Yumi | Chapter Two Yumi had always considered the appearance of the daystar to be encouraging. An omen of fortune. A sign that the primal hijo would be open and welcoming to her. The daystar seemed extra bright today—glowing a soft blue on the western horizon as the sun rose in the east. A powerful…
Tress | Chapter Two Perhaps you were surprised to hear those last words. Tress wanted to stay on the Rock? She liked it there? Where was her sense of adventure? Her yearning for new lands? Her wanderlust? Well, this isn’t the part of the story where you ask questions. So kindly keep them to yourself. That said, you must…
Frugal Wizard | Chapter Two Part of me wanted to stalk out and demand answers. Play the role of irate customer, make them break character. Yet . . . Something about all this . . . A part of me was convinced that they weren’t actors. That—insanely—this was all authentic, and I should stay hidden. Damn. That sounded ridiculous, didn’t it? Nevertheless, my…
The Sunlit Man | Chapter Two Nomad slammed to the ground side-first, dragged with frightening speed after the hovercycle. Your healing is engaged, Aux said. And your body has adjusted to the local environment’s lower air pressure. But, Nomad, you’ve got so little Investiture left. Try not to get too beat up by this next part, all…
Yumi | Chapter Three It’s terrifying how nightmares transform. I’m talking about ordinary nightmares now, not the kind that get painted. Terror dreams—they change. They evolve. It’s bad enough to encounter something frightening in the waking world, but at least those mortal horrors have shape, substance. That which has shape can be understood. That which…
Tress | Chapter Three Tress had noticed that a nice pair of gloves made her daily work go so much better. Now, she meant the good kind of gloves, made of a soft leather that molds to your hands as you use them. The kind that–if you oil them well and don’t leave them out in the…
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The Sunlit Man | Chapter Three The entire city vibrated, and the buildings swayed sickeningly. Cracks appeared in the metal street beneath Nomad, but as he began to panic, his captors calmly stepped across the cracks and pulled him into a building. The city shook and split. It … it wasn’t breaking. It was disassembling. It shattered…
Yumi | Chapter Four The local steamwell erupted right as Yumi was passing—at a safe distance—on the way to the place of ritual. A glorious jet of water ascended from the hole in the center of the village. A furious, superheated cascade that reached forty feet at its highest—a gift from the spirits deep below.…
Tress | Chapter Four Leave. Leave the island? People didn’t leave the island. Tress knew, logically, that wasn’t explicitly true. Royal officials could leave. The duke left on occasion to report to the king. Plus he’d earned all those fancy medals by killing people from a distant place where they looked slightly different. He’d apparently been quite…
