Thomas Charles Henry

Tableau

How strange that, for all the tumult that followed, it is this moment I will remember for the rest of my life. A fleeting instant of calm, betwixt inhale and exhale: every single little detail frozen in time.

With the correct spell construction, I believe I could walk within this memory as if it were a perfectly staged tableau. Could I even do more? Kill the guards before they enter Father’s workshop? Grab Flux and escape to the safety of elsewhere? Sadly, magic that powerful does not, and should not, exist. The cost of such a spell would be unfathomable.

2025 was a barren year for my creativity, so I’m kicking off 2026 with a snippet of the fantasy novel that lives forever inside my lazy brain. ‘Tableau’ was written in response to Friday Fictioneers – a weekly 100-word writing challenge hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Come and play along!