"Five dollars for a blowjob!" I shout out, desperate to find one - just one - guy to stop by me. I'm starving, I just need five bucks to go and get a meal. But this is the girl's territory, none of the guys here are interested in a sixteen-year-old male prostitute.
I slump down to the ground, almost ready to break down in tears. This wasn't the sort of life I'd imagined when I ran away. It's almost worse than if I'd never left. Almost. I'd still rather die of starvation and disease than run back

My new toy is so pretty. Her skin is soft to the touch, and so easily ripped and torn apart by *his* claws. Blood drips down the side of her face, in beautiful red streaks. They form a pattern, and each drop contains some little bit of the shadows.
 I touch her face, smearing the pattern and ruining the message that the shadows want to tell me. If they want to tell me something, there's more direct ways than writing arcane symbols in the blood of my toys. For now, I just want a little bi

Spring fevers kill enough people each year, but whatever is going around right now is even worse. The healers over at Solcan's temple don't seem to have any effect. Many of the people that go to seek the aid of healers are directed here. Rydal's mercy is the mercy of a quick and painless death. Unfortunately, whatever plague is sweeping through all of Direnla is not so kind.
People come in with boils and open sores dripping with pus, blood streaming from their mouths and the corners of their eye

I'm not sure if she's aware of it, but Lucienne has a tendency to look at people as though they're insignificant wastes of her time. She even does this with me, and I've been around her enough to know that she actually kind of likes me. There's not very many women she gets all that close to, and I think she enjoys the time we spend together.
She turns her attention away from the waitress bringing us our drinks – ice water with lemon for her, and a hot cup of cappuccino for me – and s

The spring rains have arrived. Along with them, the fevers that plague the slums of a large city like Direnla are swamping the healers at Solcan's temple. Those that they cannot save or have no hope of saving are sent to Rydal's temple. My temple.
As such a new monk, I am given the merciless task of ending the suffering of those that are not yet dead. It can be seen as a mercy to those that are suffering, but those, like me, that have to end their lives have to deal with the guilt. Although this

Blood splattered on the damp stone walls, dripping down in viciously accusing streaks of red. There were several bodies, piled in a corner to keep them out of the way, while a figure hunched over another body - this one alive and screaming for mercy. But the figure had no mercy, was in no condition to even recognize the meaning of the word.
 
The figure leaned down, clamping his sharpened teeth onto the poor man's throat and ripping it open. This creature didn't care about the meat, and so

It seems so fascinatingly odd that the only way to save his life is by absorbing my magic into him. There's so many possible ways, all of which end up fatal to me. It doesn't bother me, of course. One more necromancy spell and I'm dead anyways, so giving my life to save his it more than just worthwhile.
He's so uncertain, but the side-effects of the monstrous technology that put a lock on his magic several months ago are affecting him badly. His lovely dark skin has gone pale and even a bit sall

The new priest is, to put it as bluntly as I can, fucking annoying. Yes, he's only as old as I am, but it seems like he hasn't learned any humility, decency, or even common sense. Even slummers learn that by now. I repeatedly must tell him that I don't like to be touched, yet he insists on it anyways. And now, he won't leave me alone when I am trying to study.
 
I brush some dust off of my monk's robes and turn to stare at him. At the least, he's like many others who can't look me in the e