Wicked Witch

The city loomed high above us as the carriage headed for the massive front gates. I stared in amazement from my seat at the window, trying to soak in every detail. The guards snapped to attention as we rolled under the portcullis and through the dark tunnel, emerging out into sunlight moments later. An entire small city spread out in front of my eyes as I craned my neck. It was so unlike Ardmere, which had no walls or keep, no active military. Everything was small and low, spread out like a gia

Welcome TB, Trees, Linux and others I'm sure you'll love it here.

Turns out Aric was more than he told me. He was Lord Aric af Graye, not plain old Aric. It was a shock to know the kindly soldier came from one of the great families of the old Empire. All the tales told of how the nobility were cruel and heartless but he’d helped me, even read me to sleep. We were returning to his home, the army able to do no more for Ardmere. It was all in the hands of Lady Celestine now, who had ridden to the capital to demand compensation for the King’s failure. She didn’t

Ah sorry about the confusion. Didn't mean to imply that in the prologue. But thanks for the feedback.

Chapter 1 Ardmere, Kingdom of Tenivari The flames burnt quieter now, the smoldering town laying spread out before my eyes. The trolls had left chaos in their wake, their God-King raining fire down on the innocent of Ardmere. No one thought the beasts had it left in them, their grubby armies smashed so short a time ago. Hundreds had paid for that mistake with their lives. I sighed and slumped against the wheel of a wagon. The King was a fool, nothing like the Emperor of old. He wouldn’t have

Prologue Once upon a time …. No, no, no. That will not do. That is a terrible way to start a tale such at this. How about… A long time ago …. No, even worse. I don’t know for sure it’ll be a long time ago, this may be read years in the future or before the month is out. How about I simply introduce myself? Greetings my dear reader. I am Arcturus Stalf, High Mage of the Empire of Resolution. Blame the name on its founder, dear old Izar I. A great man really but he had a t

Arcturus is an ancient mage who wants to die. It is his last wish after a long, weary life of service. But to die without destroying the world he must find an heir for his immense power. Sabien is a young human who suffered the loss of everything to trolls when they burnt his city. Adopted by a kindly noble, he only wants to repay his lord’s kindness. Neither knows it, but they might have more to do with each other than they expect.

A very nice start Sasha. Looking forward to more

Great ending. Glad that it finally came out how Roman had treated Kayden. I will look forward to the sequel immensely.

I can't word it much better than fiedlerbob. Amazing, awesome, beautiful. I adore this story. I just found it (hadn't read the original) but it is amazing. I've cried and laughed so much while reading this.

A beautiful ending Sasha. This story all through made me very emotional I have to admit, especially Ruff. I always cry about pets dying, because I know how hard it is to lose animals who become like your family. And the beautiful, if sad tale of Oliver and Boris was a joy to read. It's a pity they could never be together in the same form.

I'll vouch for premium having some great stuff in it. I brought Premium twice and intend to buy again in the future when more has been added. There are about 30 full length novels there, well worth the money. Plus your supporting the site.

Loved Joann's prompt response, it was hilarious.

I do agree with this fathers sentiment, but I also have to agree with Graeme's point. That said, I find societies restrictions bizarre. A couple of hundred years ago, pink was considered manly (because it was bold) and white and blue were feminine (because they are 'softer' colours). Such things change with the era. Who really cares what is 'proper' in such a silly context?

Ah god. This chapter made me cry ... a lot. It really touched a chord in me I guess ... listening to Kate Bush's wuthering heights at the same time didn't help. Masterful writing Nephylim, you make all the characters seem so real. James is hurting so badly and striking out at whoever he can .... it's tragic what Sasha is feeling but you also feel tragic for how James must feel. So twisted up inside.

I live near Hobart, capital of Tasmania. And we only decriminalized homosexuality in 1998 after the United Nations intervened. Actually Tasmania is bizarre in that we're the only state in Australia that recognises foreign and interstate gay civil unions and marriages but we don't actually allow them within our own state. We've even elected several gay and lesbian senators, yet a petition of 10,000 people scuttled attempts to get us gay marriage (10,000 is something like 5% of the state population, so a massive number.) A state of contradictions. re: not needing due to state capital. What I described above is about the state capital. My town is pretty much considered a satellite of the capital, so I guess I'm used to talking about the two in one. Heh sorry for confusion. Tbh all the sex shops, hookup locations and nightclubs aren't my scene, but it'd be nice if we had more of a LGBT community.

Gay life .... well.... I live in a town of 15,000 a stone throw from the state capital of 200,000 people and we barely have a straight social life. There is one (straight) brothel in the capital city called the Gentleman's Club and a sex shop I've seen advertised on late night TV but I have absolutely no clue where the hell it is supposedly located even knowing the street from the advert. There are all of 3 nightclubs, none of which are LGBTIA. We don't have gay pride parades, and the states single Uni has a LGBTIA alliance but that's about it for them. All private middle to high schools are affiliated to some christian denomination or other and several are presently being sued for kicking out LGBTIA students, while most of the public schools are in extremely homophobic low socioeconomic areas. I do know there is a 'database' of gay friendly tourist locations promoted by the local tourism council, and I recall a website mentioning community group holds friendly (non-sexual) get togethers for the LGBTIA community once a month.

10000 BC has to be the worst movie I've watched. The plot consists of some big spiritual journey or something because the hero's girlfriend got kidnapped. The actual movie starts in stone age north america with a bunch of guys in leather huts who hunt mammoths. The hero is pursuing the kidnappers of his girlfriend or something, so he hikes out of his valley and it cuts to him suddenly being in Africa, stumbling onto a mud hut village with a bunch of tribesmen waving spears at him, only to be interrupted by a sabre tooth cat (who come from north america) and using his great and mystical powers to tell it to go away by starting at it with a constipated expression. The main story line seems to revolve around a confused mix of all the mammoths disappearing, his girlfriend being kidnapped and him having a spat with some rival for becoming chieftain. So, after impressing the primitive africans (who I note speak his language) with his sabre tooth cat herding, the hero trounces off and turns up in a confused mix of Babylon and Egypt where a bunch of weird old guys with long fingernails are pretending to be gods while living in a giant version of the Babylon gate while slaves build a pyramid using ... the stolen mammoths ... and kidnapped slaves from every single ethnic group you can imagine. Mammoths who should die in all of two seconds pulling around giant rocks in a desert. Also, these were the bad guys who had someone enslaved half the world with no army; The ending just made it worse, but I won't spoil everything ... also acting sucked and the CGI was meh. The only thing decent about it was absolutely none of the men wear shirts XD

Oooh ... very nice Sasha. I love what you've done so far and it's a great teaser to make me want more. Kieran seems like an interesting character and I look forward to seeing more hopefully.

For me meeting Cia was more like "OMG WILL YOU SIGN AN AUTOGRAPH?!!!!" Heh. I'd always loved Cia's work, and it was pretty amazing to meet them on chat when I came to GA.

Neither, to be honest, PC gaming all the way for me. I'm not a huge console fan, I find them to be expensive blocks of metal I don't use much where as a computer is multi-purpose. I occasionally (like one every six months) sit down with my brothers and play some Halo, but that's it for console. I'm more of a fan of the type of games that exist on PC anyway.

Uh-oh. What did Nassau do? D: You tease Sasha. Can't wait for the next chapter

This ... made me ill, I have to admit. You are an amazing writer, because that scene with Christopher will forever be etched in to my mind. I hope someone hunts down Derek and rips him apart slowly and painfully. I felt like I was in that room, watching it happen. This cliffhanger is killing me, I HAVE to know what happens.

Very very creative take on the theme and quite an enjoyable read It's a nice change from the normal highschool tale as well