In the Modern Age

He stared at the wall in disbelief as he slowly returned the phone to its base. He had learned over the course of his time at his job that it never rained until it flooded. Today was a flood.

He had come to expect virtually no respect from the higher ups, but this was going a bit too far. Did she ever intend to tell him that she was gone? He had thought that his supervisor leaving town for a week and thus leaving him in charge of the three upcoming events that weekend would be something she would have told him about. But, alas, no. He got to find out about it by calling to ask he about something else entirely and hearing her answering machine informing him that she would be gone until the following Monday.

In the modern age, what was her excuse? She could have called and left a message on his machine at work. She could have sent him an email or a text message. She could have left a sticky note somewhere! There was no excuse for not telling him. None.

He laid his head down on his desk feeling the weight of his insomnia dragging him down. He really wasn't in any kind of condition to be running events especially with two days notice.

He closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes slowly, raising his arms and letting out his breath.

"Most resplendent, he-that-learneth-from-the-self."

He smiled as he relaxed the tensed muscles in his legs. "Thanks, Corson."

Corson smiled back at him. As a highly proficient sorcerer, there was no way of accurately estimating Corson's age. He looked to be in his fifties, but Haze was quite confident he was centuries older than that. "We here shallst progress, hence." Where his manner of speech came from was anyone's guess. Maybe if you live too long your brain fries.

Haze picked up a towel from the table next to him and wiped the sweat dripping from his face. "Great. What's next?"

Without a word, Corson turned and left the room. The last two months of training had taught Haze that he was meant to follow.

As they entered the next room, Corson turned suddenly and fired a barrage of green flaming orbs at his apprentice. Haze dropped instinctively into his defensive stance and raised his arms. Time seemed to slow for him as the orbs drew closer. He fought the urge to phase out and let them pass. Corson would never allow him to get away with that. Instead, behind his back, he twisted the fingers of his left hand into one of the mystic signs he had been taught and waved his right defensively. The orbs came to a complete stop as the rest of time returned to normal.

Corson smiled, raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist and the orbs popped coating Haze in their slimy yellow contents.

Haze chuckled. "You're a real dick sometimes, did you know that?"

"This one hath been apprised thusly. In multiplicity."

Haze grinned as he pulled his left hand out from behind his back and allowed his left arm to phase slightly. Purple energy surged down his smoky arm and launched itself at Corson. The sorcerer attempted to raise a defense, but the spell moved too quickly. The purple energy struck him squarely between the eyes.

Corson collapsed as his skin changed from its naturally dark brown tone to the vibrant purple of the spell that had struck him. Haze chuckled as realization dawned on his friend.

"Alack, he-that-hath-learned-and-surpassed, the self retains a lacuna from thee." He bowed his head respectfully.

"Thank you, old friend," said Haze as he closed his eyes and lowered his head in return.

He opened his eyes.

Letting out a breath, he pulled out a pad of paper and began writing out everything that needed to be taken care of for the coming events. As the list of things that needed to be accomplished in the next two days grew, he felt tears burning just behind his eyes.

No excuse. She had no excuse for doing this to him in the modern age.

He was really in no condition to be running events, but he didn't really have a choice at this point.

. . . or did he?