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The Piano
It was cold and dark in the auditorium. As Carlena pushed the doors open, she let in shafts of light that highlighted the motes of dust that hung and swirled in the air. Her mother and the owner, Hank, followed her in, silently, and settled themselves into the seats near the back. The auditorium was…
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Chores
Grax-Zar, the Midnight King, Slayer of Champions, Bane of the Sacred Fire, and Master of the Razor Spine Mountains, stalked down the corridors of his stronghold. Every step was like a hammer striking an anvil, sparks skittering across the stones and casting jittering shadows too brief and too faint for any observer to get a…
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Forgetting
Forty-seven years. Had it really been that long? Hunter glanced about from beneath his wide brimmed hat, his gray-white hair fanning out from beneath it, and scowled at the unfamiliar landscape. He use to know these hills like the back of his hand. That was why he’d chosen it, all those years ago, as the…
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Walk Away
It was early in the day and yet the heat from the sun was already growing intense. The shade from the trees along the narrow hiking path looked inviting, but as he stood there, Kelic could only think about what lay at the end of that trail. He’d come to this place many times before,…
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From the Sky
It was a well established fact that the gods rarely chose a champion to represent them, perhaps once every few generations, but when they did they made their decisions with great care and deliberation. Those favored few were tasked with representing whichever deity had selected them in some grand way, usually through conquest. The tasks…
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Favors Part 4
Something was wrong, terribly wrong, in fact, but Katrina couldn’t figure out what it was. She had such a difficult time concentrating on even the simplest of details these days. Fortunately she had the voice to take care of things for her until she got better. Still, there was always that part of her that…
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Development Part 4
It was quite late. Giulia’s back and knees complained painfully to her about the position she’d been sitting in for the past few hours but she didn’t dare move. It was dark in the lab and some of the lights were motion sensitive. She knew Marisol would know someone was still inside the lab if…
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Favors Part 3
The morning dawned and Katrina woke slowly, her mind foggy and resistant to consciousness. With her work being all online while the office building was being repaired she had failed to set herself an alarm and so she’d been sleeping later and later into the morning each day. Her movements were slow and deliberate as…
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Development Part 3
Giulia stood outside the door leading into her lab and yet she hesitated. She used hated leaving it, now she dreaded going in. What would she find in there today? With a deep breath, she readied herself to go in. Where once she had almost a dozen tanks holding various specimens in the center of…
