Elizabeth slowly awakened; rolling over in the king-sized bed and bunching up the sheets as she did so. The storm outside had subsided. She pushed herself into a sitting position, bleary-eyed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the faint light of the lamp, shining from the open door from the room…

The headmage’s fingers curled over her shoulder, the golden claw rings he had worn over his gloves in place of true nails digging faintly into her uniform, cold even through the layers of fabric; her hand froze in her lap, useless as any prosthetic. “Incidentally, Ramshackle Dorm’s food expenses have been mounting as of late,…

Starvation truly is no pleasant experience, Sylvea had heard a man on one of the televisions displayed behind glass in a department store say this when she was hurrying around town one day. She hadn’t paid much attention to him at the time, more preoccupied with keeping her head down low with her eyes and…

Perhaps he should run. Fast and far, like how innocent men caught in unfortunate accidents would. He had come to sort the new shipments, the lantern in use was faulty and that was what set fire to the cellar; the tale was on his tongue, as easy and natural as second nature, yet he still…