Excerpt: Star on the Morning Tide

Tenoh sat silently in the dark depths of the dungeon, or maybe it was a tower. She hadn’t bothered to check or even attempt to. She scratched behind her ear, currently the multi pierced human ear, at an imaginary flea. Or maybe it was a real one, she couldn’t tell anymore. While her nails, round and cut far too short, rather than long and talonous, scrabbled along her skin, the manacles around her neck and arms clancked and echoed through the darkeness, it was disconcerting to be locked up in the tower, unable to do anything. She sighed when the door opened out of sight, that meant a visitor and visitors meant trouble.

“Well well the Shadow King, still sulking I see?” a young man with cardinal red hair, stripped down the middle with burt orange smiled. He sat down opposite of the gate from the captive Tenoh.

“What the hell do you want Morty?” Tenoh addressed the jovial God of Small Things, Mortimer Homlette Wells Eggleston the Fourth, or just plainly Morty. She closed her eyes and hung her head.

He pouted slightly, “what’s the matter Tenoh? Aren’t you happy to see me?” He put a hand up and around the other, so his arms folded huffily.

Tenoh growled, “no as a matter of fact, I’m not.”

“Aww that’s a pity,” Mortimer shrugged and continued to smile, “not like it matters to either me or you.” He turned serious, “what will you do Tenoh? I’m curious about this situation.”

Tenoh shrugged and held up her right hand to her face and stared at a small scar on the back of her knuckle. “ ‘Care to defy the heavens with me?’ That was the last offer my master made me before he turned me loose on my parents.” She turned her hand over and gazed briefly at the scar where her hand had been run clean through on a sword. Her hand clenched into a fist and held onto nothing. “My plan is simple. I will accept my fate.”

Mortimer blinked several times, and his mouth fell open slightly. “That doesn’t sound like you at all, are you sure you haven’t caught ill while you’ve been in here?”

“No, I can assure you that even cut off from my normal food supply, my judgement is not clouded in the least. That said, I will accept my fate regardless of what you say.” Tenoh leaned back and her lanky and uneven black bangs brushed her face. The chain on her neck rustled uneasily with the motion but it didn’t bother her now.

“Well whatever it is you’re smirking in revenge,” Mortimer stood up, “whatever this scheme,” he held up one hand and tilted it downward with his thumb extended so it pointed to the ground. “Count me out. This is on your own head.”