Dark Fantasy
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The Unenhanced Path
What traditions have you not kept that your parents had? The crystalline notification chimed softly against the window of my modest workshop, its harmonic frequency calibrated to penetrate even the deepest concentration. I lifted my eyes from the delicate clockwork mechanism I’d been repairing—a purely mechanical timepiece from the outer territories, the kind that operated Continue reading
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Wind and Cargo
Was today typical? Gareth Cloudwright’s callused hands trembled as he signed off on the manifest for the seventh wind-ship in four hours, the parchment growing damp with perspiration that had nothing to do with Aethermoor’s perpetually temperate climate. The crystalline loading dock beneath his feet hummed with the constant vibration of cargo lifts rising and Continue reading
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The Shapeshifters Tale
How would you describe yourself to someone? Your question settles in the air between us like morning mist, deceptively simple yet impossibly complex. How would I describe myself to someone? The inquiry that sends most souls reaching for familiar anchors—their name, their profession, their birthplace—becomes a labyrinth for one such as me. I pause, watching Continue reading
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The Dragon’s Lament
The ancient cavern breathed with the rhythm of sleeping stone, its crystalline walls catching and reflecting the amber glow that emanated from Seraphina’s weathered scales. She arranged herself with the careful grace of one whose joints had witnessed three centuries of mountain storms, her massive form creating a protective crescent around the clutch of hatchlings Continue reading
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The Dreamer’s Choice
The iridescent scales on the parchment seemed to pulse with their own inner light as Rosalina traced her fingertips across the dragon-marked certificate, hardly daring to believe what lay before her on the worn wooden table of her cramped apartment. Two passages aboard the legendary Skyward Express—the premier dragon flight service that connected realms most Continue reading
Chadwick Rye 