Daniel van Heil did not see art in the work of his Dutch rival, Johannes. Most of Johannes paintings were done in that same sad corner of his pathetic little studio, the one with the window on the east wall. Johannes' subjects, dressed up street urchins mostly, all had that same doey eyes and misshaped cheeks that insulted the very pigments they were painted with. With Johannes in town for the Exhibition, Daniel could finally take matters into his own hands.

Daniel's own studio was definitely superior to Johannes. Here, the better artist had amassed everything he needed to make his own paints, including the orange he used to animate his fires. The orange was a secret neither money nor threats could pry from his lips, and those who came to steal the knowledge were too distracted by the jars of mummified limbs and bowls of butterfly wings to notice the box of giant whip scorpions behind. Daniel collected the acid from their sting religiously. It was distilled and distilled and worked with more labour than even Tyrian Purple.

Tonight, Daniel took a small vial of the precious distillation with him out into the cold. Johannes was in town, staying in his brother's house to peddle his wares along with the other artists of the Exhibition. It was easy enough to find and the back door was always unlocked; Johannes' sister-in-law had long learnt the path of least resistance to her husband's requisite late night outings.

Daniel slipped quietly inside and waited for his eyes to adjust. Johannes' paintings occupied every surface. He had not only brought his own atrocities, but the works of other unworthy men whose pictures he bought to resell. Daniel's eyes settled on one that he knew for certain to be Johannes' from the way it made him angry just to look at it. He could taste the dull name it must have. Girl with a Cup. Girl with a Face. The Sitting Girl. With a snort of contempt, Daniel tipped the contents of his vial on the canvass. The scorpion's sting, in its most pure form, was the key ingredient that brought all of Daniel's works to life. As the droplets hit canvas, the painting began to hiss and shrivel. Smoke rose first, followed quickly by fire.

Daniel hid behind the garden and watched the fire climb through the night. The lithe dance of the flame was more seductive than a girl with a flute could ever be. The bright radiance of a well cultivated blaze easily outshone even the largest pearl earring.

At the Exhibition, Johannes' remaining works had a few consolatory buyers, but it was Daniel's work, with oils still drying, that was the talk of the event. The Fire of Sodom and Gomorrah was splashed liberally with the vivid oranges that Daniel was famous for. To the artist, the painting didn't come close to capturing a fire's majesty, but even a flawed imitation was better than anything Johannes ever produced.

This was written for the December Labyrinth Contest, a flash fiction challenge using randomly generated Wikipedia articles. My articles were (1) magtigoproctus giagnteius, aka the giant whip scorpion, (2) Daniel van Heil, an artist from the 1600's, and (3) Girl with the Flute, a work by artist Johannes Vermeer who existed around the same time period, famous for Girl with the Pearl Earring. Wiki surfing after that took me on a tangent about how paints were made. I was most impressed and repelled by 'Mummy Brown' which was made from ground up mummies. Other paints of interest were Tyrian Purple made of sea snail mucus and a brilliant blue paint made of the semi precious stone, lapis lazuli. If you like this story, and want to read some great stories, head on over to the 3K Short Story thread of the Labyrinth Forum where Liz will post link to the entries by the end of December and you can even vote for your favourite!

Thanks for the read, and as always, I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing it.

Augs