Mounir Durdak
(Honorable Mention, 2025 BWR Short Story Award)
Alto was not having a good day, though not many had been since his Master forced him to work for a magic delivery app to get some “perspective.” Alto felt the entire thing was dumb and frankly beneath him. When Alto found out he had magic, he thought he would be working at a high-end Mage Academy, or a major firm, like Merlin’s Mastery. His Master had other ideas. Apparently, Alto was “not ready” and “too immature.” So here he was, doing gig work for tips like a street magician.
Though being bad at it hurt his pride the most. Him, an apprentice to one of the top mages on this side of the planet. Alto, not for the first time, felt the uncomfortable heat of embarrassment recalling his pride for his 4-star review—until the app warned him, he’d be suspended if his reviews dropped any lower. A suspension would mean he failed. The idea grated at him, as he got worked up imagining it. Alto believed failing due to petty party trick deliveries was unacceptable for any mage, let alone himself. He was meant to be doing magic that shaped industries, and revolutionized kingdoms. Instead, he was nearly failing at helping people finding lost items or adding basic enchantments. The good news, Alto thought smiling, was that just one more delivery and he could put this chapter behind him.
Alto’s smile immediately fell, replaced by a deep scowl as he arrived at the final delivery location, seeing a maze! Not only was it a maze, but the delivery was to the centre of the damn thing. He blanched at the thought of needing to complete the maze. Checking the app, Alto prayed the customer left instructions but found nothing. Alto sighed and channelled magic to the contact option in the app.
“Hello, thank you for contacting MageQuick. It appears you are a . . . Mage Courier. Please give us a moment to go over the options,” the automated familiar said.
Alto hurriedly selected the third option on his crystal phone, hoping to get through the menu quickly.
“Option not recognized,” the voice responded. “Please choose from the following options: If you have been attacked by a rival mage, press one. If you are trapped in a low mana zone, press two. If you need to contact your valued customer, press thre—.”
Alto once again chose the third option, tensing as his frustration built. After a few moments, the line connected, and he could hear heavy breathing on the other side.
“Hello, who is this?” a deep, booming voice answered from the other side, as Alto quickly checked the app for the customer’s name.
“Hi, I’m Alto. Is this Taurus? I’m the mage delivering your magic today. I’m outside the maze, but there’s no instructions on the app. Is there a path I can follow, or maybe you can come outside?” Alto asked, hopeful.
“Yes, I’m Taurus. No, I can’t come outside. I . . . uh . . . have an issue with my foot.” He stuttered, the image of a child lying to their parents for the first time flashing in Alto’s mind.
“I chose the option for in-person delivery. You can come in the maze; don’t worry about it, I’ll be waiting,” Taurus finished saying.
“But I need to know how to ge—,” Alto started, before the line abruptly cut off. The air began to sizzle around Alto, as he fought to keep himself calm.
“Remember the reviews. Just one more delivery. Don’t want to fail,” Alto repeated to himself like a mantra through clenched teeth, as the air began to calm, and his jaw relaxed.
Alto navigated the maze, his anger threatening to boil over. He was only able to rely on basic scrying to navigate. Teleportation spells were banned, ever since one mage teleported themself on the customer’s exact location, causing a . . . messy situation. Yet, what really pushed Alto’s patience to its limit were the traps.
“Who asks for delivery to the centre of a damn maze, with no instructions, then also keeps the bloody traps on?” Alto grumbled.
Luckily for his already-stretched-thin sanity, the traps were fairly basic. Arrows flying out of the wall that bounced off his mage shield; floors falling out, revealing a spike pit he used a levitation spell to cross, and walls slowly threatening to crush Alto that a haste spell helped him escape. Frankly, his Master had put him through much worse situations during training.
Alto entered what he hoped was the final room before his goal, according to the scrying spell, which then blinked out of existence as he crossed the threshold.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Alto let out in exasperation, as he felt a magic disruption field settle on him.
His face set into a deeper scowl as he took in the room before him. The door was on the other end, separated by a chasm, and circular platforms spread across it at intervals. Alto remembered his Master’s words with a chuckle.
“What will you do when magic is not there for you, boy? Will you accept your demise and lament your fate for being a vessel emptied of its power, or will you rely on that vessel to be strong enough to survive until it can be filled again?” His Master would often repeat the question, particularly after tormenting Alto with what he thought could easily be classified as physical torture.
Alto couldn’t help but think of his Master’s smug face, though there was no one he respected more. Following the teachings he’d been given, Alto began testing using a magic spell rotation his Master showed him for these kinds of situations. He started with the most complex, down the list to the least, ending on pure, unformed magic. After multiple rounds of testing, he concluded only raw, unformed magic would work—barely. Anything more complex would fail. Rising from his experiment, Alto approached the chasm.
The thought of failure once again gnawed at him. Alto hated failure, and so, he would not fail. Alto leapt to the closest circular platform. As he took a moment to decide which platform to jump to next, he felt his platform begin to shake.
“Oh shi—,” Alto had no time to finish the sentence, as he quickly leapt to the next platform, the previous one falling just as he left it.
Alto barely had time to curse his luck before he felt the new platform begin to shake. He quickly jumped to the next one. Just as his foot touched the third platform, he felt it begin to shake, realizing the platforms were starting to fall faster. With no time to spare, he quickly launched himself to the next one, and just as quickly as his foot touched it, he leapt, leaving the platform behind. Midair, he realized the next platform was already starting to fall. If he waited to land, he wouldn’t make it. Despite a feeling of panic, Alto let all of the training with his Master coalesce, and a sudden calm instinct took over.
The moment he touched the falling platform, Alto pushed unformed mana from both his feet and his hands, raising him with more force than he expected, straight into the edge of chasm. Alto hit it with a thud, knocking the breath from his lungs. His fingers digging into the stone edge, out of instinct rather than conscious effort. He pulled himself up, panting as he took a moment to get the air back into his lungs, rubbing his chest. Alto rolled onto his back, laughing as his mind repeated, I didn’t fail.
Getting up, Alto approached the doorway at the end of the hall. He felt himself exit the magic disruption field and refreshing magic slowly began to fill his body again. He knocked on the door and sent a message on the app, waiting. The door slid open, and as Alto looked up straining his neck, he thought, this must be what dwarfs feel like, standing before an eight-foot-tall minotaur made of pure muscle.
“Oh, you made it. Nice,” Taurus said, not hiding his surprise, “Come on in.”
“A little direction would have been nice,” Alto muttered to himself.
“What was that?” Taurus turned back asking, not hearing Alto clearly.
“Nothing. How can I help?” Alto tried his best to keep a smile on his face, and not let his frustration show. He had reviews to worry about after all.
“Ah, well as you can see, I’m a minotaur, in a maze,” Taurus paused, waiting for Alto to say something. When Alto did not, he continued. “Well, my job is to deal with adventurers. Stalk the halls of the maze, you know, bringing danger and a certain ‘predators become the prey feel’ you know?”
“Sorry, I’m not sure where I come in,” Alto said, cautiously.
“Ah, well, ever since mortals have had those technological breakthroughs, adventuring doesn’t happen like it used to,” Taurus said sadly. “It’s all handled by government or private sector adventurers. No one’s in it for the love of the game anymore. So, spending time going through a maze, especially one like mine, is super-low priority.”
Alto tensed and the air began to sizzle. “Is this an ambush? Are you getting delivery mages to come here to hunt them?”
“What? No! Well kind of, but not the way you think,” Taurus stammered, the nervousness on his eight-foot frame not suiting him.
“So, here’s the thing,” Taurus paused. “I’m lonely, okay! No one comes here anymore; the last time I saw an adventurer was a decade ago. Do you know how boring it is to be stuck in a maze you already know the layout of, and no one to speak to but yourself?
“So, I thought I could get mages to come here through the delivery app, and we could . . . talk . . . or fight.” He almost mumbled the last part.
Alto looked at the creature towering over him, horns on his head that looked sharp enough to pierce through even the sturdiest armor. His shyness in stark contrast to his staggering size, with muscles that swelled with each movement as he tensed nervously, watching Alto looking him over. He eyed the double-bladed broadaxe at his side, the marks on the handle giving away its old age, but as old as it seemed, it was well taken care of. Alto started to laugh again. Here he was standing before a creature who could strike fear into even the most hardened adventurer, and he was . . . lonely and extremely shy.
“Is everything okay?” Taurus asked sheepishly.
Alto wiped a tear from his eyes. “No, it’s all good, I’m just surprised. Working for this app might have been worth it just for this moment. So, you want a sparring partner, and maybe even a friend, is that right?” Alto asked teasingly, before finally saying, “Sure, why not, are we doing it here?”
“Oh, you’re gonna do it?” Taurus said, surprised, and before Alto could change his mind, quickly added, “there’s an arena we can use.”
Taurus excitedly rushed to the door, following behind as Alto entered. Alto looked at the arena, a giant sand pit, with pillars splattered across the arena. As he took it in, Taurus walked to one side; following his lead, Alto walked to the other before turning to face the minotaur.
Before Alto could even ask the rules, Taurus leaped toward him with a booming, “Begin!”
Taurus crashed down a few meters from Alto, leaving a crater as the ground shook. Alto quickly cast a haste spell and put up a spell shield right before Taurus’ axe swing connected. Alto was pushed back, and used the momentum to flip backward and regroup. Taurus had other ideas, giving Alto no rest as he leaped forward. Taurus lifted his axe as he flew toward Alto, but as the spell shield came up to take a blow, Taurus revealed the feint and switched the swing into a shoulder charge.
The shield shattered as Taurus, not wasting a moment, continued pressing him. Alto shot a spell freezing the sand at his feet, causing the minotaur to slip. Taurus fell, but with a finesse that defied his size, he used the fall’s momentum, rolling as he swung his axe toward Alto’s neck. With the haste spell, and years of physical training, Alto barely dodged, escaping with a cut on his collar. Alto cast a levitation spell to get distance, launching consecutive concussion spells toward the sand at Taurus’ feet, followed by another set at his face. Alto used the sand cloud to get more distance, dashing over the pillars, preparing a spell.
Meanwhile, as the sand exploded, clouding his vision, Taurus instinctively threw up his broadaxe, just in time to block the follow up. As the dust settled, he could see Alto was preparing something. His instincts screamed to end this fight soon just as Alto released another set of concussion blasts, causing Taurus to roll behind a nearby pillar.
Alto, still preparing the spell, lost sight of Taurus behind the pillar. His hair stood on the back of his neck, and he realized something was off. Just as he did, he saw the giant minotaur appear as he lifted the pillar and launched it. Alto did not have time to dodge, so he quickly visualized and manifested a magic version of Taurus’ broadaxe. He brought the magic axe down to impact with the pillar and split it in two, revealing Taurus leaping toward Alto, shattering the axe construct on his way.
“Now or never,” Alto said to himself.
This would be close, Alto knew, releasing his spell and launching golden strings of magic toward Taurus and the pillars Alto marked earlier. As the strings approached Taurus, again with the finesse of someone half his size, the minotaur used the momentum of his leap to begin spinning, his axe far out. The increased speed and momentum turned the battle into a race of time, Taurus’s approaching tornado swing against Alto’s spell. Just as Alto saw the strings begin to wrap around the pillars, he felt the pressure from the approaching axe on his skin. Alto instinctively cast a spell shield on his body, and braced himself, feeling a sharp pain as his shield manifested. Alto flew across the stadium, crashing into the wall, the breath knocked out of him. Dancing on the edge of consciousness, Alto heard an ear shattering boom.
A quiet filled the arena, and the mana in the air calmed. Alto pulled himself from the wall and limped across the sand, finding the minotaur bound in thousands of golden threads connected to the pillars across the arena. Taurus looked over at Alto, and as his gaze settled on the cut across Alto’s chest, he smiled so wide every one of his teeth showed. Alto could not help but smile back. As he released the magic on Taurus, he had the most peculiar thought. Maybe MageQuick will be more interesting after all.
Mounir Derdak is just a guy born and raised in Canada, who’s always loved stories. Whether it was his Aunts telling bedtime stories in Morocco over the summer, TV, books, or manga, he loved consuming it all. More recently, Mounir is taking a crack at creating some stories himself.