A really well written piece. You managed to get a lot of character-building and description into the word count without feeling forced or like a huge dump of exposition. It had a real mood and was easy and interesting to read.
My only very minor piece of feedback is that I also struggled a little with the link to the theme. I understood that Vex was the “creative resource”, but it felt a little … I don’t know, obvious, or maybe less nuanced(!?) than the rest of the story? I’m not really sure what I would have liked to see given the word limit though :)