Martha.net

1. Magic was in everything. Seeped into the very heart of life, it permeated every aspect of our lives— but here, inside the ancient circle, the voices were finally gone.

2. “If you wanted me to stay, you should have said so.”

“Fine, I want you to stay.”

“Should have said so then, it’s too late now.” Continue reading →

1. She had a story ready if anyone asked her where she’d been— but no one did so she dutiful recited it to Mr. Bear instead.

2. “But I didn’t—”

“Food means things,” he said more sharply than intended and sighed at her hurt look. “Just don’t feed anyone else, at least until I can explain.” Continue reading →

1. Everything they harvest is sweet, cloyingly so, and it takes what seems like a lifetime for the biologists to find something bland enough to dilute their meals to tolerable levels.

2. Rocky beaches frame the cove, littered with crisp white bones that catch the fading sunlight.

3. Pop culture has a short shelf life and once the generation that spawned it dies, their idols follow. Which is why he loves digging through the archives, resurrecting old memories and infecting new generations.

4. The days are hot and muggy; fetid mists billowing from the swamps coat everyone in the stench of rotting vegetation.

5. The answer is always ‘magic’ and after a while he stops bothering to ask.

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 and 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 →

1. I wish she could see me now, but time only runs one way at the edges of the universe.

2. For a moment the ocean teams with life, bright silver flashes of fish skim just below the surface, stretching from horizon to horizon punctuated by the ark of breaching predators.

3. It’s easier to find familiars for single elements than dual, but it can be done. Private breeders who specialize in the craft make a tidy profit off the incoming classes. But I have three elements, not two, and that means my familiar will be built, not bred.

4. There were no clouds where she grew-up and she spent the first week of the monsoon sedated.

5. The world is nothing but bugs– a single phylum that dominates the biosphere. Thankfully they see humans as neither predator nor prey and then scientists are very very careful not to change their minds.