Kurri was nineteen, with a bright future ahead, when he dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in terrorism. He gave no warning and left no trace, except the medical supplies now missing from a university storeroom. Kurri had barely been...

Kurri takes slow steps toward the woman sitting by the fire. He nervously grips and twists the strap of his medic bag slung over his shoulder. After putting on a jacket and strapping his small dagger to his belt, he still feels underdressed for either...

Kurri approaches one of the bigger tents around the fire pit, dressed in his out of place city clothes and nice boots just a little worn from the journey. The tent is painted with the three parallel curves of the rune of Chi, a universal sign of...

Kurri is buried alive. He can barely breathe under the pungent katal leaves, big and heavy and slimy. He holds his breath and stays perfectly still. He can hear them. Through a gap in the wooden panels of the cart he can see one pass them by--a...

Temples of Thea all contain a circular sanctum with walls of white stone. They’ve been built this way forever, by instructions laid out in the oldest texts. It gives them an otherworldly quality, like stepping though their doors is crossing into a...

“The one virtue of this disease is that it is not known to spread by air. Nor will merely touching a blight patient put you at risk. A vast majority of cases stem from consuming infected food and water. But the blight can be spread from person to...

By the time they reach the gates of Helbender Commune it’s nearly the fifth hour. The sun fell behind the mountain on their way up, but remains visible here at the top. Kurri climbs out of the cart, exhausted just from the ride up the mountain....

Kurri walks in the morning sun along the path through the katal field beyond the barns. He keeps his grey bandana over his face just to hide from the smell lingering over the plants. Just as Krev said, a massive old tree stands here by the cliff top....

Shortly after the boys leave Helbender Commune, the sky opens its floodgates. A torrent of water falls as the wagon slowly crawls down the rocky mountain road. It’s practically a creek, being such an easy path for water to flow down. Now Kurri can see...

Splitting off of snakebite road is an old mountain road called Roper’s Reach, according to Ketha. It’s barely wide enough for the cart to squeeze between the overgrown thorny shrubs flanking them, and some places are like fording a small creek as the...

Ketha bends Maris’s flare until it makes a crack sound, and its end ignites with a white chemical flame. They hold it over the cliff’s edge. Hopefully Elliv can even see it, and hopefully the sents don’t happen to be looking here at the moment. A...

“It’s a really, really big thing to ask of me,” Nisho says.

The rain finally broke, and they’re sitting in the garden in the warm sunlight. Kurri’s skin has dried off, but his hair and his pants will take longer.

“I know. It wasn’t really our first...

The airship has descended. The vessel is too big to land anywhere in Korben, and hovers some fifty Length off the ground. Its massive twin metallic hulls reflect a blinding glare from the emerging sun. Below them, the iron-plated wooden gondola is...

Ayri village was an old mountain community in northeastern Zintaia--just a few houses tucked away in a lush green valley, flanked by two little mountains, far from any important road. Tall, ancient trees lined the edges of the village. Ayri can’t be...

For a revolutionary, training is as important as eating, Razha said. Kurri went with his comrades, down to the far end of the farm, where the land drops off a bit into a steep hillside, then levels out for a hundred Length--the perfect spot for a...

Kurri left Helbender Commune with Filla, traveling on drakeback. Lightning’s brilliant blue scales match the clear sky above, and her green eyes match the woodland corridor around them. The drake barrels down the winding rough road. It’s better than...

Once again Kurri and Filla pass through the gate to the temple of Thea. The ivy on the wooden arch did not recover from the wizard’s spell the other day. It lingers, dry and lifeless. The garden beyond is much the same, a remnant of itself.

A small...

Kurri hardly slept on the cold and unfamiliar ground of White Ash Mountain. It felt like he had just finally gotten to sleep when Kalen woke him up. After breakfast, the collective split up. They decided to divide their medics, and so Kurri went with...

The door slams shut, and Kurri hears the closing of the metal latch and the click of the lock outside. He is trapped with Kalen and Lein inside a small storage building. Their weapons were taken and their hands are bound in metal manacles. No light...

The ride back to Korben was quiet. Everyone was exhausted, but beyond that, they had catastrophically failed in their mission. They had retrieved the cargo they came for and escaped with their lives, but returned without the person they swore to...

Kurri ate all he could. Why does all resistance food have to be so spicy? The sweet rice at least balances it out a bit. Even so, Kurri can’t find much of an appetite. He makes himself eat little bits of food here and there but mostly just sits by...

Kurri slept very well that night. He wakes up to the light of dawn, not in his tent but an older, badly weathered and many times sewn together one. And he is not alone. He fell asleep in Perra’s arms, he remembers. This may take some time for him to...

As Kurri starts to examine Razha, the engine of the airship roars louder and the sounds of its propellers start up. The great shadow starts to move.

“Did we win?” Razha says, without even looking up. Kurri turns to look. The great anchors are pulling...

It’s been how long? Most of a year? Who’s even counting the seasons anymore? Zal wraps their arms around Razha’s waist. She reaches around their shoulders and pull them tight against her. It’s so warm in her arms, with the fire at their back....

Zal opens their eyes--lying on the ground, under canvas walls, but they feel surprisingly warm. There’s a girl resting her head on their chest. They reach up and run their fingers through her long black hair. This is nice, they think. It’s too warm,...

Lying prone under a short bush atop a steep hill, Zal looks through their spyglass at the road below. Two sentinels ride by on brown spiky-headed drakes.

“Two little senties on snakebite road, one falls off and breaks his bones, snake comes along and...

Zal sits on the temple steps, staring out across the vibrant temple courtyard and making a roll of katal and haze. This little garden must be the only thriving path of soil in Korben. Somehow, a hundred Length from the blackwater of the river, a patch...

Zal approaches the old barn, following the sound of a hammer striking metal. They push open the giant wooden doors--old grey boards, half-rotted by termites on the bottom.

The hammer pauses, suspended over the anvil. The smith turns toward the loud...

“And don’t come back!” the barkeep shouted as he slammed the door behind Zal and Annia.

Zal stumbled up the street, supporting themself halfway on the building wall and halfway on Annia’s shoulder. The glowing tubes lining the street left bright...

Zal and Nadia are laying on a dry canvas tarp underneath the branches of two overlapping trees near the campsite. Rain washes over the layers of leaves above them with a hypnotic sound. Zal turns their head over to see Razha running toward them through...

Zal sits by their favorite tree waiting for the sunset, lost in their Zal world, outside of time, when they hear the approaching drakesteps and cart wheels cross the farm behind them. They close their eyes and feel the soft moss under them with their...

Helbender Collective arrived at a good secluded spot before sunset and set up their tents and a little fire. They’re all exhausted, yet half of them are in good spirits, having made it this far. But Razha, Filla, Elliv, Krev, they’ve all been quiet...

Up on the east side of Helbender Mountain, Razha and Zal stand on a wide slab of stone high up on the slope. Through a gap in the trees they look down on the junction of snakebite road with the main road into Korben. The Black River is a shadow winding...

“We’re clear!” Zal says as they spot the flare over the ridge.

“Movin’ out!” Krev takes the wagon down to the end of the straightaway and just around the curve to see a pillar of smoke rising from the tower up on the mountainside.

“Nice work, Razh.”...

One hot summer day, white smoke covered Talheim valley like a dense fog, turning the sun dim and red. All night and all day, gunshots and cannon fire echoed between the ridges on either side. The birds had long abandoned their summer nests. Ancient...

“Razh!” Zal calls out. They’ve gotten tangled up in a hookthorn bush again, caught on at least three separate branches. They’re balancing precariously in such a strange position, trying to wiggle free of thorns made to trap you where you are. Razha...

Razha kicks the door open, with splinters flying from the rotten wood around the latch. She and Nadia step inside, a grey scarf and a grey bandana covering their faces. Razha points her loaded rifle, with its sword bayonet attached, at the old man...

Razha earned the alias of the “Black Death” on her last day of graduate school. She didn’t quite graduate, nor was she expelled, nor did she properly withdraw from the program. In fact, according to university records, she died.

The night of her death,...

After nightfall, most of the crew has gone to bed. Nadia and Zal are on security. Razha sits alone, keeping the fire burning as she oils Reverie’s loading lever mechanism. She puts another drop of oil on her cloth and takes extra care to clean the...

Who is Razha? What is Razha? There is only the void. Razha has just realized that the void is a labyrinth of music. It vibrates to the next measure, and that is perceived as time. But time is not real. Nothing is real. The shape of it is beyond...

The crew gathers around the fire at lunch time. It’s been a tense morning for the collective, eyes weary from watching the sky. Kalen made some wonderful scrambled drake eggs. But nobody is in high spirits.

“We’ve been seeing Imperial Wizards more and...

The enemy is clustered around the entrance to one of the storage sheds--five soldiers and their commanding officer. They must be holding their captives inside. So far the Helbender crew doesn’t seem to have been spotted sneaking up through the shadows...

Razha takes point on the march up the forested slope of White Ash Mountain. With her rifle in hand, she stops at the edge of the thick undergrowth. She and Zal both poke their heads out into the clearing to look. In a narrow straight line path up the...

Razha awoke to a bright light in her eyes, the morning sun reflecting off the snow through her apartment window. She pulled the covers over her head to hide from the cold. She was sure she’d been having an interesting dream. Usually she recalled them...

Razha is in her tent. The morning birds are singing loud. A gentle breeze rocks the canvas wall of her little sanctuary. Razha pulls her hands out of the blanket and feels her hair, thick and soft, woven into a long braid. She slides her hands down...

Razha’s table in the communal workshop is a mess of open jars of fluids, piles of fresh or dried herbs, and apparati of glass flasks and tubes. One flask sits atop a glowing red coil on a metal cube connected by long wires to Annia’s large battery...

Krev hurries the drakes back up the mountain road. In the wagon, Zal lies unconscious, with their head and neck held straight between Razha’s thighs for support, as Razha looks down on their face. Just like when they are sleeping, they look so peaceful...

Razha lies prone on a ledge atop a cliff on Helbender Mountain. Beneath her is Korben, she can see it all laid out, except half of it is blocked by the airship. They probably can’t see her where she is, level with the top of the ship. The damned thing...

Razha sits on a narrow metal bench in a small, dark cell. She feels nauseous while the airship moves. She never wanted to set foot on one of these monstrosities in her life, and this is no way to start flying. She’s only grateful her cell doesn’t...

Razha stood in front of the old mirror leaning against the brick wall in her small basement room. She acquired the mirror in the aftermath of the city’s liberation--the mayor would probably not be needing it anymore. It was as tall as her which was not...

The stars shine bright above Helbender Commune. Nadia leans her head back in Razha’s lap and looks up at the cosmos through the limbs of the great trees. She looks for constellations--Azu, Shiaalev, Shol, and the bright red star, Kalles Torra.

She...

Night in northern Sabaku gets cold so fast. Little Nadia Ziel wrapped her cloak tight around her as she walked across the cool sand. She liked the cold. The sun made her head hurt, night was her favorite time. It was the night of the dark moons, when...

“Ain’t nothing to worry about, just an ordinary farm, far as they’ll see. No different than any other on this big ol’ mountain,” old Krev says. But his voice is far away, far at the end of a tunnel. The roar of an airship engine overpowers his voice....

Only the light of the moons shines on the dead, grey soil. Zal blends in so well in their grey clothes that Nadia can hardly see them lying in wait on the ground twenty Length away. Razha is more obvious, in all black crouched behind a cart full of...

Razha leads Nadia up the mountainside on a path invisible from the road, through a dense pine grove. She stays within the shrinking shadows of the trees as much as possible, and Nadia follows her in her footsteps to minimize their trail. In case hiding...

Nadia and Razha are nearly out of the woods when the first explosion’s thunder fills the valley. Razha runs ahead faster, and Nadia tries to keep up. They emerge in the clearing a long way from the side, but they can see the fireball consuming the...

The crowd gathers around as Annia Koronova climbs up the metal flagpole in the town square. There is nothing sturdy to climb up, it just grips it between its thighs and works its way up using its hands. It must be difficult with the heavy battery pack...

The sun sets over the Black River valley. It has passed behind the mountains, but the clouds above it are glowing red--an omen, Nadia is sure, of what she cannot say. The valley has finally fallen silent--no guns, no engines, no train, no bombs. But...

The screech of metal sliding against metal--wake up call. Elliv opened his eyes to dim lamplight dancing on the sandstone wall through the bars of his cell. He made himself sit up, and felt so light-headed he might pass out. He made himself take a...

Elliv opens his eyes. His head snaps side to side, looking around. He reaches up and rips his arms from the blanket he’s wrapped in, but he only sees his brown skin, strong and healthy, wet with cold sweat, but not a K.D.F. uniform. No flags around,...

Elliv, Ketha, Maris, and Lein crawl up to the edge of the bushes at a hilltop overlooking the eastern entrance to the town of Korben, while the cart and the medics wait back on snakebite road.

They would be dangerously close on an ordinary day, but the...

Elliv clings to the slippery bark of a tree limb ten Length above the ground--the only place he can see the cliffside above the south slope of Korben without exposing himself to the sentinels. Still, through the heavy mist of the rainstorm he can barely...

Elliv, Maris, and Lein press deeper into the forest, with three sentinels on their heels. Maris drops another smoke bomb. Elliv points to a more clear path, and the others follow him, gaining a little ground from their disoriented pursuers.

“We could...

Razha and Elliv are on a security shift, conducting the hourly patrol of the commune perimeter. With the enemy’s recent escalation, this is even more crucial. The two of them walk along the old fence marking the edge of Krev’s property. Beyond its...

Elliv and Maris crouch by one corner of the isolated warehouse. On the opposite wall should be Ketha and Annia, though there’s no way of knowing if they’re in position on time. The south wall stands completely in the shadow of the building, completely...

Lein made tonight’s dinner, a traditional Janikan meal of black sticky rice and fried drake, from Krev’s preserved drake meat, and of course hot peppers--delicious. Lein should cook more often, Elliv forgets how talented he is.

These were some rare...

The Helbender boys wait for their signal, taking cover in the overgrowth on the hill along the cliffside, east of the Korben temple. The metal clatter of machinery echoes from the refinery, up on the mountain across the river. But through it, Elliv...

They charge down the mountain--Elliv and Ketha on the back of a brown drake liberated from a sentinel who was not using it anymore. The sents on the other side of the river didn’t expect a full firing line facing them when the train was out of their...