Day 30: Vestige At the top of the draw where the tight valley dipped and made a pass over the humped back of the mountains and the summer sun burned but the ice still clung to the shadows and the scr...

XIV Write 2026 - Summary and Index I skipped Sundays this year. Favorite stories are highlighted in bold. - A lonely woman takes a chance by walking down a road in the snow. - A young man grapples...

30. Vestige What's left of her isn't much. There are things in her home she left behind. They come in to take a look, quietly, with reverence. The owner isn't here and it's easy to feel like an intru...

Day 29: Layer I. Scale Naadam waited for nothing. This year's happened in a thunderstorm. Darkness claimed the midday sun while warriors of every tribe battered each other in the mud, their finest a...

26. Sussurus Nothing good can come of a samurai walking into an inn. If the bakufu enacted a law banning us from entering any establishment where drinks are served, we would enter a new age of peace....

Alt: Memories Of Murder: Song Kang Ho 살인의추억

Day 28: On Thin Ice Few things on the steppe earned credit as much as generosity. This held true wherever one went, whichever tribe one hailed from. It was kingly to give. A wife who fed all her gues...

Day 26: Susurrus Something tickled the horn. The wind bent it away, only for it to come back and taunt her again. It could have been sensual if it didn't bring the need to swat at the sensation like ...

Day 25: Cynosure In the dark of the heavens above there is a certain spot around which all life spins. You can only see it at night. The stars nearest to it are most obviously in its orbit; but as yo...

Day 24: Drift (This is a continuation from Day 23: Egress) In days long gone, when Nhaama's throne still stood tall, the steppe had split in two great nations. Each was led by a general of Chaghahan...

Day 23: Egress The Manghut tribe's welcome was uncharacteristically warm and kind, which made it all the worse that the Oroniri riders had to stain the welcome with their wounded. Five warriors went ...

Day 21: Better Late Than Never The fluttering of her eyes could have been involuntary. The dead were known to twitch well after their last breath. The hole in her chest was bleeding much less than it...

Day 21: Better Late Than Never The fluttering of her eyes could have been involuntary. The dead were known to twitch well after their last breath. The hole in her chest was bleeding much less than it...

18. Reason The innkeeper's lantern filled the room with leaping shadows, with the way his hand shook. The lantern rattled and swung a fan of light across Yada's room. The sandals beside his small tat...

19. Liminal Continued from There was a manor on the other side of town that no one talked about. I had to pass through an empty stretch of field to get there. The fields were barren, too. There was...

21. Better Late Than Never Continued from In the courtyard, there are samurai waiting. Their armor is darker in the setting sun. Their helmets shield their eyes, so she will never see them. She ins...

Day 19: Liminal The summit was far away, and the fog was rolling in. Somewhere, malms below, Azimbayar's horse was waiting. Better down there than up here. Even in summer, the mist carried a chill wh...

Day 18: Reason With plum wine fresh on their tongues, backs and shoulders aching, and the last rays of twilight fading from the tops of the tallest, wispiest clouds, the three women found their seat ...