Philip Immigrants typically came in by drips and drabs. Caravans were rare, usually no more than three or four over the course of the year. They crossed the wilderness with traveling lanterns, carrying whatever trade goods were valuable enough to justify the dangers and expenses. A caravan needed an engineer to tend the lantern and […]
Melanie It had been a long time since anyone else had lived in the Black Mare. Melanie had a night of restless sleep, and when she woke up in the morning to the sound of carts and footsteps outside, she had a feeling of unease before remembering that there was someone sleeping in what had […]
Chloe Chloe hated Langust from the moment she set foot in it. It was a pimple of a town, insignificant and yet still somehow more unsightly than its size should have allowed. The bulk of the houses were hidden behind a ten foot stone wall with heavy gates leading out into the patchwork of fields. […]
Melanie The competition had been announced as planned, even in the wake of the lantern failure. Melanie had responded by making an announcement of her own; for the duration of the competition, the Black Mare would be closed. She posted the notice on the front door with a certain feeling of trepidation, not just because […]
Sander Sander woke up with a start. “Did I miss the competition?” he asked Philip. “No,” replied Philip. “It won’t be happening for another week.” Sander looked around the unfamiliar room. It was painted a creamy white and very sparsely furnished, with just a bed, two chairs, and a small table that was laden with […]
Philip The inquest sounded good in theory. When something bad happened, it was important to understand how and why it had happened so that it could be prevented from happening a second time. As a concept, it embodied things that Philip cared greatly about; seeking truth and correcting bad policies. Philip enjoyed reading through records. […]
Melanie The Mender and the Builder were brothers. For a long period of time, perhaps years, perhaps eons, they lived together in harmony. One day, as they were laying together by the lake, the Builder said to his brother that there was nothing in life that equaled the act of creation. The Mender took offense […]
Sander It took a thousand hearts to become a glimwarden. Darkling hearts came in different sizes though, so when a person said “one thousand hearts”, that was really just an abstraction for “one thousand hearts of average size”. But that was also an abstraction, because what they really meant was “a certain intensity of the shadow […]
Philip Technically speaking, there were no laws against the mayor being a glimwarden. The laws of Light’s Hollow stated that mayoral elections were to be held once every nine years, or in a few other special circumstances. Every citizen in good standing was given the vote, including the engineers and the glimwardens, though they made […]
Sander Sander was usually the one to make breakfast, but the day after his trip to the forest, he woke to the smells and sounds of frying bacon. Normally this would have been a pleasant surprise, but this morning it was undoubtedly a precursor to a conversation with his father. He debated staying in bed, […]
Melanie Melanie Masters was running out of books. Such a thing hadn’t seemed possible when she’d first started reading. The town library had seemed cavernously large, its selection not so much robust as it was daunting. She had started with suggestions from the librarian, a stooped old woman Melanie felt some affection for, but that […]
Philip The city council had four members, but because four was an unlucky number, it was usually referred to as three members and one officiant: the mayor. It was that extra member of the council that Philip clerked for. The council members were technically equal, but the mayor represented the city of Light’s Hollow as […]
Sander Light’s Hollow was surrounded by bollards of creamy white marble, spaced out like gapped teeth around the domain of the seven lanterns. They were a warning to anyone that got too close to them, and an ominous reminder of the darklings that stalked the world. Sander stood next to one of the bollards, looking […]
The original settlers of Light’s Hollow had come to the valley with only a single lantern to ward off the darklings. The lantern was small and inefficient, carried on a wagon that was pulled with four oxen. There had been only two glimwardens to keep it fed and two engineers to keep it running as […]
