Nor Shall Death Brag Thou Wander'st In His Shade Novels & Stories

He weighed everything while humming a song that Shadow always sang to him. “Alright. I’ll help him a little bit. I hope my beloved master will love it.” He chuckled alone, excitedly. His chuckle sounded like a ghost haunting the prey, so not many dared to enter the forbidden hall that was supposed to be filled with talented warriors. Well now… it became talented dead warriors. Singing in the forest, Swinging my knife, Playing with the body, Drinking the dead’s blood. La la la~ La la la~ La la la~

--- **The Dirge's Symphony** The glass shatters, the desert dissolving into a sea of ink-black water. The Dirge stands atop the waves, her staff raised, the flame casting an eerie glow over the surface. The shadows rise, forming shapes-wolves with eyes of fire, storms with teeth of lightning, a crown of thorns that drips blood into the void. Eden stumbles, the melody in his veins warping into a scream. "Make it stop-" The Dirge's voice rises, a haunting aria that makes the air itself tremble. *"The Maestro's symphony is eternal. You are but a note in his grand design."*

I turned sharply—but there was no one there. Only the whisper of the wind. Only the deepening shadows. And the knowledge that my own death had already been written. —

But love doesn’t stalk. Love doesn’t blackmail a pregnancy. Love doesn’t send fire to a nursery. He doesn’t love me. He wants to own me. And that… will never happen. I went back to the chapel. But not to pray. To summon. I bled into the basin. Three drops. Spoke my ancestor’s name. Lit a candle made of sheep’s fat and rosemary. The walls trembled. And a voice a voice older than shame rose from beneath the earth. "You’ve come to bargain with death."

She came to become a shadow forever Wandering through trees in the darkness. Beyond the world were shadows forbid to those that believed in the story. From the hills Where softly waterfalls Her daughter wings she bore, a wandering light of evil was beyond the fountain. Her home though shadows journeying And killing disruptors A wander ere the waking dawn. On her ,the mighty doom was laid Till moon fades, and star to pass ,and tarry never more . It was her punishment to her down to their generation. She was doomed forever.

The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secures; He will my Shield and Portion be, As long as life endures. Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease, I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who called me here below, Will be forever mine. When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

“But where’s your mother’s body if it wasn’t there?” I looked at his face. “It turned to ashes when the lightning struck her when we were running away.” “I am sorry,” he told me. He grabbed my head and brushed my hair. “It’s okay. We all die.” “Don’t think like that,” he said. “If your enemy comes here, I will deal with them. You don’t have to do anything. I will burn them as well.”

Alessandro repeated under his breath, like a curse. And then — just like that — the air shifted again. From lunch. To business. To blood. As it always did.

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.” It’s a phrase that I’ve heard humans use from the book they use to honor their god. I never truly understood it until this moment, but it fits. This is the valley of the shadow of death, all of the shifters that Zephyr has killed, here inside her mind. They aren’t evil, they are angry, hurt. I need to help her and them find peace.

Blood was already dribbling down the priestly robe, staining it. On the wall, there was a message, a message that Conrad was too terrified to read: Hell hath no fury. Vengeance is of the earth. “No,” Conrad said. “No.” He turned and fled, running as fast as his legs could carry him.