When the night had gone, I found my thoughts restless, stirred up from beneath by some cold and meandering current of unease. It was not as though the druids were celibate. Far from it, in fact—now and again I had stumbled across some pair of our hosts…or upon one memorable occasion, more than two—and […]
Though death had never been a stranger in my life, still it was strange to consider it a friend. Yet this was the enjoinder of the Book of Death, and it was on this that I meditated long after the day had ended and the Ix-akad had grown still. While there were halls and chambers […]
“Who is…Anat?” “My friend,” Hope said, as though I ought have known this. “We play together. Biddy says you were a Sister in the South.” “That’s…right.” Hope was watching me again, but I could no longer tell what was passing behind her young features. “Biddy Callend?” Hope nodded. “She says she saw you in Dawnfire […]
Rina and I had taken to rising early in hopes of making quicker progress. Each night I laid my head down to sleep with thoughts full of stories—told to us all by firelight, or in the dark by Eris to me alone. Each morning I wrestled with the druids’ philosophy, and a combat it surely […]
When I emerged from the depths of the Healing-Hall, I found its antechamber clean and empty, with crates stacked and bundles neatly piled upon each shelf. The men from Caer Lunan had retreated back out of the Hall, into the corridor that joined to the Ix-Akad and the Hall of Beasts. There, I found a […]
The front chambers of the Healing-Hall were laid out such that one could access any cure in Raven Lake without needing to go further. I passed through this empty storehouse at a sprint. Beyond, the room was less structured, more cavernous, laid out in the form of a dormitory. There were beds on the […]
“Eris-tae,” Rina said brightly, looking up. “Tollel iv, sit and join us.” The strange sense of calling intensified when Eris stepped onto our section of rush matting, like a dream only half remembered. I struggled to marshal my thoughts for a welcome as she dropped to one knee and then the other, very close to […]
The Kuura-akad was tranquil again. Nash, Sedec, and the other druids of Starfurrow had departed with their rations and reinforcements, off to brave the long journey and the frozen Runing. The milling flock of restless Hunters was gone, replaced by quiet activity among those who remained. Even my arrival with Rina did not incur much […]
The Hall of Whispers was small by the standards of Raven Lake. Its stone ceiling was low, and there were no grand structures herein; only low-slung curbs of wood that demarcated regular spaces throughout the chamber. Here, far from the fires of the Ix-akad, the air was cooler, and rush mats served to cushion not […]
Life as a novice in the Abbey of Saint Isaac had obliged me to conform myself to the rhythm of each day. I was required to be present for morning prayer and vespers, to attend to chores, and to stand vigil through the night when it was asked of me. In the early weeks before […]
BLANK SLATE 