Fire blossomed through her arm, and Malika sucked air between her teeth. Blood spilled onto the sheet covering her, but the coldness in her shoulder suddenly vanished, and she sensed that it was gone for good this time. Blue flame licked up from the blade…

The old crone shuffled along the stacks of Building Ashrack, in no hurry to arrive at her destination. She looked at none of the row letterings, having no need for such things. She had been here many times, and she would be here many more times after. Alw…

Malika's rise to consciousness was agonizing. She needed more sleep, but her shoulder was like ice. The deathless' grip, it seemed, had not entirely relented, dragging her from the brief respite of unconsciousness.

She looked for Morduth and panicked mom…

Orthael was glad to see Merall. He was a fine man, and had always run the magistrate's office with a quiet efficiency.

"One of the Greater Dead have slipped the halls of Ashmar along with a Lesser host. We were caught up in it."

"Flame-blessed you must …

Malika carried herself through the gateway to Triennell, as the holy man called it. To her it was simply Trien, the next town down from her now desolate village. If only there had been walls... no, she wouldn't think about that. It was too painful, too fr…

The walls were indeed manned. As they made their approach, someone disappeared from view and a few more torches were lit along the wall. Moments later, a handful of men with bows spread themselves out on the wall walkway. One of them called out in challen…

Malika hesitated just a moment, then nodded. Dawn was beginning to break over the mountains on the horizon, and she knew -- without quite knowing how she knew -- that most of the deathless would either be taking shelter for the day or be banished back to …

Orthael felt the glow of satisfaction from Judgement, who had spent lifetimes as a wrath-filled harbinger of death. It had dreamed of doing more, indeed feared that it was no longer capable of anything but destruction. The Flame had swept such darkness as…

"No one loves a clank at midnight."

The message was scrawled all over the room. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. In the center of the room was a clank, for all appearances in perfect working order, and yet it seemed unable to move.

Closer to the door,…

Warmth spread through Malika like a breath of fresh air. She sucked air in sharply between her teeth. The sensation was almost painful. Heat spread through her, suffused her, warmed her on a level deeper than merely the physical. It coiled around her brok…

Despite the situation, Orthael exhaled in deep relief. This, now, was a question that he had heard before. From widows, from parents, from orphans - even, on dark nights, from himself.

"Oh, swordmaiden. The Flame has always been with you. Through all tha…

Story is marked as mature

Across a cultivated green, you can find him shambling and swaying like a drunken dotard,

surrounded by an air of wounded viciousness that a life of money had only exacerbated. Vacant eyed, he wanders confused, muttering in rambling, incoherent phrases tha…

Vexedly, I tapped the glass whose sloping walls warped and elongated the bookcases and fireplace of my study. It was dishearteningly thick, the Lessening having worked exactly to my specifications. Previously, when placing the bottle horizontally in it's …

--

Greetings. It is the thirtieth day. Food remains in good supply, but our morale has taken a beating. Captain Marseilles announced to us that he has received a message on the Return Ticket. As we had been told, that system was primed to engage around Da…

Malika tossed a glare at the Orthael. "Why?" she barked. "What has the All-mighty Flame ever done for me?" Her words were barbed and full of anger. Her shoulder throbbed, and she wanted nothing more than to be gone from this accursed place.

She paced o…

It had been fourteen days. The painting was gone and with it my heart. Authored by an amateur it had meant more to me than any museum in the world. Each day that passed felt like a relentless excavation into my chest, letting in the outside ice and snow t…

Orthael came back slowly, as if he had been diving in a lake and sought the surface from deep below, and found himself gripping Judgement in his right hand. This did not surprise him: he had always assumed implicit, even in the warm domestic comfort of hi…

Malika pushed off from the ground, slowly rising to her feet. The pain in her shoulder FLASHED a hot red, and for a moment she was sure she was going to pass out. Black spots floated in front of her eyes, and an overwhelming nausea flooded through her mid…

Soŝégŝinun sat alone in the forest. His breath floated before his mouth in the cold.

He sat alone. He couldn't remember how long he had say there, but he knew that he wasn't leaving until something happened, though he didn't know exactly what that someth…

The chanting turned to screams without warning. The small party exchanged panicked glances, unknowing and uncertain. The man himself shrugged in a quietly resigned manner.

"I know nothing, gentlemen, but you should not be surprised that your regime chang…

Judgement was diverted from its biographical investigation by the unfamiliar presence of old magic. Perhaps that was not an accurate description, for the weapon was sure that it had been familiar once, and that in that time the magic had not been old at a…

The cold in her shoulder withdrew. Malika hadn't even been aware of it until it was gone, but it eased some of the pain from her injury.

Some of the darkness from the Greater Dead leeched into your body when you struck it, Morduth said. It seeped in m…

Mistress. Morduth's voice whispered into Malika's mind. It seemed distant, far away, echoing far back in the recesses of her consciousness. It was odd hearing him like that. Before its voice had always been so strong, so vivid.

But that was before. Bef…

They found the Governor waiting patiently in his office. He was staring out at the gathered crowds, but turned to face them when they came through the doors. Gareth, who had been the Foundry 2 foreman, swore up and down that he had seen a sneer of contemp…