The House of [Comitatem]
(a piece of my original fantasy novel that I’ve been developing for like 8 years now)
Calli rolled on top of his brother and wrapped his arm around the larger man’s neck. Beran pulled at the chokehold. It was tight—impressive. But he smiled and locked his legs around Calli’s and flipped him over. Call lost his grip and hit the wooden floorboards head-first. He was stunned, unable to maneuver away as his brother pinned him down.
“Okay, okay! Sei! Sei!”
Beran let his little brother up. “You were good though. Maybe you could take Aryn by now.”
“Definitely not.” Aryn laughed and looked up from the knife she was sharpening.
io9 Article: The Rules of Magic, According to the Greatest Fantasy Sagas of All Time
io9.comI am developing an addiction to the webzine io9.com
They have some of the greatest writing/literature related articles I’ve found online.
This is the latest I’m sharing with you guys here. The link above takes you to a massive (and I do mean MASSIVE) chart that lists a wide variety of fantasy novel series, the types of magic the stories employ, and the rules regarding the mystic arts in relation to their story world.
The Abominations of Yondo by Clark Ashton Smith (1925)
eldritchdark.comThe sand of the desert of Yondo is not as the sand of other deserts; for Yondo lies nearest of all to the world’s rim; and strange winds, blowing from a pit no astronomer may hope to fathom, have sown its ruinous fields with the gray dust of corroding planets, the black ashes of extinguished suns. The dark, orblike mountains which rise from its wrinkled and pitted plain are not all its own, for some are fallen asteroids half-buried in that abysmal sand. Things have crept in from nether space, whose incursion is forbid by the gods of all proper and well-ordered lands; but there are no such gods in Yondo, where live the hoary genii of stars abolished and decrepit demons left homeless by the destruction of antiquated hells.
The House of [Modestia]
(an excerpt from my fantasy novel I’ve been working on for like 8 years)
It was nearing midsummer. The weather was warmer than anyone expected. It was like you could hear the water leaking from the plants. Guy rolled down the window of the carriage.
Without even asking, the servant began to fan air over him. “It will be cooler when we reach the north,” the servant said.
Guy grumbled under his breath. He didn’t mind the heat. He minded this incessant concern over his general state of discomfort.
“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t understand. Would you like me to ask the driver to stop? Are you feeling well?”
The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany (1912)
sff.netThe Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for sapphires; they have filled a hole with gold and dig it up when they need it. And the only use that is known for their ridiculous wealth is to attract to their larder a continual supply of food. In times of famine they have even been known to scatter rubies abroad, a little trail of them to some city of Man, and sure enough their larders would soon be full again.
From ‘The Hoard of the Gibbelins’
Lord Dunsany was an early writer of fantasy. His stories evoke a magical atmosphere and are much closer to fairy tales than to more modern fantasy.
Chapter Two - Remembering
So sorry it’s short, but this is just a filler to help explain more of the story. I’m already writing chapter 6 right now and I love it!!!
Ever since I was little, I kept having these visions of the future. It has helped me throughout life. For example one night I was at home and I had a vision that there would be a pop quiz the next day in science class. So I studied and managed to get a B+. The more I grew up, the longer and clearer I could see each vision. That was the reason I was taken away when I was 14 years old and brought here.
Right when we stepped out of the secret door, 5 guards followed us to the door that led to the cafeteria. I nervously looked at Mason, but he didn’t look back. It seemed as if he were thinking. I wonder if he was thinking about escaping. The guards left when we got to the cafeteria door, so nobody would be suspicious.
Mason pulled the door open and I walked in first. I could feel everybody staring at us as we walked to get our food. The cafeteria got quiet and all the attention was on us. We tried to blend in, but everybody could feel something strange about us. I can still remember the first day I met Mason. My life had changed when I realized that I wouldn’t be alone.
The guards had brought me to the cafeteria one morning and told me to attend school like a normal person. It was confusing to me, because I already thought as myself as a normal person. I had sat down on an empty table in the corner where nobody would bother to look at me. As I started to eat my food, I saw a shadow appear behind me. Instead of turning around, I froze in place.
“Hey, I’m Mason,” a soft gentle voice spoke that sent a tiny chill down my back. His shadow moved and the next thing I saw was a guy with dark brown hair. He had a small tattoo of black vines on his neck. He was wearing a grey shirt with rolled up sleeves and long black pants. I noticed that he had a bracelet that looked like black vines wrapping around half of his arm. But what really caught my attention, were his eyes. Instead of being a normal color, they were golden.
“U-Uh,” I had nothing to say. I was still frozen and I couldn’t stop staring into his eyes.
Mason sat down in the opposite side of the table and was right in front of me. Why was he doing this? “Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” he asked with a small grin.
“I’m Zuri,” I felt like I could trust him. He seemed different from everybody else. There was something special about him.
“I know that you have powers,” his grin had turned into a smile.
“Excuse me?” how did he know this?
“We have a master called Aaron, and he is the reason that you are here. I talked to him earlier and he told me about you. And that you can see the future.”
“Why does he want me?”
“He wants both of us.”
“Why?”
“Because both of us have powers,” Mason’s smile had faded away. “I don’t know what he plans to do with us, but I do know that he is going to want us to do something for him.”
“How do you know that?”
“Instead of taking P.E, we have to go deep into this small forest. He will test our powers and see if we have improved. After that, we have to practice.”
“What are your powers?” I had so many questions to ask him, but I didn’t want to be annoying. He was the only person that bothered to talk to me.
“I can shield myself or others by creating some kind of force field.”
“Is it hard to shield?”
“Not really. I just have to concentrate and want to protect that person.”
“O-Oh,” then I asked the question I had been dying to ask him. “Why are your eyes golden?”
Mason’s expression was complete shock. He closed his eyes and quickly rubbed them with his hands. When he opened his eyes, they were brown. “They turn golden when I’m using my powers or…w-when I’m feeling a strong emotion.”
That had made me wonder what emotion he was feeling. I had many other questions to ask him, but I decided to wait for another time to ask him. Mason had showed me all of my classes for the rest of the day. And what he had said about Aaron was true. Aaron only wanted our powers not us. The same routine had repeated itself for 3 years until it had reached the present day. We went to school like normal people and went back to the chambers to be locked up at night time. But I felt like something special was going to happen.
Mine Enemy
Mine Enemy,
Do you remember the candle I sent to you all those years ago? I really did mean that as a peace offering. I heard what you did with it; rather unfortunate. I imagined you would understand why I proposed a truce between our people. You are a warlock, a pagan, and, since I am a mystic, I somewhat identify with your religious persuasions — except when you use your blessings to curse.
Mishkael, I don’t need to explain the metaphysical process of cursing, nor the esoteric punishments for such things. You sowed a curse and I pity you for it. May the Lord transmute your black soul to light, and may the process not obliterate you.
On to the official business of this letter: I, as emissary of the Myriad, hereby inform you that they have been bound and broken, your old spells. I went back to the place where you first began your psychic assaults, where you scorched the ground and opened up a mouth of Hell and let into the world all the lurking, blasphemous souls that did your bidding…for a time.
I found what you did, Mishkael, and I undid it. The ground is clean, you are out of time; all your power has become mine. If you care to protest, you know where to look. I’ll be waiting.
Donovan X. Victor
He folded the parchment and dripped white wax onto its rough edge. He pressed his ring into the hot puddle. The liquid wax burned his knuckle red and then quickly cooled and hardened. He took his hand away and looked at the pink skin around the hammered silver edges of the ring. He relished the stinging wound as proof of the authority of this writ. He smiled, cautiously. Even as his heart thrummed strong in his chest, sure in his victory over Lock Mishkael, all the embattled years now poetically closing, Dame Magda’s words pealed like a bell through Donovan’s mind.
“Gloat not over your enemies, or the Lord will be displeased with you and have cause to let your enemies rise up and overcome you.”
“Shouldn’t we be thankful for our victories, teacher?” was the question Donovan had proposed. Back then, he was barely fifteen, a whelp, and the Dame of Twiceborne Valley still had raven-colored streaks in her silver locks, and with a toss of these, she had fiercely answered Donovan’s inquiry.
“Never presume yourself above your enemy! You are ever equals and ever subject to the Lord, despite the paths you choose to travel. Bear this in mind, Donovan, for the Myriad oracles have spoken of your future conquests. You should take no joy in war!”
Of what good is your counsel now, my Dame? Donovan thought, tracing his thumb across the face of the hardened seal, now impressed by his ring with the seven-sided glyph, the same symbol sewn into the cloaks of the Senate and emblazoned on every banner in Twiceborne; the eye of God. The glyph had never changed, stayed same as the ways of the mystics, but the Myriad had changed so much since Magda mediated between the Senate and the reclusive oracles who purported to know and utter the will of the Lord. That was all in the past. The Senate no longer listened to the oracles, and hadn’t for eleven years — much longer than his apprenticeship under the Dame. It was a new age with new ways. Now, the Senate interpreted the tenets of the Myriad; the application of its seven sacred precepts were determined by course of debate and vote, not through oracular devices. Like the glyph eye of the Lord, the precepts had never changed - and wasn’t one of these Strength, through which comes Justice, and sometimes War? Horrific as it was, war could be used as means to peace, means to an end.
Another voice echoed in Donovan’s mind, chiding, “Now you sound like Lock Mishkael.” It was his own voice, his conscience holding up the other end of the argument. He regarded the sealed message, contemplating the outcome of its delivery. War would come. Mishkael would sweep into Twiceborne Valley in a bid to take back the ground Donovan reclaimed in the name of the Myriad. Many would die by the sword.
“Take no joy in war,” Donovan said, closing his fist around the sealed parchment. “Magda, I can’t promise not to be glad when my enemy swings from the gallows, but I will try to carry my duty as grimly as you taught, my Dame.”
A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong by K.J. Parker (2011)
subterraneanpress.com“Think about it,” I said, and I was so ashamed of myself; like robbing a dying man. “Your last work. Possibly your greatest.”
He laughed out loud. “You haven’t read it yet,” he said. “It could be absolute garbage for all you know.”
It could have been, but I knew it wasn’t. “Let me finish it for you,” I said. “Please. Don’t let it die with you. You owe it to the human race.”
I’d said the wrong thing. “To be brutally frank with you,” he said, in a light, slightly brittle voice, “I couldn’t give a twopenny fuck about the human race. They’re the ones who put me in here, and in six hours’ time they’re going to pull my neck like a chicken. Screw the lot of them.”
It’s Friday again, and time for another fantasy story!
K.J. Parker is a modern fantasy author who writes fantasy without any supernatural or fantastic elements. Despite this, his or her stories are still immediately recognizable as fantasy. Parker also likes to tackle heavier themes such as evil, psychological blindness and love.
Chapter Two - Remembering
Ever since I was little, I kept having these visions of the future. It has helped me throughout life. For example one night I was at home and I had a vision that there would be a pop quiz the next day in science class. So I studied and managed to get a B+. The more I grew up, the longer and clearer I could see each vision. That was the reason I was taken away when I was 14 years old and brought here.
Right when we stepped out of the secret door, 5 guards followed us to the door that led to the cafeteria. I nervously looked at Mason, but he didn’t look back. It seemed as if he were thinking. I wonder if he was thinking about escaping. The guards left when we got to the cafeteria door, so nobody would be suspicious.
Mason pulled the door open and I walked in first. I could feel everybody staring at us as we walked to get our food. The cafeteria got quiet and all the attention was on us. We tried to blend in, but everybody could feel something strange about us. I can still remember the first day I met Mason. My life had changed when I realized that I wouldn’t be alone.
The guards had brought me to the cafeteria one morning and told me to attend school like a normal person. It was confusing to me, because I already thought as myself as a normal person. I had sat down on an empty table in the corner where nobody would bother to look at me. As I started to eat my food, I saw a shadow appear behind me. Instead of turning around, I froze in place.
“Hey, I’m Mason,” a soft gentle voice spoke that sent a tiny chill down my back. His shadow moved and the next thing I saw was a guy with dark brown hair. He had a small tattoo of black vines on his neck. He was wearing a grey shirt with rolled up sleeves and long black pants. I noticed that he had a bracelet that looked like black vines wrapping around half of his arm. But what really caught my attention, were his eyes. Instead of being a normal color, they were golden.
“U-Uh,” I had nothing to say. I was still frozen and I couldn’t stop staring into his eyes.
Mason sat down in the opposite side of the table and was right in front of me. Why was he doing this? “Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” he asked with a small grin.
“I’m Zuri,” I felt like I could trust him. He seemed different from everybody else. There was something special about him.
“I know that you have powers,” his grin had turned into a smile.
“Excuse me?” how did he know this?
“We have a master called Aaron, and he is the reason that you are here. I talked to him earlier and he told me about you. And that you can see the future.”
“Why does he want me?”
“He wants both of us.”
“Why?”
“Because both of us have powers,” Mason’s smile had faded away. “I don’t know what he plans to do with us, but I do know that he is going to want us to do something for him.”
“How do you know that?”
“Instead of taking P.E, we have to go deep into this small forest. He will test our powers and see if we have improved. After that, we have to practice.”
“What are your powers?” I had so many questions to ask him, but I didn’t want to be annoying. He was the only person that bothered to talk to me.
“I can shield myself or others by creating some kind of force field.”
“Is it hard to shield?”
“Not really. I just have to concentrate and want to protect that person.”
“O-Oh,” then I asked the question I had been dying to ask him. “Why are your eyes golden?”
Mason’s expression was complete shock. He closed his eyes and quickly rubbed them with his hands. When he opened his eyes, they were brown. “They turn golden when I’m using my powers or…w-when I’m feeling a strong emotion.”
That had made me wonder what emotion he was feeling. I had many other questions to ask him, but I decided to wait for another time to ask him. Mason had showed me all of my classes for the rest of the day. And what he had said about Aaron was true. Aaron only wanted our powers not us. The same routine had repeated itself for 3 years until it had reached the present day. We went to school like normal people and went back to the chambers to be locked up at night time. But I felt like something special was going to happen.
Chapter Three - Blade
I took my tray full of food and went to sit down where Mason and I usually sat down at. It was the same table I had sat in since the first day I came here. After being here for a while, people started to ignore us.
“So do you want to hear my plan?” Mason said once we had sat down.
“Yes, tell me,” I couldn’t wait to get out of here. It was hard to find a good time to escape because guards were everywhere.
“Before we leave, I think that we should find out more about this place. Like where the security is located and which places don’t have guards watching.”
“And how are we going to do that?” It was hard to find out the secrets of this place because Aaron had done good job at hiding them from us. He was the one in charge and controlled everybody here.
“I need to earn his trust and get upgraded from those metal chambers,” Mason smiled, feeling proud of his idea.
“That’s going to be hard,” I started to explain, “All you do during our training with Aaron, is insult him and give him mean faces.”
“I have to try. And he deserves that.” Mason had a bad habit of being mean to people.
When I was about to respond, the bell started to ring. Mason took my hand and walked me to class. We had the same classes because Aaron wanted us to be in the same place in case he needed us. Math was first period and it was really easy. All we had to do was do independent work and take a test on Friday. I didn’t put much thought into school, because I had mind set on escaping. And there was a question that kept bothering since I first came here. What would happen when high school ended and we had to leave? Mason and I were seniors which meant that this was our last year.
Time passed by slowly in class because I couldn’t stop worrying about Mason’s plan. Halfway through class, I whispered to Mason, “So how exactly are we going to escape?”
“I need to find a secret exit out of here first,” Mason said as he worked.
“And don’t you think that Aaron will be suspicious if you started being nice to him?”
“He will be at first, but then he might learn to trust me.”
“When the school ends, do you have any idea of where we might go?”
“No,” Mason sighed and then continued talking, “But I do know that I won’t let anybody separate us.”
“Oh,” I looked back at my paper and couldn’t help blushing. Why was I blushing?
“I-I’m going to start being nice from now on,” Mason said after a few seconds of silence. I looked at him and noticed that his eyes had turned golden. Why did they turn golden when he was around me?
The bell rang and everybody in the class immediately stood up to leave. We had 20 minutes to go anywhere we wanted. I usually went with to this tree by the school garden. It was the only time I was alone from everybody else.
“See you later,” Mason hugged me and left. He had his own secret place to hide from everybody. I didn’t know where his hide-out was, but he knew where mine was. On the first day I came here, Mason had brought me there and told me that everything was going to be okay. That we weren’t going to be stuck here forever. But we still are.
When I got to the tree, I sat down against it and closed my eyes. I thought about my parents. I missed them so much. I didn’t know if they were alive or dead. My last memory of them shattered my heart. I couldn’t bear seeing them lying on the floor. The more I thought about them, the more tears ran down my face.
“Excuse me? Are you okay?” I opened my eyes and saw a tall skinny guy with blonde hair. He had brown eyes and a huge smile. He was wearing a green shirt with a black jacket and long grey pants. He also had a metal necklace with the shape of shield hanging around his neck.
“Umm yeah,” I was shocked. Nobody knew about this place, except Mason.
“ Doesn’t look like it. You’re crying,” he walked over to me and sat in front of me.
I wiped the tears off my face embarrassed.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked me.
“Why should I tell you? I don’t know who you are.”
“My name is Blade,” his smile got bigger and I could help smile back.
“Last name?” I was curious of who he was. People around here didn’t care about me or Mason. They just ignored us and went on with their lives.
Blade laughed and then said, “Adams. I’m Blade Adams. Happy?” He stretched out his hand.
“Nice to meet you Blade,” I shook his hand and laughed. He seemed nice and different. Just like Mason.
