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?

Week - 723 The Important Things by likelife96

Description: Some things are better than treasure.

Week - 724 Eclectic Antics: Kass and the Village People by amarettoball

Description: Kass even tried bringing a gift. There's just no pleasing them. Also by likelife96

Week - 725 Relationship Advice by likelife96

Description: Um, maybe a little too intense. Plan B?

Week - 727 Favorite Pastime by twillieblossom

Description: I'm not sure that's how it works Also by likelife96

Week - 728 Why Amira is Still a Princess by likelife96

Description: Uh, seriously?

Week - 729 Inevitable Delusions by likelife96

Description: Two Darigan youth sat across each other around a round table, burying their noses in a fan of cards, hardening their expressions until became like stone. Around them gathered four other Darigan knights who had already folded their hands, and now, they silently hedged their bets as to who would win this round.

Week - 750 750 Days by likelife96

Description: Most people would say that it took the usurper Kass roughly two years to start and lose a war between the Darigan Citadel and Meridell. Lady Evelyn would be more exact; she would say it took her cousin 750 days to do so--750 slow days to observe a ruler slowly crackle until his realm collapsed.

Week - 794 Crowding the Sky by likelife96

Description: The sky provides much awe to planet-dwellers...

Week - 819 Reunion by likelife96

Description: Master Vex laid yet another card down in his hopeless quest to win a game of solitaire.

Week - 825 Feeding Mr. Scary by likelife96

Description: A Baabaa darted out of the old barn screaming for dear life. Its bleating screech pierced the ears of a Usul nearby. "What's the matter?" she said as the Baabaa slowed down to a wobble. T

Week - 837 Paranoia by likelife96

Description: Danner leaned on his desk and rubbed his temples, hoping to coax his blasting headache away. A tiny trail of steam from a piping hot cup of tea wafted slowly toward his head, imparting a most metallic and bitter scent. He did not particularly enjoy tea, let alone this mauled abomination that the castle's potion-master had brewed for him, but it did work for its intended purpose, presumably.

Week - 965 Op-Ed: King Skarl Did Nothing Wrong by likelife96

Description: "The air is cold up there, even in the summer. Darigans pull on their coats, squeezing every bit of warmth out of them. Discontented murmurs in the audience gradually quieten, and the voice of the Usurper Kass becomes the only one booming throughout the citadel." collab with keng200 - thumbnail art