Darkfyyre

Part Three With their candy run complete, the four daitens at last circle back to the house, laden heavy with sweets and treats of every variety. They arrive in high spirits, and deposit the spoils on the dining room table just to see it all in one place, and trade their favorites between each other. “Alright, I say we start with the in-costume charades, while we’re all still dressed up!” Kirsi suggests once they move to the living room to sit and discuss what to do next. Claudia eagerly agrees, pulling at the fur collar of her coat. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she gasps, “but I might actually be feeling too warm now. But only just! When we’re done playing though, I’m ditching the coat and burrowing into your blankets, Sile.” “Huh, I feel fine.” Kirsi shrugs, faking oblivious confusion. “But then again, I couldn’t shed this fur coat of mine even if I wanted to.” They grasp a clump of their own pelt gently, grinning. Sile belts out a sharp laugh, then covers her mouth

Part Two With everyone dressed up and ready to go, the time for trick-or-treating at last arrives. Each takes their candy vessel of choice to carry their haul back home when the rounds are complete. Sile’s basket is woven wicker, to imitate a bird nest, and hangs off one arm. Claudia wears a hiker’s backpack, which she explains is “for provisions”, for example, candy bars. Tiberius’ luxurious blue robes conceal enormous pockets, into which they can mysteriously vanish the candies collected at the homes. Finally, Kirsi leans into the tacky kitsch of his look, carrying a garishly orange plastic pumpkin bucket, in ironic contrast with the summer vibes of his palm tree swim trunks. “Alright, let’s go over the plan again,” Kirsi stops everyone on the sidewalk, and draws them into an awkward huddle. “Sile knows the route, so we follow her lead and hit up only the best houses to get the premium stuff.” Claudia raises a polite hand, and speaks once Kirsi acknowledges her. “Erm, what

Part One Though the group of friends lives many miles, sometimes even continents apart, this Halloween get together is an occasion they have talked about doing for the last few years, and at long last, their schedules aligned and they quickly made plans to do it for real at long last. Claudia, living amongst the islands of a remote archipelago, never had the opportunity to participate in the holiday activities, and similarly had nowhere to host her friends. Kirsi, while living closer to civilization, knew that his ever cold winter home would be a poor fit for Claudia’s warm weather acclimation. Tiberius’ library, though also close to a quaint town, had no accommodations for their friends to stay, nor was it an appropriate place for a party atmosphere. With all this in mind, the four friends voted to travel to Sile’s hometown, which had the perfect fall atmosphere from the way she described it, and her fellow citizens went crazy for the Halloween flair every year, making it the ideal

Last Supper Today, daitens celebrate a change of the seasons, summer passing her burning torch to fall, to gently extinguish in preparation for the patiently waiting winter, before spring kindles the warmth again, and starts over the cycle. Sovereign finds himself at ease, helping arrange a series of tables and stools to accommodate his kin at the festival. The temple before them reminds each daiten of their devotion and duty, and the air is cool under the shadow it casts. In the setting sunlight, he watches Esthur and Aechor standing in a strip of glowing gold, the sun picking out their silhouettes, rimming the careful battle stance like a gilded tracing. Sovereign smiles at the student and mentor, comforted in the knowledge of a secure future, that there would always be someone there to stand and fight for the good and just thing. When Esthur notices his long glance, he breaks from his serious lecture to wave back, and speaks something to Aechor that Sovereign cannot hear -

Hidden Things New and Old Midas is, for lack of a better word, a doctor, administering to corrupted patients seeking alternative treatments to the cure, cleansing at a shrine. For almost a decade now, he and Ira have traveled across the world they found themselves cast upon after the fall of heaven, seeking out daitens with such unusual needs, the corrupted who turned inwards on their broken spirits, and embraced the shattering of their holiness. Ira was his first patient, bearing a corruption festering on the edge of rampancy, xyr sense of self all but gone. Without his swift intervention, Ira knows xe would not be here today, striding alongside xyr companion in calm silence. Today, they travel together to a secret location discovered the year before by Midas while foraging for medicinal ingredients. This will be the first time Ira sees it for xemself, but Midas tells xem it is an unassuming ravine, cut through clay and stone by a trickling stream. Over the course of many years, the