Laurence was confronted with a pine forest when he and Yun left the testing area. The forest was a lot thinner than the one he had been through a few days before, and a lot more frigid. Snow was peppered across the tops of the trees and caked the grey earth floor, staining the frozen mud with patches of white. …

The second test room had been designed to echo the floor it was on. The walls were formed from wooden roots and the entire area seemed to have been grown rather than built. It was beautiful, earthy, filled with green and browns, and most importantly completely unique. There was no natural light down in the roots of this building, but …

Laurence ran. He had never run so hard in his life, but then his life had never really been in danger before. The beast had given him a small head start but was hot on his tail the entire time. It enjoyed the chase and hoped that the young boy would lead it to even more tasty flesh.   Garral …

Cleo sat in the common room, swinging her feet beneath the chair she was seated on. As usual she was alone. When she and the other two golden children of the Ignis clan had arrived they immediately notified everyone that she was persona-non-grata, and everyone quickly stopped showing any form of friendliness towards her. All golden children knew what being …

The first thing that struck Laurence as he arrived on the new floor was the heat. Humid, bitter heat permeated everything in the surroundings and made each breath stick in his lungs. The heat and light seemed to make the surrounding plants thrive. All the plants in this place were massive, with trees reaching hundreds of meters into the air, …

“Cleopatra Tiberian Ignis, please come up to the dais,” said the old woman in white. She held her withered hand high and a young girl in blue silk robes came forward. “Despite the nature of your birth, you have risen above the others of your age, and are declared one of the Golden Children of the Book of Chaos. Congratulations, …

For what felt like a long time Laurence saw nothing but emptiness. He was all that there was, all that there could be. He just drifted in the void wondering what the point in this place was. After a moment, maybe an age, Laurence felt a prickling, then a slight pull, then a tug in a direction. He had nothing …

For as long as Laurence could remember he was treated as an auspicious child. The fact that he was born on midnight of the New Cycle meant that most people of the village he lived in thought he was lucky. He didn’t mind it too much, but it annoyed him when people rubbed his head for good luck.   His …

Father Angus stood in the center of the medicinal garden, just feeling the cool winter breeze. It was the final day of the year, and the start of a new cycle. That meant hard work and very little sleep during the festival of rebirth. The parish would want to make sure that they had the gods’ favour for the coming …