HELM

[quillsshadow]

The helm was thick and heavy, without even slits; designed to block the vision of whoever wore it.

Torraemin of the softlands would have sneered at Jaaeht's pride in receiving it. He and his kin all refused to believe in the creatures it guarded against. "Superstition!" he'd laughed.

Torraemin was dead.

IDOL

[quillsshadow]

Iatte kept eir head bowed as the overseer walked past, the picture of a meek, obedient slave. "If those gods of yours were real, you wouldn't be slaves now!" he jeered at the new arrival.

Eir fingers slipped over the wooden figure that kept em alive.

Ey stayed silent.

WARD

[quillsshadow]

A full adoption - this child is my child - would have gone too far, in so many ways. But taking the hatchling as a ward? This one is under my protection?

That, the vampire reflected with great satisfaction, she could certainly do.

RELATIVE

[quillsshadow]

They knew everyone hated them. They'd tried to find out why, but Bruise was too obvious to eavesdrop, and Cut couldn't hear well enough.

Then the soldiers came.

The battlemage had very familiar scalepatterns. "Which of my idiot brothers sired you two?" he hissed.

Neither of the twins knew.

COPPER

[quillsshadow]

The creature huffed, coppery scales gleaming.

"But... they don't come in copper," breathed the fascinated Weyrleader. "Brown, green, blue, bronze, gold. Never any other shade."

The stranger rolled their eyes as the copper 'firelizard' belched flame. "It's. Not. A. Firelizard."

HOLE

[quillsshadow]

"There's a hole in their defences!" the War-Commander's thoughts yowled, making me grimace. Something in me insisted on picturing them as a vicious tomcat, and as the thoughts I pick up are filtered through my subconscious attitudes about the people I pick them up from...

But! They took the bait.

CROSS

[quillsshadow]

The symbol was simple enough; two diagonal lines slashed over each other. Most of her would-be apprentices scoffed if she told them how powerful it was.

They never thought it through; symbols drew power through meaning, the wider known the meaning the more powerful the symbol. The cross was negation.

MEAN

[quillsshadow]

"Perhaps some abacus-pusher may be satisfied with just 'averaging'," the professor sneered, "but you are proud students of mathemagica, and Must be Precise! Mean, median, mode! These are all distinct averages, and you must understand them to know when to apply each!"

FORGE

[quillsshadow]

"This ritual will craft a bloodbond between the two of us."

"You can't falsify blood relationships, you know."

"Falsify? You wound me!"

"No, the athane's doing that. What's it made of?"

"Godsmetal."

"...That can't be shaped."

"Not by mortals. What sort of power did you think crafts bloodbonds?"

LIGHT

[quillsshadow]

K'loch't looked around at the busy street. 'Gently, carefully,' xe thought to xeyself. The mortals around xey were so lively, so blissfully unaware of what xe was - but although they had no idea how fragile this busy little scrap of reality was, K'loch't couldn't afford to forget. 'Tread lightly.'

CONVICTION

[quillsshadow]

Stiem would have smiled bitterly if his face could still move. "Oh, when people think you're alive it's called 'Heroic Willpower' and everyone's impressed. But the moment they find out you're dead -"

"Z-Z-ZOMBIE!"

His shoulders were too stiff to slump. "Yeah. That."

DISCOURAGE

[quillsshadow]

"It's a strange word, really. 'En-courage'. To give someone bravery to do a thing...? Then to 'dis-courage' must be to make fearful of doing a thing." Silver pupils gleamed in the green irises, as - It - looked at the frozen party of adventurers. "Permit me to 'dis-courage' you."

Silver fangs gleamed.

FLOWER

[quillsshadow]

Eolaithia raised one arm absently, and the thorny vines curled around her wrist in graceful welcome. She stepped forwards with a chill smile, which turned to a flash of shocked panic when the vines tightened instead of letting go.

"Little fool. Did you think your blood truly royal?"

MUTATION

[quillsshadow]

There is argument over which strain of the virus came first, but evidence indicates the megalomania and sociopathy are symptoms in earlier outbreaks, and therefore...

...aenemia and dental alterations remain consistent, however personality shifts are specific to...

...commonly assumed to be weaker than their counterparts...

"HOW. DO. I. KILL. THEM?"

FLOAT

[quillsshadow]

Yosien held his breath as he stepped onto the gangway. The aquamarine ship gleamed like ice, but unlike some fools that wasn't enough to make him forget that gems were rocks, and rocks shouldn't float!

OTHER

[quillsshadow]

Yan had always been something Other. Too pale, too thin - then too fat - then too thin, there was always something repulsive about the child.

Rosia thought she was being so impressively charitable, trying to force Yan to fit the mold of 'normal'. Dolo knew better.

No one listened.

COUNTER

[quillsshadow]

"Each magic has its counter. Each magic has its opposite. The two are not necessarily the same." Grandmagus Gevowdley's words echoed in Darra's head as she faced her opponent, and she desperately hoped (but never prayed) that they were true.

SKY

[quillsshadow]

Jekkub cast a discerning eye over the skies ahead of them. Violet, mostly - not too tricky to sail through, and mainly shading to indigo, which was calmer still.

Ey did not like those flashes of electric green in the brighter patches, though. Warnings of another sky breakage.

AUTOMATIC

[quillsshadow]

He'd practised the gestures, the words, what felt like hundreds of times, long after he'd achieved the ellusive 'acceptable'.

Only now, choking on his gorge as he saw the carnage his spells had wrought, did he understand why a battlemage could not afford to think to cast their magic.

ARRIVE

[quillsshadow]

You are my harbinger, the night whispered. You precede my arrival.

Not by choice, Twilight hissed silently.

Would you prefer to precede the day? night asked, and Twilight could hear the unspoken threat. Would you steal your twin's rightful place?

Twilight scoffed. What twin? Twilight was Dusk's (and Dawn's) bodyguard.