In the hearth, a little flame danced with a playful, cheerful spirit. Like a red-haired, mischievous boy, it tossed itself around in complex leaps, cracking the dry wood as it moved. With each bow,...
2025-01-18 18:50:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe train shuddered to a halt.
“Delpas Station,” announced the conductor as he briefly peeked into the carriage.
Ardan snapped awake and realized that, for the past few hours, he’...
2025-01-18 18:49:00 +0000 UTC View PostAt times, Ardi would drift into wakefulness. It would seem that he was riding on the bench of a truck, which rolled lazily over the cobblestones, causing him to bounce up every now and again. To hi...
2025-01-18 18:48:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan was slowly, painfully, coming back to his senses. His ears rang, and the world in front of him shimmered as if he were staring at a lake’s depths on a windy day. Worse yet, his nose caught ...
2025-01-18 18:47:00 +0000 UTC View PostLife after the incident on Baliero’s Fifth Street gradually slipped back into a familiar rhythm. It was a bit chaotic, as usual, thick and clinging like rubber, and yet somehow pleasant in its ow...
2025-01-18 18:46:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs the gunfire crackled in a relentless, blistering symphony, restoring his Star was proving... jarringly fragmented. Often, the energy would simply dissipate into the air.
“Faster!” Shou...
2025-01-18 18:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostElver, whose unimposing frame seemed even slighter beneath his worn clothes, was nervously smoking a cigarette by his car. The vehicle — a battered old Derks model that must have been repaired co...
2025-01-18 18:44:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Hello, my son.
I received your letters. I spent the whole night with them, and, if only for a short while, it felt like you were here again, as cheerful as ever, sometimes tho...
2025-01-18 18:43:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdan strolled in a leisurely manner along the cobblestone street. A cold, drizzling rain fell from above. He had grown used to the sight of it through the window — those small, sharp droplets le...
2025-01-18 18:42:01 +0000 UTC View PostHolding his second slip of paper with a list that contained about a dozen academic textbooks, Ardan stepped out of the greenhouse and headed toward the stairs. Behind him, the lecture was still ong...
2025-01-18 18:41:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan couldn’t quite recall how the break had passed. He had buried himself in the reference book on the basic types of seals with such hunger that he’d understood almost nothing. Nor could he ...
2025-01-18 18:40:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan woke up to the familiar creak of a door hinge. Instinctively, he tried to sit up, only to hit his head on the low ceiling. Hissing like a forest cat, he rubbed his sore forehead. Blinking awa...
2025-01-18 18:39:01 +0000 UTC View PostStill carrying his knapsack that lightly tapped against his back as he walked and the satchel that would awkwardly get caught on his staff, Ardan opened the door leading to the stairs and… Well, ...
2025-01-18 18:38:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdi approached the counter after waiting patiently for two mages ahead of him to finish their business. The first thing that caught his attention wasn’t the striking sorceress standing behind th...
2025-01-18 18:37:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan adjusted the collar of his suit and glanced at himself in the mirror. Staring back at him was the same unfamiliar dandy dressed in expensive clothes, holding a staff in one hand and a small s...
2025-01-18 18:36:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Hello, Mother.
I’m writing to you from my temporary quarters in the Palace of the Kings of the Past. Sounds like the start of one of Grandfather’s stories, doesn’t it? 2025-01-18 18:35:01 +0000 UTC View Post
All sound in the hall ceased. The instruments of the musicians fell silent, and the rustling of gowns and the clatter of heels from the noble crowds moved like waves, parting away from the main ent...
2025-01-18 18:34:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdi lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, where a small ice replica of Kaishas glided lazily through the air. It traced pirouettes around the ever-changing clouds, which at times transforme...
2025-01-18 18:33:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdan closed the book and, leaning back in his chair, rubbed his eyes. They were slightly tired from the light of the oil lamp, which sputtered on the table, casting dancing shadows across its gree...
2025-01-18 18:32:01 +0000 UTC View PostWhen she’d entered the room, she had expected to see someone far different from what her eyes actually beheld. By the bed, sitting right on the floor, wearing what were clearly old, worn-out clot...
2025-01-18 18:31:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn the dim light of predawn, Ardan stirred from his slumber. The gentle swaying of the train and the rhythmic clatter of wheels on the rails had lulled him into a deep sleep. But now, a strange sen...
2025-01-18 18:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“And yet, we should have crushed that filth in
2025-01-18 18:29:01 +0000 UTC View PostA small rock struck a barely-visible shimmer, which looked like something akin to a soap bubble, bounced aside, and fell to the ground.
Ardi, whose foot had just set off a flicker of a magica...
2025-01-18 18:28:01 +0000 UTC View PostThere were no flashes of torches or the light cast by lamps in the darkness. To orc eyes, the light of the full moon was enough to see as clearly as if it were daytime.
And as for Ardan... 2025-01-18 18:27:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The next few days passed in the familiar bustle of the caravan. After their night march, as Mart had called it — though he was reaching for the bottle less and less, perhaps because he was finall...
2025-01-18 18:26:13 +0000 UTC View Post“Hello, Mother.
I’m writing to you from... Well, I suppose it’s silly to start a letter this way. But that’s how I’ll start it anyway.
I’m writing from...
2025-01-18 18:25:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ardi awoke, the first thing he did was check if the laces securing the “roof” to the frame of his tent had come loose. Of course, this contraption could hardly be called a “tent.” It w...
2025-01-18 18:24:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs Yonatan’s squad and the marshals drew closer together, Ardan became increasingly aware of how much his life had turned upside down. The strange horse walking beside him and the belongings of s...
2025-01-18 18:23:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdi patted the old bay horse on the neck, checked to make sure his bedroll was securely tied to the saddle, and tightened the laces of his cloak. In the prairies and steppes, the most important th...
2025-01-18 18:22:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe last stone settled atop the cairn, and Ardan stepped back, pressing his fist to his chest before touching the back of his hand to his forehead. Cassara, standing beside him, said nothing. The v...
2025-01-18 18:21:01 +0000 UTC View Post