thanh.nguyenhoang.1403@gmail.com
Stories
168
Chapters
1,512
Words
3.2 M
Comments
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Reading
11 d, 4 h
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Absolute, suffocating darkness. There is no up or down, only the violent, hydraulic shudder of the emergency pod being battered by the atmospheric crush of the firestorm outside. The cured resin walls groan, a sound like a dying leviathan. We are entirely disconnected from the Veyran sky, trapped in a sphere barely large enough to hold two adults with fully formed wings. I press my back against the curved hull. The air is already thick, tasting of copper and burnt ozone. A heavy exhale sounds from the…-
19.6 K • Completed
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The emergency pod hits the canopy netting of the floating island with a bone-jarring snap. Gravity asserts itself violently. We are thrown against the resin hull as the pod tangles in heavy, static-charged ropes, swinging like a pendulum over the abyss. Outside, the muffled roar of the firestorm is gone, replaced by the sharp, rhythmic crackle of lightning-silk looms and the shouting of dockworkers. I do not wait for the swinging to stop. My lower hands slam the manual release override. The heavy resin…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The stolen smuggler’s skiff punches through the upper cloud barrier, its deep-sky silk sails snapping like rifle fire under the sudden influx of high-altitude wind. I am at the helm, my upper hands gripping the polished iron of the primary steering yokes, my lower hands braced against the heavy brass throttle levers. The ship lurches violently to port. My boots slide across the damp wooden deck, but I lock my knees, throwing my body weight backward to force the rudder into alignment. Behind me, Tovan…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The High Elder’s offer hangs in the cabin, a ghost promising to make me real again. Oakhaven is two hours to the east. My name, my family, the restoration of my white-patched wing—all of it sits inside the heavy brass navigation cylinder currently locked in my control yoke. I look at Tovan. He is standing by the shattered railing, his four hands loose at his sides, his starlight-black eyes utterly empty. He expects me to turn the wheel. He expects to be the price I pay to stop being invisible. My…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The King's voice vanishes, swallowed by the unnatural, stuttering wind, leaving only the gravel-rough baritone of the man sitting across from me. “The bloodless coup is the only way… I will open the western gates for your assassins.” The smoke dissipates. The cabin of the hovering skiff plunges into a suffocating, absolute silence. I stare at the empty brass burning plate. The silver ash is gone. The truth is not. I look up. Tovan is frozen on the wooden deck, the color drained from his face, his…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The crimson light pulsing from my upper right wing is blinding. It is not just a color; it is a scream. The blood magic of the usurper’s throne has awakened, locking onto the royal crest that fused into my silk during the firestorm. Outside the shattered cabin doors of the skiff, the bruised-purple sky turns a violent, electric red. The Queen’s armada drops directly out of the slipstream, their massive electrostatic cannons whining as they power up. They are not scanning for rebel ships. They are…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The heavy ironwood hatch of the smuggling hold shuts, plunging me into absolute darkness. Above my head, the muffled, hydraulic roar of the Queen’s armada vibrates through the ceiling panels. Then comes the unmistakable, rhythmic thud of heavy boots landing on the deck of our skiff. The royal guard. The executioners. Tovan is up there. He stepped out with his massive blue wings exposed, offering his absolute biological vulnerability to the very people who framed him, just to buy a ghost enough time to…
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19.6 K • Completed
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The holographic projection of my past self fades, leaving the geodesic dome plunged back into the cold, pristine silence of the master archive. I am staring at the diamond pedestal, but I am not seeing it. I am seeing the rain on the balcony. I am seeing my own hands holding the necrotic, mechanical heart that currently ticks inside the Arch-Consul’s chest. The truth crystal pulses with a calm, unbothered violet light. It does not judge. It only records. "If I did this willingly," I say, the…-
20.3 K • Completed
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The single syllable hangs in the freezing air of the master archive, sharper than any glass blade. You. Vaelith does not flinch. She does not reach out to touch me. The soft, exhausted gold that had saturated her skeleton only moments ago—the beautiful, vulnerable light of a woman who had just surrendered completely—vanishes. It is replaced by a rigid, icy blue that locks every joint in her body. The Arch-Consul is back, constructing a fortress of composure around the terrifying reality that her…
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20.3 K • Completed
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The kinetic blade in my hand hums with a violent, violet-black resonance, mirroring the catastrophic fracture of my own mind. I hold the tip of the polarized glass a fraction of an inch from the blackened, melted weld-scar on Vaelith’s chest. Beneath the scar, the dead Queen’s optical heart ticks—a necrotic, crimson rhythm that has dictated the fate of millions. I can hear it over the deafening wail of the vault’s alarms. I can see the red light pulsing against the edge of my blade. I am a thief.…
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20.3 K • Completed
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