Recent content by Monifa Oya

Part 1: Walk in the Light Monifa is dreaming from the male Drow's perspective. She sees how the two female Drows talk down on the male Drow while gathering the hobos (homeless people) using illusion and webbing. The paralyzation Drow is mad that she can’t use her powers. I II III IV She...

Part 1: First Request Monifa tilted her head slightly as Hugo spoke. The name—Nivash—hung in the air like a faint scent from long ago, tugging at a thread she couldn’t quite place. …Nivash, she murmured internally, as if tasting the syllables. She leaned back against the cushion-lined wall of...

Part 1: How Many Monifa’s breath caught at the sharpness in Hugo’s voice. Not unkind, but edged like metal drawn without intent to strike, only to understand. She rose from where she’d knelt by the hearth and crossed swiftly to his side, lowering herself beside him with the grace of one used to...

Part 1: Rising Hugo Monifa moved slowly, deliberately, like water poured into an old bowl. Her fingers rested lightly on Hugo’s brow, cool and scented faintly of myrrh and woodsmoke. “You’ve returned,” she whispered, voice low and steady. “From a place deeper than sleep. But your spirit found...

Part 1: Dawn with Aurelie Monifa’s eyes crinkled at the corners, her lips curving into something slow and luminous, not quite a grin, but the sort of smile that had been earned through many long nights and longer silences. She tilted her head, letting the braid over her shoulder swing gently...

Part 1 Monifa’s prayer paused mid-breath. She and Gbáyọ̀dé had been speaking softly, old words over boiling herbs, when a voice called her back to the edge of the room. The whisper clawed its way from Hugo’s sleep, dry and wounded. Monifa’s spine straightened. She turned sharply. That...

Part 1 Monifa tightened her hold on Hugo’s side, but the weight grew heavier with each step. His breath stuttered; his legs dragged. He’s fading fast. I can’t carry him much longer. As her tongue had no strength, my mind spoke instead. Vaene… I’ve no eyes tonight. Let your wings guide my...

Part 1 Monifa turned her face toward the sound of swords clashing. Though she could not see, she could feel Zyn’s presence: a steady, sweeping rhythm. His blade moved like a river before the flood, sharp and unyielding. Even now, he flows. Fighting a Drow who feeds on her kin—and he does not...

Part 1 Monifa’s palms opened like a watering hole in an oasis—and from it, a black ball appeared. Most people would call it darkness, others a mirage; however, to a follower of Vaene, it’s a colony of unnatural bats. Normal bats fly off from the presence of humans, but those blessed by Goddess...

Part 1 Her breath fluttered, but her voice returned with new resolve—ragged, but shaped like ritual. “Then listen well, stranger…” she rasped, her hand pressing into the ground as though she could trace the web beneath it. “There is one with strands instead of soul. A spinner of traps, not...

Her shoulder throbbed like the sun at harvest—slow, scorching, relentless—until even her ears seemed to dull. But not enough. They still caught it: a breath, rough and measured. Someone nearby. At first, she thought it was the web-weaving Drow—but the air was wrong. No shift in silk, no scurry...

The world crept back in fragments—not light, but the clash of steel ringing through the threads of night. Each strike echoed like bone striking bone in an old birthing house. Footsteps whispered secrets in dust. And beneath it all, the throb of pain in her shoulder pulsed like a second...

After the darkness, the soporific Monifa was called by a calm, resonant voice. Midwife. Monifa. Open your eyes. She stirred like a newborn, her head tilting weakly before her eyes fluttered open. It was not darkness that greeted her, but a long, narrow table made of golden-brown iroko wood...

Monifa kept walking, but her steps faltered—she nearly stumbled on loose pebbles strewn across the alley. Her legs ached. Her head hung low like a wilting reed. Once I get home, she thought, I’ll draw a bath with herbs. Pray to Vaene. Burn palm oil and myrrh. Wash this night from my bones. She...

As Monifa stepped into the alleyway, thick with the sour breath of rotting food and shattered crates, she turned briefly—Zyn was not behind her. Expected due to her unrefined words. She had warned her apprentice about alleys, about what skulked where the city forgot to look, and yet here she...