In the hearth, a little flame danced with a playful, cheerful spirit. Like a red-haired, mischievous boy, it tossed itself around in complex leaps, cracking the dry wood as it moved. With each bow, it tipped an invisible hat, tossing its orange mane of sparks across the hearth, and with the toe of an unseen boot, sent blackened ashes falling to the ground. And in a strange, mesmerizing way, flecks of snow would sometimes rise around it, only to settle back down again as a crisp carpet of ashe...
2025-01-18 18:50:00 +0000 UTC
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The train shuddered to a halt.
“Delpas Station,” announced the conductor as he briefly peeked into the carriage.
Ardan snapped awake and realized that, for the past few hours, he’d been leaning his head against the window frame, leaving a vivid, crimson line across his forehead that was now mirrored on the dark glass.
“Excuse me,” Ardi muttered as he squeezed past the legs of his seatmate. Standing between the rows, he stretched, each bone cracking after hours of n...
2025-01-18 18:49:00 +0000 UTC
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At times, Ardi would drift into wakefulness. It would seem that he was riding on the bench of a truck, which rolled lazily over the cobblestones, causing him to bounce up every now and again. To his left and right sat Cloaks, holding him steady so he wouldn’t tumble to the floor. On another bench at the front of the vehicle, more agents from the Second Chancery were traveling with him.
Or perhaps it was all just a dream. In any case, when he finally managed to open his eyes fully and ...
2025-01-18 18:48:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardan was slowly, painfully, coming back to his senses. His ears rang, and the world in front of him shimmered as if he were staring at a lake’s depths on a windy day. Worse yet, his nose caught a dreadful smell. Burnt flesh. Human flesh.
He jerked his head, barely stifling a groan of pain, and opened his eyes. Lying right on top of him, charred to the bone, with flaking bits of its scorched skin landing on his face, was a body burnt beyond recognition. Only the charred remnants of le...
2025-01-18 18:47:00 +0000 UTC
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Life after the incident on Baliero’s Fifth Street gradually slipped back into a familiar rhythm. It was a bit chaotic, as usual, thick and clinging like rubber, and yet somehow pleasant in its own way.
For the first few days, Ardan had worried that the guards, or worse, the Cloaks, would show up at “Bruce’s,” but everything had remained calm. After a week, he’d even stopped bolting upright whenever the colorful flashes from police cars had painted his windows at night.
A...
2025-01-18 18:46:00 +0000 UTC
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As the gunfire crackled in a relentless, blistering symphony, restoring his Star was proving... jarringly fragmented. Often, the energy would simply dissipate into the air.
“Faster!” Shouted Lisa, reloading the drum of her gun.
From the folds of her grimy dress, she pulled out a cluster of eight bullets bound in a “moon” shape. She shook out the spent casings and attempted to insert the fresh rounds. But at that moment, one of their foes knelt to steady his aim and fired h...
2025-01-18 18:45:01 +0000 UTC
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Elver, whose unimposing frame seemed even slighter beneath his worn clothes, was nervously smoking a cigarette by his car. The vehicle — a battered old Derks model that must have been repaired countless times — sported mismatched passenger doors, a dented front fender, and a crooked rear bumper. And yes, over the past month, Ardan had made an effort to learn the ins and outs of cars. This hulking machine, with its almost square cabin and exhaust pipe big enough to double as plumbing somew...
2025-01-18 18:44:00 +0000 UTC
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“Hello, my son.
I received your letters. I spent the whole night with them, and, if only for a short while, it felt like you were here again, as cheerful as ever, sometimes thoughtful, and always gentle. I breathed in their scent, and along with it, I felt as if I was breathing in your very presence.
We’re doing fine, my dear. We’ve settled in quite well! The house is entirely new — in some places, you can still catch the faint scent of fresh paint in...
2025-01-18 18:43:00 +0000 UTC
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Ardan strolled in a leisurely manner along the cobblestone street. A cold, drizzling rain fell from above. He had grown used to the sight of it through the window — those small, sharp droplets leaving long threads of tiny beads on the glass. But walking under them was a different matter entirely. He could feel them prickling his face, tickling his neck as they slid in from the brim of his hat, and squelching under his boots as he stepped into the puddles.
At this late hour, you could ...
2025-01-18 18:42:01 +0000 UTC
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Holding his second slip of paper with a list that contained about a dozen academic textbooks, Ardan stepped out of the greenhouse and headed toward the stairs. Behind him, the lecture was still ongoing, or rather, its practical part was.
After calculating the formula and a short break — during which the professor had made the reading list for Ardi — the other students had gone to the lab. Since Ardan had already prepared the antidote, Kovertsky, albeit reluctantly, had let him go. J...
2025-01-18 18:41:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardan couldn’t quite recall how the break had passed. He had buried himself in the reference book on the basic types of seals with such hunger that he’d understood almost nothing. Nor could he remember how he’d packed his things, left the lecture hall, and then found himself standing before the doors of the Seventh Wing. This used to be the dormitory of the Firstborn, but now it housed the Faculty of Biology and Alchemy.
One moment, he had been filling seven notebook pages with sm...
2025-01-18 18:40:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardan woke up to the familiar creak of a door hinge. Instinctively, he tried to sit up, only to hit his head on the low ceiling. Hissing like a forest cat, he rubbed his sore forehead. Blinking away the grogginess, he turned his gaze toward the narrow strip of glass that served as a window. He had chosen the top bunk despite its limited space because of this. Ardan had always woken with the sun and had never needed an alarm clock — not that he even owned one.
But, as always, Metropoli...
2025-01-18 18:39:01 +0000 UTC
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Still carrying his knapsack that lightly tapped against his back as he walked and the satchel that would awkwardly get caught on his staff, Ardan opened the door leading to the stairs and… Well, there was nothing particularly remarkable there. Just ordinary steps that alternated with wide landings and iron railings meant to protect those climbing from a sudden fall.
Ardi leaned over the railing and took in the scale. The stairs descended only twelve landings, and the floor of the firs...
2025-01-18 18:38:00 +0000 UTC
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Ardi approached the counter after waiting patiently for two mages ahead of him to finish their business. The first thing that caught his attention wasn’t the striking sorceress standing behind the cherrywood counter among her colleagues. Sure, her lush, nearly platinum hair and vivid green eyes drew attention, but what truly intrigued the young man was what lay behind her.
The employees stood in front of a series of long tubes. These tubes curved slightly, but not near the floor, rath...
2025-01-18 18:37:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardan adjusted the collar of his suit and glanced at himself in the mirror. Staring back at him was the same unfamiliar dandy dressed in expensive clothes, holding a staff in one hand and a small satchel in the other, with a backpack slung over his shoulder. Draped over his arm was the warm coat his mother had sewn for him.
He looked around, taking in the palace room that had served as his temporary shelter for a while, however brief that time may have been. Through the window, he could...
2025-01-18 18:36:00 +0000 UTC
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“Hello, Mother.
I’m writing to you from my temporary quarters in the Palace of the Kings of the Past. Sounds like the start of one of Grandfather’s stories, doesn’t it?
In truth, it’s much grander in reputation than it is in reality. The place is so small that I doubt our own pantry would fit here — and by ‘our,’ I mean the one we built together with Grandfather and Father when I was a boy. I miss them.
I miss you, too...
2025-01-18 18:35:01 +0000 UTC
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All sound in the hall ceased. The instruments of the musicians fell silent, and the rustling of gowns and the clatter of heels from the noble crowds moved like waves, parting away from the main entrance of the hall, which stood perpendicular to the podium with the thrones. They were massive thrones gilded with gold, upon whose high backs rested platinum phoenixes crowned with regal headpieces.
Amid a silence so deep that one could hear the breathing of those standing nearby, the chamber...
2025-01-18 18:34:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardi lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, where a small ice replica of Kaishas glided lazily through the air. It traced pirouettes around the ever-changing clouds, which at times transformed into the familiar peaks of the Alcade.
The stern, somewhat menacing cliffs hanging over the abyss, carpeted by the tops of firs and pines, now seemed so desirable. They represented a place where everything was clear and known.
Home...
A four-winged eagle soared among the peaks, o...
2025-01-18 18:33:00 +0000 UTC
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Ardan closed the book and, leaning back in his chair, rubbed his eyes. They were slightly tired from the light of the oil lamp, which sputtered on the table, casting dancing shadows across its green, felt-covered surface.
With Tatiana’s help, he had finally found his way to the mansion’s library.
It was a true labyrinth of knowledge, akin to a sanctuary where the past, present, and even possible futures intertwined in the harmonious rustle of turning pages. The library’s vas...
2025-01-18 18:32:01 +0000 UTC
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When she’d entered the room, she had expected to see someone far different from what her eyes actually beheld. By the bed, sitting right on the floor, wearing what were clearly old, worn-out clothes — complete with a cowboy scarf around his neck, a faded leather jacket, and tall boots — was a young man. He wasn’t quite a boy, but neither did he resemble a fully-grown man yet.
Despite his impressive height and broad shoulders, his amber eyes still sparkled with that naive, childl...
2025-01-18 18:31:00 +0000 UTC
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In the dim light of predawn, Ardan stirred from his slumber. The gentle swaying of the train and the rhythmic clatter of wheels on the rails had lulled him into a deep sleep. But now, a strange sensation, like trying to read ten different books at once, had roused him, urging him to lift the heavy veil of drowsiness from his mind.
The moment he did so, the sight beyond the window took his breath away.
On the horizon, the silhouettes of monumental structures came to life, ones that...
2025-01-18 18:30:01 +0000 UTC
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“And yet, we should have crushed that filth in
2025-01-18 18:29:01 +0000 UTC
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A small rock struck a barely-visible shimmer, which looked like something akin to a soap bubble, bounced aside, and fell to the ground.
Ardi, whose foot had just set off a flicker of a magical seal, nearly followed it, collapsing onto the dewy morning grass.
“Damn it, boy!” Yelled Yonatan, flipping a ten-kso coin to Katerina. “I’m starting to think that you win on purpose every time I bet against you!”
Ardan only offered a faint smile in return. He set his staff as...
2025-01-18 18:28:01 +0000 UTC
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There were no flashes of torches or the light cast by lamps in the darkness. To orc eyes, the light of the full moon was enough to see as clearly as if it were daytime.
And as for Ardan...
He could see the outlines of their unusual steeds, one and a half times the size of the ones the humans rode. He saw their reins and spurs, the glint of their fangs and the gleam of their guns and axe blades.
The hunter’s heart started beating faster. Somewhere on his chest, the symbol l...
2025-01-18 18:27:01 +0000 UTC
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The next few days passed in the familiar bustle of the caravan. After their night march, as Mart had called it — though he was reaching for the bottle less and less, perhaps because he was finally recovering from the stress of that long night with Cassara — the people had begun to calm down. They were already building their castles in the sky, dreaming of how they would profit from the materials harvested from the Wanderer.
They didn’t seem to care about the rain-soaked steppes or...
2025-01-18 18:26:13 +0000 UTC
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“Hello, Mother.
I’m writing to you from... Well, I suppose it’s silly to start a letter this way. But that’s how I’ll start it anyway.
I’m writing from Mart Borskov’s wagon. He’s a good man, even if he drinks a lot and talks even more. When it rains, he lets me wait out the storm under his roof.
When you used to tell me stories about the plains and steppes, Mother, I always compared them to Grandfather’s tales. How could the l...
2025-01-18 18:25:00 +0000 UTC
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When Ardi awoke, the first thing he did was check if the laces securing the “roof” to the frame of his tent had come loose. Of course, this contraption could hardly be called a “tent.” It was just a small piece of canvas stitched for him by his mother, tied between two poles, with a bottom part staked to the ground through holes cut in it for that purpose.
It wasn’t like those large tents meant to shelter several people that cowboys set up when they camped. But even then, they...
2025-01-18 18:24:01 +0000 UTC
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As Yonatan’s squad and the marshals drew closer together, Ardan became increasingly aware of how much his life had turned upside down. The strange horse walking beside him and the belongings of someone he had only recently conversed with, though not in the most pleasant of ways, served as a stark reminder of his new reality.
The sky overhead, obeying nature’s will as it reclaimed its power and dismissed the storm’s remnant that the Speaker had managed to find in the azure expanses...
2025-01-18 18:23:01 +0000 UTC
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Ardi patted the old bay horse on the neck, checked to make sure his bedroll was securely tied to the saddle, and tightened the laces of his cloak. In the prairies and steppes, the most important thing was not to rely on the warmth of the sun and to ensure that you always had dry and warm clothing ready in advance.
“They should’ve been here by now,” one of the members of the unit muttered nervously. Ardan hadn’t caught his name, and aside from his cross-eyed gaze, the man didn’...
2025-01-18 18:22:01 +0000 UTC
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The last stone settled atop the cairn, and Ardan stepped back, pressing his fist to his chest before touching the back of his hand to his forehead. Cassara, standing beside him, said nothing. The vampire rarely spoke. In the month they had lived together in the former Ranger’s house with Yonatan’s unit, Cassara had uttered only a handful of words.
Ardi reciprocated the silence. Not only did he have no desire to talk to anyone, but he also felt no need to. What need does a prisoner h...
2025-01-18 18:21:01 +0000 UTC
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