Circle

The room at your mother’s place stops being yours when you tell her that that thing is not going to wake up, ever. She looks at you, and then back at that thing, your twin, hah, as if, you’d know, and shakes her head. “I’m not going to give up.”, she says, and continues moving…

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Carcelan Serpents are born as two. Two of them in the same egg. Twins, always. The Carcelan society is built around it. Mating partners can change, but your twin? Your twin is always with you. (Centuries later you will find that the other species that inhabit the lands beyond the valleys of Carcela do not…

You’re probably wondering why I have gathered you all here tonight

“Sit down, sit down, there’s enough space for everyone, Savatra, can you get more chairs, just smoosh the lines a bit everyone,” Yond calls into the crowd. Wow, that’s a lot of people here. Old faces. New faces. People who think they’re new faces but Yond knows exactly who they are. Not that they know…

Four eyes see more than two

There’s no smoke, no flash of light, not even a slow metamorphosis or shapeshift, or Nasim waking up to find herself transformed, but the actual thing having happened with no one present to witness it, leaving her to find herself changed when she looks into the mirror while brushing her teeth. It’s a clasping of…

Spineridge Peaks

There is one mountain, the highest peak of Spineridge, which’s trees do not burn. They are black and gray and white wood, gnarled, whip-thin and bulky, reaching up into the endless blue sky and crouching along the earth along with thorny underbrush. Their sap is red and orange and yellow and white and blue and…

Qhor

Qhor is such an odd place. They say any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, but there also is a difference between moving wood and steel and stone by steam and manpower, and weaving the energy that flows through the veins of the earth into doing that for you, or bypassing it directly. And…

The Amber Mills

The rustling grass and leaves, the glowing, seemingly infinite blue sky and the sparkling water are an easy distraction, and even the downthrodden paths lead off the edges, where only fully functional wings can save you from certain death, for from this height, from where the falling waters reach the surface as mist, even the…

Sunday morning visit

I moved to this city five years ago Played it by ear, and went with the flow The night of this city became lover and foe With time you’ll learn when to stay or to go Sunday morning, I was sweeping my floor Heard the bell ring and saw you at the door Said you…

Galiyah

They arrive in the glaring mid-afternoon sun, but Basheera had seen them on the road from Al-Johara and hurried down the road on her surid, leaving the date baskets up in the shack, her mother was so angry and had her running back and get them, but by then the whole town knew – Weberknecht’s…

Chance

There is a bag of dice, wrapped in dark blue velvet cloth, that go from hand to hand, from dim taverns to a soldier’s tent, aboard a merchant ship to a rich noble’s house, from where they disappear one night and wander through back alley slums, clackering on muddy pavement, taking stops in children’s games,…