The day before the Ritual of the Winter Solstice, Adept Asher caught the flu. Because sicknesses dampened magical power, he could not go, and the wizard-priests of the Helios had to scramble to find another wizard to do his job. Asher was a magical prodigy, and everybody had expected him to help lead the ceremony. However, the ritual still had to start at sunset, with or without someone to lead it. When the wizards marched out of the temple’s doors, they were still bickering over who should lead the ritual. The apprentices charged with closing the temple doors were so occupied with the debate that they didn’t close the doors shut as securely as they should have, and didn’t check to make sure that the temple was properly closed. Nearby, hungry eyes watched the doors, knowing that this was the perfect night for them.

None of this mattered to Asher, who felt that something as mundane as having the flu was beyond the dignity of a Heliaite wizard-priest, not to mention a prodigy adept. He shivered under his blankets, wondering how the room could feel so cold with blankets heaped onto himself. He glanced at the fireplace, and imagined the logs bursting into flame.

Smoke drifted out of one end of a log, a mockery of what he had envisioned. Asher swore. This sickness was making him worse than the apprentices, and he was still cold. He would have to light it by hand, something that no self-respecting apprentice, wizard-priest, or adept should have to do.

He moved stiffly out of bed, keeping his blankets wrapped around himself like a protective armor against the cold. Asher stepped out into a hallway, where there were several torches lighting up the halls. He walked over to a torch and tried to pull it out of its bracket, but it wouldn’t budge. Asher concentrated on levitating the log in his fireplace to a torch to light it. The log floated out of his rooms and fell -- straight onto Asher’s toes. Asher unleashed a string of colorful curses as he massaged his toes. Levitation was the simplest of magical tasks, and it had been the first thing that he had mastered!

Asher hobbled further down the hallway. He would have to find a box of matches, or, worse, flint and tinder to light a fire. Of course, wizard-priests of the Helios wouldn’t need matches, when they could light a fire with the power of their minds. This was going to take a long time.

Asher walked into the Prayer room, where the sun was shining in from above. He relaxed. The Prayer room had no roof, to allow wizards to feel closer to the sun. It was enchanted to magnify the sun’s rays, and the room felt like it was still summer. He blinked. Why did he feel so sleepy? It was almost like the sun was telling him to go to sleep…

It was the perfect day for theft. The doors to the temple had been left unlocked, and all of the wizards were off at some ritual. A hand silently opened the double doors of the temple and beckoned two others inside. Slowly, silently, the three thieves entered the temple of Helios. Today was their day to get rich.

The first thing that Asher noticed was that his protective blankets had been stripped away. The second thing that he noticed was that he was tied to a pole. How had this happened? He coughed weakly.

At the edge of his vision, three figures wearing black were stuffing golden idols and gaudy gems into large sacks. One of them turned at him and yelled, “The wizard’s awake!”

The other two figures turned to face Asher and he realized that they must be thieves. Who else would dare do something as blasphemous as this but thieves with no moral code? He tried to wriggle out of his bonds, but they were too tight.
“Can I kill him, boss?” a thief asked eagerly. He brandished a large club menacingly. “We don’t need any witnesses.”
Asher recoiled. These thieves wanted him dead! He imagined the sun smiting them with heavenly power, but the sun’s rays only brightened for a second. He ground his teeth. If only he wasn’t sick, the thieves wouldn’t be able to desecrate the temple any more.

Another thief said, “No point in killing him now. The wizard probably knows where the real treasure is hidden.”
The third thief asked, “B-boss? What do you mean by real tr-trea-treasure?”

The leader of the thieves said, “What do you think I came into this temple for? This isn’t the only place to get gold and jewelry. I want magical items.”

“B-but you said that we wouldn’t be d-doing anything to off-off-offend the sun,” said the short, nervous thief.
Asher blinked in surprise. At least one of the thieves still was rightfully afraid of the sun’s power. Maybe he could scare the thieves off by reminding them that this was, after all, a temple of Helios. He shouted, “This is a sacred temple! Run while you still can.”

The thieves ignored him.
Asher tried again, “The sun will punish you for this blasphemy. Stop this before you die!”
The nervous thief said, “May-maybe we should leave this place.”

The leader laughed. “That’s what they all say, but it’s never come true. Then again… wizard, where’s the treasure?”

The tall thief had snuck to Asher’s back, and was loudly sharpening a knife. Asher gulped. He didn’t want to be remembered as the wizard who stood by and let thieves loot the temple, but he also didn’t want to become a bloody stain on the ground, either. He stammered out, “Um, the treasure is, is in this room and --”

“He’s useless. Kill him,” said the leader.

Asher yelped and said, “Actually, the treasure is in a secret room. Only priests of Helios can enter it without provoking the sun’s wrath.”
“Show us,” said the leader.
The tall thief wordlessly untied Asher, who stood up, shakily. Where could he take the thieves? He couldn’t take them to where the real relics were stored, but at the same time he had to make sure that the place he took the thieves looked like it held treasure.
“Move, wizard!” shouted the tall thief.

Asher flinched and started walking to the Sungazing room. It might not be the best room to take the thieves into, but he needed to act quickly. He half talked, half babbled, “The treasure room is this way, but it’s well hidden and I hope that you are okay with walking a bit because it’ll take a lot of time to get there…”
Asher navigated the halls of the temple, conscious of the three thieves behind him. Finally, he saw the bright rays of light coming from the Sungazing room. He stopped outside, carefully avoiding his gaze from the two mirrors attached to an opening in the ceiling. “I have to arrange the mirrors to get to the treasure,” he said.
Behind him, the nervous thief said, “I d-d-don’t like this. There are too many m-mirrors here. I don’t th-th-think the tr-treasure is worth it.”

“Shut up,” the leader said. “Run away now and you’ll die. All you have to do is stay until we find the loot.”
The three thieves stepped inside the circular Sungazing room, and Asher carefully rotated the levers that controlled the position of the two mirrors so that they would reflect light at the room’s entrance. With this amount of light, gazing directly at the mirrors could be blinding. Then, Asher took a deep breath. He stepped outside the room, latched the door shut, and ran.

The leader barked, “Get after him!” The thieves tried to follow, but as they passed under the mirrors, Asher heard cries of agony. The light had blinded them, so it should be difficult for them to unlock the doors. Still, he ran away as fast as he could. Finally, he reached his rooms and locked the door securely shut. The thieves had been stopped, and the rest of the wizard-priests would be back soon to deal with them.

When the adrenaline rush that had helped him run away ended, Asher coughed weakly. It was cold, so he instinctively imagined lighting the log in his fireplace. It burst into flames.

Asher glared at it. So now he was able to perform magic again, just when he had finished imprisoning the thieves. Still, he supposed that the end result wouldn’t have changed very much. He yawned, found a blanket, and went to sleep.