“Son,” his grandmother said. That was her way. Regardless of the details of their relationship, all male descendants of hers were sons and all female were daughters. Assuming she deigned to notice them. Assuming they hadn't invoked her ire and gained another name. She extended a graceful …

The woman, Isabella, was holding a meeting in the square. It was so distasteful, pandering to everyone. Politics was a game for the elite. For those who understood what was going on and what the stakes were. These, he eyed the throngs in their roughly cut homespun tunics, weren't …

Carlo trudged back to his small apartment. Despite all his work, he didn't warrant an apartment in the guild hall, but had had to buy one from his meager earnings. They weren't the only ones with problems. Even if things were so hard, if they just did their …

A woman stood outside his door. She was short, with honey-blonde hair and green eyes that were unusual in this city, and a little younger than he was. Her features had a slight exotic cant. His wife had been a classical beauty, nothing like this woman. She wore clean broadcloth …

Carlo had never been to this sector of the city. The tanners and butchers had established their shops near her centuries ago and the air was suffused with the stench of offal, alongside the ever present miasma of human sweat and waste. The buildings were short and squat, like they …

She'd deposited him back at the tavern. He sat again in his well-worn seat, a cup of well-watered wine in his hands. After an initial swish to get the dust and taste of the city out of his mouth, he hadn't touched it. He just pushed it …

It was Miryana's first day at the Perella Conservatory for the Magical Arts. She'd been dancing longer than she could remember. Then, when she learned that she had flair, it was like a whole world opened up for her. She not only was the best dancer in her …

Miryana's sense of bliss, like everything else in life, was transient. She trailed behind her parents, as they got her established, lightly quarreling all the way. “Why aren't you getting her textbooks used, Greg?” “As you can see, I would if they weren't completely defaced.” “This place …

A girl her own age entered the room. Miryana breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't her parents, back to complain about some imagined slight. She watched from her perch atop her bed as her new roommate explored. Apparently, she hadn't been seen yet. The seconds stretched …

Waiting in line for her first on campus meal, Miryana looked around at the other students. There were only freshman and a handful of upperclassmen volunteers there because it was freshman orientation week. There was a buzz of excitement in the air, and she wasn't the only one looking …