Sixy (Soul Embraced)
m.j.banks
What I've been doing is going to a title generator site and getting six random titles, then using them as chapters of a short story, making a draft, giving it a title myself, then abandoning it in my drafts folder. Typically I let the story replicate the titles' implications and write it start to finish, some adjustments. Let's do that.
Give me some titles..... wow, okay...
1 Sharp Dreams, 2 The Laffing Memory, 3 Stream of Sword, 4 The Time's Voyage, 5 The Stones of the Flying, 6 Sword in the Dreams
Some regret for committing to this, but whatever. It did print "laughing," no need to spell it with the wrong letters. The goal is be germane and on second draft make each chapter a page, long enuf to read, short enuf to finish. I'm going to make it extra short and then sleep.
Q music.
1 Sharp Dreams
Man walks in field, but it's a dream, wakes during attack, but their numbers are too small, spy makes it into his tent, stabs with a magic blade that puts him into a coma, a nightmare to him, his first battle and none of his experience, or armor, more difficult than memory,
2 The Laffing Memory
With the awake, the invaders attack, but only the outskirts and only to irritate, attrition, psychological, sending requests for impossible demands, coupled with the coma of the man, they are depressed, the coma-assassin comes back with the poisoned knife and the blood on it, giving it to a warlock, aftereffect of magic done on the nightmare blade, yes I fit this into a ton of my stories, not so much the star this time, a moment for the affect and glow of the evil foe
3 Stream of the Sword
Warlock takes the nightmare blade, drops the blood onto his sword on tented altar, short like a footstool, itself curved in a shinto-like fashion, let's just go with samurai warlock and likewise ceremony, attire, colors, red and black only, clothing, tactical, the blade glows a hue and color that fires can have, his complexion darkens away from light, radiating only the energy weapon, not a fire/light saber, just a vibration or energy signature, blue steel*, the assassin sees in its reflection the room slide from right to left, but the warlock sees no reflection, but a window into the soul of the man in a coma, and for whatever reason, stabs the assassin in the chest, while the warlock kneels over the dead assassin, his eyes burn with the same fire as prior, yet in the dream world, the warlock manifests astral (projection) w the assassin's body
4 The Time's Voyage
Warlock gets to see a time before the countryside was different, ravaged less, brighter more, still the ongoing conflict, still a spy, can see the coma dude's side, but not his own, because the memory of the comatose, learning the terrain of their encampment, finding people dressing as spy's against the warlock's side, sees someone rush into the scene, hears them tell about their enemy has found a warlock to their side, a nod to himself, a vision of the next chapter, approach the younger coma dude, but coma dude starts into fear and chaos, starts to recognize the assassin, launches into a fight with the warlock in assassin skin, but it's a dream, and yet the assassin's soul carries the nightmare blade, coma dude in the real world is part physicality and all stress asleep, so in the dreamworld he's sortof fading, insight being that weak tether to the dreamworld makes the dreamer's ability stronger, idk, and wrests the nightmare blade from the foe/villain, stabs him and the blade's magic shows a light, extremely overwhelming to the dream dimension, everyone is thrown from the dreamworld, the warlock opens his black blood eyes, turns the blade into the assassin's body to end him, agony, certainty's gaze
5 Stones of the Flying
maybe it's, ok right, the warlock goes on warpath, the stones are explosive and send people flying or he throws stones that go 'flying thru the air' and when they land, the stones swallow the souls of opponents, how many of those does he have, he knows is way thru, maybe stones help people fly and there's an aerial battle, final fantasy fanfix way, or the longest to write, dragons controlled by stones, or people controlled with stones against their will, with a backstory on controlling power anchored earlier, not important, but he knows the layout and where the secret lair is and heads right for their leader, woke coma guy ha
6 Sword in the Dreams
speaking of backplants, he sees the warlock and recognizes him, guy gets the upperhand against the warlock, but the warlock traps him, the guy snatches the nightmare blade, in his hand it's bright and blinding to stare-at, warlock starts losing, tries to leave, the stones work against him when guy has the knife, tons of interstitial dialogue i imagine to what extent im not really sure, the blade draws blood, the warlock's wounds bleed black, but each stab shines with bright darkness as the warlock screams the coma guy can read the warlock's mind, a vision cascade of who hired the warlock, to surprise its someone he trust, and that there are spies within, all sorts of bad news, the warlock dies with cut throat with quick delivery, the coma doesn't waste time, he's got enemies w/in ukno, is there a twist, hell yes there's a twist, the assassin that the warlock had killed, groans and moans, struggles to reach into the muddy tent earth, ahead of himself pulls himself toward the warlock's sword, struggling toward the low altar of the blade, toppling it cuts his fingers around it, the assassins eyes grow black, the blade glows the same color, the assassin starts to stand, and drinks the same specific mixture of tea the warlock had drank, two of this, three of that, one of these, stir counter-clockwise
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I've 16 of these now, oh right the title. Thinks. Open to suggestions. Looks at phone.
'Soul Embraced'
Thanks for reading.
m.j.banks