Ryle appeared at my side in an instant, exuding a casual menace. His eyes were a searing inferno, a promise of violence that made others much more interested in listening to me.

The captain was affected, but not cowed. Not bad.

"You are a passenger aboa…

She watched from the bushes in cat form. The window was curtained, but her yellow eyes could see the magic rise into the air. She purred, her favorite part of this transformation. The magic rose like a blanket, rolling into a twist and smoothly slid throu…

Today I was tutoring a young writer in Thinking Small; writing about small details to open up their writing. She then pondered the value of a penny.

When you are one penny short, you cannot buy an item. The penny seems very valuable; an unattainable goal…

Sadie watched Tenever trudge upstairs, spreading a collection of maps and notebooks across the dining table. Astarlane's grindstone faded into the background while she carried out the convoluted process of making a best guess at the next day's route.

Haz…

The flutes surrounded me in a way that, despite ideas of reality and sanity, made complete sense. Notes fluctuated, voices trialed in and out, distanced claps, all-enveloping smiles. It worked in the same sense drowning in a pool solves every problem you …

Tenever took the first watch, stretching out in the ruined woodwork of the upper floor. Through the blackened crater, there was a good view out over the Hills. His rifle lay within easy reach.

He sat, silent, reflecting on how things had changed. Once, t…

After the meal, Sadie cleaned her rifle, Tenever patched up his tactical vest and Astarlane ran a grindstone over her sword. Few words were spoken, each preferring to leave the others in a companionable silence.

Astarlane remembered the smiles and laught…

When I was younger I used to sneak up into my grandparent's attic to where they kept the old records. Next to the old wobbly bookcase was a wooden crate that held all of my grandparent's favorite songs. I would sit up in that attic listening to the reco…

One of the nameless faces in the endless sea of nobodies caught my eye.

Must be nice, I subvocalised. Neural implants in my speech centre picked up the message and squeezed it through a short-range encrypted radio burst.

What, being one of them? cam…

My hand was burnt on the kettle

Just as it began to boil

My hand was bitten by a dog

I’d always thought was loyal.

I stepped on glass in my bare feet

Where it was safe before

You said, “I’m always here for you;”

Then you walked out the door.

In fairness to them, the shot was quite a technically demanding one. Both the origin and the destination were moving platforms, and there were wind currents between the ships that made the opening shot a coin-toss for a hit and a miss.

Once I had the hit…

It wasn't Neptune who found us first, though.

A pirate craft dropped down on us a few days later, plummeting from a heavy cloud bank where it had been lying in wait. It arrested its fall neatly and elegantly off our starboard side, heliographs stuttering…

They strolled into the mess hall nonchalantly in dress blacks that had the exact opposite effect of their understated design. The crowd opened up for them, the same thought flashing through the entire room.

The corporation's special forces were the stuff…

Each Robin has a red breast, dripping blood,


And ev'ry beaten heart, a bony cage,


And still we sing and bathe ourselves in mud;

From heart to fingers, ink still stains the page.

The pump has sprung a leak for you to read:


A farewell note to say it's n…

Forbidden freshness cools beneath the boards

Unwilling hornets sting the burst balloon

And gnaw the captured heirs with sated swords,


Projected slowly into sprightly tune.

It's just as if he'd never left the stage,

The flaccid vaccination of the ill--

W…

I remember the grey light. I pulled her close to me in the aftermath of our lovemaking. It was then that I told her I was leaving, not yet knowing I was wrong. Our lives were not yet to diverge.

She cried.

Her face pressed against my shoulder, I felt he…

You sometimes lost your way, but when you make it to a place like this, arriving without knowing how and why you arrived, you know you're not lost anymore. The air has an inimitable quality to itself, seemingly contained with the light of a day beginning …

Really, when you look at the shards of mirror on the floor, you see yourself returned, only when there was one, there is now many. It's foolhardy to assume such a collectivism as a denouncing of individuality; the whole is greater than the sum of its part…

It's time I made a different kind of move.

I'll go pursue my int'rests and forget

That I have duties here. I seek a diff'rent groove

Than I have heard before. There's promise yet!

I need some music

Some music for food

To fill me up

I’m in such a mood

But I’m too far down

To pick out a song

And if someone helps

Just to move me along

I’d thank you to spin me

A tune that will lift

Me out of the doldrums

A personal gift

I’m stuck he…

They say she's got an awesome knack

For giving people love

How can we know if this is true?

Just take it for the truth,

Or is there some way we can test

To verify the claim?

But yes, of course. Just listen to

The way she says my name.

I do believe the time for hope has passed

Desire she may to hear its lost refrain

Our friendship like the clouds is overcast

Abandoned love can only end in rain

Consider now the change that time revealed

No outcome of our battle left to chance

Deep wounds…

Sadie rolled her eyes at the wizard's theatrics, depositing her assault rifle on the table before slumping into a chair. This had been a nice house once, presumably housing a hard-working and respectable family. Now the upper floor had been partially blow…

"That's a powerful spell."

"I'm sure it will come off with a bit of scrubbing," Sadie answered.

The wizard Tenever wiped a hand slowly across the tabletop, causing the scratched inscription to flare and spark angrily. Sadie was ready to protest, but hel…

He knows you by your many names

It's nothing new, you've stayed the same

Protection, be it shield or mask

Will be undone, it is his task

The soldier's rifle cannot aim

The maiden pure is lost to shame

The royal family line will fail

The captain's ship no …