Martha.net

1. Rain is coming. He watches the dark line of clouds slink forward across the horizon and curses in a language he’s too young to know.

2. Lies grow bolder in the dark.

3. Short dense fur so thick that it feels like a brush, sharp and stinging against her skin.

4. “Why can’t you just let it go?” He hadn’t meant to say it, not like that, but his father was dead an nothing she could do would bring him back.

She glared at him for a long moment then carefully put the glass jar down on the table and left without another word.

He waited until she was well and truly gone before he unscrewed the top and set the fairy free.

5. Trash is suddenly treasure, now that they have the way to sort it back into it’s component parts. Landfills are beset by bidding wars and razed to the ground. Trash collection companies are forced to start paying by the pound and new bins arrive, keyed to open only for specific trucks.

1. Work is a balm for pain.

2. The tapestry is woven from the clothes of the dead, the rust of dried blood offset by black mud and the faded remains of heraldry.

3. He thinks of swords and Gordon’s knots and Occam’s Razor and how the only way to keep them safe is to make sure there’s nothing left to save.

4. The massive cities are wrought in latticework, delicate only to the eye, carving out the skies in fractal patterns that mesmerize.

5. There’s a light in the darkness and this time she thinks it might not be a hallucination.

1. Knights never speak, relying on their squires to act as go-betweens. Hidden away in armor they never remove, they are nameless, faceless forces incapable of mercy or regret.

2. Juggling four programs at once is easy, once she spawns the needed subroutines. It’s still unnerving, the ability to manipulate code reflexively, but the trainers insist the longer she spends in the net the easier it will become.

3. Cold iron hates elves as much as they hate it and each drop of blood that falls burns deeper until he can shatter the brittle metal. Continue reading →

1. George never wanted an exciting job, just a reliable paycheck to build his life around. He’s quiet and methodical and the very last person his coworkers would’ve turned to in a crisis– at least until last Tuesday.

2. Space was the first frontier where mankind brought rats on purpose.

3. Justifying his execution is easy, she doubts anyone will even ask, but she gets the story straight in her head just in case. Continue reading →

1. There’s a lot more to climbing a mountain than putting one foot in front of the other, but don’t try telling that to tourists.

2. Queens were born for this, the quiet manipulation of the court and nobility– she settles into the web her mother wove and begins to overlay lacework of her own.

3. He rose from the ashes, slowly rebuilding himself from the scraps of his nest-mates. Continue reading →