Beautiful Triumph

Jim Stitzel

I dabble a little in a lot of things — writing, webcomics, gaming, photography, web design, music, and more. I write code full-time and words in the gaps in between.


An adolescent boy, nude but for a spotlessly white loincloth. Great feathered wings sprout from his shoulder blades, so perfectly clean and glorious that anyone who saw them would be instantly blinded. But of course there are none who can.

He stands in the middle of Central Park, as people rush about him. His eyes are fixed on no one in particular. The one he is waiting for has not arrived yet. But she will soon, and like all the others, she will be in a hurry. His timing will have to be perfect, but he is unconcerned because it always is. He has performed his job for aeons. His job is a craft now, an art form unto itself.

He folds his wings down around himself, and for a moment he is nothing more than a column of pure, radiant, heavenly light. He is pure perfection, transcendence beyond transcendence, and when his wings part again, he is holding in his hand a crystalline key made of perfect, clear glass.

The time has come. She comes racing through the park now. He is about to make her a goddess among men.


Comments (2 so far!)

Robert Quick

Robert Quick

The first key that has a positive power? Perhaps not, not in this world. I imagine that gods and goddesses would fear to tread here. I hadn't read the others of this series until now (I believe I was gone when they were initially written). Interesting takes on these ideas, ideals? Each of the key-bearers have an almost Gaiman feel to them, casting shadows longer than the ficlys they're featured in.

  • #3749 Posted 6 years ago
  • 0
Jim Stitzel

Jim Stitzel

I really love this series. It's fun to come up with different types of keys that do different things. Sure, many of the outcomes are bad for the recipient, but it's just possible that some may be good, too. But making a woman a goddess among men? That may well be a curse disguised as a blessing.

  • #3750 Posted 6 years ago
  • 0

Inspired by (sequel to):

A child. Barely out of diapers. He stands stock still on the busy sidewalk as hundreds of grown-ups …

Beautiful Tragedy

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