<<< Take Me Back to the Beginning! or << Just to the Previous Part, Please! CHAPTER 23 BIRTH OF AN ADVENTURER Hear… Feel… Think… She was floating in a black starry abyss. She felt weightless, untethered—yet not alone. Something like a warm embrace enveloped her. A gentle, loving voice, clear and calling into the darkness, […]

OR   CHAPTER 22—FLEEING COERTHAS While Dragonhead remained within view, Emaile guided Illie along the road Haurchefant had led her and Olivier down. It felt like a lifetime ago. Emaile’s heart weighed like lead in her chest. Likely just as poisonous, too. Her tears chilled her face, and she wiped them away impatiently. She needed […]

<<< Take Me Back to the Beginning! or << Just to the Previous Part, Please! CHAPTER 21—BROKEN PROMISE Shaking her head, Iloise stifled a fresh sob. “I—I still haven’t the faintest. I-it all happened so quickly, my lady. I—” Emaile hushed her, glancing meaningfully at the shut door. Soft voices. Even if Travois hadn’t meant […]

<<< Take Me Back to the Beginning! or << Just to the Previous Part, Please! CHAPTER 20—LIVE Emaile’s talk with her father that day in the alley haunted her every hour. Hardly she slept. Barely she could find respite from the ever-creeping dread. Though her days passed in silence. No word: neither from inquisitors hammering […]

  <<< Take Me Back to the Beginning! or << Just to the Previous Part, Please!         CHAPTER 19 POWER Her heart was full when she arrived back in Ishgard. Yes, the parting this time had been bittersweet, but she would see him again—“And soon,” he’d promised, to a chorus of cheers […]