Christopher Robinson
Stories
7
Chapters
2,452
Words
578.5 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 d, 0 h
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The tavern noise scrambled all over me as soon as I opened the door. Some of my latest crewmates were already celebrating with tankards in hand, yelling my name when they saw me. They pounded on the bar and told the barkeep I was one of them tonight. He nodded; he knew what that meant. Captain Coe had a policy that the night after a long expedition he’d set up a tab at a tavern and all his crew could drink to their hearts content. It came out of the ship’s profits, and not his personal funds, so it was…-
71 •
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I’d laughed at my mum for not understanding something basic about stats in the world, but the truth was there was far more about the world we lived in than anyone could know. If you knew exactly who you wanted to be and how to get there, good for you. You have now beaten out 90% of the world – and that’s only because you wanted something basic anyway. The most common way to plot your growth was to talk with someone who’d done what you wanted and convince them to tell you what they’d gotten, how…
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71 •
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It was the early hours of the morning when we pulled into harbor at Pristav – one of the main ports of my home nation of Antarus. That was for the best, it gave everyone plenty of daylight to square things away before the crew flooded the nearby taverns. Pristav was one of several trade hubs on the circumference of the island nation and it took slow going to make sure we didn’t collide with other ships as we entered it. As soon as we’d moored, the harbormaster climbed the gangplank to speak with the…
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71 •
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“Full stop! Full stop!” Even as I and the other three oarsmen dragged our oars against our own momentum the speaker at the head of the boat shouted “Pans!” Paul – the cabin boy sitting in the middle of the boat – began banging on the pan between his legs like his life depended on it. The oarsmen gave the deck a few good stomps as well for good measure. Men began to breathe again as the monstrous fin rising off their starboard beam turned away from the racket. As it turned broadside the…
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71 •
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The world was on fire. It was a dry heat, but that was no consolation. His scar-tight skin puckered with each bloom from the horizon, as war was waged only a half league away…but the inferno had not started with the Hierocracy’s invasion. It had kindled among the Protectors Guild, spread through the Dust and Crafter’s Quarters, until it had consumed the Eyrie from within. Consumed him. He coughed, and it was like dredging hooks across his lungs. The flames of ambition had scourged him deeply,…-
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"Laur! Shields!" Vess cried. "Already forming!" She hurled herself from the ship's deck. The windward resisted her for only a moment before she passed it, then Vess shot into the driving torrent of the Tempest. "On the Wing!" Spectral wings formed across her back and flapped, pushing her aloft and scattering air Mana into a whirling shell around herself. It wasn't a warding, but it cleared the downpour from her eyes. Vess zipped forward, glaive thrust outward toward the shadowy horde. "Galebound…
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2.3 K •
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The storm raged around them, the Manaships cutting through it like a sharpened blade. Clouds spilled in their wake as lightning crashed across the bow, shaking them as the Manaships crested then rode down the trough of storm winds and towering cumulonimbus clouds. Thunder rolled so loudly it vibrated Pit's chest and made his beak ache. They banked left, their wind ward plowing a chunk out of another cloud. Foggy mist sprayed in their wake, diffused so immediately by the rain that it almost looked like…
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2.3 K •
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"Mana engines are clear!” “Sails and lines are set!" Vess stood on the prow of the ship just behind the regal tenku figurehead and just ahead of Pit himself. He'd shifted into his Dire Hound form so as not to crowd the deck—the other soldiers did a good enough job of that. Dozens of Legion, Dawnguard, and Chanters were on his ship, with their fair share of the Frost Giants as well. The rest were split among the other eight vessels as best they could manage. The ships might have been big, but there…
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2.3 K •
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Lights danced inside the doors as sigaldry ignited along the edges of the room beyond, illuminating a space four times as large as the cove outside. Its size made Pit feel small—a rare occurrence in recent days—and it echoed back the soft lappings of the sea so loudly that it was like another ocean lay within. It was bone dry, however, and perfectly spherical, save for the flat plane of the floor. Upon that floor, among the geometric markings of sigils and array lines, nine diases were set in a…
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2.3 K •
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It wasn’t the waiting, really, so much as the boredom. Pit had already counted all the tiles across the chamber twice, watched the storm out the windows, and stared aimlessly through the swirling Shadowgate. Even the mosaic at the back of the chamber—while beautiful and fascinating—could only hold his attention for so long. He'd already noted how few of the tenku looked like him. Most were different colors or had odd beak shapes and plumage. Only two had the same russet and black coloration as…
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