Threshold: Stories from Cradle

by Will Wight

“If you truly seek to join us as a Monarch,” Emriss said, “I believe you will succeed.” His heart glowed again, though her tone puzzled him. She welcomed him, not with pride, but with deep, deep sorrow.

“Because if I chased down everyone who was bullied or bought into doing Reigan Shen’s bidding, I would be a grim, black-clad specter of vengeance rather than the bright, fresh-faced soul you see before you.”

One of his jokes had already failed, but that meant he had to try another.

Northstrider wondered if something he’d done had made his oracle codex state the obvious or if that was Dross’ influence.

‘Mul’ was a prefix used for female deities, and ‘Tanak’—roughly translated—meant ‘swords unending.’

“Bleed and bury me,” the goddess said. “Who’s been screaming my name?”

[At this rate, there’s no end to the number of children you’ll defeat!] Dross glanced around at the faces of the others. [What? Lindon did it.]

“Dross, Dross!” Dross said. The inspector took off his glasses, cleaned them, and then peered closer at Dross. “Did that monster just say ‘dross’?”

is...is this a Pokemon world

“Dross! Dross, Dross!” Carmine frowned. “Why does he sound like that?” [Tell him I’ve learned to mimic human speech! It’s the perfect cover story.] “Brain damage,” Ziel said. “Let’s eat.”

Lindon would have been more surprised if Eithan hadn’t made a habit of tossing him into situations he didn’t know how to handle. “Pardon, but I was not prepared for this.”

“Wasn’t going to let them float around until they turned into monsters, was I?” Yerin muttered.

I wonder if the Ruby aspect pulled them.

“Sometimes the boring parts are the most important,” Eithan said. “But not usually.”