Seventh Sanctum Novels & Stories

I was. “You'll have access to the island,” I finally said. “You can bring the people you trust. But the rules are mine.” Harris took a deep breath, thought about my words for a moment before extending his hand forward again, “Then, we have a deal.” I looked down at his hand for a moment before looking up at him. Then, I smiled and shook his hand, “We have a deal.” His grip tightened around mine, and for the first time since I had woken up seven days before the apocalypse, I felt like I wasn't carrying everything alone.

She gasped. "What is it?" Seraphina asked. Celestia slowly opened her eyes. "The Tree is showing me every Sanctuary across the world." She raised a trembling hand. "They're failing." Silver pools formed around the roots, each displaying a different location: a hidden shrine buried beneath icy mountains, a forgotten temple swallowed by the sea, and a sacred grove deep within an ancient forest. One after another, the protective barriers surrounding them cracked, and dark mist seeped through every fracture.

"The map in the frozen temple only showed seven glowing points. The seven sanctuaries." ​"It says here..." Seraphina’s breath caught in her throat as she translated the small, faded runes that were glowing with a distinct, diamond-white intensity. "The ritual required a central anchor. A piece of the soul that couldn't be bound to a fixed stone temple, because if all seven temples were fixed, the Emperor’s corruption would eventually locate them and drain them from beneath." ​"An mobile anchor," Lysander rasped, his eyes snapping up to look directly into Seraphina's face. "The eighth fragment."

After returning home, I went straight to the basement without uttering a single word. When the last bit of light above my head disappeared, all I could see was darkness. According to what I'd read, a person could only be driven to the brink of death after going seven days without food or water. Thus, I hoped they would lock me up for seven days. That way, I should be able to bypass the system and finally die. Every day, I relied on the voices outside to determine the time. By the sixth day, I was already so weak from hunger that I could barely move.

Her lips trembled, but no words came out. Mrs. Cunningham stood to the side, wanting to curse at me, but not daring to. Seven years of marriage. Twenty years of friendship. In the face of betrayal and lies, it had all become worthless. I had nothing more to say. I turned, ready to leave this nauseating place.

"Transmit the data." Don slammed the enter key, the screen flashing green as the upload hit one hundred percent. "Tell Shinjiro to focus all his boys on Depot Seven," Don instructed, leaning close to the mic. "Dominic is out of cash, and the asset freeze cleared out his heavy guards. The seventh sector is a ghost town between two and three in the morning." "We confirm receipt," the liaison said flatly. "Get your bags packed. Before we change our mind." Out at the coastal villa, rain lished against the windows.

"The Central Controller has already flagged your anomaly. If I do not report a successful repair within thirty minutes, the Auditors will initiate a Localized Deletion. They will purge this entire spire to prevent the 'Glitch' from spreading." Kael’s mind raced. He had thirty minutes to do the impossible: he had to break into Jace-Prime’s source code, find the monitoring algorithms that reported to the Auditors, and inject a Liar’s Paradox—a piece of code that would make the system believe he was "Fixed" while leaving his rebellious memories intact. "Fine," Kael said, his voice steadying. "Take me to the Sanctum." The Digital Heist The Sanctum was the heart of the High Citadel, a massive cha

The name sounded pretty. It wasn’t. *** “Sanctum Meridian,” Soryn said, rolling the words like something she’d rather spit. “High Howl calls it a “neutral evaluation facility.” It is not neutral. And it was never built for “safety.””

The First Seal cracked wider, and through it came not just shadows but light – terrible, burning light from the Flame Realm, winter's frozen breath, the growing things of the Green Realm, all bleeding together. "Six centimeters dilated," Volkov announced clinically. "The birth approaches." I looked at the chaos around us – Dimitri half-feral, James desperately maintaining barriers, Sarah flickering between dimensions, shadows and light warring in our own realm. My child would be born into this. Unless I changed the game entirely. "Sarah," I said. "Bridge us to the Sanctum. All of us." "But your mother—" "Isn't there. But the Sanctum itself is. The first sacred ground. Where the moon goddess

Schuyler Garret moves, allowing us to walk past him into a long, dark hallway, illuminated only by rope lighting at the bottom of each wall. Midway, a spotlight brightens the black wall with the word “Fringe” in deep red paint. Calvin points to the opposite wall where a plaque declares this the selfie station. It invites patrons to take selfies for social media and use the tags #Fringe, #FringeDesMoines, and #FringeSpeakeasy. In large, bold, red font, the plaque instructs guests to shut off their cell phones as Fringe is a phone free club. It further explains that any patrons caught using a phone may not return or use the Fringe app for 12 months.