Sparks of Inspiration

Her shaking hands are softly tracing the body of a man lying in front of her. There are sounds of distant fighting thundering in the background, powerful magic being used is charging the air with strange energy, almost as lightning sometimes does. But more powerful. Everything here is somehow more powerful and she feels powerless, useless, absolutely worthless. But maybe not now. The man is bleeding heavily, his armour is badly damaged and so is his body underneath. He’s dirty and barely breathing and she can see the colour of his cloth, but she doesn’t care. Her calling, her religion, her entire being needs to save this man from certain death and the golden shine from underneath her fingers is doing just that. That is, until a harsh voice coming from behind her startles her and she stops. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” the soldier snaps at her and grabs her arm, dragging her to her feet. His eyes see the dark blue around her neck – the same as he has. Maybe ...

It was another late arrival. It’d happened a few times over the past few weeks - she came home after nine, mildly sweaty, but always trying to make it look like she wasn’t, like it was just another work day. First the infirmary, then her centre, that’s all. She always tried to dry herself off and used perfume every time, but the only shower she could use was at home and it was always her hair that got the most soaked, anyway. She wondered whether he noticed and she also wondered whether he knew she was lying. She desperately tried to make it look like work, nothing exceptional, but she couldn’t be sure about what he thought. And, out of fear, she didn’t ask. The truth was, she was ashamed. She wasn’t sure why exactly she was ashamed, because she wasn’t doing anything shameful, quite the opposite. Maybe it was just the context of it all that made her keep all that a secret. The context of their lives. They had a lot in common, some parts of their lives growing up were ver...

He rushed into the room. Her father. Rushed in with excitement in his face – not an innocent excitement of a child, but a rather violent excitement of a hunter who just shot a deer. His green eyes were ablaze, even his skin looked more alive, more vibrant. His copper-brown hair shone a little more in the dim light of the candles. Everything about him felt alive. He was a vampire. There were only a few occasions when those creatures felt alive… His wife was sitting in an armchair with two little girls by her feet. Their father interrupted a story about the most beautiful nymph the world has ever seen. All three of them looked up, but only his wife dared to ask. “What happened?” He was pacing back and forth, then finally stopped and looked at her with a smile. “They caught one. They got one of the animals from the forest.” Pruna frowned and closed the book in her hands. “I thought you had no contacts with your family.” Her voice was harsh, ice cold, and very quiet, as if ...

 It wasn’t an ordinary night. It was one of those nights. One of those cursed, damned, bad nights. Yes, it was the full moon, but that wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was how the moon’s cycle sometimes – albeit very rarely – coincided with her own. And how much worse it made everything. As if the overly excited werewolf on the other side of the bond wasn’t enough, now she had her own emotions to take care of. It was early morning when she looked at one of the dogs, Auri, and almost burst into tears when she remembered how she came to be. And then there were the hormones. The slight sexual tension on both sides that she could do nothing about. And dammit, of course it was a Saturday and she had to spend the day at home, as did he. She felt like she was avoiding him, and to be perfectly honest, she probably was. She couldn’t see that cheeky smile without wanting to do something about it. She hated him, then loved him, then wanted to simply take him, gods damn the con...

 “Mum?” “Yes, sweetheart?” “Why are you so sad?” The woman sitting by the window breathed out, but didn’t move her eyes from the forest in the distance. She tried to hide it. Her daughters didn’t deserve to know such sadness as hers. She smiled a little, but the emotion didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m… I’m not sad, melmënya . But it’s winter, the forest sleeps, the grass sleeps… And my heart wants to sleep with them” The girl thought for a moment while her hands continued to brush her mother’s red hair. The same as hers, they were always too alike. More than any of them suspected. “Will I be like that when I grow up?” Gem asked, her voice quiet and almost afraid. She didn’t want to be sad in winter, she loved winters. Loved playing in the snow with her sister, building odd snowmen, trying to keep snowflakes in their hands. Her mother moved her head to look at her. Pruna’s icy blue eyes matched the scenery behind the window, but the emotion in them wasn’t cold. It was w...

 Her steps were quick and light on the spacious marble-tiled corridor. Dressed in her best dress – or so she thought – she looked very professional. Her wavy hair was loosely combed back with a few small golden flowers for decoration. Her eyes were glinting with anticipation and her posture was flawless – straight back, chin up, arms cradling a bunch of papers. There was no way things wouldn’t go according to plan that day. She turned into a large room with a few people in white, mostly women, walking back and forth, from bed to bed. It was the university’s hospital wing and it was as busy as ever. She spent three years walking around that room and knew most of the staff, but she knew only the name of the woman she was meeting that day. It was one of the head healers who were almost impossible to meet since they travelled across the country to attend hospital meetings in different cities. But she was lucky. She stopped by one of the healers, her face serious and ever...

 It was the worst night, one of the nightmares. She wasn’t prepared, couldn’t know what would happen during the night and then… then she couldn’t escape anymore, trapped in a dream that was slowly breaking her more, and more, and more… She found herself in a dark place. It wasn’t necessarily a room, there were no visible walls nor windows, but there was one other person with her. She didn’t have to ask to know who it was, her instinct was to simply run forward, to him. “Levi, oh gods, oh no, no, no…” Her hurried whisper was barely audible as she stopped in front of a seemingly unconscious man. He was kneeling, hands bound behind his back, head fallen forward. He didn’t move and her hands automatically got hold of his face and gently raised his head, examining his features. He wasn’t unconscious, but wasn’t far from it, either. “What happened?” she whispered again, this time her voice was stained with starting fear, panic. How the hell did they get there and where ...