Posts updated Aug 5, 2025!
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2025-08-05 15:50:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Bea had only ever heard his name because her mother sometimes whispered it in her sleep. Sometimes crying. Always tender. A secret kept, because it was a conversation too big for Bea to have.
Sigurd.
When Bea realized it was her father’s name, she kept it like a secret too. It was a name she wasn’t supposed to know, for a m...
2025-08-05 15:48:30 +0000 UTC View PostBea and Ciel landed hard, skidding across the ground before coming to a stop. Even wrapped in her mother’s arms, it hurt—like her entire body had been rattled straight through to her bones. But Bea wasn’t worried about herself.
She wasn’t the one who’d taken the full force of the fall.
“Mama!” Bea called out. Ciel...
2025-08-03 15:57:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe forest floor gave way to mossy cobblestone, just as Ciel remembered. This time, however, there were no guards at the base of the bell tower.
Her daughter was waiting for her. Ciel felt her heart pounding, but she didn’t slow. She only went faster. Bea was just at the top. Waiting. Hoping. Afraid.
She pushed the door...
2025-07-31 14:35:32 +0000 UTC View PostEven as a child, Gerhardt neither revered his lineage nor respected his kin. He saw what they were clearly.
The Blancs were degenerates. Theirs was a bloodline that had been rotting for decades, and the silver-haired murals of their ancestors that adorned their palace walls looked nothing like the family he knew.
His father Hil...
2025-07-29 20:41:34 +0000 UTC View PostSorry they're going up a little later than usual!
2025-07-29 15:44:53 +0000 UTC View PostA few scattered mercenaries watched their contest. Those who’d tried to step in before had bled without fail. It was as if they were testing the worthiness of their master, judging how Gerhardt fared against his ultimate foe.
Gerhardt swung hard, his holy aura surging wild and erratic, his sweat gleaming as it dripped down his face...
2025-07-27 13:47:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe lights went out. The entire amphitheater went dark. A chorus of shrieking sylphs rose over the already howling winds. Then the mercenaries started shouting too.
Blinded by what they mistook for divine judgment, the mercenaries never noticed that the bolts destroying the lighting artifacts were fired from the upper reaches of the ...
2025-07-24 15:32:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a few minutes before the bell would ring.
Left alone at the bell tower, Bea knew she had to act fast. He’d left her outside, where all she could do was watch the city below.
She took just one short glance down at the amphitheater, peeking through her hands. She didn’t want to see her father suffering, but… 2025-07-22 13:58:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Over the years, Ciel still returned to her haven in the forest. She sat beside her friend on that hollow log, just as before, but always with half a foot between them. The empty stare she saw that day didn’t rupture their friendship. But it left a gap. It never widened, and never healed.
Rather than drift apart, they stayed in para...
2025-07-20 10:36:12 +0000 UTC View PostIt was over a decade ago when Ciel first met Puck.
Dawn in the forest behind the palace always felt cleansing; the damp air like linen steeped in honey, dripping softly over her wounds. Some days, that was only a figure of speech. But not that day.
Of course, Ciel didn’t have anything as lavish as honey or linen. She had old ...
2025-07-17 14:59:39 +0000 UTC View PostAiln and Camille had been diverted from the palace. And even if they reached it, they weren’t certain of what they would see, or if they’d even be able to help. Really, their mission hinged on being able to sneak through completely unseen.
That hadn’t happened.
They’d spent more time running than anything else. Ducking ...
2025-07-15 13:25:28 +0000 UTC View PostEven from within the northern tunnels of Amière, Kylian could hear the harsh winds outside. The relative silence within was eerie—punctuated by the occasional whistle through cracks in stone, low droning moans bleeding through in the distance.
"You truly remember these tunnels after all this time?" Kylian asked.
“Yes, I…” Ci...
2025-07-13 14:58:01 +0000 UTC View Post“I tell you, I hate coming down here,” Tarn muttered with a dry chuckle. “Feels like that so-called son of Gerhardt’s is gonna spring out of the dark and gut me.”
“You give credence to ghost tales now?” Alera said, arching a brow. “Unbelievable. Cutthroat mercenaries terrified of a little boy.”
“Easy for you to sa...
2025-07-10 13:16:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe Blancs’ Playground was just up ahead. But Ailn and Camille were pinned in a narrow alley of aging rowhouses, having just finished fending off a large patrol group that had caught them from behind.
“This is… getting pretty bad,” Ailn said. His breaths were heavy. “More of them are showing up.”
“Then we’re hem...
2025-07-08 15:05:10 +0000 UTC View PostIf Voltus had been emotionally unsettled by Gerhardt’s strike, he certainly didn’t show it.
Bea almost wouldn’t be able to tell that he’d been hit at all, if it weren’t for the splotches of blood on the handkerchief which Voltus had used to wipe his face.
In fact, no one in the room seemed to have been affected ...
2025-07-06 10:54:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe Blanc palace was in such ruins, it was hard to believe the family had only fallen seven years ago. What time alone couldn’t ravage, pillaging gave a helping hand, and disgruntled servants and commoners had inflicted no small amount of destruction for its own sake.
If there were a chief culprit in the palace’s rapid deteriorat...
2025-07-03 10:45:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe remnants of Amière’s mining operations could still be seen in the western crags and the mountain shoulder. Shanties cluttered the area, thrown up wherever there was room. The stench of cheap, rotting pine filled the air.
The Blancs’ desperation to find ever more veins had scarred the mountainside.
Tucked away int...
2025-07-01 17:20:48 +0000 UTC View Post