Fantasy
Shadows in Velvet - Part 2
The House of Falling Stars looked like something stitched from the dreams of an opium-drunk tailor. Its three towers leaned in opposing directions like dancers caught mid-spin. The walls were made of pale pink stone imported from some ruined temple in the east, veined with gold and soft to the touch. Water spilled in silent sheets down the front façade, catching the light of the sunrise in a thousand fractured colors. And on the threshold, etched above a set of polished blackwood doors, were the words: What you reveal, we record. What you hide, we sell.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The sun had barely moved in the sky, but the mood outside White Plume Mountain had shifted from anticipation to dread. The torchlight flickered as Group Two emerged from the mountain’s maw—water-soaked, breathless, and carrying six unconscious bodies between them.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
Shadows in Velvet - Part 1
The city of Verashtel didn’t sleep. It dreamed. Gilded bridges arched over canals where swan-headed gondolas glided silently, their lanterns glowing in shades of rose-gold and sea-glass green. Perfumed smoke curled from rooftop hookahs. Courtesans and spies wore mirrored masks that shimmered with spells to hide their true faces. Even the moon, pale and proud above the city’s spires, seemed half-masked behind silver clouds.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
The lord's Silent Bride Part 2
The golden light of morning spilled gently through the open silk curtains, casting soft patterns across the polished floors of the castle dining hall. The clink of porcelain echoed faintly, delicate and refined, as breakfast was served in elegant lacquered dishes.
By Tsume's tales10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
An hour had passed. In the impromptu campsite that served as the coalition’s base camp, tension simmered just beneath the surface. Eyes watched the tree line; ears strained for any whisper from the mouth of White Plume Mountain. But the mist remained unbroken, the horizon silent. No sign of Kale Stonemarch’s team. No screams. No signal. No hope—or so the younger recruits feared.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The tension in the encampment was thick as incense. Force-users, warriors, scholars, and mystics stood in tight-knit circles, their voices hushed, their expressions grim. The encampment became a temporary sanctuary—neutral ground where rival creeds had, at last, lowered their blades and egos in pursuit of a higher cause.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN’S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The divine gateway shimmered behind them like a bruise in the sky—an unnatural wound held open by the whim of a trickster god. One by one, the summoned exiles of countless worlds emerged into a place of steam and stone, coughing and blinking against the sulfur-choked twilight.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
