Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 91
91 - out of the snow and back into the waking world, where pain and death were more than mere phantoms. Snow tumbled down his face and slid off his back. He was quite possibly colder than he had ever been in his entire life, but Kiana's lips were warm...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 90
90 He knew this darkness. He knew this cold. He had been here before, but when? He couldn't remember... "Your blood is a lie." That voice was right behind him. He could feel the warmth of its breath on his neck, smell the fetid stench of blood and...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 85
85 The world had long since stopped making sense in Ander's eyes. It was no longer a world of matter, of substance, of air and earth and water, or even of flesh and spirit, but of voices and choices, all mixing together, all coalescing into a vortex...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 84
84 Hezzi didn't understand what was going on. He had prepared himself for what was about to happen, or at least, he thought he had. He had seen this very night so many times in his dreams, ever since Ander first came to him and explained what he...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 78
78 Ordinarily Danado would have felt very self-conscious and uncomfortable under these circumstances. Bethany was sitting on a stool near the foot of the bed, carefully treating his toes with a smelly brown liquid that stung like fire. Layla was doing...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 97
97 No sooner had they taken the first steps out of the crumbling trench that had almost served as Shekka's grave than a figure appeared among the swirling spirals of snow. It was only a black silhouette from this distance, backlit by a stuttering line...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 96
96 Ander did not know how long he stared at that hand. In reality, it couldn't have been more than a second, but to him, it lasted far longer. Those long, sharp claws. The thin, emaciated fingers. The bony knuckles. How many times had he taken that...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 95
95 Ander's fingers had gone completely numb, but that was okay. He could dig much faster without that burning sensation. _You're not my son..._ He plunged his hands into the ditch. _I don't have any sons..._ He scraped them through the snow. _I...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 99
99 Even though she went from darkness to darkness, the transition from dreaming to waking was not seamless. There was a difference between seeing nothing but black because your eyes were covered, and seeing nothing but black because your eyes no...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 98
98 Death. Everywhere around her. She could smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it, but most of all, she could _see_ it, dancing in front of her eyes as a thick, black line. It was like a serpent without head or tail, just an endless band of darkness...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 70
70 Shadows upon shadows, birthing and dying inside the absolute blackness of the Cora's pass, their lives bookended by millions upon millions of flakes of snow. Ander stared into this chaotic mess, feeling like the pass was staring right back....
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 69
69 Bethany kept throwing suspicious glances at that empty bed in the corner, almost daring it to show her that delusion again, the one with Rufio and all the... all the stuff that wasn't real. If she could see it again, she was positive she'd be able...