Letting In
You will remember that Mowgli had gone to the village and world of Men, after defeating the Dhole and saving both the Jungle and the village. The Seonnee wolf-pack returned to its usual, single-specie affairs, with the usual, skull-smashing...
Silk Doesn't Tear
The apartment's walls were plain, and the decoration was, in general, quite spartan. The music was simple, and subdued. Everyone attending the party provided their own music - at least in Dustin's mind. After he'd had enough to drink,...
The Smooth and Calm Storm
Taking a holiday by himself was probably not the ideal solution to a breakup. A recent breakup. Well, a sort of recent breakup. It was a big one, at least. She had been half of Dustin's whole life for several years, then left, without any...
Big Guy
What's your name? What brought you to me? Do you have any medical conditions you want us to know about? Are there any kinds of music you particularly like? Big questions indeed. Bigger, really, than Seth could answer at that...
Cieran's Coiled and Cosy Pack
You didn't get many Snakes in villages this far North. Or at least, they were always pretty well-off if they moved there, coming in their retirement. It was too cold for them most of the time, so they had to be able to afford the energy costs to heat...
Primacy
Scuttle up, put it inside. Scuttle down the wall outside. That was the bed, from Amir. Scuttle up, put it inside. Scuttle down the wall outside. That was the fridge, from Jamal. Scuttle up, put it down, scuttle back... ...
On Fallowed Ground
Farms and orchards made decent places for necromantic work. There had been enough sentient and other life there to enrich the area with the right sort of spiritual residues. This should be obvious. Unless the farm or orchard was in a constant warzone,...
Silk Doesn't Tear II: 'der Club
Dustin had lived with his Spider hosts some four months, now. This practice of cuddling and bondage, it turned out, was a celebratory thing. Spiders did it to pick people's spirits up, and it was popular on special occasions. Most of the time,...
A Little Less Condemnation
Cairn's voice, dark and humid, led another fly into another web. This was how Cairn thought about it, certainly. The animal is given a positive stimulus as bait. It approaches this bait, expecting reward. It performs adequately. Later on,...
Priests of the Field - chapter 01
chapter 1 Magdalene was with God, now, which did nothing to soften the fact he should have been married by now. Raguel knew this was a sinful thought - prideful, and luxurious behind most of it - but it was true. He liked not to associate God...
Silk Doesn't Tear IV: Epilogue
When Dustin was little, like a lot of us when we're little, he read a book about bees. Bees were cool. Like some people, they had a queen! They took stuff called 'nectar' out of flowers, and they made honey with it. Coolest of all, when they found a...
Priests of the Field - chapter 07
Raguel's negotiation with the snakes' Hierophant, then, had gone swimmingly. He had gained a powerful friend and ally, and rituals of potential use against the Hellminth plague, which he could send details of back to the Order. He had some confidence...