The smoke merchants pace along the streets of the Market. The cowls of their grey cloaks are pulled up over their heads, obscuring their features. Everyone who comes to the Market maintains a level of anonymity, but the smoke merchants even more so. The p…

Story is marked as mature

Old walls, sunk deep into the earth, slick with moisture and trimmed in dripping weblike vines, rose well above toward a sky of flat white. Two halls of this kind met, creating a cross of light overhead. The floor was long lost beneath brackish brown wate…

They fought on. Orthael gave ground again and again, knowing that he could not - would not - strike her. She threw him a dangerously open slice, daring him to show her that Fire destroyed without meaning or mercy. But that was not the case. He caught her …

Often, Penny wished she could go back in time. Quite often.

She felt like her life had become a bit of a mess.

She hadn't left the apartment in a few weeks. She hadn't showered in a month. Most of the time she found that she just laid in bed and stared …

I wanted to say yes

to the invitation to dinner

to the offer of company

to the slanted smile in your eyebrows

.

I wanted to say yes

to your desire for my body

the hunger in your eyes

and the scorching seduction of your skin

.

but I keep saying no

I keep c…

Boots first, Hable inched down toward the hatch, keeping his legs wrapped in a firm grip around the rope. It was bright again now that they had cleared the shade of the midrock. He ignored the rapidly growing view of Ambiter as they began to pick up desce…

He wastes no time. Already the moonlight has crept across the box, and if he misses this opportunity, it will be weeks before another presents itself.

He slips his tongue between his teeth -- and bites down, hard, severing the flesh. He takes the torn ti…

I think I've figured it out.

Why I've been so blazé about work. It's not that the students need a break and they've shut down for the rest of the year. It's me. I'm not trying to be a super teacher these last few weeks. Not days, no, weeks.

I'm the o…

He resists the voices, even as they wrap around him. He fights but is soon overwhelmed. There are simply too many of them. He feels them clawing at his mind, dragging at his psyche, pulling him down into unknown depths -- and suddenly he is very afraid.

…

It is night now, and moonlight pours through the one open window in the room. The moon outside is full, the light it casts bright and rich. Almost the moonbeam reaches the table. Almost it reaches the box. The moment he has been waiting for has very nearl…

She mourned him. Not even the real him. She mourned the loss of the fantasy she'd made of him.

In her dreams he said all the right things, had all the right moves, shared the same jokes, had the cutest smile and softest touch. She happily stayed in bed …

The box rests on a small, round table, perfectly centered on its rough surface. The man who purchased it stands across the room, leaning with one shoulder against the wall, staring at the box without really seeing it, lost in contemplation. Before him lie…

I changed in the years of my exile, and though no one in the streets recognized me beneath the beard and rough clothes, I had found my home with little effort. Heavy leather gloves with large stitching were the only reason I made it inside the gates. Ever…

I'm spiraling. Spiraling down.

I don't know what is at the bottom and I don't care.

I relax into the current trying to hold me up. I close my eyes and feel weightless as long as I ignore the sting of rushing air on my skin and the strain of fabric pull…

Ring "Hello."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Glad you called. sigh Nothing much."

"You sound like something is up."

pause

"I wanna say I'm sorry if I was too overbearing."

"Overbearing?"

"If anything I texted or emailed left room for misinterpretation. S…

His heart stopped. Both Ambiter and Decceter were emblazoned at a crazy angle upon his mind in the second of totally unobstructed view his eyes were given. The sky, deep blue and littered with clouds above both lands, felt like a yawning abyss.

Then every…

He winds his way through the chaos, trying to avoid bumping into anyone. Such a thing is nigh impossible here. But it hardly bothers him. Here, anonymity is paramount.

Finally, he reaches a dark corner where two grey men sit. He sits across from them, a…

The world spun.

Images flashed through his head like a montage in a bad movie. He steadied himself against the fence as the pavement threatened to swallow him whole. What was supposed to be a tour of nostalgic sights had given way to a slew of repressed …

"You've got to stop yawning like that."

"I can't help it! I'm bored."

"Well, yawn any bigger and I'll be able to see out the other end."

"Ugh! You're gross. Keep your voice down."

"Why?

"Because the last thing I want is for everyone to remember me as the …

"...Hello?"

"Where are you right now?"

"In my car. I'm driving home from work."

"Are you alone?"

"I'm talking to you. You're in my car, so I'm not alone. Where have you been? I haven't heard from you in days."

"Hmpf. Well, maybe that's because I'm ma…

He licks his lips in anticipation, ignoring the searing pain of his torn tongue and the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. Carefully he reaches forward with both hands and takes hold of the box, gripping the top four corners between his thumbs and foref…

It soared out of midnight, all gas envelope and aerosolized Nightmare, propelled by only God knows what. It carried a tiny bomber bay, loaded with a lethality that would have made any nation quake to its roots, if any knew it existed.

The airship was bla…

"Haul up!" Hable ordered. The man at the column obeyed instantly.

"What in gods name are you doing?" Pol's voice screamed through the line. "We'll miss!"

There was no time to explain. At the nose of the box, Pol would only see their trajectory alter, but …

The wastes are not empty. They are bleak, harsh, even dangerous, but people make a living out here. Some say an inferior race lives like animals. This proved untrue, becoming my saving grace.

I encountered a band of hunters. They were wary, but led me ba…