The Silversmith and the Silver-Tongued

Beautiful ladies dressed to the nine in colorful lace and silk gracefully dance their way down the stairs; the guardsmen are still, captivated. The dancers were as real as day, brushing up against the guards, enticing them to dance. And they did.

“No, you fools. Cover your ears!” The silversmith presses his hands over his ears, his smarter sons doing the same… The boy shakes his head and rests the music box on his knees, slapping his cheeks with his hands to wake himself up.

By Kizzie Le Carpentier

Kizzie Le Carpentier is a graduate of Plymouth University in the U.K. She published her first book, "The Walk Back Home" in June of 2021.

I love books, movies and stories that unravel a new world with new creatures. I love it when a writer makes up something completely new and unreal -- but I love it even more when a writer can convince me that their fantasy world could be real.

Kizzie Le Carpentier

A room. A cold room but a lively room, a cluttered room but an exciting room. A silversmith amongst his silverware sits on a stall hunched over his silver desk, his feet not touching the ground, his eyes fixated on his liney hands. He’s screwing the last screw.

Nubbly fingers holding a nubbly box, what kind of a box?

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The Will of the Whip

Then there was a soft spitting noise, like a match flaring to light. Evelos glanced between his fingers, and there was Keelath, the wuyon’mar’s angular face twisted in rage, holding his sword in one hand and a ball of furious Light magic in the other.

“Take your claws off my son,” his father growled.

The Will of the Whip

By A. Broadhead

“…this life, witho-o-out you.”

Mirium drew the final note to a careful quaver, then bowed as her small audience erupted into clapping. Face glowing, the wuyon’mar stepped down from the Halfmoon Tavern’s stage and sat down between her two adult children, Medi and Evelos.

“What did you think?” she whispered.

“It was beautiful,” said Evelos. “I think you’re getting your talent back.”

“Oh, you think you could do better?” Medi quipped, nudging Evelos in the ribs.

“Well, I do have a story I could tell,” said Evelos thoughtfully, as the crowd settled again and Lana took to stage to call out for the next participant. “It’s from when I was a child.”

“You were a child once??” Medi goggled.

“Erm, yes,” said Evelos. “It’s about when we first moved to Thalas’talah, away from the Dawnmist manor. It was years before you were born, though.”

Medi leaned back in disappointment. “Really? That sounds bore-ring!”

“I think you’ll find it’s not.” Continue reading “The Will of the Whip”

Pages: 123

Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 5

Living Story Excerpts

…the next morning he was on the road again with his ram and the imp and a large supply of beer basted boar ribs…

The delivery was made and the fee for it paid. Still he was a little short, so Seryth agreed to look into the local kobold problem for the dwarves. He did his best to ignore the imp supplementing his fire bolts with some of its own… Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 5”

Axes and Lightning: A Leader’s Path

“The humans are coming, and there are too many of them. We need to negotiate peace with them. We need them to see that we are more than just beasts.” The shaman paused. “This is why, from this day forward, you will not carry axes when there is no enemy present. Blood duels are banned!”

Axes and Lightning: A Leader’s Path

By Greg Rowson

Part 1

A crowd of hoghers gathered in a large circle in the center of the village, which primarily consisted of huts made of animal skin and bones of large beasts. Their attention was entirely on two hoghers in the center, who glared at each other with deadly intensity, each gripping their axes that gleamed in the midday sun.

“You… you killed my brother. You will pay, Tangarth!”

“Your brother killed my father, and you can join him in hell, Gartan!”

“Your father shouldn’t have stolen from my brother’s farm!”

“Your brother should have paid my father! Your entire family are scoundrels with no honor.”

“That’s enough.” Gartan’s green face flushed red. “Now you die!” Continue reading “Axes and Lightning: A Leader’s Path”

Pages: 12345

Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 4

Living Story Excerpts

He returned to Kharanos with the trolls dead and the meat and shimmerweed in tow. The dwarves gave him a feast in thanks, and Seryth went to bed with a bellyache and a sore head. He dropped off quickly into sleep, reflecting that he could always tell his father that the harvest had taken longer than usual to sell, hence his being away for a few days instead of the couple he had promised… Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 4”

Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 3

Living Story Excerpts

N/A.

Setting Translations

Also N/A!

Writing Process

This was a continuation of the scene started in Part 2, so I just had to complete the thought.

One thing I will have to watch in the future is how I describe rukh-shami. These ones at first act like moving boulders, but then Sirith notes they feel smooth and malleable like mud. Earlier in Chapter 1 he noted they bled sand. So which is it? Are these different sub-races? Or does it have to do with how these ones were burned to death instead of stuck with swords? Does normal fire even work on them? My world-building has a lot of unanswered questions…

The Prose

It was nearing sundown when Sirith approached the hills where the rukh-shami were supposedly encamped. He expected to see smoke rising in the air from campfires, but it was dark and silent all around. He pulled his ram to a stop and hesitantly dismounted, leading the riding goat into a brake of shrubs that he hoped would conceal it from sight.

Though the ympe clung impatiently to his shoulder, Sirith chose to approach the camps quietly, in a roundabout route up the shoulder of the hill rather than straight-on. He had an eerie feeling as he climbed Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 3”

Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 2

Living Story Excerpts

His fire magic kept him warm in the cold mountains, but it seemed to Seryth that it was just a little bit hotter, just a little bit wilder than it normally was when he summoned it…

Setting Translations

There’s nothing in this short excerpt to translate, except perhaps a reminder that Sirith isn’t in the mountains yet.

Writing Process

I read through some of the other chapters Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 2”

Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 1

Living Story Excerpt

Chapter 5: The ram finally slowed in Kharanos. By now, night had fully fallen. Seryth was hungry, and there were good smells coming from the tavern. "Stay here and don't get into trouble," he told the imp. The imp followed him anyway. The dwarves didn't seem to mint it, though, if they even noticed, and given the general level of drunkeness in the tavern, Seryth wasn't sure if they even did that. He asked a dwarf that seemed a little more curvy than the others where he could get something to eat. "Ye don't work, ye don't eat," said the dwarf, and handed him a requisition for boar meat and troll shimmerweed. Sighing, Seryth tramped back out into the snow... "Hey, at least you can get the bounty for the trolls while you're at it," said the imp, and then it quickly dodged a snowball.

Setting Translations

Kharanos = Svenby

When I’m stumped for a name, I’ll often look up words in a language that has the right look and feel for the culture I’m trying to name things in. Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 5, Part 1”

Conversion: Chapter 4, Part 3

Living Story Excerpts

The cat continued to follow him like a silent shadow as he walked through Ironforge. The tunnels seemed considerably smaller now than they had when he was a kid.

The gryphon master was uninterested in lending him a gryphon, and so Seryth hired out a dwarven riding ram instead. The beast snorted as he stepped it down onto the snowy cobbles of Dun Morogh. He looked back and saw the cat still standing behind him, watching.

Seryth sighed. “Oh, fine! Come along if you want, but don’t cause any trouble for me.”

The cat bared its fangs, and leaped onto the ram’s hind end, changing into an imp in midair. The ram bawled and bucked and bolted, and for a while, it was all Seryth could do to hang on. Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 4, Part 3”

Conversion: Chapter 4, Part 2 (Actually Chapter 3b)

Living Story Excerpt(s)

Chapter 3: The rewards for the gnoll-slaying and the farm chores were enough for Seryth to break even on his losses, but not enough to turn any profit. Seryth knew his father would be furious if he didn't come home with some extra silver to justify the trip. As he wandered the streets of Stormwind pondering the dilemma, Seryth was stopped by a dwarf smith who offered him coin if he took a message to Loch Modan. Loch Modan was a long way away, but the courier fees would more than cover the profits Seryth had expected to get from his now-stolen harvest. Seyth told the dwarf he would think about it and that he'd return in the evening if he decided to take the smith up on the job. The dwarf grumbled for him not to take too long.

While in the city, Seryth helped a child catch wayward balloons, bought himself a hat that was too big for him, and met a gnome with a pet bear named “Mangeclaw” that Seryth swore he had seen before, though it wasn’t clear to him why that’d be so, bears being a rare sight in Westfall.

Throughout it all, the calico cat continued to follow him.

As night fell, Seryth returned to the dwarf smith. Despite running errands for the local shopkeepers, he still hadn’t managed to make enough money for his foster father to be happy. Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 4, Part 2 (Actually Chapter 3b)”