Shadows of the Limelight

It is now widely know that fame and infamy correlate to extraordinary abilities, but this knowledge was not always so firm and entrenched, especially among uncivilized people. The Djamila believed that their fadi were granted their powers through spirits. When someone started to become stronger or faster, they would say that a spirit had inhabited […]

On the Nature of the Domains In Meditations, the earliest work of its kind, Lyander first divides the domains into two groups: material and immaterial. At first this might seem wise, in the ways of the old masters, but the problems are immediate, even at that first division. If we believe that there is a […]

  Vidre had felt a gnawing pit in her stomach when Dominic made his entrance. The plan was balanced on a knife’s edge. If Welexi didn’t take the bait, the other options were grim. If Welexi took the bait and moved in with full killing intent, in complete disregard of narrative instincts honed by a […]

  The first bath had been tinted with dried blood and dirt. It was an ugly color, the hue of battle, watered down. Vidre had scrubbed with pumice until she was clean and pink. She would have gone until her skin was raw, but mere pumice was no longer enough to abrade it. She sometimes […]

  It was all falling apart. There was a flaw in the artifact which they had run into early on. When someone with a link placed their hand inside it, the artifact would draw that link out, taking the domain and standing with it, an ephemeral connection to the stories and interest of the masses. […]

  Vidre should have just watched. She had turned away before knowing whether Calligae would act, before knowing whether Dominic would be saved. She had even said a prayer. It was nothing more than an ill-timed bout of maudlin sentimentality. She would learn what had happened later anyway, once she went looking for his corpse. […]

  There were times when her father hit her. He wasn’t a cruel man, just given to fits of anger. Ros didn’t remember a time before her mother had passed, but she often imagined that her father had been different then. It was always the small things that would set him off. There was a […]

Dominic tried not to watch the lengths of flesh slither back into Gaelwyn’s wrists. Dominic could see a faint impression of coiled flesh within Gaelwyn’s skin, as though the rope of flesh was coiled around the meat of his forearm. When Gaelwyn was finished, the wounds at his wrists bled slightly. “It needs refinement,” said […]

  Gaelwyn often wondered what he would be without Welexi. His life had changed the day he’d found the world’s greatest hero laying broken beneath an olive tree. The story was different every time Welexi told it, which had bothered Gaelwyn at first. In the Sovento States it was an orange tree, fully in bloom […]

Vidre fell. Glass twirled in the air around her, spreading as it fell with her. It seemed to move backwards, because it was falling more slowly than she was. The moment stretched out in front of her, a half second where she was surrounded by her domain and empty air. Death lay below her, coming […]

The one-armed man staggered toward Gaelwyn and laid his hand upon the physician. His face was pale; blood dripped from the stump where his arm had once been. “Please,” he whispered. Gaelwyn sat up slowly and gave the man a careless touch. The bleeding stopped at once as the meat around his shoulder folded in […]

Dominic woke up to a cat licking his face. “I’ve always taken to dogs instead of cats,” said Vidre. She was laying in bed next to him, watching him. She still had her armor on, but it was clear that she was only just waking up, same as him. Vidre frowned slightly. She reached over […]

Vidre held the reins to Dominic’s horse as they made their way through the Iron Kingdom. They were following the curve of the Elnor River, which made a snake-like path towards Parance. After the first hour, Dominic’s legs began to get sore from riding. The fresh air and open fields were starting to lose their […]

A salty breeze sent the ship away from Meriwall, off on the next great adventure. For all that they were being exiled, the send-off had still been rather grand. The Flower Queen had taken one last tea with them aboard the ship, with Steelminder standing beside her and a number of the more favored members […]