown I can manage. Unfortunately my efforts to continue to distract myself seem to have failed, as Farkas gives me a look that is difficult to describe and can perhaps be best explained as a cross between amusement, minor annoyance, and a bit of outright confusion. He recovers himself quickly however, mumbling something to himself and begins to pack up whatever he’d been working on for the companions while I had avoided doing my readings. Within a few minutes everything is packed away neatly and he gets up from his place at the little circular table across from me as I sit there silently staring, still processing everything.

“Are you coming?” Farkas asks after a minute more of silence, to which I begin rapidly packing what remains of my own things. Having stacked my books and collected my papers I stand and give him a joking salute “ready!” and we begin walking, first across the library and down the stairs before it dawns on me to ask “where are we going?” as you’d think the magic using person would be the one navigating around here. “Somewhere you’ll be less distracted…or more distracted, depending on how things go.” is the only cryptic and unspecific answer I get until it becomes clear the target is the dormitory across the courtyard. The boring, old, windowless dormitory, with nobody there to talk to or listen to or look at. Everyone at this time of day is occupied elsewhere, in a class, or trying not to destroy their research. Inside the building it’s clear that not even Ancano, the rather suspicious Dominion figure who’s been snooping around, is present.

With perhaps the lightest push humanly possible I’m nudged into the dormitory room, and the door softly kicked closed before being locked. With the door locked Farkas watches me for a moment with what can be stereotypically called a rather wolfish grin, and seems to be waiting for something to happen. Probably looking like an idiot I stare back confused and with a face likely growing redder by the second, if other past situations involving particular dreams, thoughts, and acting upon them are a point to go off. Abruptly I drop the pile of books on the floor, just to make sure this isn’t a daydream. The clatter, and Farkas’ covering his face to keep from laughing inform me this encounter in fact is real. He was right, I’m suddenly much less distracted and interested in what will happen here compared to the old book in the dusty silent library.

The Mystery Of Uncle Yargums Legs (Fyr)

A/N: The Mystery of Uncle Yargums Legs is a very silly thing that has been sitting in my WIPs for a solid 2 years partly finished until now. Who took the poor old dwarfs prosthetic legs? Read and find out.

I wake early one morning with the unshakable feeling that something is not right. Casting a candlelight spell, as I’m still too groggy to bother lighting an actual candle I check the children’s rooms- all still asleep. Alfe and Beyte sleep soundly and are undisturbed by the brief light in their room. Delte I find still asleep though with an arm hanging off the bed, and Uupse has somehow ended up so her head is at the foot of the bed and the rest of her is where her head should be. How that happened I’m not sure, nor am I awake enough to find out. Ayron I find sound asleep as well hugging his favorite stuffed animal, a Guar named Gua-Gua. With all five magic using forces of chaos safe and accounted for, and nothing else being out of place in my own room, the study, or the lab, the problem must be from downstairs. I brew myself a very quick cup of tea to drink while scouting out the first floor to try and find what it is that has me feeling as if something is off. With my cup of tea in hand I head to the lower level, and eventually to the sanatorium where the patients live. I hope none of them have died, that would be unfortunate. I seem to be getting closer to some form of treatment for their disease, though trials so far have failed. I ask the guard, an old friend of mine, if there have been any issues during the course of the night. As he goes to answer I hear someone calling my name, sounding rather distressed. “That’s been the only issue.” The guard says, pointing to an old diseased Dwarven man who is very upset. My old, very old, friend Yargum attempts to crawl in our direction. He lost his legs long ago and since then has used a prosthetic of sorts that I made for him…the only problem is he doesn’t seem to have it. “When were you going to mention the fact he’s lost his legs?” I ask the guard, who avoids eye contact guiltily and shrugs as an answer while staring at the floor.

 

 Carefully avoiding some of the patients who are still awake and alert to avoid getting infected myself or torn to pieces, I get to Yargum eventually. After some time I manage to calm him down, though I’m troubled when he tells me someone has stolen his legs. He went to take a nap, as he manages to transfer in and out of them when needed, and when he woke up they were gone. None of the other patients have taken them, only a few still have the skill to do so, as Corprus turns the mind to mush in most cases before killing the infected person. That’s strange indeed, there’s been no one here recently to plunder the dungeon either, a little game I’ve concocted to test adventurers. If they don’t kill or hurt anybody they can keep most of what they find, I have more than enough relics and treasures that are hidden away safely that I can part with a few every now and then. That means it must be someone within the tower. I doubt it’s the guard, though he is the first to be interrogated as he’s nearby. Not wanting to bother with five sleep deprived children I go back to bed for a few hours with a note to myself to ask them all once morning truly comes. Ayron wakes me from my brief slumber by repeatedly poking me in the shoulder and occasionally the face until I get up. “Stop that, it's not polite.” I tell Ayron sternly, grabbing his hand before he has another chance to poke me in the eye. He makes a face that conveys both unhappiness and understanding so I let go of his hand a moment later and get up out of bed. The girls I find still asleep as we wander down the hall to go make breakfast. I’ll let them sleep, it’s a weekend anyways. Besides letting them sleep gives me the chance to question Ayron without added distraction. 

 

Rekindling the fire I have Ayron fetch some ingredients to help make breakfast before giving him instructions on what to do with them. With the little potential fire hazard busy and out of the way I can carry on with the part of making breakfast involving open flame more or less in peace. Breakfast is eventually served only slightly burned though nobody complains. I’ve had worse and Ayron certainly has as well. “You haven’t been down to the sanitarium lately, have you?” I ask while stirring more hot water into my tea. The boy shakes his head though the nervous look on his face suggests otherwise. “Why? Have you been down there lately?” He asks me in return. “Oh, no reason. One of the patients was having a problem last night so I went to go check on them this morning. It seems we have a mystery on our hands.” Ayron perks up at the last sentence. “A mystery? What kind of mystery? I like mysteries!” That is evident by the amount of books he has on the subject and insistence to talk to the Telvanni guard whenever I take him to Sadrith Mora. I’m fairly certain one of my magnifying glasses is still missing after he took it to go wander around the island to go look for “clues” with Gua-Gua as his trustworthy sidekick of course. 

 

“Someone, or something, has taken Yargum’s leg prosthesis. I’m trying to figure out who it could be. You’re sure you haven’t been down there lately?” Ayron reiterates he has not gone near the basement recently though he continues to avoid eye contact while doing so. I still have some suspicions yet I also doubt he could move the heavy metal by himself, he is only nine and beyond that is small for his age. “Did you ask Uupse? She likes it down there. Oh! Did you ask the guard? He’s in there all the time.” Ayron offers suggestions on what to do next and additionally brings up Beyte as a possibility after I tell him the guard has already been interrogated. She has begun to exhibit some strange behaviors recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if compulsive theft is a new one in the increasingly concerning string of behaviors. “The case of uncle Yargums legs…” Ayron mutters to himself, tucking Gua-Gua under his chin and hugging the stuffed animal. “What did Yargum say about it?” he asks a moment later and is seemingly disappointed at the lack of helpful information as Yargum was asleep when the theft occurred. We continue to swap ideas until the girls one by one come downstairs each making their own breakfast and scattering to their preferred places. Alfe goes and sits in her favorite spot by the fire, Beyte goes to the small table by the front door, Delta disappears to the lower floor alcove on the way to the basement, and Uupse…sits at the table with Ayron and I. “Good mornin-” I go to say before I’m interrupted by “Have you seen anything weird in the basement lately?” Ayron asks Uupse. She turns her head and looks at the boy, mouth still full of rice and unable to speak as a result, though the look on her face speaks louder than any words could. “...Sorry.” Ayron says upon receiving such a look, turning to face away from her in a mixture of guilt and embarrassment. Having swallowed her food and gotten Ayron to shut up she turns back to me “To answer his question which I’m going to ask is really your question, no I haven’t seen anything down there that’s out of the ordinary.” she tells me honestly, and I believe her. Out of the five of them she is the worst liar, and usually speaks the truth because of it. 

 

Before continuing she thinks for a minute eyebrows furrowed in thought as she attempts to recall something “Now that you mention it actually, there was something odd a few days ago. I was sweeping down there and found a trail of what looked like little footprints going from the gate to the area where Yargum usually is and from there to one of the closed off areas before coming back to the gate. It was like a big loop. We don’t have any child patients, do we?” Unless there was an admission I didn’t know about that the temple placed when I wasn’t looking there are no child patients. Only adults of various ages and disease stages from those in the earliest phase who appear more or less normal to those close to the end that are mindless and suffering great pain, and those in-between like Yargum who are mentally intact yet physically disabled. “We do not have any child patients that I know of. The reason I ask is that Yargums leg prosthetic has gone missing, possibly stolen. Before you ask, the guard has already been interrogated, as has Ayron. I don’t think you are the one responsible, but I had to ask.” I explain to her and when Ayron hears that he too was interrogated pipes up with “Hey, that was not an interrogation! That was a conversation between investigators.” crossing his arms in annoyance. Uupse stifles a laugh, pats him on the back and tells him that sure it was, he can keep telling himself that if it’ll make him feel better. With two out of five questioned that leaves the other three to go. I begin with Delte, she will be the easiest to ask. With Alfe and Beyte one has to be a bit more careful with language as it will either be taken extremely literally or twisted out of context. I find her in her typical preferred area working on a list of required replacements for the next trip to Sadrith Mora. “You haven’t been in the basement recently have you?” I ask, poking my head around the corner. “Nope. No reason to go near the sick people on purpose in the middle of the typical period for seasonal illness.” She answers without looking up from her list making. “Good talk.” I say before going back upstairs. Her comment on seasonal illness was all that needed to be said.

 

Three down, two to go. Alfe goes easier than expected by giving a daily recount of the past two weeks of where she has been and when it’s clear that she has spent most of her time up in the lab or in the spot I find her finishing breakfast and reading a book that is nearly the thickness of her arm. I remind her to not overwork herself and to make sure to take breaks before moving on. And then there was one, this could go very well or very poorly the chance of either is roughly the same. “Beyte, have you been down in the basement with the patients at all in the last two or three days?” I ask and she turns to look at me “Last two or three days? No I don’t think so…oh wait, yes. Yesterday afternoon, very briefly. Why? Are they all okay?” I notice out of the corner of my eye Ayron peeking over one of the short walls that separates the entryway from where he and Uupse sit listening in on our conversation. He seems unaware that I notice him spying so I continue explaining the situation to Beyte, that everyone is safe, but we are missing some important equipment that makes quality of life greatly improved. 

 

I then ask what it was she was doing down there yesterday. She pauses for a moment and I see out of the corner of my eye again a now very nervous Ayron pulling at his hair in a mixture of anger and anxiety as Beyte begins to speak. “I was helping Ayron to move something, it was too heavy for him to move himself, even with magic.” I nod in understanding and thank her before turning back to where Ayron had been eavesdropping. The boy blinks twice before jumping like a scared cat and attempting to run away out of the room and upstairs. Uupse stops him before he can get fully out of the kitchen and picks him up before plopping him back in his original chair. “Where did you put them?” I ask calmly, but sternly. “I’ll show you.” The boy mumbles getting out of his chair and leading me, and Uupse who is now curious, to the basement and down past the gate along the rough path until we reach one of the areas closed off for storage. He points to one and upon opening the door out fall the intricate metal legs and their main base. The mystery of uncle Yargums legs has been solved, and quicker than I thought it would be. With nothing else to proclaim at the current moment all I have to say to the two as we stand looking at the now no longer missing prosthetic is simply “Case closed.”