another reason to believe he will awaken.”
The frightening human left. The uninteresting human stayed a little longer, fed Shuffles some boring fish, and then left.
Shuffles tasted the meaning of their words and selected the one it liked the best.
With the tentacles on its mouth, it reached through the bars and unlatched the cage. It could do this at any time, but the humans seemed not to realize it.
It hopped down from its cage, fluttering over to where its pet human lay unresponsive on the bed. Its eyes staring unseeing. Occasionally blinking.
The pet human did not smell like itself. It smelled like it had gone a long way away, even though it was right here.
Shuffles had waited for too long. Now it had the right word to bring the human back.
It held the word, savoring it, until it had built up enough power.
Then Shuffles bellowed, “AWAKEN.”
The human’s fingers twitched.
THE END
of The Elder Empire, Last Sea
Of Kings and Killers
Bloopers
In the stained-glass room floating in the void, Ozriel leaned back on his couch.
“I can tell you the three ways to be rid of the creatures you call Great Elders. You should listen well, Lindon.”
Calder blinked. “My name isn’t Lindon.”
“It isn’t?”
“No.”
Ozriel swallowed hard. “Oh no…I’m in the wrong world.”
Calder spun back to help Andel...just in time to see the frog-like Elder swallow his quartermaster whole.
Calder let out a breath of relief and sheathed his cutlass.
Jerri hurried up and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing? We have to rescue Andel before he dies!”
“No, Andel’s fine. He was swallowed whole. Nobody who gets swallowed whole ever dies. Now, if he’d fallen off a cliff into a never-ending abyss, then I might have been worried.”
Long ago, a tutor for the Alchemist Guild walked into a cell where a disturbing little girl was stacking up bones like blocks.
The girl was pale. Creepy. She didn’t blink enough.
The tutor immediately decided to skip the day’s lesson. He could report to Bareius that everything had gone perfectly, and no one would ever know that he’d shirked his duties.
He glanced at his lesson plan. Why did anyone need an entire lesson on personal boundaries?
The tutor tossed the lesson plan into the trash bin.
Twenty years later, Calder Marten threw open his bedroom wardrobe.
To find Bliss staring at him from inside.
“He is not controlled,” Loreli said. “I am certain. I have thoroughly Read him, his ship, his crew, and his possessions. I will vouch that he is not a puppet, only a fool. A moron. A chump. A sucker. An idiot, some might call him. Relentlessly selfish, you could say. Shortsighted. Arrogant. Childish, even. There are those who might suggest that his emotional growth was stunted in childhood, and I can’t say I disagree.”
Estyr released her psychic grip on Calder’s throat, letting him spill to the floor, coughing.
“If you say so, Loreli, I’ll let him go.”
Calder waved a hand. “No, never mind. Just…just strangle me.”
Calder stood and moved to the window. He reached out to see if he could touch the illusion that Kelarac was showing him.
His hand tapped against the glass.
Instantly the vision changed. He saw inside a dark room, where a man hunched in front of a brightly lit screen, his fingers working furiously.
Everything from the clothes the man wore to the decorations in the room were strange to Calder. “What is this?” he asked.
“I can tell you what it isn’t,” Kelarac responded. “Cradle.”
Glossary of Terms
Am’haranai – The ancient order of spies and assassins that would eventually become the Consultant’s Guild. Some formal documents still refer to the Consultant’s Guild in this way.
Architect – One type of Consultant. The Architects mostly stay in one place, ruling over Guild business and deciding general strategy. They include alchemists, surgeons, Readers, strategists, and specialists of all types.
Awaken – A Reader can Awaken an object by bringing out its latent powers of Intent. An Awakened object is very powerful, but it gains a measure of self-awareness. Also, it can never be invested again.
Jarelys Teach, the Head of the Imperial Guard, carries an ancient executioner’s blade that has been Awakened. It now bears the power of all the lives it took, and is lethal even at a distance.
All Soulbound Vessels are Awakened.
Children of the Dead Mother – Elderspawn created by the power of Nakothi out of human corpses.
Consultant – A member of the Consultants Guild, also known as the Am’haranai. Mercenary spies and covert agents that specialize in gathering and manipulating information for their clients.
Consultants come in five basic varieties: Architects, Gardeners, Masons, Miners, and Shepherds.
For