sunslammers

1.112

The Young Griffon

Half a year had come and gone since the day I stood alone in the center of the Scarlet Stadium and accepted every laurel crown the Daylight Games could offe...

1.111

The Son of Rome

The day that we boarded the Eos and set sail for distant Thracia, Griffon and I had been of one mind. It was the Gadfly’s intent to keep us busy - to keep u...

1.110 [Myron]

The Little Kyrios

He had done his best.

It was a cold comfort, he knew, but it was what he clung to in the end. In the business of cultivation the results were all that...

VS 1.109

The Young Griffon

It was said that there were as many paths to heaven as there were stars in the night sky. That platitude was one that countless cast-off sons and daughters ...

1.108

The Son of Rome

As a melting pot of Greek culture, the city of Olympia celebrated more holidays and religious festivals than even the twice-lauded Coast - it was said that a ...

1.107

The Young Griffon

Not everyone is made of iron, Griffon. For some, the fire only burns.

“Griffon?” A woman’s welcome voice woke me from my dozing. I open...

1.106

The Son of Rome

The storm-crowned mountain was divided nine ways - eight grand estates acting as envoys for the greater mystery cults, each with its own Tyrant ruling in thei...

1.105 [Chilon]

Chilon

The Obol Orator

Every institution had its daily routines - the underlying maintenances and mechanisms that an outsider looking in might not nece...

1.104

After a brief existential crisis, we are officially back on track. I've unfortunately burnt through the six chapter backlog over the last couple weeks while struggling with an exte...

1.103 [Aleuas Pyrrhos]

The Hurricane Hierophant, Aleuas Pyrrhos

When the kyrios came for Aleuas, he was dressed in nothing but shadow and rags.

That had been over five hundred years ago. Five...

1.102

The Son of Rome

At some point in our journey through the Orphic faith, the raven’s mantle had changed.

The furthest outpost of the Howling Wind Cult estates on Kaukos...

1.101

The Young Griffon

Sorea returned before the sun fell, wheeling above the coastline off our starboard side. The virtuous beast shrieked once to make sure he had our attention ...

1.100 [Nikolas Aetos]

The Stark Blade, Nikolas Aetos

Don’t come back. Not until you’ve found something worth sharing - a wife, companions. Your passion.

Niko’s companions had ...

1.99

The Son of Rome

There and back again in just under two weeks. All told, it was one of the faster expeditions I’d been a part of.

It had taken us three days to sail ar...

1.98

The Young Griffon

“You’re a Thracian,” Sol said, the pieces falling into place in his mind as they were in mine.

“I was born in Thracia,” Scythas corrected hi...

1.97

The Young Griffon

Scythas and Sol’s quiet conversation abruptly ended when I joined them at the front of the ship. The Hero glanced at me uncertainly, having no doubt overh...

1.96

The Young Griffon

By sunset we had returned.

The lands of Thracia were vast, and we had traveled them for long days and longer nights. Cultivators of our stature could ...

1.95 [Sacrament of Salt and Ash]

Son of Rome

Wrathful hands seized me by the neck. They gripped fistfuls of hair that I had allowed to grow far too long, palmed my face, hauled on the white cloth of my chito...

1.94 [Selene]

A guttural crack split the silence of the sunset domain in the Raging Heaven Cult. The Tyrant Polyzalus, reclining on a feather-down bed with his comatose wife tucked against his side and breathing...

1.93 [Selene]

Selene

They panicked.

The ivory gates had spat them out into an underground tomb, a beehive tholos with only the central coffin and its ivory shroud to fill th...

1.92ish [Selene]

Selene

It was a pitiful truth that a person’s demons resided within as often as they did without.

Selene had learned this truth early on, internalized it within herse...

1.91(ish) [An Unkindness]

An Unkindness

“You don’t know,” the raven known as Solus said dully. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. Socrates, the Scholar himself, hadn’t had an...

1.90(ish) [An Unkindness]

An Unkindness

Through horn, truth. By ivory, lies.

The motif was a quirk of the Aeolic Greek dialect and nothing more. That was what the raven from Rome had been taught...

1.89 [An Unkindness]

An Unkindness

Horn is fulfilled. Ivory deceives.

Two ravens and two Heroic souls had entered the Orphic house through gates of ivory - or perhaps it was horn. In the em...

1.88 [???]

???

You are born.

Your infant cries herald the end of endless spring and the first dawn of the summer sun. The sun beats warmly down. Your mother seeks shelter for you ...

1.87

The Young Griffon

We descended the last few tiers of benches, brushing past the aghast souls of long dead Orphic initiates.

Orpheus sat on his own ivy covered tomb. The...

1.86

The Son of Rome

I’d never cared for the lyre before meeting Aristotle.

As the Young Patrician of a notable family, I was raised under a certain set of expectations. I...

1.85

The Young Griffon

First, we mingled.

There was a certain etiquette that even a dead man could be expected to follow. In a theater, it was common sense that the stage be...

1.84

The Son of Rome

“If we’re going,” Scythas said, when the story had been told and the last strings plucked, “this is the time. And the hand guided me here, Solus. I pr...

1.83

The Young Griffon

The Conqueror’s polis was not entirely abandoned.

The husk of a city - what Sol insisted had once been a military colony - was all but rubble now, n...