Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 147
147 There were feelings, but they were all dulled, muffled, as if wrapped in cloth... _No, this isn't a cloth. It's something else. Something warm and fluffy._ For a moment it felt like she was about to break through whatever thin membrane was...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 146
146 Dorin kept putting one foot in front of the other. Even though it felt like he would collapse at any second, even though it felt like his legs would buckle, even though his muscles were screaming, even though there was blood dripping down his...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 145
145 The breath whistled in and out of Dorin's chest as he limped across the battlefield, splashing through puddles of blood and snowmelt. Serrated walls of fire had appeared like scars upon his path, casting an otherworldly glow upon the earth. This...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 144
144 She could feel the vibrations of their footfalls travelling through the ground beneath her knees, could feel them going inside her chest and shaking her very heart. The pain in her back was steadily getting worse, and her swollen lips stung with...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 143
143 Layla had a split-second view of Hokin's maw before a heavy branch, its top half encrusted with a network of red-hot glowing cracks and crowned in flame, whispered just above the tips of her ears and caught him right between his gaping jaws,...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 161
161 Banno felt... wrong. He did not understand why he felt this way. The 'why' of it was too much for him to grasp. Even the wrongness of it, the reason for all these feelings, was something he was barely aware of. It was a deep thing. A low thing....
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 160
160 In a grim twist of fate, Banno had become the very thing he had accused James of being. A walking corpse. A pile of meat without enough sense to know it was already dead. James shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to time his attack...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 159
159 Banno stopped, his jaw still open wide, his single eye fixed on the serrated blade. It was only a fraction of a moment, but in it, James saw something that would stay with him for the rest of his life. The flat of the blade caught the fireplace...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 158
158 Banno didn't merely step through the door. He _unfolded_ himself through the door until his head was nearly brushing the ceiling. The fireplace cast his shadow along the wall; a misshapen abomination. "You should be dead..." James whispered, but...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 157
157 James jerked awake to the sound of someone hammering on the door. For a moment he had no idea where he was, and no way to look around, either, because there was something warm and fluffy pressed right up against his face. _Valery?_ She had one...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 156
156 It was dark. Too dark. He could barely see where he was going, but he couldn't stop. He had to keep going. His kids needed him to keep going, no matter what. They were all so tired, but there wasn't any time to rest. It was gaining. _Come on!_...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 155
155 Banno could see them up ahead; golden squares of light in the storm, beckoning him closer. Every snowflake falling past that light was transformed into a dying flame, as if her very presence was enough to make them real. "Don't worry, girl, we're...