Ironwood Semblance Novels & Stories

"The inkwell's alive. It bites." "Of course it does." The cabinet was locked with something older than iron. Bone. A femur, carved with teeth-marks, bound across the doors with silver wire. I could feel the Void fragment behind it. Not heat. Not cold. The particular absence of both, like a tooth missing from the world's jaw. "Help me with this." I gripped the bone. "Pull on three." "Mimi-" "One." "This is a bad idea." "Two." "We're going to die."

There was a bedside table next to her with a glass of water and a bucket next to the bed. "Hello," her voice came out in a cracked whisper. "Hello," she said even louder. "Is anyone there!? Can anyone hear me!? Please. I need help!" she said as she started to cry. This was real, and she had no memory of how this happened. How long had she been here now. Did she wake up prior to this and do the same thing? She looked down at her ankle, which burned the most. It was raw, and it looked like burnt flesh all around. She felt the metal around her ankle, and it burned to the touch. She was being captive with silver. Is that what was making her so weak?

Though all the portals to the dark realms had been sealed shut Kimora may have returned or not have left in the first place… "Lucky for us, that was over twenty years ago if I'm not mistaken. The last account of Kimora may have been a mistake if you ask me" Jade tosses a ball and catches it mid air, heaves a huge sigh and confessed; "You've said this story like a million times and no matter how many times I hear it, it is still thrilling to hear it once again". "Jade, all is not what it seems and that's why you are trained to control positive energy and not dark matter in case it returns we will be prepared" said Hentai.

She looked sad, but sympathy will have to come later. She looks like Eirny. She sounds like Eirny, but she isn’t Eirny. This Eirny is completely different from the day I met her. Ever since she got with Dane it's been different. Ever since then she’s been not herself. I miss her, but I don’t. I miss the Eirny I met on the first day of school, the fiery tempered Eirny, the one who stands her ground, and doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit. I hope working with her will help bring that back. Just a little because then I know I have a chance with getting that part of her back, but if I can’t. Then I know she’s long gone.

At first it looks like twisted metal. Then it moves. Eight feet tall. Four long limbs braced like an animal. Its surface looks like fractured glass and dark alloy, constantly shifting shape like liquid steel trying to remember how to be solid. Where a head should be— There’s just a rotating ring of light. The thing tilts slightly. As if studying us. The crowd behind us freezes. Someone whispers, “What is that?” The partitioned presence answers inside Aidan’s mind. External construct. Non-biological. Combat simulation entity.

Every time a gust of wind threatened to tear the crystalline lattice apart, I had to pulse my own resonance through the deck, acting as a living weld. ​It was an exhausting, agonizing process. My soul felt like it was being stretched thin, a single thread of diamond-white light trying to hold back a hurricane. The iridescent patterns in my vision were frantic, spinning so fast that the world was a kaleidoscope of red and gray. Through the haze, I could see the ruins of the Iron City. It was the skeletal remains of a civilization that had traded its spirit for steam and steel. Massive, toppled towers lay across the landscape like the ribs of a fallen colossus, and the ground was a patchwork o

The first attacker swings a blade as I slam into him, jaws snapping. A metal staff meets my teeth and sparks pain through my gums. Star metal. Of course. I wrench anyway and feel the joint give. He goes down hard. The second lunges and I meet him with my shoulder, then my claws, driving him into the leaf litter. The veil slips for a heartbeat when his head cracks against a stone, and I catch his real scent in that instant. Ironclaw. My stomach turns. Not fear. Recognition. They’re bold enough to wear their enemy’s badge in Silverwood, and bold enough to send their hunters onto Bloodmoon soil. What gives them all this bravado?

Peirce blinked turning to Jamal’s pregnant wife. “But…” He slowly stood up, staggered a little before gaining his ground then his teeth clenched, his fist tightly balled as rain dropped on him one after the other before it lightly showered while staring at Jamal. Suddenly many Inhumanes mounting their Kirin landed around them one after the other in their various vibrant armors imitating their glowing skin, out from the well crafted holes and markings on it.

“People here are confused. They think they’re seeing your livestream from last night, Sophia—but it’s you saying the opposite of what you said. Same background, same gestures. Even your earrings match.” Elise swore softly. “That’s Speculum tech, integrated with whatever emotional analytics they’ve been harvesting. They can clone any of us on demand.” Raven looked grim. “We either counter them immediately, or we risk losing every city we’ve touched.” --- The core EmberRoots team locked themselves in the strategy room. Coffee cups multiplied. The air grew stale with tension. “First step,” Sophia said, “is reclaiming the word ‘Lumen.’ They can’t own it if we outshine them.”

The one by the door held the ledger like it was a holy relic, and she looked at me with a cold, mocking pity that made the silver in my veins feel like lead. "Darius," the Iris in my arms whispered, her hand clutching my chest so hard I could feel her nails through my shirt. "That’s not me. You can feel me, right? You can feel the link." I looked down at her, and I could feel her heart hammering against my own, but when I looked at the other Iris, I felt the exact same thing. The heartbeat was synchronized and the silver resonance was identical, making her a perfect copy right down to the very edges of her soul.