Sophia Harris
Stories
7
Chapters
2,628
Words
1.4 K
Comments
0
Reading
6 m
-
Kai removed the chair and the glass shards of broken vials from the door and windowsill. No one had come for him that night. Already jittery for the expedition, he had slept little and woken up with just darkness outside. Hallowed Intuition had stayed quiet since he had left that office, but the encounter with Annyl hung in his mind. He wouldn’t blindly trust a skill. The Fate Fulcrum and the spatial anomalies had both muffled the whispers. While those were unintended side effects, there must be…-
239 •
-
-
“No,” Kai said, letting her hand hang before him. Annyl halted mid-motion, one leg over the bench to sit. Her face scrunched in genuine puzzlement. “What do you mean?” Improvisation took hold of the interaction. He focused on a red fibrous vegetable in his stew, and shyly stirred with the spoon. “Uh… you asked if you could sit. I’m sorry, but I’d prefer to eat alone.” A sprinkle of brutal honesty against social norms, he didn’t even need to lie. Soft whispers brushed against his…
-
239 •
-
-
Fields of golden wheat, barley and rye extended for miles. Kai pressed his nose against the cold windowpane, he had heard Hawkfield was the breadbasket of the Republic, but it was different seeing it in person. The ears of wheat swayed like waves touched by the wind, the fields crossed by a network of shimmering canals and little houses with tiled roofs. They would need an army of farmers to plant and harvest everything by hand. Waking up at dawn to till, sow and tend the crops. The hours of mindless…
-
239 •
-
-
A thin drizzle fell from the cowl of clouds, the night was lit by dim crystal. Everyone was cold and miserable, patience was stitched together by the common desire to get away from the epicenter of the anomaly. The order of evacuation had come as they set foot back into the main camp. The emergency barges were bound to arrive When they left the Vastaire site, the spatial tears had given no sign of dying down, and the mana levels were still growing. No one was able to descend into the underground complex…
-
239 •
-
-
Kai swept his surroundings for any other mana signature: there were They all belonged to the same species—perhaps another quirk of the spatial anomalies. Low wiry bodies armored in black scales, horned heads and swishing tales. They were similar to the drakes he fought in Veeryd, though leaner and double the size. Their veins were a shade brighter than the boar, and the largest one was comparable to the terragon. The memory made him gag, he could faintly smell the remains of the battle wafting from…
-
239 •
-
-
The pink snout turned into a bristled muzzle with three pairs of tusks: a yellow boar the size of a minivan stood on stout legs. The iridescent bubble collapsed on itself, cutting a few hairs on its stubby tail. Anomalies shouldn’t appear outside the summoning chamber, yet they did. The consequences for breaking those enchantments were worse than he imagined. How did he not see it sooner? No one had witnessed the appearance of a beast and lived to tell the tale. The portal that brought the terragon…
-
239 •
-
-
Kai tapped his foot on the mossy floor waiting for the hourglass to empty. He had yet to decide whether he liked these spy subterfuges. Like any other kid on Earth, he had once fantasized about being a secret agent, but dreams rarely survived the encounter with reality. He was tired of sneaking under the nose of the Republic. And while racing to solve the spatial anomalies first was more exciting than keeping a low profile, it was still stifling. Like the muffling devices to have private conversations,…
-
239 •
-
-
The frenetic search following the beast attacks gave way to the preparations for the imminent excavation. Soldiers returned to their daily tasks while mana professionals argued over who would take the lead. It was odd to go back to the scholars after Kai had a divine revelation that shed light on the mystery. Should he drop subtle hints to lead them to the right conclusions? Or mislead them from the truth? Under no circumstances could anyone suspect he had struck a bargain with a god. He didn’t know…
-
239 •
-
-
The whispering presence was back, hovering at the edge of his consciousness. Vast. Overwhelming. Terrifying. His heart drummed in his chest, breath short. The words remained unchanged on the scroll. He wasn’t hallucinating, and the Guide expected an answer. The overbearing attitude snapped him out of his stupor. A prismatic filament extended from him to the air in the middle of the chamber where it vanished. Hallowed Intuition was silent, though the skill might not measure up if he was facing a god.…
-
239 •
-
-
Kai followed the ethereal whispers, he couldn’t tell how, but they were different from Hallowed Intuition. Indistinct voices called him forward. A vast ancestral presence at the edge of his consciousness reached out to him. He didn’t realize he had climbed down the ladder into the chamber till a figure barred his path. He stopped half a step short of crashing into a bright saffron robe. “Huh?” Kai looked up, jolted awake. The man had flaming red hair and a stiff upper lip. His enchanted robe did…
-
239 •
-
- Previous 1 … 7 8 9 … 263 Next
