V’esen came to in the back of a cart. He lifted his shackled hands and rubbed his eye where he had been struck. It was tender to touch; he wouldn’t be surprised if the socket was broken. Crusted blood flaked off his face as he probed the wound. He rolled to the side, finding more […]
The next morning, V’esen stood at the front of the crowd as they lit the funeral pyre. His parents and every other man, woman, and child that had been butchered in the raid were laid to rest upon the giant stack of wood. The surviving villagers had worked all night and most of the morning […]
The night filled with the sounds of celebration. The villagers had been taught their lesson and perhaps now the Order would learn their place. Morgalin sat by a cook fire enjoying a tankard of ale and a hunk of roast wildbird with his unit. The men laughed at bawdy jokes and swapped stories of the […]
Though exhausted, V’esen had never felt more awake as he neared the edge of the Marad’r forest. He had run for hours straight, but was nearly home for his efforts. Having been sure that he would meet his death today, his heart soared with the feeling of life. On top of that, his new-found power […]
The village was laid to waste; the dead and dying littered the streets and the smoke of burning buildings filled the air. For an unprepared village, Rokyl mused, they had fought with courage. From his unit alone he lost almost fifteen men. He understood the Order to be a peaceful people. It seemed that the […]
Staren sat in the council chamber and watched her husband debate the merits of attacking the Earl’s fortress outright. His face was red and his gestures wild. It had been two days of arguing back and forth between the nine members of the council and they had reached no consensus. The council wanted to do […]
The path, while narrow, was flat and easy going. V’esen had no trouble getting out of the castle, as nobody questioned that he could be an exact duplicate of their commander. Why would they? V’esen resisted the urge to whistle to himself as he walked along. Yes, there were more questions for him to answer […]
The gap was large, but not impossible. V’esen clung to the tree branch and tensed his muscles, like a snake poised to strike. He gathered his confidence and sprung towards the battlements below. He felt his boots graze the outer wall before he hit the ground and rolled, landing in a crouch. He waited in […]
Rokyl trudged along, miserable about their upcoming mission. When he had signed up as a soldier of the realm ten years earlier, he had done so to protect his country. Now the Pyre he belonged to had been sent to “clean” a village that was suspected of harbouring rebel forces of the Natural Order. He […]
He woke just before the sunrise with a stiff neck and a stick in his side. While he had had worse sleeps, this was not the best by any stretch. Rolling his head from side to side, he listened to his spine crackle like dry wood in a fire. He then opened his bag, pulled […]