The Mephit's Tales

Karim eyed his sample jar with some rue.

There was a very light sheen to it – the faintest of glows, too dim to show as such in anything but deep darkness – but that was part of the preservative enchantment on the glass. Its contents were thick, opaque, and off-white.

“Aren’t you going to use it?” a voiced hissed in the great emptiness behind him. “After you went to such lengths to acquire it…”

“Having you watching me is not making this easier,” Karim shot back, anxiety putting an edge on his tone. He swallowed; this was not a being he wanted to offend, even if that being seemed to regard the whole business as wonderfully amusing.

(more…)

Eric dropped down to the dirt and took a breath of fresh air.

“Here we are,” the bobcat said, turning toward the back of the truck. “Off the grid for five days.”

“You sound way too happy when you say that,” Will teased from the other side of the truck. “Sure, it’s a pretty place and all that, but did you have to pick somewhere this isolated for our little weekend getaway? You saw that road, my poor truck barely made it up the road!”

“Yes, I did.” Eric grinned as he started undoing the cargo net. “I know you, man. If I’d picked somewhere closer – say, somewhere with electricity – you’d have been plugged in all weekend and we might as well not have bothered!”

(more…)

Darius was expecting a quiet day. Reach one city, drop off his packages, receive some new ones, move on – in all the time he’d been a courier, that was how his days had gone. Sometimes he stayed there for only a short time, sometimes longer, sometimes he spent the night; it all depended on how tired his beast was, and how far he could expect to get before nightfall. At the moment, he was looking forward to a warm meal, a cold drink, and a soft bed once he arrived at Gervin’s Vale.

His plans did not include the whiff of an arrow past Jadetalon’s wing, but this, in fact, happened.

(more…)

Snow was falling as she stepped out into the gardens. Already in covered the ground in a thick blanket of white, and still more fat flakes were drifting down, sparkling in the light of the lanterns.

She left her retainers at the door, striding slowly along the paths. The cobblestone mosaics were hidden under the snow, and the sweeping hem of her robe didn’t move nearly enough to make those patterns visible again; still, she had walked these paths more times than she could count, and in snow or summer, under sun or moon or stars, she could always find her way.

Beyond the stone walls, the city never slept. Here, though, all was tranquil and still. Not even birds disturbed the perfect silence of the night.

(more…)