Tag: pulp fantasy

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter VI

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which Eske participates in the contests of strength, and meets the disciples of the Dragon Temple.

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I woke to find Aysulu and Khalim in the common room, Khalim with his head down on the table and his arms folded over it. 

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

He made a pained noise. Aysulu passed me a bowl of rice and the last of one of the cuts of dried meat.

I sat down opposite Khalim. “Couldn’t you just heal it?”

He looked up, squinting painfully. “I did this to myself. It’s a lesson I’m learning.”

“The way I see it,” I argued, “if your god doesn’t want you to heal yourself, he won’t let you. There’s no harm in giving it a try.”

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Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter V

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which Reva explains her plan, and the Cerean Festival begins.

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“How is it that you can do that?” I asked. I would not have believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes, and felt the heat of Jora’s fever and smelled the putrescence of his wound. He had surely been close to death, and now he walked back to his house under his own power. 

“Khalim has a gift,” Reva said. “When the time is right, the people will follow him to the ends of the earth.”

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Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter IV

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which Eske and Aysulu look for work and witness something strange.

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We had twenty silver between us come morning. It wasn’t enough for another night at this inn, and with the tournament a day away, we were unlikely to find somewhere better. Such was the fate of an adventurer, to go from feast to famine faster than a spinning wheel. There was surely work to be found here, and silver to be paid for it; we would just have to find it.

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Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter III

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which Eske and Aysulu arrive in Phyreios, and Eske gets drunk.

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In those days, the city of Phyreios was ruled by seven divine beings. They had reigned for centuries, deathless and unchanging in their ancient wisdom and unearthly beauty. Their predecessor, the immortal god-emperor who took the throne after driving back the demon hordes and uniting the southlands under one banner, had left them in his stead when he ascended beyond the mortal realm, giving up his worshippers, his kingdom, and even his name in pursuit of ever higher mysteries. In his absence, there was a period of bloody civil war, chaos reasserting itself as it always must, but the Seven guided the lands into an era of peace and prosperity that seemed without end. 

Or so their many subjects believed, though there were whispers that their kingdom was not as wide as it once was, nor was it the land of wealth and harmony it claimed to be. And gods, I would soon learn, do not die, even when they are forgotten, and the lies they weave alter the very fabric of the world.

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Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter II

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which Eske makes a friend, and his journey continues southward.

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The wind howled across the steppe. I should have been afraid, but I was not aware enough for fear; hunger and cold were my constant and only companions for so long that I had ceased to notice even their presence. I stood and gripped my makeshift spear, my fingers numb and my body shivering. I was accustomed to cold, but I was undernourished and insufficiently clothed. 

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Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter I

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea cover image: a wide, still river with forested mountain peaks rising on either side, underneath a clouded sky.
In which the story begins.

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Listen. Let me tell you a story.

I will tell you of my journey, from the ocean at the end of the world to the mountain of iron, beneath which slept a horror of ages long past.

I will tell you of the daughter of the stargazer, who found me on the northern wastes at the end of my long winter.

I will tell you of the woman who dared to defy the seven gods of the citadel.

And I will tell you of the barefoot prophet, for the man who now sits on the throne of Phyreios is not the same as the one who walked among its people in the days before the cataclysm.

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