Storytime Blog Hop - July 2025 - Engraved
Welcome to another Blog Hop! This is one of those things that reminds me I still have so many stories to write… and without readers, why write? So thank you so much for reading!
I will do a post soon about the 3rd and final Priestess book - Found Priestess. Watch for that!
Engraved
“Diana, someone brought a phoenix egg into our town.” Ella finished braiding her hair and snapped an elastic on the end. I’d always envied her hair— long and blond and straight while mine was brown and vaguely wavy.
Her words sank in and I rocketed to my feed, dumping my knitting to the floor. “What?” In a town where we’d successfully moved the taverns and adventurers to the outskirts, I didn’t often hear of magical mischief inside the walls. “How long?”
“We have twenty-four hours until it hatches and wipes us out in a blaze of fire and glory.”
“Where—”
“No one knows where it is. The guy who brought it in died during questioning.”
My mouth opened and closed and opened again.
Ella sighed. “Yeah, I feel the same way.”
Thousands of people depended on us— Ella, the mayor, and me, the head of the town guard— to keep magical shit from interfering with their everyday lives.
“Died?” I managed.
“As soon as they slapped a truth geas on him, it interacted poorly with his heart and whatever stimulant he’d taken. Died before the healer could lay hands on.”
Argh. “Clock is ticking.”
“Yeah. Sweeps?”
“Sweeps.”
***
We sent the guards and healers out together with instructions to check every corner of every building, street, and alley. Town runners reported back every hour, and our combined office filled with maps and charts as we checked off each place searched.
Desperate times, and all that.
None of us would get far enough away from a phoenix egg blast to evacuate. Our only hope was finding the damned thing in time to freeze it, then take it out of the city to the desert where it would thaw and be reborn in its own time.
Without harming my town.
Any of our healers could freeze it— if we could just find it.
Second shift relieved first shift and the search continued. As the afternoon sped toward evening and shadows lengthened, Ella watched me pace. “We’re not going to find it in time.”
“I know.” The jumble of our maps had grown piles of notes. Having searched the whole city, our teams were starting again.
My adult kids had gone to work like it was a normal day.
Almost under her breath, Ella whispered, “Magical tattoo.”
“What?”
“Magical…”
“Tattoo?”
“I know a guy.”
“Of course you do.” My eyes rolled. “But this magical tattoo thing can help us find the egg?”
“Yes!”
“And you—”
“Tried it before. Didn’t work for me.” She cleared her throat, whispered,. “My grandbabies are here.”
“Don’t do that.” My eyes stung suspiciously. I could face down an insane mage or a raving dragon, but my best friend crying— nope. “You think this magic will work for me?”
“I think we’re desperate.”
“Lead the way.”
***
Beyond the city walls, of course, on a street filled with shadows and magic, we came to the tattoo shop Ella claimed might help.
Engraved, the sign said. And Closed.
I pounded on the door. We didn’t have time for niceties.
Finally, a creeky voice demanded, “What?”
My best friend tilted her head back and yelled, “It’s Ella! The mayor!”
“You already tried. We ain’t trying again.”
“I have Diana with me.”
A crone stuck her head out of the window, her face shadowed, her hair glinting silver in the moonlight. “Head of the guard, Diana? She hates magic.”
“There’s a phoenix egg.”
“I heard rumors. I was fixing to get a decent night’s sleep before the end.”
This was taking too long. “Get down here and tattoo me.” Be nice. “Please.”
With a heavy sigh, the crone retreated. Lights tracked the woman’s progress down the stairs, into the shop, to the front door. She scowled, opened it..
“Can’t promise nothing,” she huffed.
“Try.”
***
After an hour of pain and silent cursing, I stared down at my arm in horror.
We’d wasted another hour of precious time— time when I could have been saying goodbye— for inked lines and curves in a stylized compass… a useless compass that pointed wherever my fingers pointed. Nothing magical about it except maybe how much it had hurt going on.
I shifted my gaze to Ella and raised an eyebrow.
My best friend blanched, then laughed. “You have to activate it.”
“Picture it in your mind,” the crone said. “What you’re wanting most. Touch your tattoo and imagine the compass showing you the way.”
Keeping my eye roll internal, I imagined the stone shell and internal fire of a phoenix egg, whispered, “find me the egg,” and used my right hand to touch my left arm at the center of the allegedly magical tattoo.
Nothing.
Then the lines lifted from my skin, glowing bright like a star in the night sky, and the arrow pointed back into the center of the city.
“Well, I’ll be—”
“Let’s go!” Ella squealed. “We can still get that thing out of our city!”
***
We went, picking up guard teams as we strode through our city, until twenty people surrounded or trailed after us. Occasionally, I turned away just to check the magic was working.
Eventually, it led us to a cart, a donkey, and a boy.
Explained why we missed it during the searches— the cart moved.
The terrified boy stuttered something about not knowing, but I was too busy yanking back the blanket that covered the egg and shoving the closest healer at it.
Just as dawn light stabbed into the gloom and the fire inside the thing started to flare, three healers laid hands on it and iced it into dormancy.
Thank the gods.
With a pop, the ink on and above my air disappeared too.
“Seriously?” I muttered to Ella. “All that effort and it’s gone?”
“Single use, I guess.” She snorted. “But we did it. Saved the city!”
“Yep. Did it again..” More importantly, saved our families. Dawn never looked so good.
Links for other free stories from around the world:
The Saga Of Pyscho Shannon by Vanessa Wells
Contract by Angelica Medlin
Petrichor and Roses by Chris Makowsk
Pixels and Bytes by Katharina Gerlach
Bookmarked By Magic by Juneta Key