Before she could challenge him, he spoke. Quietly, but firmly.

"Take care with your weapon, swordmaiden. It is more than you know, and less. Much has been forgotten about those that drew it and its kin from the forges, but what survives is enough to trou…

Merall smiled briefly, letting Deravell's stories of bloodlust and corruption of the spirit slip back into the lower reaches of his memory. She need not know, and at any rate they were only stories. Only the librarians in the Lower Archives and the other …

The satellites.

They should have known when they launched them, battalions at a time. Everything was mathematically planned. No collisions, no crossing paths or degrading orbits. Full coverage. But the little mirrors grew so numerous as to first double t…

I could only watch as Hard Drive jury-rigged the defibrillator to serve as a power source. The old red tool chest in the garage was full of both automotive tools and computer parts—cables, chips, drives, discs. He grabbed a few cables and opened up anothe…

"What does 'MEMENTO Undelete 256 City Park East' mean?" I asked Acrylic, holding the paper in front of him.

He rocked in his chair. My heart broke to see him tied to it, but we couldn't risk him panicking or breaking free before we restored his memory. "…

Story is marked as mature

Judgement was still and silent. The weapon was possessed of a long and storied history; as with any that know of the past, it knew to listen as well as speak. It did so now, with a patient devotion to detail - in Orthael's despondence Judgement absorbed t…

Lamar took a chocolate drumstick out of the waist high freezer and spun out the door, leading with his shoulder.

“Be back on Friday.” he called back to Ashish.

The Indian man didn't say anything, returning only a long suffering look. As Lamar turned awa…

The chanting turned to screams without warning. The small party exchanged panicked glances, unknowing and uncertain. The man himself shrugged in a quietly resigned manner.

"I know nothing, gentlemen, but you should not be surprised that your regime chang…

It had been fourteen days. The painting was gone and with it my heart. Authored by an amateur it had meant more to me than any museum in the world. Each day that passed felt like a relentless excavation into my chest, letting in the outside ice and snow t…

When I look around me, the world is sunny, despite the real weather. When I think about you, my heart is content in the knowledge that you are right where you are supposed to be.

I am balanced, centered, and able to accept things as they are.

The best…

Wish you were here

In my shoes

In my heart

.

Wish you could feel

All the love

All the pain

.

Wish you understood

How I feel

How I ache

.

Wish you felt it, too.

Never have

Never will

Hours later, the space was enough for it to climb past me into the dusk.

Smoothing away soil, I caressed it; the eye followed me, studied me, compelled me faster.

As it slithered, triggering Ferris's mesmeric command, I gripped the spear hidden within my coat.

Shadows drew into Astarlane like the finest of cloaks, draping her form and reducing her blade to a sliver of the deepest dusk. Each massive, raining blow from the khopesh rung against a edge that was no longer wholly in this universe, or even the next.

…

They found the Governor waiting patiently in his office. He was staring out at the gathered crowds, but turned to face them when they came through the doors. Gareth, who had been the Foundry 2 foreman, swore up and down that he had seen a sneer of contemp…

All of us--Troy, Maxine, and I--made a solemn vow to protect the liter of wine from the biker gang. We set it down at the top of the stairs and kept a sacred vigil.

But then a hullabaloo started outside and the head of the gang, Sharpe, kicked down the f…

I was sitting on a bench. It was cold. The weather, not the bench. Though because the bench was made of a thick, stone slab, it too was cold, not that it is worth noting.

This was a strange place. Lights, people, strange writing that I had never seen bef…

She walks through a crowded plaza, a beacon of sultry beauty. She is temptation incarnate, a temptress with but one goal. She moves slowly, exulting in the wandering eyes of the men and not a few of the women. Many crave her. Others hate her. Still more c…

It's been raining for two days straight. No matter what I do I can't see how to stop what I started. Honestly, it's hard to see anything through the wall of water beyond my window. The house across the street was little more than a looming blur and the st…

The Core Systems Alliance was not a great military power.

It was the only power, which is not quite the same thing. We did not have seasoned veterans, brilliant generals, or ambitious young officers. That had all been outsourced to private security com…

Michael's tribe was one of warriors. Their magic was rooted in guttural blood-lust, the feeling of knife ripping into flesh and the enraged satisfaction of wound infliction, the tear of teeth in sinew. Their magic made them strong and fast and unafraid. T…

And now, like a spirit, your voice rings once more


How confusing to put them together:


Your voice, and your words, I could never expect


You would speak this way to me. Can we reconnect?


With the return of hot, muggy weather


Comes a new conversation. …

An hour later, we were in the air, strapped into the cabin of a supersonic transport plane. The engine howl was eerily muted at these speeds, and we could almost talk normally.

"What are we doing, Lieutenant?" Boris asked quietly, eying the pair of mar…