Ascension Day is one of those quiet feasts that slips by unnoticed for many—forty days after Easter, Christ returns to His Father, and we're left looking at the sky, wondering what comes next.

That moment—of absence, silence, and waiting—has always fascinated me. It’s not the climax of the story. It’s the breath held between promise and fire.

Today’s short story was born from that space.

Set in a magical monastery tower where angels help scribes craft living stories, The Final Ascension follows three young story mages sent on an impossible mission: to speak a single story that everyone in a fractured world can understand.

They try music. Food. Healing. All fall short.

But what begins as failure becomes something more. A fire lights. Not just in a hearth, but in their hearts.

This tale is for anyone who’s ever struggled to be understood. For anyone who’s waited in silence, wondering if their voice mattered. And for anyone who hopes that—somehow—what we give with love is never lost.

Read the final version of the story on my Substack: https://fatherroderick.substack.com/p/the-ascent-of-the-scribe