Social Climbing – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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Jessie set two overly full fountain drinks on the small table and flopped down into the empty chair. “Rock climbing is thirsty work.” Cat Chen, her new friend from Seahaven Academy of the Arts, smiled around her straw and took a long drink as she adjusted her harness. “Fun though.” Jessie took several long swallows and nodded. “I’m glad we did this today. It’s been a rough month, and like half my house is in mourning. I feel bad for them and everything, it’s just…” “A little much sometimes?” “Yeah, a lot much sometimes. It’s good to get out of Read More …

The Parting Glass – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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The wizard, Alerich Ashimar, ran a loving hand down the neck of the old guitar, chord after gently played chord resounding in softness, the mellow sound filling the dark music room. It wasn’t his rosewood-fretted Hummingbird beauty, hidden away in his rooms at Ashimar House in England, but the old Martin Dreadnought he had found still fit his hands well and was a joy to play. “Of all the money that e’re I’ve had,I spent it in good company.And all the harm that e’re I’ve done.Alas it was to none but me.” “Alas it was to none but me.” But Read More …

Personal – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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“I don’t have this recipe. Are you sure this is right?” Winter frowned as she seeped magic into the thickening crimson liquid while she stirred with her focus object, a graceful oaken spoon thickly engraved with spell glyphs inherited from her great-grandmother. The nascent potion—poison?—had little odor, but the color just looked… malevolent. “Yes. Just keep pouring in power. It’s just about there.” Elspeth picked up her own focus object, a large silver spoon with glyphs elegantly engraved over the handle following the art deco pattern of polished and unpolished metal and began tapping it in a rapid pattern on Read More …

A Difference of Opinion – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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Lunch with his fiancé. Alerich stood beside the corral gate, watching Celia’s car arrive. That was going to take some getting used to. Lunch with his fiancé. His grandmother, Hildreth, the matron of both House Ashimar and House Van de Mere, considered it the arrangement of the decade, and it seemed a lot of their set agreed. The congratulations flowed in in an endless stream. Grandmother thought Celia was perfect for him. She was politically powerful, the only child of Roland Carralond, the Archwizard of the Wizard’s Council. With Alerich as his father’s heir, marrying Celia would give their family Read More …

Lively – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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“Girls, it’s time to stop playing and help me get dinner on the table. Sorcha, Mirilyn, you two go out to the garden and dig up a basket of potatoes and half a basket of carrots. Winter, you can help me snap beans. Now everyone, scoot!” Winter giggled as Grandma Maria brandished her spoon at her and her sisters, but they all moved to obey. Grandma Maria might look funny shaking her glyphed focus object, but she was also known to apply it liberally to shirking backsides and none of the girls relished a spanking today. Six-year-old Sorcha and Mirilyn Read More …

Morning at the Vineyard – A Snippet from Ties of Blood and Bone: The Second Book of Binding

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Alerich woke up to wintery sunlight filtering in through the gauze curtains and his grandmother’s lady’s maid, Odette, rapping on his door, her pretty, polite voice carrying through it. “Breakfast is served.” Alerich rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. Odette’s presence meant his grandmother, Hildreth, was here. And if Hildreth was here it would be non-stop wedding talk for the next two weeks. He wondered if there was a trellis outside the window. Was it sturdy? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d escaped out a window and wouldn’t be his first trellis climb, but he Read More …