53 Results in the "The Lion & The Owl" category
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Chapter
The Colloquies: Minds Meeting
Moonlight guides him five hundred steps from the kitchen to the barn. Unease quickens his heart as the worst thoughts plague him. Shadows dancing beneath the cowshed doors prove his hunch correct. Loose hay strands litter the drive bay, where pungent tack and fresh lucerne begin clogging his nose. Warm air overhead brings his attention to the loft. There, the rangy druid sits under the tresses as coals smoldering in the floor pit cast an orange glow behind him. The serpent, Delphine, often spends cold…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Colloquies: Low Perceptions
The Colloquies: Low Perceptions The majestic peak casts a shadow over the villa, a protective mother whose smothering proximity is a trick to the eyes. Memories of her many visits to this plantation unravel like a fallen scroll. Her mother and Uncle came from lands so far east of Parthia that no Roman name existed. Mother, a wealthy man’s battle bride, settled into an opulent domus in Mediolanum that soon became lonely in Roman bigotry’s shadow. Uncle, with eyes as narrow and face just as…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Colloquies: Kitchen Ears
Two enormous clamshells sit atop the grill rack, each with golden brown upon their banded domes. Their crusty skin is cool enough to touch, and Niko gently detaches each layer, popping the edges before pulling them free. The thicker, unattractive mold will make a good bottom—this is the story of his life—and that makes him smile. He tosses a handful of semolina into its hallow, spreading and rubbing the grains around before laying down raw cabbage leaves. These large verdant blankets will stop the…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Colloquies: First Arrivals
Dust gathers on the road as four black steeds trample into view. Their burden is a wooden carpentum with four iron-ringed wheels and the cross-swords of Mars painted upon both its window shutters. A nod from the Servian Lord brings out the day’s groomsmen, a chatty pair of teenagers wearing their warmest best. The young men corral the panting beasts, promising them fresh water, plentiful lucerne, and a soothing brush—they deserve all of it and more after such a laborious journey from…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Lucius Vitus Servius once said that rivalry within ranks festers like flesh rot, and if a general ignores it, he’ll lose a man as quickly as a leg. Gaius recalls his old friend’s observation as he watches the murdered man’s son glower at Kombius, a prince of the continental Atrebates. The more concerning bit of flesh rot, however, is Titus Labienus, who listens with jowls tight in resentment as the noble speaks of his time as an Ancalite prisoner. Before their first campaign on the island,…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Nucum Messis
Long before the human curse, a colossal vent erupted, flooding the vast icy landscape with its molten blood. The searing ooze cooled and, with time, became the blackest, most fertile soil. A cauldron valley is all that remains of Vulcan's fiery child, its majestic crown now a half-moon stretch of peaks that cast shadows a mile wide. Dawn’s first light creeps over the range, its gentle warmth felt throughout the plantation. Southern winds soon follow, catching the village procession on their descent,…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
IX – The Slaughter Arena
This violent summer is the hottest in memory. Bitch Face, the pretty Roman, covers the dead farmer and her children while his brothers hack away at her barley field. He casts an anxious gaze across the field at the forest. Deep within the trees, Aedan the Owl squats on a high branch, his foot rising so his toe can scratch the itch behind his ear. He watches Bitch Face, whose rage over a slaughtered lover burns hot, and grins. This rare show of emotion unsettles his cadre of most loyal, awaiting him…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
IV
Haze shrouds a sea that blazes silver beneath the midday sun. Silhouettes appear on the horizon, five, then ten, until there are too many ships to count. Tribal leaders who fled the mainland arrived on their island, recounting Prince Mandubracius and his pact with the Roman battle king, Kaiser. Fresh from the fight, they spoke of warlord Dumnorix ambushing the Romans with a concealed fleet. Alas, it’s now clear that Dumnorix is as dead as his fleet. The brutish driver grunts. Stocky, with brawn…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
III
Roman victory kills more than those on the battlefield. Like locusts, the legions consume everything. No farm provides a haven to the starving, not with crops stolen and livestock slaughtered. The forest is gone, its slender boughs fueling barracks stoves, and its stoutest trunks now backbones for Caesar’s new fleet. Longhouses stretch across the white expanse. Half-built ships line the shore for miles. Skipio’s boots crunch over snow as frigid air lashes his wool pants. An irksome beard shields his…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
II
His life is defined by how much pain he brings his mother. Twenty-two years ago, she left her princely father’s house for a different life with a coastal Ancalite named Fintan. Despite his druidic prowess, Fintan never suspected she was already caught. Her pains began on the autumnal, and her unborn babe insisted on coming out ass first. The old druidess cut her belly—a trauma that Ciniod’s mother mentions whenever she must force a fart. Aedan the Ancalite is bony, with alabaster skin and a…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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