“Witch.” “Paladin.” The two women stared at one another for a while, before the knight finally cracked, her expression sliding into a tired, sideways smile. “It’s good to see you, Gwyn.” The witch, Gwyn, felt her face soften in return. “It’s been a while, Ari.” Ari unbuckled her sword and shield. “It has. I’m sorry. […]
Read MoreOn Wings of Night
The night sky has always been where I felt most free. As a child I would stare at the stars and dream of wings that would carry me to them, to the smallest of lights deep in that great black expanse of silence. There was freedom in the dark heavens, freedom I never found below […]
Read MoreOf Gods and Ravens
It was the simple tasks, sometimes, that were the hardest. Even after all these years, she still moved wrong, moved in ways that once were so easy. Tried to extend that arm further than the shoulder would allow, twist in a direction that it never would again. She’d learned better, learned to compensate, but it […]
Read MoreTiny Dragons
I was elbow deep in yet another rebuild of my gravitational suspension engine when Kesrie found me. I don’t know how long she’d been watching me work, but it wasn’t unusual to find her smiling at me from the doorway or some other corner of my workroom. I say she found me, but Kesrie always […]
Read MoreLove in a Time of Tea Dragons
There’s something magical about watching Kesrie work. I don’t get the chance very often—usually it’s her watching me, waiting for me to drag myself out of whatever I’m building. Sometimes quite literally. But I wanted tonight to be special, and I’d spent all day checking the time to make sure that today was the one […]
Read MoreIllusions of Reality
The shadows drip like black ink from the ceiling, pooling into lightless nothing on the floor. There’s light in the distance, outside the confines of my room. Probably the nurses’ station. Here, there is only silence. Darkness. Darkness, and the things I see in it. Last night I dreamt of chess pieces moving through the […]
Read MoreDragonkin
Tamsin took a deep breath, letting the pounding rhythm of the cheering crowd sink into her, stoking her energy higher. The Arena was packed today, which would mean a good cut for her if she could pull off this win. A win she needed, if only for the purse. She’d been in Duemr too long […]
Read MoreAbsence, Longing, and Memory
The night air was cold in her lungs, a sharp contrast to the day now gone. Almost, she thought, looking around in the half-light, the moon sporadically obscured by the scattered clouds. Almost, in the dark, with the clouds still low after the storm… But no. These were not the mountains of her home, much […]
Read MoreBelow
I was drifting when she came to me. Four days alone in an empty sea, the wreckage of my ship the only break in a monotony of blue. At first I thought she wasn’t real. That sun, starvation, and dehydration had rendered me senseless and seeing things. Eyes in the debris. A face in the […]
Read MorePertinent Questions
“So…what is it?” Mom, also known as Her Royal Highness Queen Vienne glares at me a moment, her eyebrow lifting in that way she’s perfected. “It’s a ring, Xan.” She holds up her hand and wiggles the fingers, showing off the rings she wears. “You know, jewelry.” I roll my eyes and wiggle my fingers […]
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