The Dry Watery Death

Detector Allen turned to the young reporter and said, “It’s clear to me what’s happened here.”

The reporter, Marie, peered down at the images from the crime scene, and the police report displaying in the bottom right corner of the tabletop screen. She moved the images.

They had been allowed access to the police case file of a man who died mysteriously in his home. The cause of death was drowning. He was dry from head to toe when found, but lying around him were strangely shaped puddles. Some jagged. Some in chunks. One wedged beneath his tongue.

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The Map of All Worlds

I have seen the tears of a unicorn. I have squinted through shielded lenses to watch bright white stars spinning out plasma. I have seen the battle of mouse armies. I have seen the glowing green heart of the oldest oak in my home realm.

A map led me to all of these and more. Not a static map drawn on a scroll or printed on glossy pages in an atlas. Not even the sometimes-changing ethereal maps created on the worldwide web. This map was ever-changing. It drew itself. It did not learn or know. It simply appeared when commanded to, if the commands were the right commands. Technology, enchantment.

It all started with a scavenger hunt.

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