Funerary Rites 28: Catching Up

Oct24

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It took half an hour to get everyone settled down.  When Senga managed to get Candavish and Erramun to stop sizing each other up, got Allayne to stop fussing over the staff’s uniforms, which, it appeared, had a fashion of their own, got Ezer to stop whining and acting like his head was going to explode, and got Chitter to stop looking for trap doors from which the staff could have arrived – all of this while trying to ignore her own pounding heart and the confused twist in her chest – she sat down with a thump in the Casual Lounge.

“I…  Okay. Candavish, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Collier, please come sit with us.  Could, ah, someone get me some coffee? Coffee, everyone?”

Her crew were looking at her like she’d grown a second head.  “Okay, Allayne will have black tea with a hint of mint, if we have it.  Ezer drinks his coffee with enough cream and sugar to bring it to beige caramel.  I drink mine black with one ice cube. Chitter likes soda; if you don’t have that, she’ll have water.  Erramun?”

He looked surprised she was asking his opinion. “Black tea,” he managed.

“Black tea.  Thank you.”

One of the younger maids – younger than her! – scurried off. Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 41: Big Ideas 💹

Oct22

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Author’s note: apologies for my French.

She wasn’t sure if having an idea had been the best, well, idea, since every idea here involved those damn hanging walkways.

But it was better to do something than to sit here and wait for death or worse.  

Slowly, they inched out onto the walkways, one Liv in front of her, the other Liv behind her and Vic behind her.  They were heading for the center of the mall.  Every mall Abby had ever been in – at least, every mall she’d been in before this mess – had sported a map near the middle, as well as near most major entrances and near any fountains.

She’d be happy for a fountain now, but more important for her was a map.

Or just to be down from these damn walkways.

“Oh.  Oh, don’t look.  Any of you. Ne pas – look-ey?  Regardez! Ne pas regardez. No.  It’s horrible.” Continue reading →

Haunted House 26 – Unlikely Allies

Oct20

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
Previous: Finding Him

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The poor horses were sad.  MĂ©lanie couldn’t really blame them.

She patted the horse on the nose, reassuring it, and it turned back to the road before the two buffoons noticed what it was doing.  She had just a moment to time this right. The horse seemed to stumble, tripping on thin air, slowing the wagon down to a near-stop.

MĂ©lanie mentally promised the horse all the apples she could find for it, and sugar cubes, and the best currying of its life, all as she hopped up into the wagon.  There was Jasper – drugged, from the looks of it, his eyes open but not tracking – well, not that she could tell if he was tracking her, anyway; she was still invisible – his hands tied behind his back, a heavy canvas gag over his mouth, his feet bound. Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 23: Morning

Oct19

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Confidences in the Bear Empire
Next: 24 – the Bear

đŸ»

Carrone squirmed under her regard for a few moments before looking away. “I can’t talk about that,” he muttered.  “I really shouldn’t have said that much. But the Empire – the Empire acts like they’re the only ones with the spirits on their side.”

“Considering how you complain about sorcery and magery-“

“That’s different!   I mean…” He dropped his voice down. “I mean.  Well. Sorcery has nothing to do with the spirits.  That’s why it’s evil. That’s why it’s the sort of thing that you just don’t do.  But this.  I don’t know.  Your ‘magery’….” He shrugged. “We should get some sleep.  I don’t know where we’re going, but we can probably make good time if we sleep solidly and warm.  Besides, last night…”

“…Last night was not exactly solid sleep,” she agreed.  She considered all of the juicy morsels of conversation they’d left lying around.  They would, she decided, have plenty of time to get back to those conversations while hiding from Carrone’s compatriots in the bounty-hunter business.  She settled back into her bedroll, glad once again of her magery, whether it was heresy or evil or not.

She woke in the morning to Carrone’s breath on her face, his arm flopped over her shoulder, and the sound of his breathing far too close to her ear.  Deline trapped against the back of the cave, she had nowhere to move, and his arm was heavy on her shoulder.

She considered him.  He was sleeping heavily, pressed against her. His breathing was steady, if a little loud, and his whole posture was relaxed. Continue reading →

Room and Board

Oct18

Originally posted on Patreon in October 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

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Set in my ‘verse Reiassan, at an unknown time or series of times.Â đŸ‘»

The hotel had been there since the city had been there, and the city had been there since people started landing on this coast.  It had been a small inn, three stories tall, made of solid stone carved out of the cliffs.

When the family – Arrans through and through –  had needed more room, they had added on another wing.  As time went on, more wings were added, until the original building was surrounded – except for a narrow courtyard on front and back – and until the original additions were also, save for more narrow courtyards, surrounded.

But in the core of the hotel, there was one room that they would never rent out.  Even in a holiday, when every single room in every inn in all three of the Arran cities was booked, when anyone who claimed any blood of the Arrans came home to see the sea (such as “home” was to these refugees without a nation), they would not book the last room on the right on the second floor of the original inn. Continue reading →

Beauty-Beast 44: Acting

Oct18

First – Previous – Landing Page – Next

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Ctirad was almost letting himself relax when Signy bowed her head – just a little, but it was a bow – at him.  At him.  “I apologize.”  She seemed to be thinking about what to say next, but decided on a smile that was unlike the predatory expression he’d seen on her at other times and sat back down.

Ctirad turned to Timaios, hoping his expression successfully conveyed enough what the fuck that his owner understood without relaying that message to the rest of the room.

Timaios pulled Ctirad into a one-armed hug.  “Let us go sit and talk with Sara, shall we? There’s some issues I want to bring up with her.  And, as it turns out, with Signy. I hadn’t expected her to be in town today. You’ve been out for a while, haven’t you, jae’Xanthus?”

“Yes, sa’Slingshot, for several months.  But I flew in just the day before yesterday.”  Something about her demeanor had changed completely.  “And since sa’Single-Blossom wanted to talk to me,” she tilted her head at Sara Florentia, “here I am.  I didn’t realize that I would be disrupting plans,” she added, sweetly but with an edge to it.

Ctirad was still reeling from the apology, but he sat where Timaios indicated – at his Owner’s feet, which was a very nice place, as long as Signy didn’t want her feet rubbed – and leaned against Timaios’ legs.   Continue reading →

Funerary Rites 27: Company

Oct17

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It would have been nice to sit there with Erramun for a while — perhaps forever, and certainly at least for a few minutes.  Senga knew she was feeling a little raw about the whole mess and she imagined that Erramun was not feeling particularly better.  The way he kept on reaching up to touch his neck, the way that he would look sidelong at her as if expecting something — what, she hadn’t figured out yet.  Orders? Complaints? — the way he’d reacted when she’d shown him his room


She couldn’t afford to baby him any more than she could afford to be afraid of him.  But still
 She waited until he had dropped his hand again and then brushed her fingertips over the marks around his neck.  “I think it goes well with you. It looks like you looked the first time I met you—” Continue reading →

My Weekend, with Beets

Oct16

Hello!

I haven’t done one of these in a while, but let’s see.

I have two major non-writing, non-work things going on in my life right now: Getting the yard ready for autumn/winter, and Finishing the $*( attic.

This weekend was mostly yard.  We dug up potatoes and beets (yes, we’re pretty sure that’s a beet).  We chopped down the horseradish and walking onions so that we can dig up the horseradish soon. (“this smells like an angry Polish soup.”)

We planted garlic!  (And hyacinths
)  We cleared out one of the back beds of weeds and planted a cover crop of oats (an experiment).  We harvested mustardseed and eggplants and peppers.
(and that beet….)

We brought the bay tree and lavender inside, the lime tree having already come inside.  We dumped some pots and cleaned them out for next year.  We trimmed back the asparagus.

(The Kale, parsley, and sage will be fine for at least another month).

We put the grill in the garage.  We bought a lawnmower.

(We bought a lawnmower!)

(WE BOUGHT A LAWNMOWER.)

At about that point, T. asked how tired I was, and I could manage about “uh-hunh.”

But now I’ve bought more garlic, I’ve bought some Liquid Nails and some spray foam, and today:  BACK TO THE ATTIC.

I mean, once I get out of work.

But hey, we got some garlic planted!!  We’ve never managed that quite on time before!