Fantasy

The Ember and the Crown - Part 3
The wind howled through Arlavorn’s spire district like a beast in mourning, clawing at the bone-white towers and rattling the glasswork domes that crowned the palace rooftops. Dust lifted in swirling eddies across the marbled streets as if the city itself were trying to breathe out the corruption settling in its lungs.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
Dimmed Sunlight. Top Story - June 2025.
I keep her pictures in what Generation Alpha would see as a vintage box but I know it is from Old Navy; and holds that smells of old chapstick and age. Photos on all four sides of the box of memories on developed Polaroids slipped in. Lift the top and there she is, frozen at thirty-eight, laughing like a brass bell in a summer parade. In every shot her shoulders are square, spine fluid like a proud river, hands mid-air as though the punchline has just landed and she’s gifting the air back to the world. She looks at the camera the way sunflowers look at the sun with a guaranteed certainty that it will rise again.
By Cadma10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The air was heavy with silence as the survivors of the splintered expedition emerged from the mountain. Every step they took back to camp was a quiet tribute to the fallen—Sir Cedric Lightbringer, Zel Dorne, Fox-Eyes, Jorek, Evelyn… and the others. Some were carried. Others were only bags of belongings and broken gear, cradled in solemn arms.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The room fell silent again, save for the slow dripping of water and the fading whisper of the shadows retreating into the stone. The last spells flickered out around the exhausted united bands. Breaths were short, magic reserves gone.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The rusted spiral staircase groaned beneath the weight of the united group as they descended, torchlight flickering across the slick, fungus-lined walls of the flooded corridors below. The air was thick with moisture and the scent of rot. Sir Cedric Lightbringer led the way, his armor wet to the knees, Zel Dorne close at his side, silent and observant.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The campfire flickered low, casting long shadows across the worn faces of survivors and the wary eyes of the yet-untested. Tension hung in the air like morning mist before a storm. All had seen the devastation of pride. Few had seen a way forward—until now.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The stench of the slain ghast still lingered as the battered remnants of Group Seven climbed the short staircase, stepping out of bloodied water and into dry air once more. Before them stretched a long, torch-lit chamber—twenty feet wide, the far end swallowed by shadows. A door loomed at the northern wall beyond.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The echoing corridors of White Plume Mountain had already claimed lives and sanity. But now, Group Seven—a coalition of survivors, nobility, undead, and misfits—pressed forward down the west corridor, wary but resolved.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The foul cavern stank of sulfur and scorched hope as Lira Valesong crouched at the ledge's edge, staring out over the bubbling mud pit. The air shimmered with heat. Chains groaned in rhythm above the boiling abyss.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
RAVEN'S GAMBIT. Content Warning.
The weight of silence hung heavily in the air. One of the twelve groups was still unaccounted for. No tracks. No signs. No bodies.
By W.S. Klass10 months ago in Chapters
The Ember and the Crown - Part 2
Rain slashed against the lacquered eaves of the Roseward Gate as the trio passed beneath its snarling gryphon sigils, the storm offering no kindness for returning exiles or outlawed mages. Drevril’s capital, Arlavorn, breathed with veiled menace. Market stalls remained shuttered, their canvas draped like corpses. Crimson banners snapped on parapets above, but beneath them, the scent of burning ink and alchemical ash stained the wind. Something sacred had been disturbed.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
The Ember and the Crown - Part 1
The summons arrived with the quiet weight of a blade unsheathed in darkness. Wrapped in scarlet vellum and sealed with the sun-crowned crest of Drevril, the parchment exuded an unnatural warmth, like paper left too close to flame. The sigil binding it glimmered faintly with threads of memory-ink, a craftwork so precise that even Elira, standing several feet away in the shadowed inn loft, could feel the thrum of imitation power.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters