Xenogenesis
# Xenogenesis _January 3, 214 CY_ _15:49_ “Looks like Subject 19 is coming to." Dr. Tanea Young set aside her analysis and swept a hand over her workstation display. The graphs and charts swept to the side, replaced by a video feed of a small...
The Pact
# The Pact The Valley of Bones was an apt, if unimaginative name. The valley floor was littered with them from one tall escarpment to the other: old and new, whole and cracked, from isolated fragments from indistinct species to entire intact skeletons...
Recompense and Rebirth
# Recompense and Rebirth It was time for a break. Renata seated herself on a fallen log at the edge of what she might have, on her more charitable days, called a creek. She set her backpack and collection bag down against the log and wiped the sweat...
Give Them Eyes to See
# Give Them Eyes to See The setting sun cast long shadows through the garden, painting the ground in alternating bars of black and gold. Here the priests mostly tended to decorative flowers, though a few patches of land around the side of the...
The Best Laid Plans
The gathering hall was alive with the sounds of activity, even from without. A venerable old structure of reclaimed stone blocks and rough-hewn wooden supports, it was as unpolished as the rowdy crowds that passed through it on a daily basis. Like...
The Shadow and the Heart
The Shadow and the Heart May 6, 219 CY 17:51 “You'd think by now we would get some privacy for this." Dr. Tanea Young glanced up briefly from her console. Capra sat pouting on the edge of her bed, arms folded in that particular...
The Cycle
# The Cycle Someone was parked in the apartment's assigned parking spot when Tricia came home. It wasn't her mother's car; her mother didn't own one, couldn't afford one. It was a fifty-fifty guess as to whether the car belonged to someone who just...
On the First Day Following the Rains
# On the First Day Following the Rains On the first day after the first spring rains, an auspicious day, Junior Provincial Minister of Ceremony Zhang Lin observed the establishment of the proper rites to call upon the great slumbering dragon of the...
The Free Company - I
# The Free Company ## I The knock came sooner than expected. Nika's brush paused mid-stroke as she glanced across her room at the door. Tarek had told her already that an important client was coming this evening, but it was far too early for that;...
The Five Guides
**The Five Guides** _The heart's whisper cries more loudly than the shouting of tongues._ **Historical Background** The first prophet and exemplar of the Great Dragon's teachings--and later the first emir exerting formal, temporal political power...
The Free Company - II
# The Free Company ## II There was little traffic, this late at night, and the pair made good speed. The pleasure-house in which she had spent most of her life was located in one of the city's wealthiest districts, close to its preferred...
The Free Company - III
# The Free Company ## III A sudden jolt shook Nika awake. Where was she? She bolted upright with a sharp breath, hands grasping blindly about her and closing around cool metal tubes. A cot. Dim red light, scarcely enough to make out more than general...