Xantalos

RYE - Recognition

- Reveal the stone to Isendral, and tell her everything you know about it.

- Give her the stone if she demands it.

In Puum’kynzid’s palm rested a smooth, round, pale stone of opaque off-white crystal. It was small and light, no bigger than the skink priest’s hand, and it narrowed slightly at one end, almost resembling a water droplet in shape. A dim, muted glow emanated from its surface, and Puum’kynzid’s scales hummed and itched where it rested, as if filled with static...

RYE - Echoes of Devotion

Northern Ship/Archives/Interstellar Overview/Ayacmanik/Mochantia

Isendral looked down at the stack of tablets in her hands. They were all exactly the same size, fashioned of black obsinite and embossed with eltharin letters in gold. They were packed densely upon the tablet’s surface, neat rows of tiny words arranged with robotic regularity. If she focused, Isendral could feel the psychic impressions from the lizardmen who had constructed the tablets – it had been a massive kroxigor,...

RYE - Lessons of the Past

Uax/Old Ones

When asked to tell what she knew of the Uax, a tired countenance came over Isendral’s face. ”I must admit, your people have already learned most things of import about them. Simplicity is the blessing and curse of the Orkead; they are what they are, and never shall they be anything more.”

We have observed this, Ulha’up said. Their selves are an illusion that masks the weapon within.

Isendral nodded. ”And a weapon they are - one that h...

American Gods - Alternate Ending

For reasons that'd take a while to explain, I wrote this a short time ago. I'm posting it publicly since it's not connected to any of my active projects - well, that and it's so-so. It's a sort of alternate ending to the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman, though I fall far short of the man in my own estimation. Anyway, enough pontification. There's two versions of the ending, and though they could be considered to be linked chronologically, I find I like the second one much more.

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RYE - Isendral Learns of Ulthuan

The Enemy/Asur of Ulthuan

The Fated Place, Long Ago

The ocean churned, its waters a vast and inscrutable thing. It had grown into new spaces as the land that had existed alongside it forever was split apart by foreign power, rushing into the continental divide with an all-consuming urgency. Now it lay silent, new currents churning in its depths for the first time. Living things flocked in their masses to the influx of territory, from the skimmers and scavengers up above to the...