《Frays in the Weave》Prelude
Advertisement
Ken Leiter de Ghera, taleweaver and lord over a dominion only present in legends, grabbed the gunwale with both hands and gazed over the water. For a moment he paused the recounting of the tale he was telling. The audience would wait a few moments more.
He was going back home, even though he was less certain of where home was than he had been for more than five hundred years. Half a millennium, had it been that long? He smiled bitterly as he admitted it had been more, much more. There was a certain irony in how life played its jokes on people. He'd sailed here in search of his own and a tale had him frantically returning as fast as sailing vessels could bring him. He wiped a smile from his lips and turned.
Someone, somewhere, knew a legend from Earth, and that somewhere was close to Verd.
It was time to wrap up his tale. "And that was how a hero came to a hero's end, with a grand funeral where all his friends were present, knowing that friendship, if strong enough, surpasses death." He bowed deeply enough to almost fall over and rose on wobbly legs to the amusement of his onlookers. "Now, on your way children. You have parents waiting. Go on!"
Laughs and shrieks of joy and a few complaints aimed at coercing him into telling them another story followed him on his way to his cabin, and not a few envious stares from the adults as well. The fathers and mothers being too old to voice their want of a tale, but, he noted with a more genuine smile this time, not too old to let their faces show their want.
"That was a fitting description of the events, fitting for children, that is." An old woman with friendly eyes peering out from a face so wrinkled it was almost as if she was bearded sat in his way. She looked up at him as she spoke before shading her face from the sun with a leathery hand.
Advertisement
"They are but children, honoured old mother," Ken said, using the honorific he'd gotten used to the last two decades.
"They are, but why lie to them. Horrible times those were, filled with death."
Ken looked at her with growing interest. He hadn't said anything giving away the period of his tale, at least nothing the people this side of the ocean should know.
Ken drew a deep breath of salty air and studied her more closely. There was a strength hidden behind all that frailty. The hand she kept in her lap could have wielded a sword in an earlier life for all he knew.
"How so, honoured old mother? What about those times?"
She peered back at him. "Any time with a High Priestess of Cor is a long time ago, but with a queen present as well you tell tales from Dragonwrath."
Ken searched his memories for references. Twice only in Kordic history when the queen was not also High Priestess, and little was known about the times before World War, or Dragonwrath as some called it.
"I think you're right, honoured old mother. The tale was indeed from Dragonwrath. Still, why scare the children. It's such a beautiful day after all."
"Young man, in my days we weren't as sheltered as the young are now. They need to show some spine before they grow up as weaklings. Just look at those doting parents! Weaklings, all of them!" The friendliness was gone from the crone in an instant, and Ken silently wondered what he'd done to earn her hostility.
"That may be, honoured old mother. That may be, but I am only a teller of tales, and I need coins for a living, and those parents pay for my passage." He bowed to the woman and returned. He didn't want his cabin any longer, and it had been a long time since he had last been called a young man, and that, almost, made it worth being reminded of the great war.
Advertisement
She didn't know just how horrible those times had been, and by all gods holy, she knew nothing about his part in it, his and Neritan's. The revenge plotted, the traps laid and the awful miscalculation in the end. Neritan had saved him, but not before he had his mind read. Not before he helped his enemy to knowledge that should never have been allowed here.
Ken shivered. The memories were coming back fast now. Ten years of war, three years of peace and plotting and half a day of nuclear holocaust. Half a day to end more lives than the entire ten disgusting years before it. Half a day, and he had given away the knowledge needed.
He had to know where tales from a home he hadn't seen for over seven hundred came.
That need created another moral dilemma. Taleweavers observe. We never intervene. Not the way I did, but I wasn't one yet when I did. How could I have known? If only I had known!
Advertisement
The Czarina's Buccaneer
RELEASES EVERY MONDAY AT 18:30 CST ----- After suffering the torments of slavery, the destruction of his nation, and the massacre of his band of brothers, Rodion Kazansky craves revenge and yearns for the freedom owed to him as a proud Cossack. A lost horse and a chance meeting with the Catherine the Great set him off on a journey that will take him from the steppes of the Crimea to the beaches of the Gold Coast of Africa and back again. There he will face British slavers, pirates, and the ghosts of his past to become the bane of his enemies as the Czarina's Buccaneer. ----- DISCLAIMER: This novel acknowledges the fact that the Cossacks, and the Ukrainian people by extension, are unique and not simply a "different variety of Russians." The main character views the Russians as "moskal foreigners" and does not see himself as one. This also acknowledges the fact that the czarina deprived many of the Cossacks of their freedom, something that the main character resents.
8 134Rodentia Journeys
After being scarred by a dark lord, a mouse woman partakes on a quest to obtain three ancient and powerful artifacts. Whether reward or ruin lies at the end of the road, she cannot be certain, but either way, it's all the same to her, as she partakes on a journey of exploration, loss and experience points.
8 223Duality Dissonance
**Cover art is a concept. Professional artists commissioned for actual cover in Aug 2022.** Envy's inquisitive nature has him seek answers to explain the post-apocalyptic state of his world, leading him to join a group of other winged-warriors to hunt and exterminate the Yoi--a force that some believe to be the reason their world is struggling to survive.EV (Envy) befriends his companions as they travel but he soon adopts a different belief on what is threatening their world.His goal changes as he gains new understanding, placing him in opposition of former friends, because achieving his new goal means preventing those friends from achieving theirs.As EV's questions convert to answers he struggles in dealing with a new one: "If I can't stop them--can't change their minds...is killing them really my only option?" EV fights the battle he believes in, which decides the answer to his final question. Will that decision actually save their world, and if it does, will EV be able to reconcile the events and find piece in what little remains?
8 91Reality or Game
"A video game? An alternate dimension? An overly vivid dream?Just, where am I? Why am I here? I don't know, but it matters not. I can't stay stuck here forever." Another trapped in a fantasy/video game world story. Will it be buried along its peers as just another story or will it be remembered as a gem of its genre? The power lies in you to decide.
8 199Immortality With My MateAlice x Reader x Jasper
Y/n was turned into a vampire at the age of 17 in year 1918 by Carlisle. So she ran away never wanted to see after what he did to her. but when the time comes she begins to need his help. When she finally finds him she finds something more so someone(s) that she didn't expect there waiting for her.What did she find?Why do she needs Carlisle?Find out in Immortality with my mates#1 in twilight (3-26-21)#3 in jasperxreader (6-24-21)#3 in alicexreader (9-05-21)
8 157Snape X reader -a fine line-
It was (Y/N)'s sixth year at Hogwarts and she was more than exited to go because of her secret crush. While struggling with her mental health and cutting, she couldn't stop thinking about him: Long black cloak and onyx, cold eyes. Her crush was no one less than the head of Slytherin and potion master Severus Snape. What happens when she finally dares to kiss him and what happens when she suddenly gets captured by the Death Eaters. Will Severus Snape save her or let her die under the hands of the Dark Lord itself? (Beginning is a bit trash so i'm sorry for that!)-TW--Self harm-Smut-Unwanted touches (only in one chapter)
8 475