There was something about dance mixed with the trailing light of their daggers that caused Dray to lose all track of time and fall into a meditative state of tranquility. They let their fear, worry, and irritation fall away as they focused on the whirling motion of their long skirt and their lit blades.
Dray strode over and shoved on the door to no more avail than Adair's effort. "Solei Celeste, what did you make?"
Sol all but whimpered. Use of his full name had that effect. "A mistake?"
- excerpt from "Is This Closet Mine or Yours?"
Blythe's heart pounded against her rib cage at the sound of a voice where no one had been. At least she had an answer to her earlier question: his voice was nothing like his twin's. It was soft and almost lyrical- whatever his accent was, she couldn't place it, and had never heard anything like it.
"I'm a Protectorate. What little I have in me of Artisan isn't even worth talking about." Wysta already knew this and Blythe was getting fed up with the insistence that she was something she wasn't.
It was pretty, really, the way the molten glass exploded across the room. In places it dripped, in places it pinged. A droplet hit Blythe's hand and she brushed it off before it could harden, then brushed a few more off her shirt as it was smoldering. The glassmaker gasped and snatched her hands away before she could clear off the rest.
Adair tapped his thumb to his ring finger for luck, something he had picked up from his new friends, then tucked his paintbrush behind his ear. Emotional support from an art supply. Creators, he was pathetic.
Addy had one foot in the water when a hand snatched at the back of his shirt and heaved him away from the shore. "No, dope! You won't get there in time, not the way you swim! Climb!"
Feren shoved him towards the tiny island's lone tree before shimmying up it. Addy bit his lip as the water reached his feet and rose almost immediately to his calves.
The Unexpected Inspiration series is a lighthearted collection of lgbt+ fantasy novels and short stories. It's high fantasy set in an art-centric, contemporary world and is filled with magic, mischief, found family, and carnival performers. More information can be found here.
