Chapter 9 Your Future
Shouyousei nodded slowly. She regretted asking now, but she couldn’t quite reconcile the idea with the being before her. Him? Artificial? Was it even possible to create a soul like that, much less encode it with intelligence and personality? And...
Chapter Six, Recalcitrance
Even half drunk, his feet remembered that rhythm. Clean. Clear. Methodical. His shoes hit the pavement in perfectly precise time as he tried to clear his head. If he closed his eyes for just a moment, he could almost be back in Ocala. The crisp autumn...
Chapter 10 Syncopation
“Wait, you can’t leave!” She sprinted to the door, making it there in time to stop him from storming out of her apartment, just barely. “I, um” she wasn’t quite able to think of something fast enough to prevent his response. “You what? Talked...
(Gambler's Dream. Redacted)
“All I'm offering you is a chance, Shouyousei." She stood before a man who defied description. It seemed like any time she tried to focus on one part of his face, the others sneakily shifted, and since his face was naught but falling sand to begin...
Chapter 15 Defiance
Shou was starting to lose count of the number of times she’d woken up bound and gagged this week, although the circumstances for this morning seemed far more pleasant than most of her previous encounters. She was on her bed, without any clothes, and...
Chapter 14 Aftermath
Dominic stared at the still-smoking ruins of the warehouse his goons had taken Shou. It was a total loss, but he had insurance, and could invest the net worth elsewhere. He didn’t mind the building. No, what he minded was that out of the dozen armed...
Chapter 13 Sparks into Kindling
Nikolak found Shou tied up in a basement, surrounded by men unfamiliar to her who reeked of violence and greed. It didn't take cognition to realize that this was bad; even the mindless had nightmares. Vaguely, she recognized that Khaesho and Kalokin...
Old friends (Ch. 12)
As expected, lunch with Dominic was pleasant. He had a seemingly inexhaustible font of anecdotes and crazy stories, to the point that Shou would have accused him of making some up if she hadn't grown up with him. After Khaesho's stiff, anxious...
Resonance (Ch. 11)
Khaesho found a nice park bench, crisp autumn air ruffling his hair pleasantly. He sat cross-legged, Kalokin gripped in his left hand, Nikolak entwined around the fingers of his right. It wasn’t a firm grip, mind you, but a gentle and careful, the way...
Foreword/Synopsis
Backstory: child of the sands originally started out as a spur of the moment role play between myself and [ inspired by child of the sands. this is my view on what fear should be to us, and what we should see in it.
Wayfinder's Journals (1)
#55 of child of the sands an excerpt from the travel journals of johana wayfinder, one of the few americans given undisputed access to bellosia.