Week - 669 Shattering Darkness by likelife96

Description: Once, his people called him Lord Darigan. They used to be prosperous, happy, knowing nothing of war or disease or the thousands of things that plagued the world...

Week - 701 The Advisor's Test by likelife96

Description: Chantelle fiddled with the bonds around her wrists, listening to their rusted squeaks as each individual chain link scraped against the other. The footfalls of the Eyrie guard behind her echoed through the desolate halls of the citadel’s palace. His armor clanked with every step.

Week - 710 Duplicity: Part One by likelife96

Description: Jeran sat slumped over the throne. Before him, Meridellians and Darigans commemorated the fifth year of peace since the war, a peace that would last a thousand years. They spoke and danced under azure faerie light, alongside the finest music Meridell had to offer. Odors of baked goods, exotic fruits, and well-done meats saturated the air.

Week - 711 Duplicity: Part Two by likelife96

Description: The throwing knife scraped Lisha’s dress. She’d barely moved out of the way in time. Without a second thought, Lisha gripped her wand of ultranova and swung it in the direction of her assailant, sending a powerful pulse through the air. The purple Nimmo was pushed from the bushes into the wall.

Week - 712 Duplicity: Part Three by likelife96

Description: It was quiet. Leaves crackled and quivered in the breeze. The roses that wrapped around the balcony’s railings exuded a faint perfume. Lisha and Jeran stared out into the empty night sky, ignoring the city below.

Week - 713 Duplicity: Part Four by likelife96

Description: For a prince of the “kingdom of knowledge” and a celebrated graduate of Brightvale University, Rafael wasn’t very bright, though that could be chalked up to his Meridellian heritage. He wiped his own tears with a dirty handkerchief, whining to Danner between his pauses.

Week - 714 Duplicity: Part Five by likelife96

Description: Each individual’s magical energy was as a river, constantly ebbing and flowing through its owner as it was expended and renewed. The maximum amount of energy anyone could have was fixed at a certain amount, and though there was no real mathematical quantification of it, every trained sorcerer intuitively knew the “correct” value it should have been at.

Week - 715 Duplicity: Part Six by likelife96

Description: The drawbridge itself could hold half a palace. Spiky vines cracked through the edges of the moat below, slithering through patches of shrubbery. Sunlight glittered off the golden borders of the turrets.

Week - 716 Duplicity: Part Seven by likelife96

Description: Gali quivered while the guards poured a bitter liquid down his throat. All parts of his body shook out of control, disobeying his every command. He wanted to push the guards away, ask them what was going on, but he could not.

Week - 717 Duplicity: Part Eight by likelife96

Description: “You have already violated the common law once, Jeran, and however good your intentions may be, there will be dire consequences if you decide to do it again. We will not allow it.”

Week - 718 Duplicity: Part Nine by likelife96

Description: At the royal library, Lisha shuffled through legend after legend where any demons or wraiths were mentioned. She had already amassed a tower of books on the identification of so-called “evil” magics and spells, which had grown so large its structural integrity was faltering. The books she had read were thrown in a huge pile on the ground.

Week - 719 Duplicity: Part Ten by likelife96

Description: Lisha heard some incomprehensible murmuring grow louder as she walked toward the eastern courtyard. In the distance, she made out a small shadow stretched out over the walls, covering the cobwebs and Spyders hiding underneath. That shadow eventually developed into the shape of a Wocky, and Lisha subsequently recognized the low, nasal voice as Danner’s. The man himself was leaning against the wall, repeatedly rotating his thumbs around one another.

Week - 720 Duplicity: Part Eleven by likelife96

Description: Three images materialized before Lisha: a faerie with a burning heart beating beneath her chest, a Skeith with glowing bones beneath his layers of fat, and a Lupe with bloody, hollow eyes. She identified each as Ambition, Greed, and Revenge, respectively.

Week - 721 Duplicity: Part Twelve by likelife96

Description: Giles ran over to his freed father and jumped on him with open arms the moment he saw him. The small Xweetok smiled as Garrington weakly ruffled his mane. Dark circles surrounded the duke’s eyes. His wife, the duchess, pinched her nose and nodded along. “Yes, yes, we miss you very much. I think the dungeons have done a number on you.”

Week - 722 Unwanted Invitees by likelife96

Description: Um, how exactly did you get put on the invite list?