Recent content by Radu Basarab

Archanae Satiation brought with it a return to anatomical propriety. Radu's distended jaw ascended through a series of wet, cartilaginous clicks until it resumed its natural position, though nothing about the creature could truly be deemed natural. He drew the back of one pallid hand across his...

Archanae As the nixie attempted its ascension from the aqueous prison, seeking escape through vertical flight, the osseous artifact that had served as Archanae's temporary companion revealed its true purpose. The skull rose from behind its temporary keeper with deliberate menace, tilting...

Archanae Radu's attention contracted to a singular point of focus, the vessel clutched within her grasp. Those argentate orbs, already luminous in their unnatural splendor, now blazed with an intensity that transformed them into twin beacons of predatory fixation. A grotesque metamorphosis...

Archanae The moment her silhouette materialized at the periphery of the sepulchral grounds, the ancient one abandoned his perch with fluid immediacy. He unfolded from his seated vigil like some terrible origami of flesh and metal, achieving his full height in a motion that spoke of inhuman...

Archanae Ten minutes remained before the appointed hour when fate would reveal whether the girl possessed sufficient cunning to preserve her wretched existence. The snow-haired predator had taken his repose atop a lichen-encrusted monument, one of countless markers that erupted from the...

Archanae The ancient one's response emerged with the finality of a sepulchre door closing. "No," he said. The monosyllabic declaration carried neither hesitation nor room for negotiation, it fell between them like a woodcutter's axe, severing any possibility of compromise. His subsequent words...

The distance between them collapsed to nearly nothing as the ancient one leaned forward, positioning his countenance mere inches from her own, a proximity that violated all conventions of mortal interaction. The space that remained could be measured in the breadth of a blade, perhaps two...

Archanae With methodical precision, the ancient thing returned the skull to its position on the table, setting it down with the careful reverence one might afford a religious artifact. He then approached her, closing the distance between them with measured steps that betrayed no urgency, only...

Archanae A mirthless sound escaped Radu's throat, not quite laughter, but something far more ancient and terrible, like the grinding of tombstones. "If you presume that desire constitutes imprisonment, then you merely reveal your provincial comprehension of existence's fundamental...

Archanae The shadows seemed to writhe and genuflect in Radu's wake as he commenced his measured circumambulation of the table, each footfall deliberate as a death knell upon the ancient stones. Yet whilst his corporeal form moved in that slow, predatory circuit, his eyes, those terrible orbs...

Archanae The thing that might have been a smile crawled across Radu's features like something diseased. His black lips drew back with the wet sound of a wound opening, revealing gums as pale as cave-grown mushrooms, teeth that gleamed with their own cold phosphorescence. It was an expression...

Archanae The distance between them dwindled to insignificance, two steps, perhaps less, before Radu's arm unfolded with the languid grace of a serpent rousing from torpor. His hand rose, a thing of terrible beauty in its construction: fingers elongated beyond mortal proportion, each digit...

Archanae The dagger descended with deliberate ceremony, its blade meeting stone with a whisper that echoed through the sepulcher like a dying man's final breath. Radu's fingers lingered upon the hilt for a moment, a caress almost tender in its brevity, before releasing the instrument to its...

Archanae The silence that stretched between them possessed weight, a tangible thing that pressed against the ancient stones like the accumulated dust of centuries. Radu's gaze held the enchantress in its glacial embrace, those pale orbs unblinking, unchanging, as though time itself had frozen...

Archanae The bone fragment clattered softly against the stone floor as Radu's fingers stilled, the freshly carved sigil still weeping traces of marrow from its yellowed surface. The air hung thick with the scent of old death and darker purposes, disturbed now by the presence of the living, or...