HaltWrite

42: Ball (Part 5)

The night was a flurry of drinks, dances, and dresses to Mydea. Before long the midnight bells tolled and some of the stoneborn retired to their rooms—Prince Pelias most notable among them—thinning out the crowd. No one had yet managed to guess how she appeared to float above the floor, and some of the theories forwarded had become truly ridiculous.

“Perhaps it’s similar to the magic which keeps Aelisium afloat?” said one particularly inebriated woman with an uneven crow’s m...

01: Call to Adventure

Chapter 1: Call to Adventure

Hammer.

With a thought, Syrus’ skill activated, and the blows came down on his hundredth sword one after the other, a rhythmic beat for death and deeds to come. It was a song of his trials.

Hold, he ordered, and the sword ceased moving each time the hammer fell as the skill was reapplied for the third time that hour. Calloused from a year of hard labor as an Apprentice, his hands remained steady. Syrus ignored...

41: Ball (Part 4)

There was another stir in the crowd, smaller than Mydea’s entrance had caused, but still noticeable. Atop the grand staircase and beneath the brightly lit chandeliers was a woman dressed in a slither of flickering fabric that left so much unsaid. The woman lifted her hand, and shadowy tendrils caused the lights shining on her to dim—and it was only then that Mydea noticed. What had once been a solid stretch of black silk was now thinning and near translucent, as if only existing partly in...

40: Ball (Part 3)

The carriage carried only herself towards the Mirage—a two-storied palace painted in a vibrant blue hue, its silhouette gleaming from the light of the full moon. Were this a normal banquet, a woman of Mydea’s standing might have brought along their lady’s maid, but it would be an obvious clue during a masquerade. Those more discerning might even recognize her through Troia, unless she went to the trouble of masking her too.

Unlike when the Empress had held court some days prior, t...

39: Ball (Part 2)

The afternoon of the Empress’ masquerade found the Seraglio, normally vibrant with the chatter of ladies, suddenly silent of schemes. Even the lordlings courting the skyborn were sequestered away in their own rooms with an army of servants, armored themselves in silken weave and velvet gloves and all that which sparkled in the light. Charms and witchery were layered over each other, or imbued into every worn article, while glamours were employed to mold even one’s face and features.

38: Ball (Part 1)

Barely a day had passed before an imperial messenger—a black Everbloom cattle dog with a perfumed piece of parchment attached to his neck—delivered Mydea’s official invitation to the Empress’ masquerade ball. None of the tea parlor’s staff impeded the messenger’s coming and going, and it strode out into the city’s streets without fear. Deep in the seat of imperial power, it was a grave crime to obstruct the Empress’ orders in any way, and that included delaying those who carri...

33: Queue... (Part 4)

The Starlight Tower and the Imperial Court it jutted out from was no sprawling palace, and could be considered one of the smaller palaces in terms of size, though its spire dwarfed all others in height. While the Empress ruled from this place, she did not reside in it.

Raised during the Decade of the Dozen Consorts, the Starlight Tower was a relic from an era when emperors held but the title, while true power belonged to quarrelsome vassal kings and the feuding lords of the realm. Aelis...

32: Queue... (Part 3)

When the hystor had been seen to, Tomas set down his cup of tea. “Disappointment is etched into your face. No luck?”

“More than I feared, but less than I hoped for,” Mydea said. “I know what language it’s in, but I’m afraid my father may be the only living person alive who can read it.”

“You could always ask him,” Tomas said.

Mydea snorted as she joined him. After they had parted less than amiably over the very matter? “You don’t know him like I do.�...

37: Raid... (Part 4)

League upon league of snowy fields and rolling hills disappeared behind them over the next two days. Despite the looming threat the warbands posed, the soilborn remained to tend to the land, watching over hardy vegetables like spinach, collards, and leeks. Aspyr even spotted a kindly looking grandfather singing a song to the crops while children willed the snow into men with a crude application of magic.

Perhaps they simply do not know the danger has come early this time? Aspyr...

36: Raid... (Part 3)

As they camped at Jayderest, their numbers had swelled to over two hundred mounted mages across twenty lances. Nearly a quarter of their host was winged too, which was more than one might expect from a party of their size if not for the fact that they rode beneath the banner of House Kolchis. Raising pegasi was their lifeblood, the very act of which raised Noeh the Knowing into lordship in centuries past.

Perhaps more important than the strengthening of their host was Perdiccas’ succe...

35: Raid... (Part 2)

“Nomos has received the sacrifice, Lord Aspyr,” Hystor Theios declared, arms deep in the blood, bone and guts of a firstborn lamb.

Aspyr nodded in acknowledgment, putting pressure on his traveling mount with his thighs as the iron portcullis of Aigis was raised. His pegasus Steelwing followed obediently, spared from any burden to preserve his strength.

Lances of mounted mages rode out in neat columns behind him, each anywhere from a dozen sorcerers strong to a little over half...

34: Raid... (Part 1)

The second daybreak after Mydea’s departure found Aspyr in his glasshouse, the winds of winter and a slow, creeping hoarfrost warded off by the warming runes. His valet, Jorgan, was with him as usual, following in companionable silence while Aspyr flitted from row to row.

“This one’s still not holding water very well,” Aspyr noted. It was dry to his touch despite having been watered recently. He picked up the pot and set it aside.

“Shall I instruct the gardener to repot ...

31: Queue... (Part 2)

She could feel scorching gazes on her as they entered the Seraglio proper, but she paid the other girls no mind. After Prince Jaeson arrived, her meetings with Tomas would fade from their memory as the real prize strutted before them.

“Ah, Mister Tomas!” said a short-haired girl in green, purposefully putting her body in front of him. A red crab was stitched onto her chest, and Mydea guessed she was from a small house in Nysia judging from that and her brownish complexion. “I’ve...

30: Queue... (Part 1)

Even had Mydea not known that the Imperial City now floated within the Everbloom’s domain, the pleasant weather during winter was telling in and of itself. It was said that the magic which kept the region’s perpetual summer was a remnant of the rituals that doomed Old Ilyos in the end, though the House Eminent Morgraine vehemently denied it.

Thus, while Mydea’s family had to bear the bite of winter, she took Snowscorn to bask beneath the warm breath of summer. One of Aelisium’s ...

29: Mask... (part 2)

Boxed in by stone cloisters and passages, the garth Lady Lara had allowed Mydea to use was one of the better gardens in the Seraglio, known for its fine marble sculpting of Syla Stormsong and her harp. One could even make out the folds and wrinkles in her sleeveless tunic.

It was around this centerpiece that the tables were arranged in relation to. Unlike Princess Mirah’s peculiar choice of round tables, Mydea opted for more popular rectangular ones. The head table where she ...

28: Mask... (Part 1)

Mydea poured a measure of an Edenian literati’s powdered tongue over her father’s notebook, enough to translate a few lines at most. The greatest variations in using translation spells resulted from the spell reagent being of poor quality. Given Aelisium was within the Everbloom’s borders now, it wasn’t difficult to find a merchant selling the ingredient even though the dialect was more commonly spoken further south in the region.

With a whisper of words and a surge of will, she...

27: Of Our Own (Part 3)

It is better to settle with debtors than death, for one will always collect. Mydea sat with Tomas and Vivyan in one of the balconies of the Seraglio with a splendid view of the gardens below.

“Is there a form you favor?” Tomas asked Vivyan as he set up the six-sided board of Eminent Domain in the table between them. Only two of them would be playing, and so the long central axis was made of twelve tiles, decreasing by one as each row strayed further and stopping only when there were...

26: Of Our Own (Part 2)

When she stepped back into the crowd, she found herself besides Prince Cleo, dressed as he always was in his strange tunic. Did the man have no other clothes?

“So you befriend your enemy,” Cleo said. “How curious.”

“If we were friends, we would not need the gods to uphold our promises to each other,” Mydea said. “It is truce, nothing more.”

“Truce,” Cleo said, as if the very word was foul to his lips.

She raised a brow at him. “Do you not...

25: Of Our Own (Part 1)

The High Temple looked more like a sculpted mountain than stacked stones to Mydea. With a shy, new moon in the sky and Aelisium’s own luminance dimmed in deference to Ygeia’s holy night, there was little light to see where one block ended and the other began. The column of stoneborn snaked down the Street of Sacrifice, and bearing witness were the stars on silk and sky.

Whatever Lord Eminent Pleonexia’s current feelings for her house, Mydea had been invited to be part of his broth...

24: Archive... (Part 3)

Their ride stopped before the great glass dome of the Archive, and Tomas opened the door for them. The only entrance to that marble edifice was a pair of bronze doors with a dozen languages all saying the same thing—there is one evil: ignorance.

They were assaulted by grassy notes stained with something sharp, something that promised power. There was a hint of vanilla there too, mixing with the mustiness … it was unmistakable, that scent of old books brought beneath one roof, and an...

23: Archive... (Part 2)

Tomas’ carriage was an unassuming thing by the gates of the Seraglio, unmarked and directed by a plain-looking coachman dressed without spectacle. She’d asked it of him, but Mydea found her circumstances changed since she sent him word yesterday. There was no avoiding attention now after being seated with Princess Mirah and her duel with Miryam. All that was left was to turn this to her favor.

Adapt or perish—that was the law of court.

She looked right at the carriage for se...

22: Archive... (Part 1)

Her plans had not survived a single day of Aelisum, but one adjusted or was annihilated, and Mydea rather enjoyed being alive.

When she returned to her room after tea with Princess Mirah—which really felt more like dinner after one tried a little of everything—the first thing that stood out to her was Troia’s bandaged hand being tended to by the other maids. “What happened?” Mydea asked with furrowed brows.

“I burned myself while making some tea,” Troia said with a w...

21: Stands for Trouble (Part 3)

“He fostered with your father, didn’t he?” Pudgy Sara asked Miryam as she served herself another helping of cake. “What’s Prince Jaeson like? Is he handsome?” Lanna nodded demurely.

“Quite handsome,” Miryam said. “He’s a fan of the histories, and an avid player of eminent domain. Father says he’s a master of over five forms of the game.”

Ida said something similar, Mydea thought. Her gaze shifted to Vivyan.

“Is that so?” Vivyan asked with...