1. Venla Thiel

    Private Dust in the Wind

    Venla gave a little snort at his question. “How do I make sense of it?” she said, stepping behind the bar. It was chaos she could carry on a tray. Her fingers found a mug, then a second, moving automatically, muscle memory working. She filled both mugs from the cask, foam rising to the lip...
  2. Venla Thiel

    Private Dust in the Wind

    Willard had stepped in before anyone could think too hard about it. Calm voice, knight’s bearing, easy smile. And they wanted to believe him... of course they did. Believing him was safer than believing what they had just seen. He had reached down and picked up the coin she had cursed...
  3. Venla Thiel

    Private Dust in the Wind

    “They say there’s a stone in the grove past Hallmund's field that won’t touch the earth no more. Just hangs there, a hand’s height above the ground... spinning real slow." The tavern was crowded by dusk, full of heat, breath and noise. Ale sloshed. Laughter cracked sharply across the big hall...
  4. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Her fingers curled around the spoon, guiding another small mouthful of pottage past lips that had gone pale with the morning's weight. It was warm, at least, and soft enough to go down without chewing. A poor man’s meal, but still kindness, in a world that didn’t owe her any. Turning to the...
  5. Venla Thiel

    Private Crule

    “You’ve shown me one wonder today. I want to return it.” Venla had crouched beside the glimmering shells as he spoke, her hand trailing lightly over the tide-smoothed spirals. Then she glanced back at him, noticing the shift. Not quite a smile, but close. She picked up one of the shells and...
  6. Venla Thiel

    Open The Inn at the Crossroads

    Venla knelt beside Castor, grabbed the bowl of hot water and a rag, cleaning the blood away with brisk, practiced hands. She’d sewn up the farmers boy who split his leg on a rusted plough, and more drunks than she cared to count. But never a knight. And certainly not anyone built like this...
  7. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Venla accepted his arm, fingers curling around his forearm. He had the hard forearm of an archer. His words, "we might just make it yet," unsettled something in her chest. Hope, maybe. They would talk about her "condition," he said. As if either of them knew what the hell they were dealing...
  8. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    His fingers were warm. She shivered the moment they touched her skin. He worked with steady care. Venla’s eyes flicked to the blade he placed between them. The straw crinkled beneath her when she tried to stop herself from flinching, as his hands continued their careful ministrations. She didn’t...
  9. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Venla watched him, wary, even as he took her hand. Gently, so gently and held it between his own, calloused and warm. No, she thought. Not him. She didn’t pull away. She believed him. Something loosened, just barely, in the knot of her shoulders. But the word crossroads settled in her gut like...
  10. Venla Thiel

    Open Up in flames [M]

    Venla looked at the knight’s outstretched hand. Her jaw was tight. It hovered between them like a question she didn’t know how to answer. Blood dripped from the curve of the knuckles of his gauntlets. For a moment, her weight shifted back, and she tightened her grip on the sword once more before...
  11. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The pull of sleep reluctant to release her. Lashes fluttering against the golden haze of morning light filtering through the cracks in the stable walls. The world was bleary and dreamlike. Then... his voice. Closer. Willard. His form was blurry at first, but that was him. She had recognized him...
  12. Venla Thiel

    Private Crule

    Venla practically stumbled off the ice as soon as it touched solid ground. She stood there a moment on the dock, rooted, her hands slack at her sides, chest rising with the sharp, grateful rhythm of someone who’d held her breath too long. She didn’t drop to her knees... but her knees wanted to...
  13. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    One of the stablehands was a lanky man in his early twenties, with straw in his hair and gap-toothed mouth. The stablehand didn’t blink. Didn’t nod. “Could be, Syr,” he said, the man was guarded despite the grin. “We got someone like that." "Found her curled up like a kicked dog in the straw...
  14. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Venla ran. Behind her lay the wreckage of everything she had known... her home, her people, her life. Across the open fields, mud sucking at her heels. Every breath was a dagger twisting inside her. The fields gave way to a grove, young oaks clawing toward the night sky with their mighty...
  15. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    Only the instinct to push, to survive. And then something pushed back... It erupted from her like a dam breaking. It was not a spell. It was not a prayer. It was a rupture. She screamed, but not from fear, more from something rising in her. Light bent into colors the eye wasn’t meant to see...
  16. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The leshen was shadow crowned in antlers that bled green fire. It stabbed its hands into the earth and the forest obeyed. Roots surged from the forest floor, thick and sinuous like tentacles, thrashing through the leaf litter. They twisted hungrily toward her and Willard. Alive with the...
  17. Venla Thiel

    Private Crule

    Her instincts kicked in, and before she could think, she reached out, hands landing firmly on Vaaga’s waist. The wind whipped around them, but she had no intention of being swept away. Her grip tightened, pulling herself closer to him as they soared through the air. She gripped his cloak...
  18. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    "Run" He did not have to say it twice. She bolted. Venla didn’t dare look back. Looking back meant slowing down, and slowing down meant... Nope. “Stupid” she hissed to herself. “Stupid girl, stupid night, stupid man..” She ducked under a low-hanging branch and nearly stumbled, catching...
  19. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    The moment his hand clamped over her mouth, it was like the ground disappeared beneath her. Her whole body jolted with a flash of fear, heart punching hard into her ribs. She tasted fear first… then the faint scent of leather, of pine, of him. It hit her faster than sense. She almost bit him...
  20. Venla Thiel

    Private Keep Your Head Down

    She didn’t rise when he did. Only lifted her green gaze enough to watch him gather his gear, the bow, the pack, the whole self-sufficient ranger act. She squinted at him like she was trying to figure out if he was genuinely daft or just stubborn. “You sure you’re not the one looking for...
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