Artifice Stories

A story that is both a lie and a journal by a very reliable narrator.

ar·ti·fice noun clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive others. ---------------------------------------- The world revolves as it always has, mystery, lies, and pain. Treachery is part of every other Tuesday. Writer Rosyln Damira Brighid is trying to get through life when she walks into something she should not have, something bad, she immediately tries to run. But it's too late now. The artifices of life have tangled her in their dangerous webs, and they won't let her go.

The world is a place where the manipulation of the universe is known to every living soul, where reality itself can be shaped with a touch of a finger, where time itself flows as desired and space can be woven like thread, where other realities are only a step away. The unbridled creation in a world where people may do as they please, however, is not enough to satisfy the mechanist Cassandra, a woman who delves into artifice and would create order out of chaos. But for all their power, the pride of her people and the knowledge she unlocks will spell the very thing no one can imagine: the end of days.

NEW PARTS EVERY COUPLE DAYS! Rhilion was in turmoil. A millennium after all dragons disappeared from the kingdom, they returned, vowing vengeance on the dynasty that had exiled them from their lands. With little mercy and a single desire to see the current king answer for the war crimes of his forefathers, the enormous beasts ravaged the countryside, remembering the war all too well. Alongside their revenge, the dragons sought the Esymr Amulet: an indestructible, ancient token that was said to be the only other item created in the mountain where all dragons were born. But the amulet was in the possession of an unlikely ally: a witch, who lived in exile, wielding forbidden magic and using the amulet to see visions of the dragons' mountain home. She, too, wanted revenge on the kingdom, for dispersing her people and alienating her from society. An unlikely alliance formed, but the ultimate question remained: would there ever be peace? Or would the dragons' desire for revenge destroy everything and everyone in Rhilion? Cover Art: PlaygroundAI - AI Generated Art

(Rewrite is going on RoyalRoad) Every dwarven city has its Spark, one that grants life to the great artifices carved into living rock and cruel steel by the god Tek himself. A machine set in motion when the turning of the world began again, Dhuldarim has survived millennia without faltering. Until now. The Spark, it seems, is going out. Divine help is impossible: the great god Tek is silent, slumbering where none can reach. The ingenuity of dwarves is their only hope of salvation. To return the Spark, a great power is needed-power that can only be found in the Deep. To trespass so into the depths of the earth is suicide even for a dwarf, but the Heartforge has spoken: Tali Khondurahl must go, and go alone. There are things that live in the Deep, they say, that dream of the red flower wielded by the dwarves. They dream...and they hate. Aided on her journey by a golem of stone, a siren freed from eternal imprisonment in the Deep, a human mage far from home, a strange deep-dweller, and a scion of her people's most ancient foe, Tali must face an evil so powerful it has survived the millenium since the Revealing without interruption, lording over a dominion of misery and subjugation. With every leg of the journey, loyalties become increasingly divided. In the end, it is her choices that shape the future of Dhuldarim and its ancient enemies alike.

I want to use this collection to feature some of the art which has had an impact on me. We'll see what transpires.

I hide my face behind milk-white paint covering the taint ot tear-stained landscapes...

My question marks were never caged but they always find ways to conceal their images and trick the pachydermatous spectator with artifice. Maybe, certainty can be Socrates listening to the mixtape in my closet? Maybe uncertainty can be me without my question marks at all.