"You are not a man at all, are you?" I heard the god ask behind me. "Nor a god. You are both less -- and more."

Suddenly the weight of everything that had happened fell upon me. The burden weighed heavily on my head, on my shoulders, and I felt immensely…

The god finally found its voice, and not to my surprise, there was a quaver to it. "What are you?" it asked. "You are less than expected, yet more than you seem. The power you hold does not compare even to the simplest Alderman, and yet you are fluent i…

I said nothing to the god, merely turned my back to it and stepped to the golden post from which the spectre of death continued to emanate. The fleshing blade was still in my hand, and using the curved tip of that sanctified steel, I drew the point along …

"The bargain is this," I began. "A truce. An end to this petty war that began with my ancestors, that has led to so much death."

"NEVER!" the god roared, cutting me off. "WE WILL HAVE OUR VENG--"

I held up my blade again and said nothing. The god's mout…

We moved lightly through the corridor, which eventually opened up in a larger space, pocked with deep pools of the evil liquid. We paused, scanning the room, then looked to each other. Without a word, we clasped hands.

We moved quickly but carefully acro…

It had all been a fantasy, a fever dream of sorts, the kind that lasts for a year. I had truly believed he could love me back the way I loved him.

First, the straw man, or men, of which there were many. I'd convinced myself that his little girlfriend wa…

Everett called at the door, "Hey, you guys having a party in there?"

Sasha wiped her tears and checked her face in the mirror.

"Just a minute!" Natalie called out.

Some lady pushed her way in, looking perturbed. Natalie shoved Sasha out of the bathroo…

At some point the redolent scent of moisture reached our noses, clinging to the air around us. Soon, it became apparent why.

We reached a section of tunnel that was damp and cool, moist with condensation that itself brown and foul-smelling. We avoided to…

We traveled again, the tunnel growing narrower and wider at sporadic intervals. At times we were able to walk side-by-side. At others we were forced to move one behind the other, and when we did, we each took turns leading the way forward. When you led yo…

You were at my side in an instant, an angel of light and beauty so magnificent that even now I cannot put it to words. You fell to your knees and cradled my head in your lap. I barely heard the slight pop of a vial being uncorked, but a second later a liq…

We spotted dozens of other traps as we progressed, avoiding each with ease. They were not well hidden, seeming to be laid more as an annoyance than as to be any genuine threat. And yet we took no chances. We treated each one as potentially lethal, until f…

The floor leveled out and opened up into a cavernous space. We held our lanterns aloft, as high above our heads as we could manage, but even so there was not enough light to chase away the inky blackness. In the shadows around us we could hear things movi…

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…

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…

We traveled like that for some time. Talking. Sharing. Laughing. It was always a joy to travel with you, and it was no less so this time.

And as we walked, we noticed the ground beneath our feet begin to slant ever so slightly downward.

The thing about…

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 …

The Watchers tell me you departed some time ago, that you walked into the tunnel by yourself armed with nothing but your pack, walking stick, and a lantern. An incredible risk, if you ask me, given what we both know lurks there in the dark. But I know you…

"This is my garden, now," explained Sarah, gesturing expansively at the tiny fenced area. "Mommy said so," she continued, pointing back towards the ivy-covered house set back across the pasture, in a stand of trees.

Gus, her equally-young companion, sh…

"But they don't have heads!"

"As I understand it, that's voluntary."

"That's ridiculous."

"I'm telling you, 'Haunted City' is a democracy. Its real name is 'Crossroads Hill', and it's perfectly safe to visit."

"But there's a necromancer overlord, and…

When dusk descends, the waves draw near,

And gravity holds sway.

I hold the moon within my eye;

I hope I'm drawn away.

I raise my hands

Above the sands

The moon commands me: Come without delay.

I joy! Her Majesty has heard!

I hasten to obey.

I wrap mys…

I laid on my back on the forest floor, the deadfall beneath me striving vainly to push me closer to the sky. Perched above me a black raven rested on a branch, peering intently down at me, just as it had for the last two hours. The creature never moved, n…

The Priest lifts the lid away from the box and sets it to the side. The smoke inside the box swirls before him like an angry storm but remains in place for the moment. He dips a finger into the smoke, drawing out a long tendril of grey vapor. Then, with h…

He can see her there, standing just on the other side of the glass. She's next to him, of course, there but not here. He can reach out with a hand and touch her shoulder. She smiles at him. Warm. Affectionate. But also sad. Because he is not truly there. …

The wind gusted across the dusty peak, nearly blowing Zachariah off his feet. He pulled his weathered duster closer around him, pulled his hat down further over his eyes in an attempt to keep debris out of his eyes.

The townsmen had said the climb would …