A Whateley Academy Tale  April Fool's Day Prank!

As Above, So Below

by Kristin Darken

Elsewhere. Outside time.

The black cloud that represented the Dark Master stood across the Anvil of Service from its opposite, the shimmering energy that was the Holy Light. The Keeper's Hall in which it stood would have been recognizable to any player of the game GEO in any of the mortal realms with whom they maintained contact. The two spoke of the entities they had recently found, tested, and allowed to grow strong throughout the Faded Lands. It was a language of refracted images and body movement with a fluidity only truly possible by incorporeal beings. The complexity of perspective and emphasis would make true translation impossible; yet that was exactly the difficulty they faced in any encounter with physical sentient creatures.

A Story in Elrod's MAU Universe

Noblesse Oblige

by Kristin Darken

My grandfather passed early in the Spring, sitting on his porch watching a rainstorm. I wasn't there, hadn't even been in the state for more than a decade as I pursued my career in places more heavily populated and far less inclined to be fascinated by the power of mother nature. That didn't stop me from picturing the smile that would have splashed across his face as lightning flickered and he counted out the distance to the thunder. One Mississippi. Two choc-late pudding. Three cans of Pringles. And so on.. every set of five silly second long phrases marking a mile's distance to the bolt of energy.