I had a dream

Of a familiar face.

An acquaintance? A friend?

I searched for what I knew.

The face gave nothing away.

The friend said nothing.

.

At first, I pleaded,

Then I shouted.

I tried to reach out,

I couldn’t move.

.

The closer I looked

The more that…

The air was crisp and the dew barely settled on the grass when Orthael left the house. He closed the door behind him with just the clink of his chain shirt and took the stairs up onto the wall two at a time - relishing the lightness of foot and freedom of…

Apparently, the principal had told Lumen to find Toria, she learned later. Lumen was more than happy to eagerly sign all sorts of things at Toria. It was strange.

Toria mostly just listened as Lumen talked about some of the places she'd been, and things s…

Malika slept restlessly that night. Her sleep was plagued by dreams of shadows and flames, the yellow infernos of building burning. Creatures moved among those flames, casting long silhouettes across the carcasses of homes that had fallen into embers. Of …

Beckton stepped through the fourth row of bombe racks, trying valiantly to ignore the incessant clicking of the cryptologic machines as they crunched their way through yet another coded message. He drew from his right pocket one of the large box magazines…

I'd write you a song

And trust me I've tried

But it never works out for me

How do I write something I don't get

~

You're rocket fuel in my veins

You're dead weight on my mind

You're a strange new beat

Seems I've got two left feet

~

Sucks to be me

But look…

Malika was suddenly overwhelmed by the cleansing intent and purity of Flame. It flowed through and over her like an all-consuming heat -- and as it did, it drew much of the pain and fury from her slight frame. She shuddered and screamed, both in relief an…

Orthael felt the glow of satisfaction from Judgement, who had spent lifetimes as a wrath-filled harbinger of death. It had dreamed of doing more, indeed feared that it was no longer capable of anything but destruction. The Flame had swept such darkness as…

"Oh, there you are!" her booted feet clacked audibly across the shaded concrete. "I bought you a coffee."

The beverage slid roughly across the metal mesh tabletop. I eyed it warily. "I don't drink coffee."

"I know, but I do, and I figured once you warmed …

The glowing lights of my destination blaze fearlessly on my horizon

Clearly defined against the dawn of my new day

Glorious in their attainability

Except

I keep wasting miles

meandering down roads with no outlet

taking left turns at intersections whe…

--

Greetings. It is the thirtieth day. Food remains in good supply, but our morale has taken a beating. Captain Marseilles announced to us that he has received a message on the Return Ticket. As we had been told, that system was primed to engage around Da…

Isn't it funny how things you do in your youth come back to bite you? What is it the New Agers call it?

Karma! That's it.

Like when you're a teenager, and you hit-and-run someone's car. Then, as an adult, some kid slams into the new car you just bought,…

The alleyway was narrow and stank like shit.

Nat wasn't looking forward to meeting Seth. The animosity between them had grown lately. Perhaps her curiosity was to blame. Perhaps she asked too many questions. But he had always encouraged inquisitiveness. …

The lantern was burning low, putting an orange-gold cast on the cabin. Ryle was pouring us a drink of a very fine twenty-year Presagian whiskey. It was his one indulgence; many a night did we spend far from civilisation sipping on the finest drinks availa…

Thunder crashed again. Martin looked up from his laptop, but could see little beyond the glow of his halogen desk lamp. Just for a moment, he had fancied that he could hear a deep rumble that was closer, something that was not the rain or thunder. Somet…

Our blades flashed in the dark, sparks of light from our lanterns flickering off our weapons. The things were all around us, attacking from the sides, the floor, even the ceiling. We stood back-to-back and warded them off -- one, two, sometimes even three…

Sir Alfred Worthington III coughed as he tightened the final screw of his new automaton. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief, catching the flecks of blood that came with each rattling bark.

The machine stood approximately 183 centimeters tall and r…

We found each other in the dark some time later. Or, rather, the semi-dark. A crack in part of the tunnel ceiling extended through the rock over our heads and let in just enough light that we didn't require our lanterns. It did little to dispel the gloom …

To Detective Hawk, the more she examined the scene, the more she felt the whole thing was an accident, an illusion. The ink was spilled, not spilling from her body. She lay slumped, not in a defensive pose. There were no glasses of drink, no tubes for gas…

Orthael was quite content with the part of supporting swordsman. He stayed on her weaker side, ensuring that she could focus her attention on cutting a way through the Lesser Dead. Claws rang against steel; he used his shield more and more, less as a laye…

Empress Melinda the IV ignored the cries of the man being dragged away by two guards. So few people accepted their notice of execution with any sense of dignity these days. She should know, she had sent hundreds of men, women, and the occasional child, to…

We set out again, following the same pathway we'd been on before. The floor beneath us continued to slope downward. The ceiling of the tunnel dropped low in places but never so much that we needed to stoop. We weren't certain where we were headed. Such wa…

You reached out your injured arm, placing your hand on my shoulder while I wrapped and bound it. You didn't even wince as I pulled the bandages tight to help slow the blood flow. One of the Healers would need to tend to the wound once we returned to the H…

The room, if you can call it that, for it was enormous, easily the largest single chamber I'd seen down here in the dark, was a nightmare landscape of chaos. I had to shake my head and blink my eyes several times to try to rid myself of the vertigo it i…

As silently as the High Angel before it, Judgement whispered echoes of its past to Orthael. There had been many who had made similar vows in a time long before, when the Dead had arisen in such numbers that the darkness had very much threatened to overwhe…