Tag: fantasy
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Patina – Chapter 111
The Hunter settled his hunting rifle on his right shoulder and kneaded his aching eye. Setting up guard wasn’t the kind of job he was the best at anymore, but they had corralled him into doing it again, and truth to be told, it was indeed a welcome change from hour after hour of wall…
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Patina – Chapter 110
They ate beneath a slab of rock sticking out of the snow. Dry vines and splotches of faded paint covered its surface, creating patterns of alternating colors that attracted Sadja’s attention even as she sat down to pry her canned food open and enjoy decades-old delicacies. “Is there a way to make these anew?” She…
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Patina – Chapter 109
Sadja had her eyes closed and the world spoke in rhythmic whispers. Her body lay against a tree, a grey wizened pine that had seen too many winters to remember the time before the war. She felt its roots trying to find purchase in the frozen soil, beneath the snow and tiny pillars of sap…
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The Care of Flowers – 3/3
Atropa Belladonna smiled and brought herself to a seat between two bushes. With her naked feet dangling in the night air and her ivory mane she might have seemed as harmless and fragile as those terracotta dolls the Children of Men sold in one of San Marino’s shops. Even concealed as she was, Artemisia’s chest…
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The Care of Flowers – 2/3
Night came as it is wont to do: a thief with its wide black bag, spilling stars from east to west, leaving only a few thing alabaster lines lingering on the trail of the sun. Artemisia sat on a wide and comfortable chair at the edge of the roof garden. Her shop was closed down…
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The Care of Flowers – 1/3
As seen from the outside, the shop might have seemed utterly innocent. A tea room hunkered on the inner slope of San Marino’s hill, sitting on the very crest of the rock tide; on the one side large dark table that looked onto the cobblestone road, on the other the astounding view of trees and…
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Patina – Chapter 108
Cramped inside, cramped outside. Sadja reached for the larger pen, tracing down the last few letters on the sign in thick black lines. Her hand was steady, but painting signs while sitting on her knees for hours on end was starting to get to her. “Is this correct?” She asked the old smith-woman who had…
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Patina – Chapter 107
Valeriana, current Augur of Dorsoduro, never liked it when a communal meeting was scheduled. It was always for the worse reasons, and there were at least two she could count. The threads she sent onto possible futures all buzzing into a bad situation for all of them. The first reason was the most cruel winter…
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Patina – Chapter 106
As snow piled up, so did changes. For the next few days, the Hunter’s hut was home to a flurry of activity, most of which was spent in silence. It was as if everyone had their own thoughts and worries to exorcise. The moth-people’s chattering died to a few murmurs as the helped clean out…
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Patina – Chapter 105
As Winter swung its white veils all over the plains, rolling down from the Old Country and onto the remains of the world of men, the floating city of Venexia traced its route back and forth between the ports of the Bittersea, collecting survivors from the direst Tide in recent memory. Desperate people hung onto…
A. Montresor 