Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Two

Fruyr descended through the dense, eerie mist that flooded the field beneath the old cabin and the ethereal door. The lake of mist destabilized and displaced the solid earth, which moments ago supported Fruyr’s weight, as he dashed to Kimio’s rescue. Tiny water droplets bespeckled Fruyr’s tan skin, his bright, red-orange hair, and his soiled village clothes. The leathery, gnarled hands that dragged him under, dragged him deeper and deeper into a biting, otherworldly cold, until the droplets crystalized, and the chill crept into Fruyr’s bones…

Katheermor: Unifying Traditions

Wondering what binds the ever-warring Katheermor together as a single species? This anthropological lore post outlines and explains important facets of unified Katheer culture.

Elferan/Elvish

By now you have probably noticed not every strand of dialogue is written in Common on this site. There are words and phrases written in Elferan (A.K.A. Elvish) in many of my stories and poems. Elferan is a magical language, spoken by elves, and frequently used to cast spells. Check out this lore post for a brief introduction to spells, and for translations from Elferan to Common.

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter One

Kimio dropped beneath a thorny, overhanging arm of the monstrous blackberry bramble that concealed his and Fruyr’s fort from less inquisitive eyes. The moist residue of a late, spring rain muddied the lining of an abandoned burrow, which served as the fort’s natural entryway. Kimio slid down the burrow, soiling the light-colored linen of his trousers, wearing out the traction on the soles of his sandals, and caking his bare toes in mud. He landed on the muddy floor of the single-chamber fort, with a squirming, squealing piglet tucked under his armpit…

Discordance

I should have ignored the music box. A twinge in its familiar song drew me out from under the bedcovers. I feared the disrupted lullaby might startle the baby awake, but the baby snoozed, and still, I was restless. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and gingerly lowered my feet to the floor. I tiptoed around the toys scattered about the floor and snuck across the room to the small end table beside the baby’s crib. I swiped the music box from the table, turned it over, and inspected its winding key. I spun the key thrice before I realized my mistake; I had not opened the box. I flipped the box over and opened the lid no more than an inch. My fingertips curled over the rim of the box, halfway in and halfway out. I paused and blinked…

Where the Arrow Halted

Kylas rested his elbows against a steel railing, which ringed the main deck of the Larkspur and prevented tipsy or otherwise clumsy sailors from toppling over the rim of the deck to a laughable, untimely death. Officers of the Cloaked Hive—the specialized militia Kylas served—cared little if one of their worker bees drowned. Stupidity, like weakness, was best uprooted before it could sprout into full-blown incompetence. The officers of the Cloaked Hive installed the railing only to appease inspectors and to protect the company’s public image. Renowned for its ruthlessness and its effectiveness, clients hired the Cloaked Hive to sweep the most dangerous fields clean and leave not a trace of themselves behind. If worker bees met laughable deaths en route to one of those fields, they disgraced the company; tainted its public record as a one-stop solution to scheming aggressors…

The Aftermath of Ordera

Wondering what came before? Curious about the nature of untamed magic? The prehistory of Interrealmeus and the legend of Forgotten Matriarch Ordera is summarized in this lore post.

House of the Maddened Son

When a second son was born, the D’Nier household grew cold to its heir. Annias was more amicable than his elder brother. Edward closed himself off to the world, locked himself in his bedchamber with charcoal and parchment, and sketched haunting images from beyond the grave. Edward’s attendants recounted what they saw as the guise of demon possession. Lord Rastan D’Nier collected his son’s sickening sketches, tied the boy to a pillar in the ballroom, and set the sketches ablaze. Edward writhed against the ropes that bound him, shouted, and screamed…

Erring Near the Elder Tree

A young Relaunkatheer leapt from the branch of a tree. Fayren ducked beneath his peer’s descending feet and somersaulted over the roots of the tree. The Relaunkatheer landed and laughed. Fayren stood and inspected his scraped limbs…

Katheermor: The E.E.B.

Are you curious about the Katheermor (elves)? Are you unsure what the prefixes to their names mean? The answers can be found within this illustrated encyclopedia of the Elvish Elemental Bonds.