Recent content by Serelai Virelle

The air was warm still but easing now, brushing gently against skin. Twilight lay soft over Elbion, the sky washed in pale violets and gold, the last light catching on the water and breaking gently as the river moved. For the first time in days, Sere's shoulders loosened. They walked side by...

Serelai caught the look when Lilette finally lifted her eyes. There was guilt there, sitting in that pale silver gaze. Something in Serelai softened immediately. Her emerald eyes gentled without her telling them to, her posture loosening as she watched the nun struggle through the apology...

Serelai went still beneath Lilette’s hands, the soft pressure on her shoulders sending a flicker of heat down her spine. Whatever faint concern the nun voiced, Serelai couldn’t answer it, at least not properly. Her body wasn’t unwell. It was... something else entirely, something she didn’t have...

Serelai blinked at the mess between them, realising a heartbeat too late that she’d just stood there gawping while Lilette scrambled on the floor. A small curse caught behind her teeth. She dropped to her knees as well, gathering up stray pages and stacking books with a care that didn’t quite...

Serelai drifted down the narrow run of shelves, the bestiaries growing thicker and stranger the further she went. It was promising, if only she could find something actually useful buried beneath all the dramatics. Her hand skimmed another spine, thumb testing the grain. I swear, if this...

Public Library, Elbion, Early Evening The stacks felt like another world, quiet and cool and carrying that faint, dusty scent she’d grown strangely fond of over the past week. Serelai slipped into it with a soft exhale, letting the hush of it settle over her shoulders after days of noise...

Serelai blinked slowly at Lilette, still half-asleep, trying to make sense of the sudden shift from last night’s frostbitten retreat to... this. Bright, and nervous? Hopeful? It made her brow knit in mild suspicion. Her gaze slid from Lilette... to the overcooked lizard... back to Lilette...

Serelai surfaced from sleep like someone dragging themselves out of a swamp. Her eyes cracked open, then promptly shut again as the morning light stabbed directly into her skull. She let out a long, pitiful groan and flopped onto her back, hair an absolute disaster, half stuck to her cheek, half...

Serelai watched her scramble away into her cloak-bed, the little shudder of movement, the way Lilette all but curled from her like a frightened animal. For a moment she only blinked, taken aback. What...? She lingered upright, fingers still wrapped around the bottle she’d handed back moments...

Serelai blinked, something tight in her chest loosening for half a second as that moment stretched between them. The stillness of the desert night, the faint crackle of violet flame, the way Lilette’s eyes dropped and the fabric of her hood shifted. It all struck her at once. And heavens, she...

Serelai froze for just a heartbeat. The strange violet fire hummed softly beside them, and its glow caught the tension in her jaw, the way her fingers stilled over the sand. Of all the things Lilette could have asked. Her smile flickered, thinning just enough to betray the moment of wariness...

Serelai couldn’t help but smile when she saw the faint silhouette of Maraan rising out of the haze. Relief spilled from her in a long, dramatic sigh, half laughter and half exacerbated groan. "Thank goodness," she muttered. They slipped down behind the ridge, finding a hollow between the...

The path through the outer Falwood was damp and overgrown, the air thick with the scent of moss and rain. Serelai had been walking since dawn, following the winding trail out toward the road that would eventually lead her to Elbion. The thought of civilisation again, of clean linen and...