Post your bite-sized episode one here and i'll read and subscribe to those i find interesting

blakestackman 2021-04-26 10:42:01 UTC #23

The Dagger of Darkness

Deleth Trakarn A’nara Selfrane knelt at the altar.

'No regrets', he told himself 'soon, no regrets ever again'

He had carefully constructed the altar over the last twenty-two months of the Queen’s pregnancy. The dagger, the amulet, the crystal, and the heart. So much power, so dearly paid for. Now was the time to act, to cast his conscience aside, and to grab the throne before the heir was born.

So why did he hesitate? Deleth thought of all the joy in his life, all the passion, the love of life, and his goal of becoming King… all soured with the coming of the heir. He took one last deep breath, and sundered his soul from his body. The amulet glowed to life, the crystal set in the centre pulsing with a dull, pearly light. This part he had done many times, washing his soul into the crystal, transferring as much of it as he could, until he could now push all of it into the crystal. Today, he had to cut it out, separate his soul forever.

He plunged the ancient dagger deep into his thigh. As it was washed with blue blood, he transferred the crystal from the amulet to the hilt of the dagger. Iron control prevented his hand from shaking as he chanted the words that would force his soul from the crystal into the dagger. As he chanted, his blood continued to pulse over the dagger. A dark aura emitted from it. He finished the chant, slowly pulled the dagger from his thigh, and clapped a hand to the wound. Red light washed from his hand. The wound healed. Deleth swayed on his heels. The dagger screamed.

“Be SILENT” Deleth ordered, sucking some power from the dagger.

The scream cut off. He prised the crystal from the dagger and placed it back in its setting in the amulet. He placed the amulet on the altar, raised the dagger high in both hands and chanted a destruction spell as he stabbed the crystal’s core. He had hoped the amulet would be totally destroyed. Instead, the crystal shattered into five pieces. Undeterred, he drew in more energy from the dagger and used that to scatter the crystal shards and the amulet far away, so that no one, including Deleth himself, would ever be able to find- he hissed as his senses told him that, although scattered, one piece of the crystal had remained with the amulet and it now lay in the hands of a powerful Seer. Still, no matter, that would be dealt with at another time. His soul could never be reunited with him, without all the pieces and the dagger, and so he could never return to what he was.
Deleth focussed on the task ahead. There was still one more step to complete the ritual: the heart. Pulling out a dark box made from bone, he placed it on the altar and opened the lid. Inside lay the heart of a god. Deleth studied the ancient heart - would this be the answer to all his problems? He carefully removed the heart from its box and placed it down onto the cold stone altar.

"I will show you, brother. You shall see - I will make you see!"

Deleth took the dagger, and slid the warm blade across his hand. Holding out a fist above the heart, he squeezed the blood from his hand and it dropped onto the heart. Suddenly, the heart began to beat. A large yellow eye opened in the center of the heart. A nictitating membrane blinked across the eye, before it glared up at Deleth who stumbled backwards, startled by what he witnessed. The heart seemed to have come alive and had begun to take form into something else. Deleth gathered himself and began to chant, redirecting the point of the dagger towards his chest. The dagger struck, and struck hard as Deleth gasped and arched forward in agony.

"DARK ONE, GRANT ME YOUR POWER!"

Symbiotic tentacles sprouted from the heart and shot forth, attaching themselves to the hilt of the dagger, and began to climb upward like an octopus and into Deleth’s chest. His head rocked back and his eyes widened.

"I feel your power, surging within me!"

Deleth laughed wickedly before collapsing to the floor. He felt his body beginning to change. His white, silvery hair had darkend to that of ebony. Horns emerged from his head, and his fingernails blackened and grew pointed. His once Elysian-violet eyes now became red like crimson.

It was done. The soulless one rose.

“I am Delta,” he said, with a slow, cold smile, his sharply pointed fangs glimmered. Deleth was no more.

-MORE CHAPTERS ON THE WAY!

MShadowlawn 2021-04-26 13:51:50 UTC #24

Technically cheating because this is chapter zero, but my chapter one's pretty big so this will have to do.

I took the train after packing my backpack and loading it the best I could, and forfeited what was left of the 'family' my real parents tried to leave behind for us. I watched through the window as it all faded away. I'm sure a few days ago, I'd think of such good memories of the past to weep about, but now all I could conjure up was an unending blackness, complete with pain, sorrows, and failure. Suddenly, every good moment left had a black shadow cast over, of the impending doom that came later on, and in the back of my head rattled the premonitions of a better future, one that never was.
I never imagined that thinking of my past would be so sickening, and never in my life would I ever have imagined having some cold comfort in leaving my hometown behind. Yet, here I am. I took a seat, all alone in my own space within the train cabin, one oddly tall girl and a pair of swords, just an unusual stranger in a crowd. I had one choice deep down in my heart, whether to even think of or acknowledge my heritage. I decided it would be better to leave it all behind. Today, I was nobody; just another ghost riding along the wind, waiting, yearning for a new haunt.

Urban Wolf, a story with gritty atmosphere, sophisticated swordfights, and moral ambiguity aplenty.

tateufel 2021-04-26 17:11:49 UTC #25

Here is a piece of writing from my newest chapter~!

I was running down the hallway of the school, my heart racing, breathing erratic. Mr. Burke was behind me, I could hear his voice echoing against the walls. I felt cold and tired, every inch of my body ached. Part of me knew this was just another dream, but how could I be sure? I was having trouble separating my dreams from real life. The halls appeared to stretch on forever and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.
“Ms. Massey,” he growled. His footsteps were slow and steady and yet I couldn’t outrun him. I turned my head to glance over my shoulder only to find the Burke monster directly behind me, hands outstretched, eyes glowing red. I screamed and fell to the ground, throwing my arms up to defend myself.
Without warning a glowing sword impaled the monster causing the creature to stop. The demon exploded into a shower of black ash which floated delicately to the ground. Behind the monster stood Casimir, still holding out his sword. The young man wore an exquisite suit of golden armor that seemed to glow like the sun. Even though I felt no wind, his cape billowed out around him, along with his hair which flowed free from his ponytail.
“C-Casimir?”
The young man looked down at me as if he had just noticed my presence. His angry stare softened and he lowered his sword arm, letting the tip fall to the floor. Black ash from the slain monster was still in the air as Casimir opened his mouth to speak. Every word sounded like gibberish and I strained to understand what he was trying to tell me. A large fleck of ash landed on Casimir’s shoulder and I saw him grimace in pain. From that spot a crack appeared, slowly running down his arm. The cracks grew bigger and bigger causing the golden color upon Casimir’s armor to fall off. Under the beautiful gold layer was a deep black beneath. Casimir stumbled backward as he clutched at the falling gold from his armor. The brightly glowing sword clattered to the floor. The light from the weapon began to pulse and fade. I could feel his fear and I wanted to help. I reached out my arm to grab at his hand and Casimir looked down at me in distress.