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Running in the Bear Empire 59 – Debreif

Oct11

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: 58 – Husband and Emperor
Next: 60 – The Claw’s Hunter
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A knock on the door pulled Deline out of her comfortable half-sleep many hours later.

She propped herself up on one elbow; next to her, Carrone had reached for a weapon, his eyes open and his posture worried. “Announce yourself,” she called. 

“Pethiarrie, Your Sharpness.”  The voice came in clearly; soundproofing was not considered a priority for Imperial chambers — if anything, it was the opposite. 

Carrone tugged the sheet up to his mid-chest, covering his knife.  Deline shifted so she was mostly blocking him from the doorway. She didn’t reach for her own weapon, but she made sure her spell components were laid out on the table to the side of the bed. Continue reading →

Spoils of War 21 – Don’t Die, I Hate You

Oct9

First: Spoils of War I: Surrender

“Wake up. Hey, Mistress.  Bitch. Wake up.” Someone splashed water in her face. 

Nikol blinked.  “Urgh?”

“Say the Words.  Jas — Repair, you know, body.  Come on. I got the rib out. I cleaned everything. Sterilized it.  Now heal it. Come on. Wake up.”

She blinked again.  “Did you just call me Mistress Bitch?”

“Yeah.  Mistress, comma, bitch.  Got a better idea?”

“My name’s Nikol.”

“Great, mine’s Aran.  You don’t answer to Nikol when you’re passed out.  Wonder if I answer to Aran?” Continue reading →

Tiny City, Tiny Solutions

Oct8
Originally posted on Patreon in October 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
This is written in reference to Tiny People, Big Problems and regarding the city in Planning Board Woes, i.e., beginning to tie continuity together.  

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“Tinies don’t innovate! We don’t need to! The big folks innovate and we survive!”

Cafir had been arguing for three years, moving about the human city visiting one group and then another of Tinies, learning every reason not to do what he wanted to do.

This one was looking relatively positive — not the person Cafir’s age yelling at him, but the greybeard and the greybraids looking between each other and him.

“You’re discussing planning,” the greybraids spoke slowly.

“You’re discussing a very large gathering of Tinies,” the greybeard added.  “You understand the problems there?” Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 85: Please Keep All Arms and Legs Inside the Store

Oct7

They slid inside Burlington more than stepping inside, skidding through the security plinths.  Abseil stumbled and fell into a pile of coats. Laughing, laughing, even though there were people with guns somewhere behind them, Abseil managed to right herself. She gathered up a LIv’s hand and looked at her face – Olly.  She looked around — she didn’t remember there being that many people with them, but there were suddenly a lot more people here than she’d thought she had. 

“Shop.”  She gestured around. “I’ll cover it, just go look for a shirt or pants or anything you want.”  She looked again. “Did we get a Kevin somehow? Hi, Kevin.”

“Hi.” He ducked his head.  “She’s not all that good at – you’re not all that good at – anyway, I picked the locks.” Continue reading →

Landing Page: Fairy Town

Oct7

There’s something about the city, something about its old roads and its older churches. Something about its people, its goblins and its fairies. Something in the water, maybe.

There’s something that leeches magic into the world, something that makes even the most banal events a little more special – sometimes a little more creepy.

Featured on Patreon September 2016!

Best places to begin:
The Fairy Road  or
Re-Blessing the Church

 

Introductory Magic 101

Oct3
Originally posted on Patreon in October 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
This is written as a follow-up to Going to Asthrifel and is about Sage (of Sage and Audrey)’s sister Artemesia.

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Artemisia had done a great deal of research on Asthrifel — she had visited the school three times, she has to read everything she could find about the place, she had devoured articles on going to college, on your first day at school, on how to study, on how to take an exam, on what spells were allowed and not allowed in classes, on school grounds, to be used by students at all — she’d removed three teas and four charms from her bag, but left the two that Sage and his wife snuck in there (because those, while not explicitly allowed, were also not explicitly disallowed.  Sage was, after all a smart man.).

Nothing, none of her reading, none of her studying, none of the teas and charms and  strange spells, none of it had prepared her for her first lecture class.

Artemisia had gone to a relatively small high school for the last three years of her secondary education — at her insistence, and in parallel with continuing the homeschooling that her mother had started when she was three.  None of her classes had held more than thirty people, and that would have been an unusually large lecture. Continue reading →

Twins

Oct1
Originally posted on Patreon in October 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
A story of Tír na Cali and gardening. Warning: this turned out a bit creepy.

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“Nobody would ever know we were twins.”

Savannah was strolling through her sister Sierra’s gardens, noting the carefully-pruned topiary and the softly-singing fountains.  It was a beautiful garden, she had to admit.  Everything was exactly in its place.

“Sav, we’re twins.  Nobody would ever doubt that.  They only need to look at us.”  Sierra, as was often the case, huffed at her sister’s melodramatics and ignored (as was also often the case) the fact that they looked quite similar to 9/10 of their relatives and a large handful of slaves.

“But look at -” Savannah gestured around.  “Your garden.  Your yard.  You saw my yard last week.” Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 84: One of These Things is Not Like the Other

Sep30

“We’re all different, and some of us got the short end of the stick.  Clearly, you’re one of them.” Abseil did not turn around. She didn’t dare.  If she did, if she saw there were guns pointed at her, she’d run and never stop running. She lifted her chin instead.  “But even you know shooting people from behind is pretty damn stupid.  It makes you look bad. I mean. You’re here to shop, right?  Starting a massacre in the middle of the mall is a good way to get kicked out.”

Now she tried to make her voice sound trivial, like none of this mattered. She remembered trying this with Vic one other time, and it hadn’t gone great, but on the other hand, it hadn’t gone too horribly either.  Continue reading →

Purchase Negotiation 17: Unicorn

Sep28

First: Purchased: Negotiation
Previous: Broken

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If this was supposed to be making him feel better, Leander mused dryly, it was doing a lousy job.  He was feeling differently, sure, but mostly he was feeling confused.  His owner — there were other words for it, but Leander didn’t use Master even in his own head if he could avoid it and Keeper was the sort of word people used who though Fae was its own society instead of just leeched on to humanity.  — His owner was making fun of himself, inviting Leander to do the same, and telling him it’s okay to have negative opinions about himself. 

Leander twitched and tried not to think about hos this could go sideways, but his lips did something, he was sure, something like yeah, right. Continue reading →