I forego the illusive mask I had planned on wearing for the Day of Strangers. With Teresal beside me, the experiences would be new enough, and strange enough for those we encountered, as there were always few humans in Karendar, festival or no, and they rarely ventured outside the dock areas. I knew not what …
Festival of the Elements, Part II
THE DAY OF STRANGERS It's not an official name, of course, but the final day of the Festival of Magic was always given over to the new, the strange, to experience something as an abecederian. Many sought that new experience in taste, whether it be a new food, a different drink. Others watched a new …
Festival of the Elements, Part I
Swirls of orange, yellow, green, and blue flames danced through sparking prisms of mist, plunged into fountains of iridescent metals, and rose again on scented whirls of air to arc across the street, and start again behind laughing children running around and through families and strangers alike. Scents and colors, foods and drinks, color upon …
Ill-Fated Return
How to describe the site of Dhora Karendar when arriving from the sea? Perhaps the lingering taste of your beloved after a passionate kiss? Maybe the calming scents of the famed healing pools of Corelesta? The prism of all colors seen at that dawn after a raging sea storm? It all seems so …
A Fool’s Plan
After the threat from Teresal, I slept poorly. My mind struggled to wrap itself around the concept of slavery in general, of child slavery, and from what I grasped from the little details Norilena had gleaned, even greater perversions. I knew, of course, that slavery existed, and everyone was most cautious in the port cities …
The Protection of Law
Three days had passed since we found the refugees from the storm. We had settled back into the normal routine of fishing. Although our guests took up space, it was not unheard of to have refugees at sea, and we worked around them as much as possible. Since the Sea Crawler was a relatively small …
Refugees of the Sea
By the time Tolaryian had changed and returned to deck, the rest of the crew had launched the two small boats normally used when the ship was free diving off reef waters for high value mussels and other shellfish, occasionally spearfishing for some of the rainbow sharks nearby, which always proved extremely valuable for various …
A Ship At Sea
The rising sun dawned with golden burnishes across the sky, as the crew pulled up the anchor and finished aligning the sails in order to head back to see. The tiny atoll rose dark behind them, its cliffs surrounding the small little bay into which the crew had brought their vessel with little room for …
Enlightenment
The raven haired elf rounded the last curve in the path, finally approaching the opening to the top of the cliffs, looking into the setting sun. He turned slowly, looking for someone, before finally spotting the gleam of the dying sunlight reflecting off of a piece of jewelry. He walked over the broken ground slowly, …
A Family Gathering
The small fishing vessel dropped and reefed its sails, drifing closer to the massive vessel, as the captain watched two of the five crewman tie mooring ropes to the rails to keep the two vessels close together. The waters near these island chains to the north of Kerendor were often placid, the warmth of the …
Tainted Love
The driver honked repeatedly, before finally turning back to face me. "Looks like this is as close as I can get Byron, unless you want me to run over a few of these chromers. But the club's just down the block." I sighed. This section of downtown was always busy, even in late winter with …
Second Thoughts
Contentment. I'm not sure I'd ever felt it before. Desire, jealousy, fear, anger, hatred, love, agony, pain, joy. Lots of extremes. Contentment, never. Until right now. Oh, the negative ones were hiding right around the corner, waiting to stalk across the plains and cut my hamstring before the feast, but right now, right here, peace …
Astral Storms
After a couple hours of sleep, I felt remarkable. The storm still pounded outside the apartment, and the thunder echoed through the older building. I did not trust Grey Mauser, but I wasn't confident about bringing it up with Talon. She'd been my only teacher, and I trusted her. I didn't want her to …
A Convenient Counselor
Mela en' coiamin, These past few days since the clearing of immediate horrors from the ruins of Darviel Keep have been, I daresay, peaceful. I have neglected to pour my thoughts into this journal…..well, I am not sure why. All Dame Adelaide’s people, few in number though they are, have been hard at work, cleaning, …
Wishful Musings
Mela en' coiamin, For a couple of wearying days and nights, we explored the ruins of this keep. Most of the upper floors have essentially collapsed, although there were intact areas within the baileys, and within the central keep that remained whole in most respects. We experienced our longest delay when we began to delve …
Last Dreams 