See Beautiful. Is she still herself? Elisa wonders this, now, in the back seat of her car. After Mr. Myriad’s ministrations, she found herself too exhausted to drive the streets of a city she didn’t know. Her own town is so, so much smaller. The difference between the two is like that between an infant and … Continue reading The Greatest Good
Tag: Short Fantasy
Beautiful
Elisa is nervous, because she has come to be changed. She isn’t nervous because she doesn’t want the change, but rather, because she has wanted to change so very much for so very, very long. She is also nervous because the room is full of people much richer than herself. She can tell by their … Continue reading Beautiful
In the Aerie
I have spent my whole life in the company of my mother’s kindred. Of all the life in the aerie, only the plants do not share her lineage. They are, instead, kindred of her brother Krrgotst, for base plants would not survive up here, pressed against the ceiling and eternally tousled by the winds that … Continue reading In the Aerie
Help
I have to help. It’s not just a drive within myself. It’s not something altruistic inside me that sees a person in danger and says, Hey, you really should intervene. I don’t like to listen to that voice. I don’t often hear that voice at all. What I get, instead, is a voice that said, … Continue reading Help
The Mask
His hands are driven by the fervor of obsession. It is the same unrelenting force that drives a drug addict to push the needle into his flesh and a gambler to hemorrhage her funds on the chance that he might, someday, see some benefit. It’s the same toxic pressure that forces an obsessive-compulsive to repeat … Continue reading The Mask
The Green Lady
There is a Lesser Entity in my garden, but I must not tell anyone, or the shaman will come along and banish her. She is very pretty. I don’t want her to go. She looks like a little lady made of leaves, with bright pink eyes the color of spring flowers. She likes to dance … Continue reading The Green Lady
The Cairn in the Woods
My grandmother had beautiful hair. It grew in full, thick, and luscious up until the day she passed away. In the daylight, it gleamed with its own solid radiance, pure white in contrast to the sun’s golden hue. At night, under the stars and the moon, it glimmered with coruscating points of light ranging from … Continue reading The Cairn in the Woods
Goodbye, Emarta
Emarta wrung her hands. She was nervous, and deservedly so, but Cyrène felt oddly calm. This still felt like her room, even if she knew it wasn’t anymore. She wondered if it ever had been, or if she should have felt like it was her mother’s space that she had just been permitted to live … Continue reading Goodbye, Emarta
What Was Lost
There was once a dragon who loved beautiful things. As a youngling, in his first years of life, he loved to collect stones. He liked smooth river stones the best, polished by years of water and sand, because he liked the way they shone in the light, especially when they were wet. He kept them … Continue reading What Was Lost
The Mountain Town
See Torna: Introduction for the first part of this story. We knew, from our debriefing, that the mission would be one of collection. Loyal servants of the Empress had written to the gendarmerie to complain that one of the town’s mine, a primary source of income for them and an important resource for the Final … Continue reading The Mountain Town
Daydreams 