Black Hole Sun

My submission for the QUEST Black Hole Sun

The streets of Marbex were shrouded in an unnatural gloom, lanterns flickering in defiance against a night that refused to end.

Cassian had seen some weird things in his years, but a whole town losing the sun? That was a new one.

He walked a step behind Lalia, eyes sharp beneath the brim of his hood, his posture relaxed but ready. She might not notice—too focused on the surroundings—but he was watching her.

He’d seen plenty of green adventurers, fresh out of whatever backwoods, gutters, or gilded halls they’d crawled from, but Lalia wasn’t like them. The Guild chewed up recruits like bad rations, but she? She had the kind of presence that legends started with.

And, considering she literally absorbed magic just by existing, he figured sticking close wasn’t a bad idea.

Then Rosa gurgled.

The sound snapped him out of his thoughts, and his gaze flicked ahead—toward an alley, where the slime had wandered, pulsing like it had found something tasty.

Cassian’s gut twisted. "Lalia," he murmured, nodding toward the thing half-buried in the dirt.

Twisted silver, inlaid with blackened crystal. It shimmered, bending the air like heat over stone.

A candle in a nearby window flickered out.

Lalia took a step forward.

Rosa shuddered, then stretched—engulfing the artifact.

"Ah, hell," Cassian muttered, already bracing for whatever disaster was about to follow.

Lalia whistled.

Rosa, obedient as ever, oozed back toward her, but the artifact sat within her goop. The moment the slime reached Lalia’s arms—

The world exploded.

A blinding flash, not just bright but searing, obliterating all sense of direction. The force of it wasn’t just light, but something deeper—something that commanded silence, obedience, surrender.

Cassian’s vision went white.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing. No sound, no air, just the lingering sting of energy crackling through his bones.

And then—

Warmth.

A breeze.

The kind of soft, golden light that should not have existed in Marbex anymore.

His eyes blinked open.

And there she was.

Lalia, standing in the alley, arms wrapped around Rosa—who looked… full. Contained. Her tail draped over the slime like an instinctual warding sigil, the feathers subtly absorbing stray wisps of energy still crackling in the air.

The artifact was gone.

But the sun was back.

Cassian exhaled slowly, processing.

A moment ago, the world had been shrouded in an eternal night. A cursed relic had kept an entire town trapped in darkness. And now?

It was morning.

Lalia blinked. The world was warm again. The town was normal again.

Rosa was in her arms, vibrating gently in a way that could only mean self-satisfaction.

She sighed, ruffling the slime’s surface like a pleased cat. "You're such a good girl, Rosie."

Cassian was still rubbing at his eyes, muttering something about how this was definitely above his pay grade. He looked at her, looked at the very present sun, then back at her again.

"You—" he started, but stopped, like he genuinely didn’t know how to phrase whatever he was about to say.

Lalia, meanwhile, had a different concern entirely.

Her tail flicked, sending a last stray wisp of energy crackling off into nothing, and she muttered, almost to herself:

"…The Guild’s not gonna be mad, right? Like. We were supposed to bring back the artifact, and now it’s kinda… y’know. Inside Rosa."

Cassian stared at her for a long, long moment.

And then he just laughed. The kind of bewildered, exhausted, oh-my-gods-this-kid kind of laugh that only came when witnessing something truly ridiculous.

"Oh, yeah," he finally managed, shaking his head. "I’m sure they’ll be real understanding."

Because honestly?

This was definitely going to be a problem for Future Lalia.