Happy STS! If You Were To Design A Deck Of Playing Cards Based On Characters In Your WIP, Who Would You

Happy STS! If you were to design a deck of playing cards based on characters in your WIP, who would you assign to be the King? The Queen? The Jack? The Ace? And the Joker?

Happy Storyteller Saturday to you too!

This is an interesting question, one that I had to put quite some thought into in order to properly answer, honestly. Now that I think of it, I think I have some characters that would fit those roles quite nicely! (By the way, I did some - albeit rather superficial - research on the symbolic meanings of some of these cards and the opinions I found were varied, so I chose the meanings that best suited my characters of choice)

THE KING:

For the King card, I decided to take a more subversive approach rather than just outright choosing an actual ruler from my story. There are many kinds of King cards in a playing deck (king of hearts, king of spades, king of diamonds, and king of clubs) and each has its own "meanings" if you will. For this in particular, I choose King of Diamonds for my character Lord Nethen Fahris, a young man from the small nobility who is the rival and soon-to-be love interest of Princess Ellinnor Dallantes. It's a card usually associated with cunningness, secret knowledge, and shrewdness, as in someone who is good at finding advantages and navigating the situations they are in - but it is also considered an omen of protection by some, and I find that this is the perfect description for Nethen in The Last Wrath. Another character that I believe fits this card very well is surprisingly, a character with little to no noble blood, Julyan Ashiren - even though he is not actually a noble, he comes from a very ancient and powerful family of Mageborn, and is now their firstborn heir. There is also another reason for this choice, a secret about him that I cannot disclose as it is one of the main plot twists of the book, but one that makes him more than qualified for this card choice.

THE QUEEN:

For this card, the choice seemed kind of obvious, as one of my characters from the main cast is the rightful queen of a kingdom but had her birthright stolen from her (I am referring here to Princess Ellinor Dallantes). So here, I would say I choose Queen of Clubs for my young lost princess, Ellinor. Of course, I think the name of the card speaks for itself, as she is a queen in her own right and is determined to take back what was stolen from her, bringing justice to those who have wronged her family and her people. As a Queen card, it is usually associated with authority, intelligence, and being a fair but powerful leader. Ellinor is not afraid to face a war if it means setting herself and her family's subjects free from her uncle's corrupted rule, and is just as cunning as her rival-turned-lover can be. One other character that could fit the Queen card is Nadinne Ahmirah, a Lady whose family has ascended from anonymity to considerable wealth and have risen to courtiers in the local noble court of Vellamere as their exploits as seafaring merchants have more than granted them prestige and influence. She yearns to be like her ancestors, a tamer of the waves living freely as the tides dictate, but she has now duties and expectations to fulfill that keep her - at first - from achieving her dream goal. And last but still not least, the elusive and endlessly charming mercenary with a heart of steel Morwan Destrin, more than fits this role - not only she is, in all but name, almost a mercenary queen, but she is also a scorned noble (though I cannot yet disclose her true heritage).

THE JACK:

Also known as the Knave (rogue/scoundrel), the Jack card was a tricky one for sure. It's usually associated, as the monicker Knave might suggest, with a tricky or deceitful person. This is a perfect card for a few of my characters, to be precise. Raelen Ashiren is one of them, as she is quite the little rogue when it comes to standing up against unjust authorities and finding freedom in doing what is right, even if she has to be a little bit roguish or tricky to do so, and is currently wanted in several kingdoms after being wrongfully framed. Another interesting character I chose for this card was Emryc Thorne - one of Ellinor's best friends and a skilled thief who uses "street magician" tricks to confuse his opponents and make his heists successful), as he is a witty, highly intelligent, and extremely sarcastic young thief who is not afraid to use deceit to his advantage - in fact, he rather embraces it, as it is a key part of his entire "career" of choice. Emryc has earned quite a reputation as a scoundrel, for several different reasons. Luciya Anynth also fits quite well the role of the Jack card, as she is not only an outlaw to whom the value of life is freedom with no holds barred, but she is the lowborn daughter of a young man with a reputation for being quite the rogue. Last but not least, I chose Cassander Fynn as this card as well - a rebel spy, his entire occupation, as well as his life and that of hundreds of others, depends on his ability to deceive, lie and cheat his way into enemy ranks, though he maintains a strict code of honor even then.

THE ACE:

A card that is associated with the number one, it can be simultaneously the card with the highest or lowest value on a deck depending on the game. Some people associate this position with success, power, and quality, as well as good luck, though it can also be considered quite unstable. Due to certain historical events, it has also come to be considered a "Death Card" or bad luck. So, considering all of this, my characters of choice for the Ace would be Vallerius Zyndrosar, Zephyr Tellian, Bryn Seperi, and Tanwin Lyrandeth. All of said characters are complex but good-intentioned people, and are incredibly loyal to their friends, though often waves of bad luck keep them from achieving their full potential. Vallerius is an incredibly kind and smart young man who despises his magical affinity due to events in his past that made him the most wanted man by the Morosyn Empire, while he is really just a sweet kid trying to make it through the chaos of his life with only blind luck and improvisation to help. Zephyr is a smart and talented sorcerer, as well as a doting older brother, but has fallen prey to a terrible hatred curse that makes using his recently acquired magical talents very taxing and painful. Bryn is a young mercenary turned bitter by past injustices, someone who despises the continent and would rather watch it burn like it did to him in the past, but who, despite all of this, makes the decision to fight for a better future - not out of a sense of altruism or for the continent he hates, but for the people in his life that make it worth fighting for. Tanwin, once a sweet and naive young boy, was captured and turned into a soldier by an enemy warlord, and now is one of the deadliest people on the continent, often struggling between who he was turned into and the person he wishes he could be, being at the same time one of the best friends anyone could have - on a good day, that is.

THE JOKER:

A card that is often used as a wild card in games, it is one that can be extremely beneficial and harmful at the same time. Because of this, it is also often associated with chaos, intelligence, unpredictability, and wit. It is also often depicted in cards as the court Jester, a Halerquin, or a Clown. Characters that fit this card's archetype would be: Azra Moorsworth, Fabian Anynth, Ansell Kallik, and Yuna Thyren. Azra, Raelen and Julyan's adoptive brother and the (adoptive) son of their godmother, is more than meets the eye in many ways - especially when it comes to the real truth about his past and origins, something that not even he knows about. He has a joyfully playful personality and tends to use humor to lighten the mood while underneath it all there is a storm of emotions raging inside his head. Fabian "Anynth" used to be Luciya's closest friend and secretly her half-sibling (though she is not aware of it), but a shocking betrayal on his part broke their bond forever - even though, the truth about this act of treason is far from what she or their friends could have imagined. Ansell Kallik is the best archer on the continent, as well as Princess Ellinor's closest friend and confidant, but he is also a very dangerous person towards anyone who might stand to harm his friends. Also, his unpredictability shines through in combat, as his enemies can never see him coming before they already have an arrow to the chest. Yuna Thyren, another friend of Ellinor, though not nearly as close, and the second to newest member of the Princess' elite group of assassins, is one to keep her secrets under lock and key, along with her mysterious past - no one knows the truth about her or her personal mission but herself.

@writernopal

If the voices in your head are telling you that you suck at writing, write them into your next wip as someone who gets brutally murdered

Happy STS! Hope you've been having a good week, and thank you so much for the follow 💕

What's your 'elevator pitch' for each of your OCs? You can include information such as who are they as a person, what is their role in the story, things like that! Feel free to elaborate as much or as little as you'd like!

Hello, @elshells! Thank you so much for the ask! 💕

This is an amazing question and I took my time answering it!

(It is worth noting that, since The Last Wrath - my medieval dark fantasy WIP - is my main current work in progress, I only used the characters from this book to answer this ask. I have quite a few other WIPs, one of them being Enchanted Illusions - my Gothic Victorian Fantasy - and a sci-fi WIP named SUPERNOVA Initiative, but it would be far too many characters if I did a pitch for all of them, so I chose just TLW 😂)

These are not all my characters, but some of the main cast:

RAELEN ASHIREN: The Forgotten Rebel

A young troublemaker from a forgotten but once powerful mageborn family who finds herself swept into the world of mysteries and intrigues of their continent after her oldest brother, Julyan Ashiren - her only living blooc relative - is captired by an ancient group of corrupted sorcerers with a bloody agenda, who want to see her dead. Now she faces a race against time to rise up to her family's lost legacy if she wants to save her world from a war torn future.

AZRA MOORSWORTH: The Dragon Rider

The adoptive son of the High General of Kestrall and the surrogate brother of Raelen and Julyan that has always lived with deep seated unanswered questions about his past and origins. Wanting to do what is right, he ind himself swept into the chaos of his surrogate sister's lives as they flee together from the destruction of everything they have known and into a rebellion that might depend on them to suceed. But some secrets of the past are better left forgotten.

VALLERIUS ZYNDROSAR: The Fallen Heir

A conflicted young man living on the run that has singlehandedly managed to become the most wanted man by the Morosyn Empire. Living with constant guilt for his past, he has dedicated two years of his recent life to finding a way to stop his world's ongoing shadow war and change his supposedly inevitable twisted fate. When his path crosses that of Raelen's - the daughter of a Mageborn house that was thought to have been destroyed centuries ago - he decides to face his past and help her in her rebellious quest.

JULYAN ASHIREN: The Last Sun

Raelen's older brother and only living relative, he has raised his sister alone ever since their parents disappeared in a mysterious mission. Living with the constant fear of being found by their enemies, he did everything in his power to protect Raelen and prepare her for a future he knew was coming. After he is forcibly captured by the Secret Court, he is forced to face a secret about himself that even he didn't know about, as he struggles to find a way to escape his dangerous predicament.

PRINCESS ELLINOR DALLANTES - The Lost Princess

A princess scorned who had her birthright ripped away from her at an early age, after the royal family of Arkellya was slaughtered and her conniving uncle ascended the throne, now allied to the Morosyn Empire. Saved from the carnage and raised by the best assassin on the continent, she would grow up to rouse the sleeping fires of a rebellion long in the making to restore her family's stolen dues and bring an end to the reign of conquest of the Morosyn Empire. Along with her closest friends - young yet talented outcasts - she sees to undermine her enemies from within, and might just need the help from a certain duo of Mageborn to achieve her goal when the Secret Court closes in.

LORD NETHEN FAHRIS - The Noble Rival

A young noble from a powerful family of royal advisors to the young Emperor Aerich, Nethen grew up knowing that, if he was to be more than just a pawn in their crooked games, he'd have to learn to work from the shadows, and to manipulate the situations around him to his every whim. Only then could he achieve his goal. To do so, he made himself undeniably yet subtly necessary to the political stage around him, though it was a lonely existence. Everyone around him had their petty schemes and agendas, he knew that very well. There were almost no people that he trusted, let alone respected. Until he met a Ellinor. For the first time, he had a worthy opponent, a rival worthy of his respect and quite possibly, his only equal - as perhaps the one person who could understand him, the one person that could dance the deadly dance of their world’s intrigues with him without blinking an eye, someone, who saw him for himself - the man behind the mask. 

ZEPHYR TELLIAN: The Cursed Sorcerer

A talented sorcerer living in the aftermath of a brutal betrayal by one of the people who were closest to him, fallen prey to a terrible hatred Curse that caused his very magical affinity to become a source of pain and exhaustion. Zephyr was born in the war torn lands that once were the Kingdom of Eldon, in the height of the Agrannorian Civil War, and knew well the horrors of war. The hidden Order of Sorcerers had given him and his siblings a chance to survive, but he never would've expected this to bring his downfall. After surviving what was meant to kill him, he and his younger brother Jamie endured dire hardships as street children in the aftermath of a war, but Zephyr's magical talents - albeit restricted by his curse - and knowledge, along with Jamie's swordfighting abilities, got them accepted into the Liranthian Academies after a tourney. Now, Zephyr has dedicated himself to find an anti magic spell that can counter attack the abilities of the crooked Secret Court, but after discovering a horryfing truth, he and his brother just might have to turn to the budding rebellion in order to live another day.

DARIAN CAELESTIS: The Hidden Potioneer

A young aspiring potioneer, son of two important warriors from the dangerous kingdom of Ergyre - a place commonly known as the Iron Thorn of the Free Realms for a reason - finds himself living under a secret identity after the way comes to him, in an attempt to fulfill a long lost promise and find his missing childhood friend, a young elf who was captured by a mad enemy warlord from the Morosyn Empire. Darian never wanted to fight, and never thought he could, but he will do whatever it takes to get his friend back, even if the person he finds has been pushed far from the boy he used to know.

TANWIN LYRANDETH: The Soldier

Once a naive and sweet young boy, unaware of the true horrors of his world, Tanwin has been twisted into a weapon of war after his capture during the invasion of the borders of Ergyre by the Morosyn Empire. After years of a living hell, he finally manages to escape his captors and free himself, but the last thing he would have expected would be to find his long-lost childhood friend as a rebel on the other side of the war. Torn between the person he was turned into and the one he used to be, he will do anything to keep his recently reunited friends safe, especially if it means bringing the war to those who forged him for it.

NADINNE AHMIRAH: The Seafaring Lady

A girl with dreams of freedom, who yearns to sail the seas and tame the waves like her ancestors did, finds herself trapped in the luxurious world of the nobility of Vellamere. Her family ascended from anonimity to great wealth a few generations back, becoming courtiers in the thriving portuary kingdom of the continent, but even so, Nadinne yearns for more - to be able to fight the injustices of their world and to meet new places, like her uncle and aunt who were adventuring privateers before their ship misteriously sank. After meeting a certain mercenary with a broken connection to the rebellion and discovering that one of her closest friends is a rebel spy, Nadinne makes it her personal mission to join them - especially after discovering first hand the horrors their enemies can inflict on those who stand in their way.

LUCIYA ANYNTH: The Free Outlaw

A young rogue to whom freedom is the highest value of life, she had spent her youth stealing from the Empire where she was born. Before this, she was the daughter of a lowborn man who had become important in their home kingdom, before he was wronggully framed and imprisoned for charges he was innocent of - a way for the Imperial nobility to get rid of the only person who knew secrets that could bring their reign toppling down. Afterwards, she found herself taken in by a group of forest dwelling kids, whom, like her, had been abandoned by the very cities of their birth. Her happiness was stolen from her after a heist gone wrong and a sudden betrayal, which forced her to become a servant to the very noble family that ruined her life in the past. Now, she seeks to find her freedom once again, and a befriending a certain rebel spy may be her only chance to do this.

CASSANDER FYNN: The Rebel Spy

An extremely knowledgeable young man, Cassander was taught by his parents the value of secrets and illusions. Son of a soldier and a mystical woman, Cassander suddenly found his calling by joining a budding rebellion, using his talents to become the best spy currently under the employ of the rebellion. He could lie, cheat and deceive his way into almost any enemy ranks, and the secrets he kept could quite possibly be the difference between the success of the lost princess' rebellion and a brutal failure.

@elshells

@writernopal

Flash Fiction Friday:

Prompt: Yes, Sir!

@flashfictionfridayofficiall

Flash Fiction Friday: Prompt - Yes, Sir!

Snippet from my Medieval Dark Fantasy WIP - The Last Wrath

“Zephyr felt bile rise up in his throat as he looked around Councilor Viltarin’s study. He had a strange feeling about the man ever since the foreigner noble arrived a few months back, but this, oh it was so much worse than anything he could ever have imagined. Now, he understood why this place was kept so tightly locked, and why not even cleaning staff had been allowed in - he had to steal a key using his magic, something that left him dizzy, sick and in pain due to his curse, and just entering this study had taken at least ten minutes of trial and error in the puzzle like locks of the door. Zephyr didn’t trust this man one bit, much less his sudden interest in Jamie's achievements as a knight-in-training. He prayed that his suspicions were wrong, but he would never have expected them to be so horrifyingly right.

All around him, scattered around the vast room, were testaments to this man’s insanity. Shrunken specimens in jars, elven fangs and horns meticulously arranged into a categories in shelves - some even still had blood on them, strange instruments he dared not imagine what uses they could have, and carelessly scribbled notes on yellowed out parchment were all around. There were strange skeletons of unfamiliar magical creatures he had never seen before, bloodstained iron manacles on one of the tables and even Fae wings were proudly rolled into a crystal cylinder that adorned the middle of the study. And by Gods, the smell of the room…. that was something he would not soon forget, the young man thought, forcing himself not to gag at the acrid scent of rotten blood and death assailing him from every direction. Zephyr walked to a wooden table, and took a look at the pages and pages upon it, his heart hammering in his chest making his curse pulse painfully through him. 

A strangely familiar symbol, scribbled in pitch black ink, was recurring on every single one of these pages, surrounded by strange words not even his vast knowledge of ancient language could seem to translate. It was barely readable, until it was. And his blood ran as cold as a stream in the winter when realization hit him. He knew this symbol, had seen it before - in fact, he saw it every night when he went to sleep, like a ghost that never ceased to haunt him. Memories flashed through his mind but he shook them away, firmly grasping the newest of the papers on the top of the stack, analyzing its contents with strengthened horror. But before he could begin any attempts to translate it, a noise shook him back to reality. He froze. Not as distant as he would have liked, he heard loud footsteps coming closer. 

He had to get out of here. 

Quickly, he pocketed the strange page into his robe, and turned around, looking for a way out, or at least, somewhere to hide. He panickedly walked around the room, but his options were very limited, there were only two doors, one towards the hallway - the one to which he had the key in his possession, though which Councilor Viltarin was likely going to walk out from at any moment - and another one that he did not have any clue as to where it led to, which was ever slightly ajar. The footsteps came to a halt, and Zephyr knew that the man was at the door by the sound of a twisting doorknob.

With no other option, and no time to lose, Zephyr raced towards the second door in an instant. Just as he carefully closed it behind him, he heard the man walk into the room. Behind him, he noticed a long winding stone staircase that spiraled downwards. From the space between the wooden boards, he watched as the grizzled man, carrying a strange package, paused, and for a moment, Zephyr thought that he had been seen. But soon, Viltarin kept walking, and the young man almost let out a sigh of relief, thankfully catching himself before he could make this mistake. Zephyr knew that, if he didn’t do something to distract him, he wouldn’t have the strength to run all the way down the stairs before the man caught him. So he waited patiently for the man to make his way to the table across the room, and then he acted. Moving one hand upwards, he willed the magic he’d spent months learning towards his fingertips, biting his lip to stiffle a cry as  as his entire body seemed to burn in fresh agony, ebony tendrils of his curse twisting beneath his skin, and with a small flash of green light, he brought all the shelves around Viltarin crashing down at once, creating a pile between him and the door.

The noise was so loud, it made for the distraction he sorely needed. Before the man could recover, he dashed as quickly as he could down the staircase, even though his vision blurred and doubled a few times from his pain as he made his way out of this very much acursed place. He felt sorry for all the lives of those creatures and people that man had ruined and turned into twisted items for his collection, which he brought crashing down onto him. But he had no time to dwell on that matter. They were already dead, and if he was not fast enough, so would be him and his brother. 

Finally, after moments that felt like an eternity, he reached the bottom of the stairs. A stone and oak door met him, and he cursed his luck when he found it locked, especially since the key he had didn’t seem to even budge the lock when he tried it. Upstairs, he could already hear the man rummaging through the fallen pile, and it wouldn’t be long until he carved his way to the door he’d run into. With a long suffering sigh, he momentarily rested his head against the cold stone, bracing himself once more, and twisted the inner workings of the lock with his magic. 

This time, he couldn’t hold back a small cry as his curse burned through him, almost falling to his knees when the door unlocked. Not wasting any time, he opened it. For a moment, everything was spinning - he knew he wasn’t supposed to use his magic like this more than once a day - as he found himself outside of the suffocating tower. Zephyr took a moment to weakly recompose himself, leaning against the grey brick wall as his legs threatened to give out beneath him. Gods, he was in so much pain. His hand clawed at the wall shakily as he took a deep breath, well aware of the fact that there were people watching even with his eyes tightly close to keep the world from spinning, and that the Councilor could be here in just a matter of seconds. It took everything he had to rip himself away from the only thing keeping him standing, as he straightened up and all but wobbled away from the tower. 

Zephyr soon was able to mix with the small crowd of passersby ahead, masking his struggle the best he could, and didn’t even care for the fact that he knew his face was ashen pale and he felt like he’d just fallen that set of stairs, as he put as much distance as he could between him and the door. Swiftly, Zephyr made the decision to take a sharp turn around one of the enormous marble statues around the building, pressing himself against the stone as he looked back over his shoulders. He saw Viltarin throw open the tower door, and quickly compose himself after receiving strange looks from the passerbys, a ravenous look in his eyes as he mercilessly searched the surroundings. Zephyr knew his options were very limited, and it wouldn’t take long for the man to discover his involvement in the invasion of his study, especially if he took notice of the missing page. So he had to make a choice, and fast. Jamie! His eyes went wide as he remembered that his brother was still alone in the training hall. If this bastard knew he was the one he was looking for, Jamie would be collateral damage in the wake of the Councilor’s wrath. Without a second to waste, he took off as fast as he could across the stone carved buildings, faster than he could ever consider possible, especially with the pain he was in. But he didn’t care. 

Pushing through the crowd with considerable speed, he made it through the series of sharp turns and vast courtyards, nearly toppling quite a few people and even some small statues in his way. He felt like he was going to drop dead at any wrong step but it didn’t matter. And so, with considerable effort, he covered the large distance between the tower and the Training Halls in less than a few minutes. 

Zephyr all but jumped the last steps that led to the arena, the sandy colored stone floor raking against the soles of his boots as he skid to a halt. And he was too late. Whatever feeling of terror he felt in that crooked study did not even compare to what he felt right now. Viltarin was already here, in the arena, talking to Jamie - who seemed completely oblivious as to the horrible danger he was in, a carefree smile on his lips as he talked to the politician. Zephyr wanted to wring that Councilor’s hand from where it was resting on his little brother’s shoulders, but, with his heart threatening to beat out of his chest, he quickly suppressed the urges. All that he could do was stand there, frozen in place, trapped in a situation that could destroy his life in a second. Even panting and ashen as a stone, his eyes did not betray his fear - only his fury. 

Viltarin’s eyes met his own, and it was like a patch of frozen ice just slid down his spine. 

“Well, look who is here, Jamie!” The man said, gesturing towards Zephyr with his free hand, while his other rested on Jamie’s shoulders, in a seemingly friendly, but horrendous, gesture. Zephyr bit his tongue to stifle the reply he truly wanted to give this man, refusing to look in his younger brother’s direction. He got him into this, now he had to at least get him out. If he could. “Because, I was getting worried…  Someone just broke into my study room, and they are still out and about. Why, I just left the place my self, seeing them leave with my own eyes, fearing for my life. My first thought was to check on our dear, sweet apprentices.” His voice held a fake, dangerous lilt to it as he continued, moving Jamie to stand closer to him. Jamie, now having clearly noticed the discomfort in his older brother’s face and the strange behavior of the Councilor, was as still as a statue. “You wouldn’t happen to know who did it, now, would you my boy?”

Viltarin said it, his fingers digging with far too strongly into Jamie’s shoulder, and action that made Zephyr startle forward, only for the man to stop him in his tracks with a dangerous tilt of his head. 

Zephyr swallowed, once he realized that the man expected an answer. His legs shook from the effort it took to run all the way here after using his magic, but he stood strong as he stared down the man. Steading his voice, he shook his head, carefully maneuvering his hands behind his back, to hide the tell tale marks of his curse that had yet to fade out. 

“No, sir, I do not.” He kept his voice even, but he couldn’t keep his eyes from flitting between the madenned Councilor and Jamie, who was getting more confused by the second, trying to squirm out of the claw like grasp of the nobleman. When that didn’t work, Zephyr caught how Jamie was about to move to hit the man, but stopped him with a terrified, warning glance. Viltarin noticed, and his eyes went cold, but instead of saying anything, he smirked. Zephyr desperately wished he hadn’t, because it was a sharp, ivory like smile that did not reach his eyes, and looked more like a threatening growl than anything remotely close to a smile. A lie.

“Really? because, it would be an absolute shame if that person were to, Gods forbid, make his next target someone younger, more defenseless” He punctuated his words by tightening his hold on Jamie, who looked just a second away from sucker punching the bastard at the defenseless jab. Zephyr would have been proud, if he wasn’t so mortified at the implications of what the man was saying. “But I guess unfortunate accidents can happen, and in the end, lives are just that, symbols on a page, waiting to be erased with a flick of a pen or the right amount of red ink.”

Zephyr knew the man could see in his eyes that he knew exactly what each of those words meant, and that this was a thinly veiled way of letting him know that he knew it was him, and that he had seen him leave with that page.

Viltarin swiftly let go of Jamie, with such strength that the boy would have plummeted to the floor, had he not been a training knight. Ignoring the younger’s protests, Viltarin stalked towards were Zephyr was all but swaying in place. He placed a threatening hand on the older boy’s arm with a wounding grip, pulling him slightly upwards. His voice was low, dangerously calm. Zephyr did not look at him, opting to stare blankly ahead.

“Do you understand what I am saying, my boy?”

Zephyr nodded, answering swiftly, though his voice shook.

“Yes, sir.”

Viltarin nodded back, realizing his death grip on the younger man’s arm. Zephyr just knew it would have been strong enough to bruise, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about that at the moment. Jamie watched in utter shock and confusion on from where he had been standing. The Councilor stopped in his tracks for a moment where he was already far behind them.

“I hope that, when this thief is caught, there isn’t any reason for anyone else to get hurt, over something so trivial. Maybe what happened in my study can serve as a warning for those unsuspecting to learn... caution. But I guess I prefer when things are left up to fate.”

With that, he finished, striding victoriously out of the arena.”

@lassiesandiego @writernopal @elshells @clairelsonao3 @lyutenw @rickie-the-storyteller

"A good story cannot function like a legal brief, which attempts to persuade and lead the reader down a narrow path suspended above the abyss of unreasonable. Rather, it must be more like an empty house, an open garden, a deserted beach by the ocean. The reader moves in with their own burdensome baggage and long-cherished possessions, seeds of doubt and shears of understanding, maps of human nature and baskets of sustaining faith. The reader then inhabits the story, explores its nooks and crannies, rearranges the furniture to suit their taste, covers the walls with sketches of their inner life, and thereby makes the story their home."

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu