About Tower Curator
Stories
6
Chapters
947
Words
3.4 M
Comments
5,207
Reading
11 d, 15 h
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The last rays of a peaceful sun set over the Evestani Sultanate. When the sun next shined down, it would be stained with the blood of war. Sule, Sultan of Evestani, sat with his legs crossed atop an oversized chair. Below him, two rows of young women leaned over shallow bowls of water placed in front of each, listening to the ripples. Every few moments, one would lean back, babble a few incoherent words, then lean back over their bowl. An interpreter, sitting in the center of the room at a circular…-
772.5 K • Completed
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Master Inquisitor Darius Vrox stared around the throne room, grimacing at every body his eyes crossed. As an inquisitor, he walked alongside death more than most. That didn’t mean he was a cold and heartless being, not even toward those he didn’t particularly enjoy the company of. Which, unfortunately, included most people the illustrious Duke held in confidence. Still, few deserved to be ripped apart by the force of a violent explosion. Several of those closest to the blast weren’t recognizable.…
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772.5 K • Completed
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Hawkwood hadn’t expected to wake. Ever. He could remember what happened well enough. The commotion at the party. A sharp stabbing sensation in his back. The attempt to call for help as his legs went weak. The shocked expression on Arkk’s face. Finally, the sudden rush of lightheadedness, akin to standing too fast except far, far more severe. He knew then, as the darkness took him, that he was dead. His heart stabbed straight through. Now, he could feel his heart hammering in his head, throbbing…
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772.5 K • Completed
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While trying to look mildly embarrassed over how the inquisitor admonished him, Arkk looked over the room. His eyes skipped over the gaudily dressed nobles, wealthy merchants, and mercenaries, focusing instead between them, on the servants that otherwise went unnoticed. There were two kinds of servants at the party. The entertainment, mostly made up of non-humans showing off their bodies, dressed similarly to what Dakka had ended up wearing. The attendants, on the other hand, moved about in fine clothes…
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772.5 K • Completed
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Arkk stood alone in a side hallway of the Duke’s manor. He wasn’t sure that he was supposed to be off on his own. In all the commotion of moving the guests around, no one had stopped him and right now, he just didn’t care. Something about seeing Alya standing there behind the Duke ticked him off. He hadn’t meant to lash out. From Ilya’s account of their first visit to Cliff and the various people who had given him information on the Duke’s advisor, he knew that she wasn’t being held…
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772.5 K • Completed
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For all the negativity he had heard with regard to these monthly parties and his own biases against the Duke, Arkk couldn’t say that the party was bad. Strange and alien, yes. Social rituals were being conducted all around him, ones he didn’t quite understand nor could he participate in. Arkk, led through the ballroom first by Hawkwood and then by Aron Wolf, bounced from group to group. He barely had time to talk to any of them before being whisked off to be introduced to the next little clique.…
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772.5 K • Completed
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Arkk looked around the commandeered room of the Cliff’s Edge, eyes meeting with those of the assembled recruits. There were just under forty in total—not including a few he had hired outright earlier in the day before realizing just how many people had shown up. About half were beastmen and a quarter were demihumans with the remainder being humans. Not many. Especially not compared to how many people he had seen throughout the day. It was more than he expected upon arriving at Cliff, however, that…
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772.5 K • Completed
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“Still no sign of the inquisitors?” Vezta shot Arkk a glare. An actual, genuine glare. That was, perhaps, the first time he had ever seen her in any way upset with him. He simply raised an eyebrow. “No, Master. Rest assured that I will inform you the moment I detect any suspicious activity. You do not need to ask me every five steps.” “Just making sure,” Arkk said. Twenty-four hours inside Cliff and still no trap sprung. He was fairly confident that the letter from Hawkwood had…
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772.5 K • Completed
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Returning to the City of Cliff did not fill Arkk with the same sense of wonder and awe that had struck him during his first approach to the city. Cliff hadn’t changed. It was still the largest settlement he had ever seen, far larger than any regular burg, with grandiose buildings and a harbor full of ships that looked too big to float. The temple atop the island mountain in the middle of the bay gleamed in the sun of the early evening, just barely out of reach of the shadow of the mountain that gave…
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772.5 K • Completed
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“It is a trap,” Rekk’ar said, lowering the invitation to the Hawkwood’s dinner down to the meeting table. “Obviously.” “I concur,” Olatt’an said. “The fact that your missives were delivered by a Swiftwing harpy should have been evidence enough of that,” Zullie said, adjusting her rectangular glasses. “They’re reserved for use by the Duke only, for correspondence with important people. The King or the Ecclesiarch. Not random mercenary leaders.” “Forgive me, Master. I…
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772.5 K • Completed
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