Flameruner posts
Memoirs 400 - Discerning
The room changed when Scarlett spoke.
The cause was that sentence. ‘It is time we discuss Fate, Time, and the Other’.
It altered the air. Not physically. Structurally. The meaning rearranged the silence.
Why? Why did sound have that power? What gave it that right?
Voices did not follow immediately. The others recognised something in Scarlett’s sentence. An...
2025-10-10 01:27:27 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 399 - Handouts
“I hope that you are all prepared,” Scarlett said, looking over the others seated before her.
“If we’re not, can we take another hour or two of sleep and pick this up after that?” Rosa asked, stifling a yawn behind her hand. “If you really insist, I’ll even take three hours. Flexible might be my middle name, but not Picky.”
“Rosa, you’ve claimed to have about ten...
2025-10-06 10:41:32 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 398 - Shadows
“Allegiance?” Nol’viz whispered, tasting the word as though it were foreign. “We do not have allegiance.”
“You are of the Hallowed Cabal,” Slate said.
“Yes.”
“Allegiance,” Slate continued, voice flat. “Loyalty or commitment to a group or cause. Your affiliation with the Hallowed Cabal is an allegiance.”
“…We understand.” Nol’viz lowered ...
2025-10-02 22:44:39 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 397 - Interrogative
“That should suffice for the time being,” Scarlett said, evaporating a bead of sweat from her temple with a flicker of hydrokinesis. She pushed herself up from her knees and stepped back to survey her work.
The floor before her was covered in a sprawling array, interlocking sigils etched into the stone with flame and silvery powder. A muted glow seeped through the lines, gradually fil...
2025-09-28 21:33:15 +0000 UTC View PostMemoires 396 - Mornings
Scarlett shaped the current of her mana, coaxing it into fine, curling threads that followed a pattern half-remembered and half-inherited. She listened for the faintest shifts as the strands wound through one another, making small corrections, nudging the flow into place a hair’s breadth at a time.
A lattice of runes floated around her, discordant strokes of light clashing in jagged hue...
2025-09-26 02:15:26 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 395 - Happenings
The Shield’s Guild headquarters in Elystead were busier than ever as Livvi pushed through its halls, a fresh stack of documents cradled in her arms and exhaustion stamped across her face.
She’d strung together only a handful of hours’ sleep over the last few days, and it was starting to show. Just that morning she’d snapped at one of her aides for handing her the wrong report, eve...
2025-09-21 21:14:44 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 394 - Keeping
Scarlett watched Rosa, a small, amused exhale escaping her.
Of course the woman would latch onto the least important detail before touching anything else.
Scarlett leaned back in her seat, arms folding across her chest, her voice taking on a patient, almost lecturing cadence. “Those ‘square glowing things’ were monitors.”
Rosa’s brow furrowed. “Monitors? As in, lik...
2025-09-18 21:13:11 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 393 - Showing the hand
They sat quietly for a while. The candlelight on the desk flickered. Somewhere in the wall, a board groaned and went still again. Scarlett let her eyes rest on Rosa and simply…looked. The shawl wrapped tight around her, the tired downturn of her mouth, the way she kept worrying one corner of the fabric between her fingers. It was a fragility Scarlett rarely saw in her. Even less so in moments...
2025-09-14 21:22:53 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 392 - Setting down the cards
Neither of them spoke for some time.
The office breathed around them in low candlelight. Scarlett rested her hands on the desk, lacing her fingers briefly before letting them spread against the grain of the wood.
Across from her, Rosa tugged her shawl even snugger.
“You look tired,” Scarlett finally said.
The smile that came in reply was worn and crooked, bearing a t...
2025-09-11 21:20:15 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 391 - Saying hello
Scarlett was back in her office, seated in her chair. Empress lounged on the desk before her, tail flicking idly. Opposite sat The Gentleman, a distinct furrow creasing his brow.
“I am disappointed in you,” he said after a while.
Empress turned her head towards him, unblinking.
“Will you bear the responsibility for this?” he asked.
The cat meowed once.
The ...
2025-09-08 16:04:20 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 390 - Aurelian
Empress watched her a moment longer before rising and padding past, her tail brushing Scarlett’s legs as she slipped down the street. A few passers-by cast brief glances at the feline, then turned away with the detached air of people too wrapped in their own lives to care.
Scarlett followed, keeping sight of the flicking tail through the crowd.
She was certain this wasn’t the El...
2025-09-04 23:09:21 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 389 - A favour paid
Empress was considerate enough to vacate the armchair, leaping onto the desk instead as Scarlett took her seat. The cat curled neatly upon it, tail flicking across her nose as she fixed Scarlett with those cool, unblinking amethyst eyes.
The Gentleman settled into the chair opposite, placing his top hat on the desk and resting his cane by his knee.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Memoirs 388 - Home sweet home
The carriage wheels rattled over the cobbled streets, the cabin swaying gently with each uneven turn. Outside, dusk pressed in, cloaking Freybrook in a dim veil of purples and greys. A thin scatter of snow softened the rooftops and clung to window ledges, the cold glow of lanternlight flickering to life against the chill.
Scarlett sat in silence, her gaze drifting across the passing scene...
2025-08-28 21:11:27 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 387 - Triad
“Baroness,” Yamina said. “I imagine there’s much for you to see to now?”
“There is,” Scarlett answered, gesturing for Slate to follow as she made her way towards the edge of the platform where Yamina waited. “But that is hardly unusual. My life has become little else. All matters in Beld Thylelion are settled, at the very least. What comes next lies here, in the Forgotten ...
2025-08-24 21:02:14 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 386 - The other wake-up call
A heavy fog slowly receded from Leon’s mind as his eyes fluttered open to a ceiling of cold, carefully hewn stone. His body felt stiff, as though he’d been locked in battle for hours, but there was no pain — only exhaustion.
The faint, lingering taste of a healing potion clung to his tongue.
His armour groaned as he braced a hand against the ground, pushing himself upright. He...
2025-08-21 21:14:30 +0000 UTC View PostMemoirs 385 - Drawn lines
Scarlett stared at The Other.
Her lips parted. Closed. Opened again.
“Shit.”
The word escaped before she could stop it.
“Damn.”
One of The Other’s brows rose.
“Crap.”
“Are the crudities really necessary?” he asked, faintly amused. “They don’t quite suit the look you’re wearing.”
Scarlett ignored him, fingers coming up to ...
2025-08-17 20:52:21 +0000 UTC View Post