spinning yarns from heartstrings
Each year on Endcallers Eve, the priesthood sent three of their finest to the Hell Gates to reinforce the seals. Brother Mulvor no longer took the task seriously. He’d been Brother Dalos’ age his first trip, and remembered how eager he’d been. How he trembled as old Brother Somnali sent him forward to pronounce the […]
Ni’rikun felt calm for the first time in ages, the greatest part of her centered as the djinn whirled like smoke across the desert sands. Whispers and promises tickled her ears while the threads of their souls lashed at her skin like angry snakes, whipping open wounds inside her until they began to fester and […]
Scholars said the ruins led to another world, as alien to the surfacers as it was forgotten. Technology existed there the likes of which those above couldn’t even begin to fathom, much less replicate. Their tales were fascinating, of course, but nowhere near as intriguing as what the witch women had to say. Allegedly, there […]
One day he would rebuild her, all of her–she whom he lost in order to find himself, but first he needed to remember her face in perfect detail. The tightly pinched lips that once told him: no! don’t! STOP! The wide, terrified eyes that refused to look at him because they saw him, always saw […]
The wrong kinds of spirits will make sure she’s never free, trust me on this. They thrive on madness, obsession. Someone in her frame of mind should never have been permitted access, and now… because she’s distanced herself from this realm, drawing her back to us will be damn near impossible. Don’t you see? She […]
“What part of till death do us part did you not understand, Carmella?”
He was supposed to be tutoring the boy, teaching him the fundamentals of rulership and government, about the provinces surrounding his kingdom, and the art of managing the crown’s finances because it was important that a ruler never allow someone else to do all the work. It was how mischief was made, how greedy fools […]
He threw her body in the well and thought that was the end of her, of the harm she would have brought him. He would go back to his life, forget his mistake, honor his wife the way he was supposed to. In time, he became an honest man, save for the dark secret he […]
For too long, the song lingered on the wind, a chorus of certainty warning those who never listened: “Winter is coming.” And though the wise never say it, they know what the words really mean: ice in their bones, in their eyes, in their hearts, in their souls. The whole world frosting over as his […]
Benei stilled his mind with a deep breath, lungs expanding, stomach rising, fear expelling from his body in slow waves as he exhaled. He thought of Master Chen Khong’s achievement of true emptiness, and momentarily wished his own karma had been stillness. Alas, he was meant for less humble, more worldly achievements. When all was […]