Tag Archives: dark fantasy

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Seventeen

Ears ringing from the screeching of saws and the dinging of hammers, Navigator Tramais steered the Nervidia down the throat of the Laughing Cat. Sculpted into the rockface by warlocks’ chantry, the stone-fanged maw of the conspicuous cove arched about a gallows’ height above the royal yard of the ship’s mainmast. From the crow’s nest, the ship’s Daybreak Lookout forever joked that he narrowly missed the hangman’s noose, whenever the ship passed between the Laughing Cat’s most prominent fangs…

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Sixteen

Melihrene galloped eastward, beyond the scanty evergreen wood, into a lush, tropical greenwood. The threshold between these woodlands perpetuated a foreshadowing but invisible fog; felt but unseen. With each eastward hoof stamp, the crisp and cool air of the early morning heated incrementally, like the stagnant water in a soup pot. The environment grew mysteriously hot and humid. The horse’s mane and tail frizzed. Uuinora’s dampened clothes clung to her skin. The leather patches of her armor sweltered. These would have sunburned her bluish skin, if there had not been a cotton suit between her armor and her Elvish hide…

The Shadows I’m Seeking: Episode Two: Turbulence, Part II

In the hours leading up to Okemia’s funeral, Master Yoshihiro recalls and laments his role in the disaster that befell the world. Will his apprentice, Tsukiya, overcome the torment of his loss? Or will history’s darkest day repeat?

The Shadows I’m Seeking: Episode One: Turbulence, Part I

Outcasted and feared for harboring the magical prowess of a bygone era, two extraordinary children board the same train. Little do they know how significant that accident of fate will prove to be for themselves and the dystopia raging against society’s barrier.

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Fifteen

The sun ducked behind the ridge and tossed a wave of shadow over Talsis’s stranded horse. The horse twitched its ears and flicked its tail, as the evening chill bit into its fur and lapped the warmth of daylight from its skin. The horse grunted, craned its neck, and sniffed the groundcover. Its snout rifled through spikey, almond-shaped leaves and lean, bristly stalks for sweet, coastal strawberries, but the bushes were bare. The horse impatiently scraped the soil with its steel-shoed hooves and nervously ground the bit wedged between its flat teeth. Finally, it lifted its head and peered out to sea. Somewhere, either floating atop or sinking beneath billowing rolls of sea foam, its rider tarried…

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Fourteen

Fruyr swung his legs over the edge of his bed. His hand glided across the soft blanket beneath him and up the smooth bedpost of the canopy bed. He gripped the post and slid down the blanket, until his feet met the cold floor. When he released the post, he stretched out an arm, until his fingers touched the wall. He ran his fingers along the wall and counted his steps, as he searched for the window. He opened it when the side of his hand bumped the edge of the windowsill. He crossed his arms atop the windowsill and recklessly leaned out the window, into the frigid, unfriendly darkness…

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Thirteen

Kimio kicked the carriage door open. Since his stay in Glaiven’s fishbowl prison, he ailed of entrapment as starkly as he ailed of cabin fever. He gripped the doorframe and leaned out the doorway, until only the tips of his toes met the floor. The moist spritz that hitchhiked across Zaliradai, via its chilled winds, pelted Kimio’s uniform in prickly droplets. Delivered at the exhilarating speed of charging horses, the watery acupuncture revitalized him. For the first time since his kidnapping, Kimio felt lively…

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Twelve

The farther her horse galloped, the faster her heart pounded. The closer the twins’ mother, Nica, came to the land of her birth, the louder her internal flame roared. It fanned the flames behind her irises, and its warm light shimmered in her long, wild hair. Surplus embers ignited the uneven ends of her roguish, red mane and burned holes into her cotton shirt. She pressed her heels into her horse’s belly and pulled tightly on its reins. The horse slowed to a trot, and then stilled before a jungle hot spring. As it dipped its head and lapped the warm water of the geothermal pool, its flaming rider dismounted. She waded into the pool, squeezed her nostrils closed between her fingers, and cupped her palm over her mouth. She closed her eyes, and then she submerged…

Sons of a Soul Split: Chapter Eleven

Talsis dismounted along a moist, dirt path. The deer-trodden trail passed through an evergreen forest, down the jagged rockface of a ten-foot cliff, and into the soft, white sand of a small, hidden beach. The forest’s last line of defense against the encroaching sea was a row of crooked cedar trees. Their roots fought to sap nutrients from the thin soil that topped the cliff; they competed for space and sustenance. The trees appeared as a row of poorly trained archers, cowering between the parapets of a sylvan fortress. Beneath the forested cliff, loud, violent waves splashed onto the shore, inching closer to the rockface with each pulse…