Among the trees of Lanris Grove in the golden hours before sunset, one might be forgiven for thinking that summer was still at its zenith. Far removed from the morning chill, it was positively balmy beneath the still-green boughs as Asmira wandered, breathing in the heady scent of sun-warmed leaves.  It was seldom that Asmira found herself in the Grove nowadays. Lanris was no longer her home, no longer the place she knew as well as her own stripes. The cottage, filled with painful mem...

Asmira awakens just before dawn, as she always does. In summer it means she sleeps less, the nights shorter, but now that the weather has turned in other parts of Kyvalore, dawn comes a little later, dusk a little sooner. When she thinks about it, she wonders if her wakefulness is tied to the rising of the sun, the way she always feels so much stronger standing in the sunlight, her bones almost ringing with power. Now, though, she feels disturbed, as if awoken from a nightmare, ruffled and un...

Asmira frowned at the letter on her table, the parchment tattered and plain compared to the brightly painted wood, as much an art piece itself as a work bench despite the scars that marred the intricate patterns. Her frown was not for the damage, but for the contents of the missive, from one Captain Ravinger. Asmira had to wonder just how many would-be treasure hunters Ravinger had sent letters to—and how much it had cost him. How had he found her name, anyway? It wasn't as if she had ever ...

Asmira shivered as she watched the fog descend upon the forest of Fayewood, blotting out the perpetual darkness in favor of something a little more sinister, reflecting the light of the moon in strange, eerie ways. She had a sudden sense that her light magic would do her no good, not here. She cursed herself for her complacency in allowing night to fall without noticing—by now, all of Kyvalore was aware of what stalked the forests, and despite numerous attempts to subdue Sahmaron, all had f...

"You know," said Sati as she carefully locked the door to her home. "I haven't left Vitrun in a very long time." Asmira paused, ears flattening against her skull in anxiety. "You don't have to come with—" "I didn't say it was a bad thing," Sati interrupted calmly, letting Dusk wrap himself around one of her horns, as was customary. "It was just an observation." Asmira's ears relaxed a little as she gave Sati a sheepish look. "Sorry. Did I thank you yet?" Sati lau...

Dusk looped through the night sky, chasing the ball of light like a moth to a flame as Asmira laughed, light as air. Sati, a dark shadow with her wings wrapped around her, smiled at the joy in Asmira's laugh, something she knew the voxibell had struggled to find for so long—not that anyone could blame her. For someone who had gone through what she had, at such a young age, she was startlingly resilient, even if she didn't believe it herself. Sati didn't know if she would have been able to c...

It has been months since Asmira last saw Modeous, months since she breathed in the stale, almost fetid air of the Letan ruins. Months since she had found—and lost—the creature there, the beast twisted by mana into something that it was not, haunted and strange, a monster not of its own making. She could sense the tangled threads of mana that held it captive, and her heart aches to think of them, even now. She remembers hunting, and being hunted, galvanized by fear as the thing chased her ...