KayinStorm

Incognito slogged over to the transport.  His feet were cold, his vision was blurry.  He was tired, and he stank horribly.  He stumbled inside, dropped the remains of his weapon by his seat and collapsed into it.  Almost immediately, sleep took him. In his dreams, he replayed the events preceding today's mission.  It had been such a short amount of time... They got into the transport waiting for them in the tunnels underneath Sanctuary.  Irian hefted his case across the gap and looked for a seat.  There were plenty.  He turned back to Ouray. "Are we it?" His new mentor turned.  "For the moment, yes.  We have another stop to make." He set

Show and Tell He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was pretty.  It was blue, shiny, and felt warm.  When it got dark, where the trees were over the path, it glowed.  He was sure his parents would want to see what he had found in the woods, and he was sure it was important.  His little legs carried him ever faster towards home. “They say the Natives drove off another expedition of our boys, dear…” “Maybe they’ll learn that they have a country, and to leave that one to them.”  At that, the door slammed open.  A short, red-haired child charged in, half-carrying half-dragging a long, sparkly blue object.  It wa

Chapter 17 The way forward was dark, dirty, wet, and smelled pretty bad. The way back wasn’t any better. “What’s this again?” “The Cloaca Maxima.  Oldest sewer known.” “It stinks.” “It IS a sewer.” From behind them, a voice cut through the stench.  “Night, Incognito, knock it off.” They trudged on in silence. Night stopped.  Her loose hair fell around her face in ebon sheaves.  “What’s that smell?” “I’m betting that’s our mark.” The same voice, again.  “The walls have ears, you know.” “They apparently have assholes, too.&#

Chapter  16 Irian stared into the case.  These were the people he had trained his whole life to join, never truly believing himself good enough, and here was his invitation, carved in wood and sitting on his foot.  He was a bit shocked.  Tenshu was slowly divesting himself of the tea ceremony persona, and was watching his student in great interest. However, a knock at the door startled irian, and Tenshu quickly put his tea face back on.   “Enter.” At the door appeared a face Irian had not seen in more than a year.   Sticks and his younger sister stood in the doorway, removed their geta, and stepped into the tea room.  They bowed

Aether Blades:  Theory and Application in Better Blade Design Aether Theory Irian Pendreic To begin, let us state the problems experienced till this present time in Aetheric s, namely that of producing much larger vitrified aether components than the two facings that make an aether dagger.  These two facings are then bonded with either an epoxy or welded to the dagger hilt, allowing a tool to be made from the two near paper-thin aether forgings.  Welded designs are more stable, but tend to destroy as many aether facings as they attach.  The aether is still unstable at temperatures required to weld it.   Because of this problem, as well as

Chapter  14 It was dark. It was dark, there was no light, there was only dark and pain and I couldn’t tell how long it went on and it couldn’t get any worse and how do I make it stop. He should have been asleep, but he wasn’t.  The needle in his arm scratched (or was it itched, he couldn’t remember) and he was uncomfortable.   The chair was tilted, he thought, or was he lying down?  His body was so far away. Suddenly, the pain stopped.   Hariel opened his eyes.  Light hurt.  Light hurt a lot.   He regarded his surroundings.  He didn’t know where inSanctuary he was, if he was even there at all…

Chapter 13 Irian turned to the water.  It all made sense.  He had noticed nothing was nibbling at him, and normally even with him smacking the water his friends caught more fish than a single hypostomus… “Let me see your fish.  I have an idea.”   Irian looked at the skewered fish.   There were no odontodes of any kind, and it was impossible to tell the sex of the fish.  It was a juvenile, and then he saw the thing that made his blood stop, freeze and run backwards.   Underneath it, instead of a full belly, there were the remains of a yolk sac.  The bait in its mouth had been its first meal.   “It would appear we have a g