The desert was almost beautiful in the moonlight — endless dunes of glistening sand, shifting and sighing under the breath of the stardusted sky.

The hundreds of figures scattered across it were motionless, their features vague in the low light.

Elian was grateful for that, at least. Too many had felt familiar, and too many were no longer standing. Now, they seemed like little more than oddly sh...

“You’re sure about this?” I whispered, ducking beneath a moss-choked pine bough. My eyes kept darting behind us, but the long shadows of evening just made everything excessively eerie and unfamiliar. A sharp pain, and I realized I’d chewed my thumbnail into the quick – again.

“As sure as I am about your momma’s – oof!” The man ahead of me was cut short as he suddenly vanished into the dense brush ...

-preface-

This is the opening of my first novel in progress! I still have a long way to go, and it’s always subject to change, but I don’t think I’ll ever know how much progress I’m really making without a little feedback, so please let me know what you think <3

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The Heavenly Collar pulsed again — slow, deliberate, like a hand tightening around her throat.

Aella didn’t move. She was the...

Across all of Erliea, no jewel shone as radiantly nor as colorfully as the Ursa Bazaar.

Thousands of luminous tent silks fluttered in the golden desert air, displaying countless hues. Blessed Silver bells tinkled from every tent and stall, joining the rich and rhythmic tones of street performers playing their instruments for bejeweled dancers in the firelight. The scent of incense and spices...

((After all this idk how to title it lmao. A bit of a long one this time, and I haven’t written for almost a week so I feel a little.. eh.. but it felt good to get it down, even as a sort of rough draft. Disclaimer: this is an exploratory chunk from a larger project that I’m working on, and is accurate to the original storyline, but geared towards the prompt.))

“Cairen!”

Aella’s voice was shredd...

The messenger owl arrived before dawn, his white plumage a frightful warning against the vast darkness of the desert sky.

— The Temple has taken the Keep. Serscei and I escaped, but Daedren and Ralyei are being held captive. The Viper is on your trail. —

The message was short, and unsigned — but Aella would recognize that bold and decisive handwriting anywhere. Cairen.

Her brother and his partne...

Gilded.

Everything in the room was rimmed with gold, and excessively lavish — from the white silk sheets to the plush woolen carpet. Even the logs in the hearth seemed to glow with a richness; sparking molten gold and ember.

Aella sat perched upon the singular windowsill of the Maiden’s Tower, her silken nightgown painfully thin against the biting chill of the Northern Wind. Gazing out into the ...