A character saga
Read 7 complete PicWar fantasy battle stories featuring Kestrel 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.
Dust in his throat was the first thing Anton felt as the world around him crumbled into ash and whispers. He was already kneeling on one knee amidst the scorched reeds, his right revolver smoking, while the pink elephant…
Read the storyThe smoke over the old relay tower tasted like copper and burnt wire, and Kestrel had been following it for two days—not because he cared about the tower, but because whatever had scorched it still hummed with a…
Read the storyThe clearing still smelled of last time—sweat, crushed reeds, and the particular staleness of a man who'd been held in a grip until he quit. Kestrel rolled his shoulders loose and let the crooked grin settle onto his…
Read the storyThe wind over the Lumeian salt-flats carried no scent of blood, which was how Kestrel knew the doll was already hunting him. He crouched behind a splintered reed-cart, one knee pressed to the cracked white ground, and…
Read the storyThe tide was coming in, and Kestrel let it. He stood on the low coastal path where the sea had taken him before—same grey stones, same hiss of white water crawling up the shingle—and he did nothing. His staff lay…
Read the storyThe road split at the ruined shrine, and Kestrel took the low path—through the dead reeds, where the wind still remembered to move. He had tracked the old man for three days across the ash plains, following a trail that…
Read the storyThe alley breathed like a lung—old brick, wet rot, a sliver of sour light from a broken lamp. Kestrel came in low, feet barely troubling the puddles, robes the color of dead leaves shifting with each step. He liked it…
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