1. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    The evening died around them. The last light caught wet across Venla's throat. Vaaga spoke of punishment like it was mercy. Some men seemed spend so long alone with their own suffering they start believing it makes them prophets. “You think I’ll look back on tonight and be thankful you for...
  2. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    “We leave as soon as the beast arrives,” she nodded to Haelyn. Venla drew a slow breath and wiped more blood from her hands onto already ruined fabric. It hardly mattered anymore. She looked like a slaughterhouse saint. Red from throat to hem. The strike caught her across the back of the head...
  3. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    Haelyn’s voice reached her. What did you do? Venla flinched. Her mouth opened. Closed. For a moment she just stared at the squire, eyes wide and glassy. "I…” she started, and stopped again. Her gaze dropped to the puddle of gore. Well now, Venla… you’ve done it proper this time. “I don’t...
  4. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    The world had gone strange. Mina was cold. Wrong cold. Not the way a person gets cold from wind or snow. Not river cold. That black, heavy blood slid slow and thick over Venla’s hands, flecked with silver dust that glittered faint in the dying light. It soaked into her sleeves. The glade still...
  5. Venla Thiel

    Private The Boar King

    The yard bathed in white. Dawn crept in thin and colorless. Mist lay low and woolly, wrapping horse and man alike in a damp hush. Leather creaked as saddles were checked and tightened. Bits rang between square teeth. The young stableboy murmured to the restless horses, his breath as visible as...
  6. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    When the abomination ruptured, it came apart at arm’s length. Blood hit Venla before sound did. A rain of it. Hot. Sticky. Metallic. It filled her mouth and nose, blinded her, glued her lashes shut. Chunks followed. Blood slapped against her shoulders, her throat, her ribs. Something wet and...
  7. Venla Thiel

    A Letter to home

    The letter is plain, written on a single sheet of coarse, yellow paper. Venla’s hand is careful but unpracticed. The letters lean slightly, some taller than the rest, others crowded close as the pen reached the edge of the paper earlier than expected. The lines wander a little instead of staying...
  8. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    The sight of Mina trapped behind that frozen wall, penned in with the crawling abomination. Fear did not flee her. It curdled, thickened, turned inward until it became pressure, heat, weight. “Why would you do that!?” Venla's head snapped toward Vaaga. Power bled from her in colors that refused...
  9. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    It struck her as strange, that this lonely glade, the one she had spent a day’s march to reach, filled with these good hearted people. There was Mina, the odd three eyed girl, Vaaga the Ice Wizard, and there was another young girl with a spirit lynx just leaving the embrace of brambles. Where...
  10. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    She staggered upright, chest heaving, lungs tasting of iron. The air smelled weirdly acrid, chemically, and off-putting. The kind of air you breathe in, and instinctively go, "oh, this isn't good at all." The glade around her was changed. It was no longer just a clearing, but a scar in the old...
  11. Venla Thiel

    Open The more I see, the less I know for sure.

    There's always that voice in the back of her head. It lived in the back of her skull, past the daylight of common sense. It murmured to her. Of things waiting to be unearthed. Of knowledge older than books, older than prayer, older than the first piece of metal pulled from the mountain’s ribs...
  12. Venla Thiel

    Open Under an Old Tree

    Selene’s words rolled ahead of them like a warning bell half heard through fog. Be careful what you ask. Venla had worked tavern floors long enough to know when someone was gently steering a conversation away. "But please be careful what you ask. Understanding things, sometimes means destroying...
  13. Venla Thiel

    Open Under an Old Tree

    Venla glanced down at the bundle of papers. “Those sketches…” she ventured, tilting her head as though the angle might help her make sense of the iridescent blotches and precise little cuts inked on the page. “They’re right lovely, they are. Careful work. Did... did you draw ’em yourself...
  14. Venla Thiel

    Open Under an Old Tree

    She cast her eyes toward the spot where Mina had been, careful as someone peering into a dim root cellar. Then she turned back to Selene, trying to muster a small, encouraging smile despite the lingering shiver of unease from talk of seances and bindings. The brewer's daughter had little to no...
  15. Venla Thiel

    Dare What is dead may never die

    She padded softly along the path, bare toes brushing against the moss between the stones. The stone was cold beneath her feet, smooth in some places, rough in others. The night was alive with quiet things, the slow drip of water from the fountain, the whisper of leaves, the faint rustle of...
  16. Venla Thiel

    Dare What is dead may never die

    Astenvale monastery, dormitories The dream came again. The dream always began the same way. Venla stood by a lake, though it was no longer a lake. The water stretched on forever, like a vast black mirror. The stars hung too low, too close, vast and ancient and wrong, pulsing faintly like dying...
  17. Venla Thiel

    Dare Primroses

    “Oh, you’ve done your fair share, have you?” she said, amused. “Well then, you know what it’s like... Once a king at the feast one minute, and the next elbow-deep in someone else's left-over porridge and wondering what choices in life brought you there.” She smirked. Venla had been there. By...
  18. Venla Thiel

    Dare Primroses

    She set her goblet down and brushed a stray fleck of flour from the counter. Venla leaned a little over the counter, as she watched the bread in the oven, golden edges just starting to bloom. She gave a soft little sigh, eyes half on the loaf and half on him. Not everything needs to be singed...
  19. Venla Thiel

    Dare Primroses

    The redhead tilted her head and gave his hand a good, quiet look. “That’s the trouble with eager hands and old kettles. They nip like cranky hens if you’re not careful.” She stepped back slightly, giving him his space. Venla wrinkled her nose fondly, holding her goblet close. “Well, if he...
  20. Venla Thiel

    Dare Primroses

    Venla tipped the bottles carefully, letting the cider slip into the goblets with a soft, happy gurgle. Nice and golden. His sudden yelp made her jump. Nearly made her drop the bottle. Almost sloshed cider over the rim, heart giving a startled kick. She stumbled a little, cheeks warming, but...
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