Topic
Medieval
Fantasy and medieval Europe are so intertwined in the popular imagination that a story need only feel medieval sometimes to evoke the proper reactions to belong in the category.
Five Visits to the Smallest Closet in the Imperial Capital
One You aren't told much, only that His Imperial Highness is cold and to grab a spare blanket from the nearby closet. They neglect to tell you the closet door is paneled identically to the rest of the wall, practically invisible. You search for several minutes before finally…
The Tyrant's Statue Is Still Falling
The tyrant's statue is still falling. It has such a long way to go. There are miles from the uppermost clouds of the gas giant to its core. It will topple for quite a while. It felt almost as long as the struggle to remove the tyrant from power. We had had to hide low in the…
The Decision
It was midday when the witchfinder arrived at the cottage of the woman who lived on the edge of the woods. As he and his men approached, walking up the short path that split off from the winding road to the village, they found her sitting at a spinning wheel outside on the…
Deus X
You squirm on the altar, hands bound behind your back, lashed to a golden column topped by the Great One's fierce, fanged features. When your God arrives, His crimson wings beat like thunder, shaking the temple to its core. You gasp, braced for teeth and talons to sever meat…
Master Carver Builds A Debtors' Prison
Itzak paid very precise attention to Master Carver's instructions. He had apprenticed for the man long enough to know that his master demanded particular detail. For all Carver's love of anarchy, he still loved order and harmony within his own work. The apprentice knew all the…
Infinite Ripples In A Single Pool
Dragons are the most magical beings of all. Neither you nor the king consider what this means when you put a spear through the throat of the last dragon, and it chokes to death on its own hot fire and acid-tinged blood. In the last and therefore most perfect universe, you walk…
The Plowshare
O gather, youth of my master, and hear my tale. That's how these stories always start, as I recall from the bards. Yes, many a bard sang songs of me, for I was once the mightiest blade in the land. No, 'tis true! I look like a humble farming implement now, but I was forged into…
Onboarding Practices for the Ravaging Horde
Well met! In the following new employee rune book you will find everything you need to transition into your new role as a productive team-member of Grundar's Ravaging Horde. Welcome to your new and glorious purpose! While Grundar alone is destined to rule, the bloodstone diadem…
The Monsters Which Must Be Slain To Save The Kingdom And Set Things Right
The farmgirl creeps deep into the cave, so far below ground she must've passed into the nether worlds long ago. She doesn't turn back even when she can no longer see her fingers in the darkness in front of her or the pitchfork they're clenching. She doesn't tremble even when her…
A Thousand Bites. And One
A feast loomed on the sagging oak table, but Manda's mind was on her impending doom. Her mouth watered at the rising steam off the verdaki carcass, the aroma of fresh-baked pila fluff. Jewels of fresh kharma root beckoned, swift-melting mousses tempted, her childhood…
Talorian the Fair
Talia was ten and two when she sheared her hair with a kitchen knife, bound her budding breasts with rags until her ribs ached, and stuffed a sock in the crotch of her father's borrowed breeches. She was the same age when her father beat her bloody with a switch and told her she…
Old Age Wrestles Thor Again
Elli had been on every circuit, in various costumes. Always a heel. She was never above choking, taking people's eyes out, anything. She'd do it for free outside the ring if you were patient. She'd brought down most of the biggest faces there'd ever been, although a few…
Quoth The Dragon
"You have slaughtered my entire species, except for me," said the ancient dragon, leaning its head on taloned forelegs, "and now you've come to finish your genocide, and twist the tale for your so-called histories." "'I am the last of my kind,' quoth the glittering…
The Curse
Twelve was old enough, or should have been old enough, not to need a minder at every turn. But twelve was also the perfect age for shiny things, for putting your hand on what is there for no better reason than because you can, and they turned their backs on my cousin for (his…
Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Princess Inga made her way out of the keep and across the grounds. "Hey!" she called in a horribly informal manner. The woman who answered was privileged and used to such from the Princess. Sara was Inga's milk sister, after all, the queen having lacked the strength to nurse her…
Prophecy
"Is it you?" The voice was as dusty and aged as the tower falling to ruin around them, but in it, the Hero could hear the barest sliver of emotion, packed up years ago and locked away where it could do no harm. Hope. "It is." The Hero walked with careful measure to the dais…
Wayfarer
The elf's name was Sakorin and she had never met a human before. She asked if I would walk with her a little while, and I agreed. Together we traveled away from the rocky coast and through the marshlands, bridging our two worlds with stories of our childhoods. We became lovers…
Laurels and Gold
He got the throne. He was born two years earlier than me, it was natural. Even though he was born with a limp (some enemy wizard's curse gone awry on my mother), he was trained to wear the crown. Meanwhile, I was trained to be the spare. Meredith the additional. Meredith the…
Mercy
In the end, they did not shut the princess up alone. It had been discussed. But a few of the advisors of the king's court had seen prisoners dragged from cells after years of speaking to no one but their guards, if that. Prisoners who had not seen the sun. The princess was…
Becoming Invisible
I am invisible to everyone around me. I am not a magician, a mystical wood elf, nor a dragon in guise. I am the man that empties the latrines. I have been the palace's emptier of latrines for over five years. At first I wasn't invisible. Other young men would sit near me in the…
The Fallen Girl
Since her untimely birth in the Brothels of Lemorrah, she was mothered by many, daughter of none. The city spawned more children than the poor could afford. Boys were sent to work the streets; young girls to Lemorrah. She'd witnessed them be broken in for service. When it came…
The Sword
He makes a ritual of it, summoning the servants and the guards as he places a two-edged sword in the center of his bed before lifting her hand to his lips. "Until I return," he says, and she curtsies, saying nothing. He smiles, pulling down his helmet, not touching her, not…
Gralgash of Varn
The Warrior Beasts of Varn craft their armor from the hides of their defeated foes. When I first met Gralgash at the beginning of the Half Lands campaign he was already a veteran of fifty battles, his breastplate encrusted with the gemstone scales of Plath lizards, the…
A Seed in the Ground
I was the one who told Rhiz about the Folx bush. "It flowers in the spring, little pink blossoms that sit on thick, knobby branches," I said, placing the seed in Rhiz's hand and folding her fingers over it. "When you try and trim it, it just grows back stronger. Tearing one out…
The Dragon and the Lemon Tree
"The lemon tree is my favorite," confided the Bone Wyrm to Princess Meeka, though its great jaws did not move. Within the echo chamber of her mind, the Wyrmvoice boomed clarion-bright, and Meeka had to fight not to clap her hands over her ears. The closest yellow orb of three on…
An Invasion in Seven Courses
Amuse-bouche: Take one remote coastal castle. Add sea-raiders. Drain the blood of one king. (Arrows, cut throats, or beheadings are all acceptable--ask your butcher.) Send one princess into hiding, garnished with a daring midnight escape. Reserve one queen for later. Salad…
Old Mother
"Old Mother," said the teashop's owner, "Why do you still hunt? Your bank is bent under your blade, and you grow thinner by the season. Have you no children to ease your days, no grandchildren?" The teashop owner was not a young man himself. Life on the edge of the Kunlun meant…
An Open Letter to the Rulers of Erathon From Xagaz Widowbane, Eater-of-the-World, Arch-Hypnocrat, Despoiler Magnus, Empress of Weeping Skulls, Defender of Filth, Defenestrator General, and so forth
I'm not a bad woman, I just come from a long line of them. It's not unusual. Scratch the gilding from any royal family and you're bound to find a seething mess of rapists, traitors, and mass murderers. Your ancestors were the same--difference is, mine were better at it. But…
Forty-Seven Dictums of Warfare
Teo followed one of his men through the vast halls of the palace, past the defaced portraits of royals and the vacant pedestals from which vases and small trinkets had already been looted. Laughter and muffled screams could be heard from some of the rooms they passed; the…
The Secrets of the Universe
The god gave his keys to my brother, but I knew it was a mistake. Keys are a woman's domain. My first key belonged to my dowry chest. Mother gave it to me when I was but five years old, promising to help me fill it with everything I would need when I was grown and married. It is…
The Last Oracle
There was a saying among the oracles, when there were still oracles: Every vision is a choice. Through the window I can see the great capitol of Ethrehym burning in the valley. Warriors will be here soon, and whether they are ours or theirs, I no longer think it matters. I am…
What Memories Are Made Of
There was a footbridge on the road leading into the town, but its troll was small enough that Hans only had to sell a woodcarving memory to gain passage. Afterwards, he prodded at the blank space in his mind, like tonguing a missing tooth, even though he'd sold enough memories…
Caput Mortuum
The Master's voice trickles from the speaking tube. "Ren�n," he says, his voice an urgent orange but matte with kindness, "please come downstairs." Ren�n doesn't want to leave behind his canvas and his paint. But he's a good servant. He comes when he's called. Master is waiting…
Fool's Gold
James wondered what kind of idiot he had become. Here he was, mere feet from the entrance to a dragon's lair, and not just any dragon's lair, the dragon of all dragon's lair. They didn't call Cirole "terrible" because of a pleasant disposition. "I changed my mind." Fredrick…
The Cost
"My lady, I dislike this place." She smiled at me, not amused, and yet amused nonetheless, a tender smile no man had ever seen. "I know." She would not demand it of us, this obedience. Yet I was so used to following, it would seem odd to stay behind. And she would go; she had…
Mad Cats and Englishmen
"I was thinking it's maybe time we had a change of scenery. Maybe do things different around here." It was an idle comment, just the kind one might flick off between washing one ear and digging between his fore and third claws for a bit of sand somehow lodged there. But nothing…
Nameless
They stole my name when I was quite small, too young to understand the loss. For a time, no one even noticed. Such is the way of childhood, where I could be called the baby, or the girl, or the child, or handed to an aunt or uncle who needed no names to know how to feed and…
After
After he brought the Emperor back to life, they cut off his hands. "Now you can never use your gift for anyone else," the Emperor's most loyal advisor said. Blinded by pain, Sora barely heard him. The physicians continued their work, spreading salves over the wounds that made it…
The Age of Three Stars
Petros cowered, well hidden in the stinking alley. He could not, did not deserve to avert his gaze as three Watchers in the street wrenched a girl from the grasp of her weeping parents. Even then, her desperate father put a foot forward to stop them; but one burly Watcher drew…
The Steel Throne
The Empress Uvay dismissed the physician with a trembling wave of her hand. What could he do except tell her she would soon join the late Emperor in the halls of Paradise? Terrified of being charged with regicide, he would not even give her a concoction to ease her passing. No…
A Great Destiny
You tend to remember the face of a man you've sworn to kill. As Groshen hoisted a rundlet of wine into the wagon, he spotted the crimson-robed prophet strolling along the village's main road. Groshen had only met the prophet twice, but he recognized those copper-colored eyes…
Selecting
This was a small thing. In the midst of empires and grand armies and armadas it was something you could have easily overlooked if you weren't careful. I stood in the tower basement with the weapons arrayed around me. It was a gray afternoon like the one before it. The village…
Canvas
Silence is the canvas. That's what my sister always said, right before singing a broom to life to do the cleaning. When her baby cried, the broom always fell over. No more canvas, no more spell. My uncle chuckled and said that canvas was the canvas, right before he painted a…
Distant Dragon
Mei Ling sat beside the living room window and listened as the firecrackers echoed across the city. They had been going off for days, and she was sure by now that the dragon was getting as cranky as she was from being woken up so often by the loud pops and bangs. She was sure it…
Pippa's Smiles
Marcus hadn't thought marriage would be like this after three months. He had expected to love Pippa, but he hadn't thought she would love him so much, that she would follow him from counter to till in his tiny shop where he sold souvenirs and curiosities: stuffed mermaids,…
Not the Chosen One
Grikl paced in the clearing surrounded by bekel trees, their boughs overflowing with delicately waving blossoms that filled the sultry air with a sweet scent. She took care not to stop lest she sink into the mud. It was bekel bug season and she couldn't even seek the steadier…
Drink
When the first soldier came to taste of Ana's wine, I asked Mama when a man would first taste mine. "Patience, my beautiful daughter," she told me. "Let the wine age, and it will become richer, and stronger than its oak cask." But the first soldier who tasted took my sister Ana…
Ezra's Prophecy
Light filtered through the rush screen covering the mouth of the cave. Ezra shrugged out of her worn, woollen blanket. She praised the gods that it was a warm morning; her stiffening joints had caused her much hardship over the past white months. She walked over to a ledge in…