fiction
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The Echo Chamber
If you could have something named after you, what would it be? The Echo Chamber The last mortal departed as twilight painted the ancient library in shades of amber and indigo. Their footsteps—like all human sounds—faded quickly, absorbed by row upon row of leather-bound knowledge and parchment memories. The great vaulted ceiling, designed to capture… Continue reading
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The Laughter of Growing Things
What makes you laugh? Eldara Thornroot settled into the ancient oak’s embrace, her weathered body finding the perfect hollow where root met earth. The morning ritual had become more challenging with each passing season—joints protesting what once had been effortless, bones creaking like wind-touched branches. Still, for nine decades she had greeted the dawn from… Continue reading
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The Five-Year-Old’s Compass
A cozy fantasy short story: traveling merchant Orlen Fairhaven sets out at dawn with his wagon of curios, guided by the dream he had at five years old. Continue reading
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The Unseen Equation
What’s something most people don’t understand? Nix Quickfingers hunched over the diminutive writing desk he’d salvaged from a human child’s dollhouse, his green-tinged fingers smudged with the crushed blackberry ink he’d brewed in an abandoned thimble. The flickering glow of a captured firefly—housed in a delicate glass vial suspended from the ceiling of his burrow—cast… Continue reading
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The Sentinel’s Evolution
How has technology changed your job? Sergeant Darius Thornwell leaned against the worn stone archway of the South Gate watchtower, his weathered hand resting on the crystalline orb affixed to his standard-issue belt. Thirty years patrolling the cobbled streets of Havensreach had etched lines into his face that matched the ancient cracks in the city… Continue reading
