The air reeked of burnt oak and iron as Kael stumbled through the village square, his boots crunching over shattered pottery. Smoke coiled in jagged tendrils from the charred remains of the central lantern, its oil-fed flame guttering like a…
The forest breathed in Lira’s presence, its ancient roots coiling like serpents beneath the moss-laden earth. She knelt at the base of the elderwood, fingers brushing the gnarled bark until it hummed beneath her touch—a sound like wind through hollow…
## The Tide-Bound The salt stung Elara’s lips as she hauled another net, her muscles burning with a familiar ache. Turquoise waves slapped against the hull of *The Wanderer*, their rhythm steady, constant – a deceptive calm. She squinted at…
## The Weaver’s Disappearance The wind tasted like ash and regret. Fifteen autumns I’d spent in the Gloom Consistence, a damp chill clinging to my bones like stubborn moss. My hands, rough and calloused, scooped spectral detritus from the circular…
## The Husk Cities The air tasted like wet iron and blooming rot. Old Man Tiber, they called him, though he couldn’t be more than sixty, the marsh leeched years. He adjusted the oilskin cowl tighter around his face as…
The rain tasted like metal and salt, slick on Elisse’s skin. It hammered against the corrugated iron roofs of Ossa Bay’s marketplace, a rhythmic percussion that blended with the creak of wooden carts and the guttural calls of merchants hawking…