Tag: epic-fantasy
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Earthborn – Chapter 32: Keeper of Sound
Lanterns hung low in the Sixth’ Palace inner courtyard. The breeze swayed them gently, their soft, trickery light casting trembling shadows upon the white stone. Lioran sat beneath the arcade surrounded by four of his peers, whose pristine feathers rasped against silken lliaths like a mockery. “They say he’s been seen more than once,” murmured…
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Earthborn – Chapter 27: The Fall
Pre-chapter author’s note: This chapter is one of the pivotal turning points of the story. It contains violence against a child and scenes of systemic injustice. Please proceed with care. My intent is not to shock, but to be honest about this world. Here is where I fully lean into the use of fantasy genre…
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Earthborn – Chapter 25: The Girl Who Does Not Exist
The official apology lay on the massive oak table like a scratch no polish could erase. Vareth V’Lorath stood by the window of his study, eyes on the city he helped shape with ink and quill. It was the only weapon left to him. Centuries ago, the sword had been taken from the Temple, and…
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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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From the Archives – original introduction of Noemi
This is a piece of Earthborn’s history, recovered from a long-corrupted file. It’s the very first time I introduced Noemi, and the world looked so different back then. Eirran was especially different. He doesn’t appear in this chapter (which is exactly why I chose to share it first), but the version of him who existed…
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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…