Sarah walked through the rows of cars with Julia, nervous and wary of everything around her. The ground under her feet was too smooth and dark to be stone, the lights were too bright and yellow to be natural or magical. She had pulled her long hair around her face to hide her ears, and her pants and boots were not strange enough to be notable. Leo’s jacket was very warm, and slightly too big [...]

“That is a car,” Kari said proudly, pointing at something that looked for all the world like a large, green, metal cage with windows. They had walked for about two hours, at which point they reached a large dirt track and followed it for several miles. The car was sitting by the side of the track, covered in pine needles and leaves, and its giant black wheels were splattered with mud. Sarah couldn’t help thinking [...]

I am very far behind, a fact that I can only attribute to work interference. Whether I finish this or not is up for debate, but I’ll certainly try – I’m aiming for another chapter tonight at least. They spent the night quite comfortably in the tents, despite the squashed conditions. Sylar bunked in with Leo in the smaller one, and Sarah stayed with Julia and Kari in the larger one. Elfkin magic took care [...]

Sylar sat down beside her and stared at her in terror, shaking her shoulder and talking emphatically in what could only be elfkin. Sarah just stared back, one hand over her mouth, and her eyes wide as she listened to him. The connection – it couldn’t even be called an attunement – had done something serious and quite frightening to her. How could any magic completely replace someone’s understanding of a language? “I’m sorry,” she [...]

The world came back slowly, and the first thing Sarah became aware of was the thumping pain in her temple. It faded to a dull ache behind her eyes, as if she had taken a severe blow to the head and it hadn’t quite healed. The hall, and the attack, and Sylar teleporting them away… well, that hadn’t happened. It couldn’t have. She was warm, and tucked up in bed. Maybe she had fallen, or [...]

There were so many of them – tall, handsome warriors hovering protectively over the Families and their children, servants in the yellow and green livery, and enough horses and wagons to completely fill the broad courtyard. Sarah perched on her windowsill and watched them, utterly engrossed in their comings and goings. There were lots of boys and girls her age, looking around each other with interest at the snowy keep and most wrapped up in [...]

So I’ve had my ass kicked by work, as usual. I feel bad. Not enough writing for me. I shall endeavour to fix this, and here’s the next part in the meantime. Sarah stared at the book, then back at her brother. It was a plain, brown book, leather bound, with some generic stitching along the spine. It was completely unremarkable as far as she could see. But Sylar’s eyes were lit up in excitement, [...]

The vaults had once been the place of nightmares for Sarah. When she was younger, her mother used to terrify her into obedience with the threat of leaving her down there forever and ever. This lasted until Sylar had dared her to go and see if she could bring back a monster pelt all by herself; an episode that had landed her in her father’s office, dusty and triumphant, having dragged a dirty old rug [...]

Court was a very boring affair, mostly consisting of her father walking around and talking to various important members of the freehold’s supporting town and outlying areas. It was supposed to be a smaller version of the High Court at Faeholme – another event that Sarah couldn’t wait to avoid at every turn. Dressing up was fun, and her mother had excellent taste in fashion, but the stuffiness of it all made her want to [...]

I still think I’m crazy and I have no idea where I’m going with this. OH WELL. Here are the rules: once it’s posted, I can’t edit anything until the whole book is done except for fixing typos. I’m doing a minimal amount of editing, so there will be mistakes and plot holes and who knows what else. Good, bad or indifferent, it is what it is. I’ll be putting most of it under a [...]