This evening, he will not worry about it (650-word fiction)

Folastar has been keeping an eye on locations that might work for the school he dreams of. There are plenty of derelict and disused buildings in his home town and other impoverished areas under the domain of Meithsal authorities. But he has always seen, at a glance, just how many of these buildings are beyond…

Neighbours and friends lined up to congratulate him (1,400-word fiction)

Folastar smiles as he soars above Meithsal and heads towards its hinterlands, his heart lifting, as it always does when he is on his way home. He has adjusted to the jagged skyline and the dizzying spires – the peaks of which he can barely see when he looks up – and the aerial ships…

The Ballroom Project, Chapter Two (3,600-word fiction)

Alilah must reach her brother. She must. She can’t quite see him – it seems to her that he is standing at the other side of a vast, unfamiliar hallway, his silhouette barely visible – and she is running to reach him, yet the faster she moves, the further he slips from her view. She…

She wishes she could send some comfort his way (1,300-word fiction)

A continuation of my Ballroom Project saga! The part of the story that occurs right before this scene can be read here. When Surtha arrives, he is ordered to sit before his father and the rest of the family. Orvec is seated to his right, with his bride Beneth alongside him and her family, the…

He acknowledges her with the briefest of nods (880-word fiction)

Albalia’s sharp gaze takes in Alilah’s dress and cape – Alilah sees her checking that the ancestral gems are correctly arranged – then she nods and turns away. “Come. Eat, and we shall then prepare the grounds. I will go to the kitchens first, I must consult the chefs…” Downstairs, Eitrem is seated at the…

She has not inherited the striking beauty of her mother (1,000-word fiction)

She is considered pretty, charming, and in possession of the pleasing manners that any noble young woman of Orsthai is expected to have. Yet she has not inherited the striking beauty of her mother and her mother’s kin. Her presence shall never be as commanding, her force of will shall never be as strong, and she has always known that Albalia resents this.

The Ballroom Project, Chapter One (1,900-word fiction)

It is no bad thing, Guenneth believes, that she is now regarded as too dowdy and dull for most men of high standing or wealth to acknowledge. In her younger days, she was sometimes pursued by the wealthy sons of those who visited or worked with her employers, but she found herself becoming more and…

Your mother saved me (540-word fiction)

The poor child is only sixteen years old. Guenneth can well remember what it was to be that age: how a romance can light up your every waking moment and make you believe, somehow, that even as a downtrodden peroi girl, your life might be blessed with some measure of joy.

You will never be a part of that life (530-word fiction)

Obscured from view behind a pillar, she wasn’t seen by either of them, but she decided to confront Josliehn later that day, when they were alone in the kitchens. Josliehn furiously denied that anything untoward was happening; claimed she had simply gone into Orvec’s chambers to clean; offered up a series of such laughably obvious…

From an early age, he was shown all that he stands to inherit (550-word fiction)

Orvec Pallias is the first-born child of Eitrem, Orsthai’s wealthiest merchant, and Albalia, high priestess of the Orsthis: one of the two religious sects that dominate the continent of Aarai, as well as boasting sizeable overseas empires. The rival sect, the Meithsis, largely consider themselves to be the older, more traditional and therefore more valid…