Tag: aerial legion
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Earthborn – Chapter 43: Sense of Sky
The dawn tiptoed silent as a thief. Pale sunlight spread through the thin layer of clouds, and sprinkled a faint glittery dust over the water of the sleeping bay. Mirna, awake since the first signs of light had crept over the horizon, was making her way towards Lily’s room, walking in that swift and deliberate…
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Earthborn – Chapter 42: Ashes
“I could find nothing solid,” said Keth later that afternoon. “Guards claim they saw nothing that warranted suspicion… Servants didn’t want to speak at first, in the end they repeated Evan’s words. I have confirmed the man with the box was indeed one of Venna Fariah’s servants. However no one has seen him in days.”…
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Earthborn – Chapter 39: Veiled Sight
Lily lay on her back suspended, as warm water of the hot spring held her safe in its gentle embrace. Above her, the last leaves had fallen from the branches, which now spread like dark veins against the white sky. “Make room! Here comes a big one!” Evan’s voice came from above. She rose with…
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Earthborn – Chapter 24: Ink in Water
The southern-wing courtyard gleamed in the morning light.Water in shallow bowls caught splinters of sky, and thyme shoots in Mirna’s garden pushed timidly through moist soil. Eirran and Lily stood by the low wall, leaning on opposite sides of the same stone slab.In his hands lay a wooden map etched with fine lines tracing wind…
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Earthborn – Chapter 23: The Weight of a Feather
Four days later, by accident, Mirna saw the feather. She had entered Lily’s room and found her asleep; a serene smile softened her face. The feather, too large and pearlescent to belong to a bird, trembled lightly as the night breeze passed over the soft down. She said nothing to Lily, but her throat tightened.…
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Questions, Theories, and Musings: An Open Thread for Readers
Hey everyone, Earthborn is my slow-burn, character-driven labor of love, whose characters lived and grew with me for the past fifteen years, along with the world of Astochia and Win’Tarra. I wrote it in my native language, never actually entertaining the idea of publishing. But then suddenly I found myself staring at my 170,000+ word…
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Earthborn — Chapter 22: The Laughter of Five Mouths
The first thing Lily saw when she opened her eyes next morning, lying on the nightstand, was a feather. White, pearlescent, as long as her arm from wrist to elbow, and marked with silver at the tip. Her breath caught. Ilari did not gift feathers. By law and custom, they burned them in golden urns,…
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Earthborn — Chapter 21: The Letters She Left
That evening Lily’s room was warm with firelight, but Eirran felt cold that settled deep in the hollow of his bones. They sat facing one another, the tennat board pushed aside. “What was my mother’s name?” she asked. “Noemi,” he said. The name scraped his mouth raw, but then settled like a stone at the…
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Earthborn — Chapter 20: The Word Father
It began one morning on the terrace that was as cold and white as the inside of a washed up seashell. On the matted path along the wall stood Lily; three steps away, on the shine, stood three Ilari boys and two girls. They laughed with that glass-bright chorus of voices. The tallest, with a…
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Earthborn — Chapter 19: The Knot and the Window
The morning air in the southern courtyard still carried the scent of turned earth and thyme. Eirran found them in a sunny niche where Jereh sat on a low bench, Evan beside him and Lily on the opposite doorstep. A long coil of rope lay in their hands. Both children watched Jereh’s fingers work slowly,…