Bryan's Arc

Chapter 2 of 21

Bryan found the competition listing on Tuesday morning while scrolling through forum posts about regional shows. Chicagoland Open Miniatures Exhibition. Three categories. Cash prizes. And right there in the judge panel description: former Golden Demon winner. The registration deadline sat at the bottom of the page like a countdown timer. Entries close Friday at midnight. He had seventy-two hours. He sat back from his desk and looked at the Intercessor. The freshly stripped shoulder pad gleamed white with primer. The rest of the model still wore that glowing red he'd spent weeks perfecting, but the bare shoulder made the whole thing look unfinished and broken. He had no concept locked in yet. No narrative. Just a technical exercise that one forum comment had already called out as insufficient. His hand moved to close the browser tab, but he stopped. He pulled up the reference image instead—Sanguinius and Horus locked in combat, the moment before everything fell apart. The leopard banner whipped behind them. Their fists met in an explosion of light. He studied the way the artist had captured not just violence but the weight of it, two figures who'd once been brothers now trying to destroy each other. That was the feeling. That was what his miniature needed to carry. He opened a new document and typed in his name, his email, and the entry category. Then he hit submit before he could think better of it. The confirmation screen loaded. He had seventy-two hours to finish something he didn't know how to paint yet, but at least now he had no choice but to try.