2026-07-16 07:00:00"I built these sewers to wash away the waste of a golden empire, but I never realized the empire’s greatest waste would be the people I left to rot in its shadow."
The damp, frigid air of the catacombs clung to my skin like a wet shroud. Every breath I took tasted of copper, sewage, and the slow, suffocating rot of a city dying from the inside out. I dragged my feet through the ankle-deep muck, the heavy suppressing iron of my manacles scraping against the moss-slick stone walls
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THE SECOND ANCHOR
"You are going to die in those eastern trenches, Harrison," Marcus spat, slamming his fists down onto the cabin table of the grounded frigate. "Look at yourself! You are seventeen years old, riding on borrowed magic from a golden glass orb! You cannot march into Kael's lair and fight a legion!""I am not marching into his lair to fight his legion, Marcus," I said, my voice steady, ice-cold, and entirely devoid of fear. "I am going there to break his glass before he turns my daughter back into a prisoner.""It is a suicide mission!" Marcus yelled, his face turning red as he leaned over the table, his fingers digging into the sea-stained wood. "You have thirty men! Thirty vanguard volunteers from the northern docks! Kael has fifty thousand heavy infantry garrisoned at the Eastern Citadel alone!""Then those fifty thousand men will watch their regent fail," Miller grunted, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, his heavy combat knife already strapped back to his chest. "We ar
IRON AND TIDE
"Collins, look at the tide," Miller yelled, ducking as another round of splintered rock rattled against the side of our wagon. "The water is pulling out fast. Their rowboats are going to ground on the sandbars before they even hit the docks!""They aren't trying to land on the beach, Miller," I said, wiping salt spray from my forehead as the sea wind whipped my hair into my eyes. "They are sealing the harbor. They want us pinned against these cliffs until their ground troops catch up.""Dad!" Valis gasped, pulling herself up to stand between us on the bench, her small fingers digging into the leather of my coat. "Look at the pier. The fishers left their black-powder crates near the water!"I narrowed my eyes, looking through the sea fog toward the timber docks below. Three heavy, pitch-sealed wooden barrels used for clearing reef rock sat stacked under a canvas tarp near the waterline."Three barrels of blasting powder," I muttered, a cold smile breaking through the exhaustion on my f
THE BROKEN SHIELD
"Collins, stop," Miller said, reaching out to grab my shoulder as I hurled another armful of dry pine needles into the hearth. "You don't have to burn the cabin.""Yes, I do," I said, my voice dangerously calm as I watched the flames roar to life, eating away at the wooden floorboards. "If we leave it standing, Kael’s trackers will know we left in a hurry. If it is ash, they will spend two days sifting through the rubble to see if our bones are in the basement.""It's our home," Miller grunted, his eyes glossy in the firelight. He looked around at the small wooden table, the heavy iron kettle, the rough-cut chairs he had spent three weeks carving with his own calloused hands. "We built this place with our bare fingers.""Home is not four wooden walls, Miller," I rasped, grabbing the strap of my travel pack. "Home is keeping her breathing. Now get the horses hooked to the wagon before the smoke brings the northern patrols down on our heads."Miller swallowed hard, his jaw tightening so
THE SOVEREIGN'S ENVOY
"Miller," I whispered, barely moving my lips as I pressed my back against the thin pine wall of the hallway. "Do not turn around.""I hear them," Miller breathed, his voice a low vibration in the dark. He was crouching by the hearth, his heavy hand resting on the hilt of his trench knife. "There are three on the roof. Two at the well.""They are already inside," I said. "The well is compromised. They dropped night-shade powder down the shaft five minutes ago.""The water?" Miller snapped his head toward me, horror sharpening his features. "Valis drank from the cup by her bed.""No," I said, my chest tightening with a cold, metallic dread. "I threw it out when Marcus left. But they do not know that.""Dad?"Valis’s small voice drifted from the doorway behind me. She was clutching her woolen blanket to her chin, her violet eyes wide in the shadows of the hallway."Get back in the closet, Valis," I commanded, keeping my voice down to a harsh whisper. "Lock the iron latch from the inside.
WHISPERS OF THE EASTERN LORDS
"If you touch that sphere again, Collins, I swear to God I will break your fingers myself."Miller’s voice was a low, dangerous growl, echoing off the white granite walls of the cavern."I do not have a choice, Miller," I rasped, my hand hovering inches above the floating orb of golden light. "You saw the map. Three hundred thousand men are moving toward our borders. I need to stand up.""You need to live!" Miller stepped between me and the altar, his broad chest blocking the warm glow. "You are seventeen years old in body, coughing up black blood every twenty minutes! You think absorbing an ancient imperial artifact is going to magically fix you?""It will buy me time," I said, meeting his hard eyes. "It will settle the soul-burn long enough for me to think. Long enough for me to build a defense.""Dad, please," Valis whispered from behind me, her small hand clutching the hem of my thin wool coat. "What if it hurts you? What if it makes you cold again?"I turned and dropped down to on
FOOTPRINTS UN THE SNOW
If my heart stops beating in this snow, Miller, you drag her back by her hair if you have to."Shut your mouth and keep moving, Collins," Miller yelled over the howling wind. "You are wasting precious oxygen on speech.""She is ten years old," I rasped, my throat raw from the freezing air and the black bile creeping up my windpipe. "She is out here in a category four storm because I couldn't keep my own pathetic body together.""I said shut up!" Miller grabbed the shoulder of my thin coat, yanking me upright before my knees hit the drift. "Look down. Look at the drift right there."Small, shallow indents filled with fresh powder lined the edge of the ridge."Valis," I breathed."She is moving fast," Miller said, his graying beard caked in frost. "Too fast for someone her size. The storm is covering her tracks almost as fast as she makes them.""We are losing her," I said. My chest seized, a sharp spike of soul-burn tearing through my ribs like hot iron. I doubled over, clutching my ri
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