A
collaboration with the player and writer of Eredis Orill.
((We wrote this piece collaboratively over two years, e-mailing
it back and forth. Coincidentally, this work formed the beginning of our
relationship in person.))
Golden dawn light limned the sails and almost lent beauty to
the war-torn, ice-battered boat docked at the harbor at Valiance Keep. The dawn
light struggled in vain against the puffs of sooty steam from the ship’s main
power source, the coal fires banked while the ship sat at anchor. On the wooden
docks, activity bustled as quickly as if it were well after noon. Pairs of
deckhands carried large wooden crates between them from the ship’s hold to the
land end of the docks while a leather-skinned man with a...