Hero of the Alabaster Depths
What distinguished a hero from a man?
[Leave it be, leave it be, leave it be.]
Back then, he’d been certain that he knew. Every time they took up oars, each of those among ...
2021-12-16 05:38:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
Jason fell to one knee, staring down at the mess I’d made of Selene’s floor. For her part, the Scarlet Oracle only slapped me lightly on the shoulder for the damage I’d done and rolled her eyes when I m...
2021-12-13 08:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
The ideal of the institutions that we called the greater mystery cults was camaraderie in pursuit of greater understanding. These were learning places, yes, as well as fonts of overwhelming strength in time...
2021-12-13 04:01:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
Solus. The wind carried my name to me, a whisper with no visible source. I grunted and stood up, shrugging the weight of command off my shoulders.
“Ninety-three?” Selene asked, disappointed...
2021-12-11 03:14:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
“The old man you’re here to punch,” whispered the little king, Leo, “it’s the Gadfly, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“We’ll help you,” the little king decided. “Won’t we, Pyr?...
2021-12-08 05:49:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
“You were right to seek out Aristotle first.”
I watched death lance towards my heart, a spear with a dull wooden tip that was better suited for a stage play than combat. And yet the rules of nature ...
2021-12-04 04:11:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
“Lio! Teach-”
I slapped the little king upside his head. He yelped.
“When did I say you could call me that?”
“Griffon,” he amended, rubbing at the spot where I’d struck him. ...
2021-12-02 18:09:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city of Rome to see a marching band.
“There are as many approaches to cultivation as there are stars in the sky,” Socrates spoke, his voice a dista...
2021-11-18 03:19:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
“Observe,” I whispered, as I hunted the Huntsman, ”the coward in his natural state.”
Lefteris’ nameless boys crept after me, bolts of forest green cloth wrapped around their heads to hide th...
2021-11-13 00:49:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
As a young patrician of Rome, and later an attendant to the general of the west, I had grown used to being in the presence of powerful people. Those with physical power, those with political power, up and dow...
2021-11-12 06:21:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
I wondered what Sol was up to.
”I swear by the Physician, and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this oath in this contract...
2021-11-09 05:07:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
I realized very quickly that my time as Gaius’ shadow had spoiled me. My conception of what a mentor - or a patron - was, had been heavily skewed by years on campaign. In the legions, every lesson was emine...
2021-11-07 04:27:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe Little Kyrios
In the aftermath of his discourse with his eldest cousin, Myron realized something that should have been evident to him from the beginning. Actions had consequences. He’d been enlightened, that was true, ...
2021-11-05 04:52:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe Little Kyrios
The first day after Lio left the Rosy Dawn was the longest, and the most difficult. There were tears, anguish, frustrations, and above all else a horrible fear. After that first day, they stifled their tear...
2021-11-04 01:42:38 +0000 UTC View PostOld ‘Zalus
The room was large but modestly furnished, barren by the standards of most made men. Its floors were polished marble, pure and unblemished by gemstone veins. What furniture that there was, a massive cypress bed ...
2021-11-03 16:04:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
“Tell me, Solus, what do Romans do for fun?” Selene asked, resting on her stomach in the late kyrios‘ bed while I paced slowly around the room. Her legs kicked idly behind her. We had been speaking for ...
2021-11-02 03:04:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
The second rank of the Sophic Realm felt much like the first.
The difference was enormous by the standards of a Civic cultivator, of course. My reservoir of pneuma - the sea of my vital soul - had dee...
2021-10-30 05:21:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe Gold-String Guardian
Names were strange things.
Eleftherios. Lefteris for short. Neither name had been given to him at birth, but his mother had told him from a young age, over and over until he was old enough for ...
2021-10-29 02:33:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
“Arrogant, belligerent child,” Socrates muttered as he stalked out of the rugged chamber with its shard of tongues. “I’ll box his ears until they fall off. Split foundations. Split foundations!”
The Young Griffon
What is the nature of tribulation?
Back when I had leapt from the top of the eastern mountain range with Sol at my side, in the throes of my ascension to the Sophic Realm, I had experienced a moment o...
2021-10-26 05:26:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
“Bastard,” I snarled. “Vile old wretch. Low life latrine digger. I’ll put you on a cross.”
“I’m sure you will,” Socrates said, unimpressed. My vitriol did not slow his stride a ...
2021-10-24 04:59:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
When I was seven years old I called upon Nikolas to face me in the marble octagon. He was exactly twice my age at that time, and his cultivation was exactly one realm above my own.
A Citizen of the fi...
2021-10-20 21:11:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
We flew.
There was no other way to describe it. The old man in his rags of unassuming filth held tight to my hair and pulled me up to heaven, faster than sound could travel. The city of Olympia grew sma...
2021-10-18 03:23:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
“Right, you just happened to cross paths after the funeral, and just happened to come to an accord on the topic of insurrection out of the goodness of your hearts,” Elissa said skeptically, thr...
2021-10-06 22:03:19 +0000 UTC View PostThe Unkindness
“Violence is an art.”
The Heroic huntsman, clad in his midnight black rags, twitched and looked over his shoulder. As he did, he palmed another man’s head as easily as one would an apple. ...
2021-09-30 04:34:19 +0000 UTC View PostHero of the Scything Squall
Slayer of monsters. Champion of humanity.
Scythas hadn’t been either of those things in a very long time. These days, he hardly remembered what it felt like to be that man.
The Tyran...
2021-09-27 23:32:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe Son of Rome
We parted ways after the immediate plans had been made for sundown, Griffon and Elissa heading back to the ruined residential streets while Jason and I made for the Raging Heaven.
For the most part, Jas...
2021-09-23 04:03:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe Young Griffon
As a child grew old in body and soul, walking that crucial transitory bridge between adolescence and adulthood, the first iteration of their identity finally cemented itself. In those formative years a huma...
2021-09-22 03:48:04 +0000 UTC View Post