Shiny Things for Horrible People
The smell of blood was everywhere.
It clung to the grass. Hung in the air. Painted his tongue.
Alistair’s fangs throbbed.
The hunger crept in slow, insidious. Not a gnawing pain, but a pull. A tightening in his spine. A whisper in his skull.
“So, That Escalated Quickly”
Alistair’s body jerked forward as the paralysis lifted.
Status Effect: Immobilized – Cleared
Trial One – Active
Objective: Acquire 1 Medallion
As the spell of immobility lifted, Alistair felt a rush of relief. His m...
2025-05-10 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
The world seemed to hold its breath.
Eliza’s words hung in the air, unfinished yet heavy enough to crush the space between them. Thorne felt a sharp pulse in his chest, a mixture of dread and disbelief.
Darius.
Jonah’s hands slowly slipped from his hair, his grief momentarily overridden by confusio...
2025-05-09 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The room of the city’s key reeked of sweat, spilled wine, and victory. The air was thick with the aftermath of the battle. Celebration and indulgence twined together in a haze of noise and flickering torchlight.
Thorne sat stiffly in a high-backed chair near the heart of the revelry; an untouched goblet of wine balanced precarious...
2025-05-08 18:55:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The battle below was a storm of steel and blood, yet the tide had shifted irreversibly. Thorne could see it now. No, feel it in the chaotic pulse of the battlefield. The once-indomitable Lockridge line had fractured beyond repair. The northern gate was lost, its defenders scattering like leaves in a gale. What had begun as a disciplined d...
2025-05-07 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne’s glowing eyes fixed on the northern gate, his face impassive though his heart thudded painfully in his chest. The battle had raged with such ferocity that even from this distance, the chaos seemed to pulse through his veins.
The barracks, once a symbol of Alvar’s steadfast city guard, were now overrun. Thornfield and Vir...
2025-05-06 19:27:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne stood beside Uncle in the towering command room, the two of them silhouetted against the wide-open windows overlooking the city.
From their vantage point, the northern gate was a vivid tableau of chaos, a desperate collision of forces illuminated by the flickering light of Alvar's burning rooftops. The green-and-gold of the T...
2025-05-05 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Everything was blurry.
Alistair blinked, but his vision stayed cloudy, smeared with color and motion. He heard voices. Laughter, whispers, chanting, but they sounded far away, like echoes through a tunnel. He tried to focus.
Then the sun h...
2025-05-04 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Alistair gasped as he came to, jerking upright like he'd surfaced from drowning.
For a moment, he just sat there, breathing hard.
No pain.
His chest wasn’t torn open. His fingers weren’t slick with blood. No hollow cavity where his heart used to be.
He touched his shirt, perfectly smooth.
No rip. No w...
2025-05-03 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
The room was a hive of barely contained tension. Uncle stood at the edge of the wide, open window, his thick fingers clasping the sill as he peered out over the city. The governing building, perched atop the tallest hill in Alvar, gave an unobstructed view of the chaos below. Smoke coiled into the evening sky from distant fires, and the d...
2025-05-02 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The governing building, once the pristine heart of Alvar's bureaucracy, had transformed into a bustling nexus of survival. The grand halls were crowded with Thornfield soldiers resting on benches or sprawled on the marble floors, their armor dented and bloodied. Makeshift stations had been set up along the walls, where medics tended to th...
2025-05-01 17:00:28 +0000 UTC View Post
The square was a storm of chaos and death.
The cries of the wounded, the relentless clash of metal, and the guttural roars of soldiers locked in combat swirled into a deafening cacophony. Bodies moved like waves in a boiling sea, black-clad Ravencourts clashing with Thornfield greens, their struggle painting the cobblestones with bl...
2025-04-30 17:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne’s gaze settled on Arletta, her clipboard held loosely in her hand, a shadow of fatigue crossing her usually composed face.
“He’s waiting for me?” Thorne asked, his voice sharper than he intended.
The woman nodded, her grip tightening on the clipboard in her hands. “Yes. He left earlier for the governing buildi...
2025-04-29 18:47:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne perched on the rooftop, his glowing eyes fixed on the chaos below. The sun dipped low on the horizon, casting the city in hues of orange and red. Smoke curled up from the Braddock estate, blending with the fading light as if the building itself bled into the evening sky.
He didn’t move, didn’t flinch, as the scene unfolde...
2025-04-28 17:00:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Alistair lounged in the armchair, doing his best impression of a man who hadn’t just signed his soul away.
Across from him sat the Blood Mistress.
She didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
Just watched.
The crimson motes drifting behind her pulsed faintly, swirling into strange, broken shapes, wings, crowns, claws, all m...
2025-04-26 21:39:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne’s mind raced as he watched the battle unfold below. The Ravencourt soldiers pressed their advantage, black and silver uniforms clashing violently with the crimson and gold of the Braddock guards. The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid scent of smoke, but despite their ferocity, the Ravencourts hadn’t ye...
2025-04-25 17:00:27 +0000 UTC View Post
The crow.
The symbol at the bottom of the parchment was unmistakable, its crude lines etched with precision that somehow radiated malice. The faint glow of aether surrounding it made his skin crawl, the energy resonating with something powerful and unnerving.
His mind flashed back to the crow painted in purple on the wall earl...
2025-04-24 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The room darkened as Thorne melded into the shadows, his body vanishing from sight as if he were never there. He shifted slightly, repositioning himself against the wall, but the limited shadows left him with fewer options than he liked.
The woman’s narrowed eyes swept the room, her grip on her curved swords tightening as she move...
2025-04-23 17:00:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne leapt from the edge of a crumbling rooftop, his coat flaring behind him as he grabbed hold of a taut clothesline stretched between the buildings. His gloved hands gripped the line tightly as he zipped across the gap, the faint creak of the wire lost beneath the muffled sounds of the distant city.
Uncle’s words still echoed ...
2025-04-22 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Uncle’s thoughtful expression lingered as the silence stretched on, heavy and oppressive. He stood unmoving for a long moment, his piercing gaze fixed somewhere in the distance as though lost in his own calculations. Finally, with a deliberate motion, he went around the desk and lowered himself into his chair.
Reaching into the fo...
2025-04-21 17:08:49 +0000 UTC View Post
The room shifted.
One second it was just the three of them, Alistair, his father, and Fergus. And the next, the shadows peeled open like wet paper.
A figure stepped out.
Cloaked in crimson from head to toe, she moved like fog. Even her hands were covered, gloved in the same blood-red fabric. No visible weapons. No smell....
2025-04-19 22:31:40 +0000 UTC View Post
The heavy door clicked shut behind the last of the guild leaders, sealing the room in a tense, suffocating quiet. Uncle stood motionless by the desk, his fingers tapping the edge with a deliberate rhythm, like a ticking clock counting down to an inevitable explosion.
Thorne didn’t rush to speak. Instead, he straightened his postur...
2025-04-18 17:00:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne walked alongside Arletta, his steps measured as they passed through the dimly lit halls of Uncle’s mansion. The faint echoes of distant activity reached his ears, guards patrolling, murmured voices from other rooms, but here, near the heart of the estate, everything felt unnaturally still.
“How is he?” Thorne asked, his...
2025-04-17 17:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne crouched at the edge of the rooftop, his glowing eyes reflecting the orange flames consuming what remained of the Thornfield estate. The mansion, once an imposing symbol of wealth and power, now lay in ruins.
The columns that had once stood proudly now splintered and crumbled inwards, crashing to the earth in clouds of dust a...
2025-04-16 17:00:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The noble quarter was a war zone.
What had once been the pristine heart of Alvar, its wide streets lined with stately mansions, manicured gardens, and glittering fountains was now a battlefield. Fires raged unchecked, thick black smoke curling into the sky as Ravencourt soldiers stormed through the quarter with ruthless efficiency.<...
2025-04-15 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne’s eyes snapped open, his senses screaming danger before his conscious mind caught up. The darkness of the attic pressed in around him, broken only by the faint light creeping through the window’s edges.
His ears picked up the sounds first, distant and horrible.
Swords clashing. Heavy impacts. Wood splintering.
Alistair stood alone on the rooftop.
Wind tugged at his hair, cold and sharp. His thoughts weren’t much clearer.
He’d just been told he was chosen. A champion. For the Blood Mistress, no less, a Goddess whispered about in fear, the kind you didn’t pray to unless you had no other options.
He’d never even said her ...
2025-04-12 19:51:58 +0000 UTC View Post
The remainder of the party was a test of Thorne’s patience, each passing moment tugging at his already frayed nerves. The events of the night weighed heavily on him, but the nobles around him were blissfully unaware.
Questions came at him from all sides, polite inquiries masked as veiled attempts to extract information, subtle jab...
2025-04-11 17:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostThorne stood frozen, his breaths shallow and uneven as his mind raced. The crow etched into his hand pulsed faintly, its light soft but steady, a reminder of the man’s parting words. A chill had settled deep into his bones, unshaken even by the warmth of his blood pounding through him.
Move, he told himself, but his body refused t...
2025-04-10 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Thorne’s focus had been so consumed by the oppressive aura of the mysterious man that he almost didn’t notice the shift beside him. The wrongness hit him like a delayed wave, sending a chill skittering down his spine.
Eliza had gone completely still.
He turned, his heightened senses on high alert, and froze. The sharp glin...
2025-04-09 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post