Category: Fiction
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Cyber
A handful of Teeners straggled along the copper walkway, following the guide’s bored voice around corners. It was the Festival of Origins; the time when all good Members paid tribute to the past by visiting the Museum of the Ages. Weeks of cybershocks leading up to the Festival were supposed to generate excitement, and holos…
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Time
At first glance the room seemed frozen in time, it’s antiquated charm untouched by the decades. A closer look revealed a different story entirely. The light streaming in the windows cast shadows that hid threadbare patches in the aging carpet. In a far corner, disguised by carefully arranged furniture, a square of plywood barely covered…
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Network
The storm clouds rolled in to compete with the afternoon’s brilliant blue sky. Right on schedule, Lije thought with satisfaction. He settled onto the bench beneath the metal pergola to watch the show. It was a particularly fine one today. He had put the finishing touches on it himself only this morning, and rather regretted…
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The Quarter
Jean rested in the relative darkness of the tiled alley. The fan, incongruous against the ancient brick, did little to improve the sticky New Orleans heat pouring in from the open courtyard. Why couldn’t he have died somewhere cooler, he grumbled to himself. He’d certainly had the opportunity. Born the younger son of the old…
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The Key
“Do you see that?” Shana’s forehead creased, and she side-eyed Jesse as he stepped beside her. “See what?” He glanced around, eyebrows raised. His gaze slid easily over the stump in question, and she knew he couldn’t possibly see what she was seeing, but she persisted anyway. “That stump over there,” she pressed, pointing with…
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Under the Oaks
He stared down the well groomed brick walk, his worn pack slipping from his shoulder to land with a metallic rattle. His torn, mud-stained uniform was a sore thumb against the impossibly manicured lawn and the milling people nearer the big house. A woman in skintight pants, of all outlandish costumes, skirted around him with…
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Window
It was unique among the dwarf cities, his window. None of the nether people could understand why he had insisted upon its installation when he inherited the throne of Dor. It had cost him more deepsilver than the coffers could well support, and if Olor ever let leak his methods of obtaining the required amount…
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The Tomb
“What a depressing place! Why on earth did you bring me here, Jack?” “Oh, I dunno, I think it’s pretty cheerful with the sun shining through the trees and all.” “Whatever, weirdo! Seriously, what’s with the creepy mausoleums?” “Come here, I wanted to show you something. Look at the door on that one.” “What about…
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The Relic
No one would ever have known it was there, in that tiny retreat from the bustle and concrete tucked in a cluster of apartments. No one remembered that before the garden, before the apartments, before the city, it was there. The city rose around it from apocalyptic waste, slowly but determinedly reclaiming the destruction. Once…
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The Corner
It wasn’t beautiful, the corner of Cedar and Walnut. In fact, whatever planner decided to name the streets after trees must of have had some twisted sense of humor. No forest could have less to do with the dirty, dingy gray of metal and concrete. Despite uninviting appearances, the bench at the corner was always…
The Word Worker 