“D’ya even know what yer doin’ Cas?” Joseph’s voice, whispered low and grating in the dark.   “No, not really. But we have to do something.”   Casimir Aldair forced the girl down, clamping his hand over her mouth to stifle the screams boiling out of her body. Behind him, the open window – the […]

“…if there is another thing you want in this life beyond a family, Marquis… it is to be a hero.” Ariel? Where am I? For that matter, who…? I am a Marquis, leader of an army, and ruler of some small slice of land. Yet, who…? It’s like grasping for a handful of water: eventually, […]

The foothills of Avonna City, SC 111, Spring   Never had there been a more violent spring in the Tarn foothills. With luck, there never would be one again. The flowers bloom in full force, letting loose rays of beautiful gold, deep violet, and uplifting orange. It is in stark contrast to the downcast faces […]

He ran, through the underbrush and down the hillside – one foot over the other and then no feet at all as he came out into thin air, over the side and down into the gorge below, tumbling. The fall was nothing, it was only momentum, but the noise worried him – the shale tumbling […]

From the diary of Casimir ab Azadar, Novembris of the Year 359 in the Lord’s Cycle   Oddly enough I feel… home, here, surrounded by the smell of shit and camp fire. The Hillfolk have no idea who I am, though there was initial suspicion about my clothing and my familiarity with their mannerisms. Mostly, […]

“What does it take to be truly righteous? Or for that matter, truly cruel? Are they really such inseparable things? Surely Dav did cruel, and oft-times evil things for the good of the Kingdom. The Thirty Days War could have been handled diplomatically, with open palms instead of clenched fists. Money could have exchanged hands, […]

Year 356, shortly after the double death of Emily ab Azadar and Hugo ab Azadar II.   The two men ahead of him moved with the elegance and stealth of felines, their cloth-wrapped boots making near to no sound in the mud, and what little squelches they did make were drowned out by the ambient […]

Azadar Keep, Year 354. The rain fell heavy and the wind blew hard, and that was normal. Serfs fled away from the lowlands as flash floods took some of their fellows, and that was normal. And high above from the fourth story of the Azadar estates a baby cried for the first time, and a […]