A character saga
Read 7 complete PicWar fantasy battle stories featuring Austin across different rivals and endings.
The saga shelf
Each short stands alone, but together they trace how this character changes when the rival and circumstances shift.
The golden magic circle behind Austin had already begun to turn before his opponent had even crossed the threshold of the ruin. He felt the shift first—a wrongness in the air, the way a held breath betrays a room full of…
Read the storyThe Weight of Old Graves The wind carried the smell of rain-soaked iron across the empty quarry basin, and Austin let it settle against his skin before he even turned. He had not been sought. Neither had Ushitora. They…
Read the storyTHE Painted Truth That Never Was The golden magic circle blazed to life beneath Austin's feet, spiraling outward in concentric rings of rune-light that swallowed the scorched concrete plaza. He stood at its center,…
Read the storyThe golden magic circle flared to life beneath Austin's polished leather soles, and the air itself seemed to lean toward him, weighted with seven kinds of elemental light. His silver-white hair stirred in a wind only he…
Read the storyThe blue light came first, before any sound—a thin crescent of it sliding through the air like a question asked of the dark. Austin watched it arrive with the patience of a man reading weather in the sky, the crystal in…
Read the storyThe cold silence of the crater was broken by the soft, rhythmic *drip* of melting ice. Austin stood at its center, silver hair unmoving despite the wind that swept the ash-ghosted battlefield, his mismatched eyes—gold…
Read the storyThe Unborn Hour The golden array flared beneath the second-floor gallery where Austin stood, its nine concentric rings turning like the gears of some celestial clock. Below, Jack advanced with the unhurried precision of…
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