He had done it!
Aesc had finally cracked the cryptic book of magic spells. It had taken months to track down such a forbidden text. And years more to interpret. Magic had long since been outlawed throughout the kingdom, and the ealdormen of his village were superstitious and zealous to the point of extremism. Caution was foremost on Aesc’s mind, but never at the sake of progress.
Read MoreThe list of exploits from Gudtlieb’s time as a knight derives almost exclusively from the west. According to the area of Waldbach and its surrounding villages, he stopped an invasion of sirens from stealing away the men of Rheicona with their songs. He seduced their leader and threatened to hang her on a drying rack until her hoard relented. In Charmont, there is a tale of him spending a week tracking a unicorn and another solid day hanging from its back as it ran about the kingdom. Eventually, once it had calmed, he presented it as a gift to the king.
Read MoreDietlinde was as ordinary as a commonplace fox. Her fur as dull of a red as the rest of her family. Her home, a hole in the ground near the edge of town. She was nothing and came from less than nothing. And she would have died nothing had she not caught the eye of a fox with fur of platinum. He came from a long line of magicians and sorcerers and trained at the best schools available to Silirich. By all means, this story ought to have been his. But he settled for mere adequacy. Opened a small elixir shop near the city’s edge. Held no sway with the Ealdorman, or renown even with the locals. And then, a few short years later, he died of the ancient sickness. The incurable plague. So devastating neither magic nor medicine could halt its progress. The same that ravages the southern Wastelands to this day.
Read MoreFarvald was a simple man, ordinary in every way but one: he was gifted with an attunement to the world. Or cursed with it, so he would say. Neither deceit nor disguise could hope to fool him. Magical illusions, because magic was common in those days, could not trick his eyes. He saw only reality in its full unruly glory.
Read MoreBefore the world, there was only Gadall. No one knows where this god came from. Many say he always was. Others question: Who created the god of creation?
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When time was naught, Gadall was. He is the shapeless void whence we all came. The storm of relentless fury that castes out entire universes in a timeless age formed into a moment.
Ivory smoke plumed and billowed through the room. An elaborate revolution of Ebania’s arms effortlessly masked the movement of her left foot as she pressed a secret switch. The crimson flame turned a deep violet with the addition of salts through a hidden mechanism beneath a floorboard. The effect was impressive and convincing. As if summoned fiery spirits recoiled fearfully from her oversized robes.
Read MoreI shiver ceaselessly. When did the heat dissipate? What drove it from the mountain and forbade its return? There, the air itself was enough to blister the skin. I remember the waves of heat which warned against my approach with every step. Warnings I pushed aside with every fiber of fortitude I possessed. Until my departure home. The flames licked at the back of my neck, and my lungs rejoiced at the ease with which they filled with cool, unrestrictive air. But now, in this nowhere between origin and destination.
Read MoreHungry waves lapped against the creaking hull. A soft wind carried a heat and odor that denied Wim the relief he hoped it would bring. Hand to head, he struggled to seat himself upright, his temples beating in time with the methodical slap of an oar behind him. First to the left, then the right. Each row like the beat of a drum, emphasizing a rippling moment as it stretched across the stream of time. Ever forward.
Read MoreThe butler did it. If you care only for the conclusion to this mystery–the content of tomorrow’s headlines–you have your answer. Please leave me as quickly as you came. But I know better than to hope for such abatement of my pain. What good is a headline without details to fill your columns? Your papers need sensational facts, clues of the case laid out in an easy-to-digest timeline filled with wild but always accurate speculations. I care not for your papers or the idle gossip they promote and spread farther and quicker than any known contagion.
Read More“The eyes! Why do they glow?”
Tia forced herself to exhale. She pressed her damp palms against each leg and made her first mental note. The dark room before her didn’t glow with luminescent red spikes; It wasn’t an Ustron. That was good. Very good. Less chance she’d be eaten before her father downstairs could hear her scream. But there were many other dangerous spirits that could belong to that voice.
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