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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Today's #flashfiction Fantastical Property Values

“WD-40, the can that can.”
King Arthur* #quote

It's been arranged that Jessica will be coming over this Friday. I don't think we'll be frying anything on Friday.

Fantastical Property Values


        King Galayon wanted to buy a vacation castle far away from his normal home. A place to go to where the scenery can change, and where he can still run his kingdom, but it'd be out of the way enough that it'd be difficult for the other kings and queens to get the time to travel that distance and visit. He found a castle in a beautiful, scenic area that was also strategically surrounded by mountains. A natural defense that looked good as well. A clean river flowed in front of the location.
         “What a quaint, little castle your selling Mr. Falei.” The King smiled while talking to the wizard who put up the place for sale. King Galayon dealt extensively with wizards in his life, many served as consultants for him and parts of his royal guard. Twelve traveled with him alongside twenty knights.             This wizard did confuse him though. Most wizards loved showmanship. They devoted their entire life to their craft so they wore robes that represented their school of magic and all sorts of charms, emblems, rings, jewelry. Anyone with a passing knowledge of wizards could identify a wizard's discipline by looking at them. Except for this man. He wore practical farmer clothes, held a pitchfork, and only thing that identified him as a wizard was the golden necklace around his neck with a magical jewel of extreme rarity. Galayon knew this man was a powerful wizard from the item he wore, but he couldn't tell what kind, since the artifact didn't belong to any specific school of magic.
           “Oh, but the farmland is great if you want your workers to make you food without having to order in supplies, and the castle is very roomy on the inside.” Falei pointed to the fields next to the castle. He'd been cultivating them for a long time and hoped to use them as a primary bragging point.
            King Galayon's found the fact that such a wizard leaving a castle would be odd. The second thing that confused him was that the price for the castle fell into the smoking-amazing-bargain range despite its location and all its properties. He only called it quaint to insult it and begin negotiations.                 “Mr. Falei do I need to remind you that you need to tell me everything that could affect the value of this property?”
              The wizard frowned. He snapped his fingers and a ring of fire appeared around the castle like a moat. “Well, magic traps laid by the original owner I took it from are everywhere. I have to regularly cast a spell to check for their reactivation periods.”
              The wizards among the King's guard felt instantly ashamed that they could not detect the traps. The King remained calm and asked, “Anything else?”
             Falei gave up on concealing information. Everyone checked the castle before they bought it anyway so he may as well tell them upfront. “It's haunted. There's a dragon living there with a princess he originally took hostage but now befriended so you'll have to make living arrangements with them. A fracture from another dimension intersects the castle so the geometry and hallways of the buildings rearrange every day based on the position of the stars. Also in the mountains there are noisy goblin neighbors who play loud music.”

            The King stared at the wizard, then the castle, then back to the wizard, moving his eyes between the two. He then said, “Explains why the place is dirt cheap, I'll take it.”

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