Category: Seed and Trellis

Chapter Six

I really wasn’t very good at indirect approaches most of the time. Not when it came to social situations. I used to try to be polite, to follow rules of etiquette and use social niceties. And what I found was that while I can do it, I do still know those rules, using them in any but the most formal of contexts just never seemed to work for me. I will fumble over my words, say the wrong thing, struggle to convey my meaning. When people do the call-and-response pattern that characterizes a lot of small talk, I respond in ways that do not line up with the other person’s comment at all. This was overwhelmingly the lesson I had learned from trying.…

Chapter Five

In the funeral home, relaxing my normal restrictions on my awareness had hit me like a drug. The vivid, oversaturated intensity, the way every sensation felt sharper and more real, it had left me euphoric, thrilled, and satisfied. In a controlled environment where the things flooding my senses weren’t terrible, the experience was an intense, rapid high. Hell, sometimes I did it just for that reason at home, when I was particularly bored, and spent a while drifting in a wash of magic and sensation until I passed out. When I was getting actively pleasant inputs, it could be an intensely pleasurable experience.

This situation, though, was none of the above. And while that rush of sensation still hit me like a drug, this time it was more like nine kinds of bad trip happening all at once. I opened my eyes and instantly regretted every life choice that had led me here.…

Chapter Four

The next two days passed uneventfully. I received no calls from Audgrim, no inexplicable messages, nothing. And so I spent the time much as I normally did. I slept as poorly as usual, and woke in the afternoon still tired. I had conversations with my houseplants, which still did not reply to me. I was grateful for that, really. I figured that it was a little weird to talk to plants, but I was strange enough in general that it just further cemented me as eccentric. If they started talking back, that was when I’d know I’d gone insane. Or, at least, more insane than I already was.…

Chapter Three

I didn’t have to ask where Maddie meant to get coffee. It was a given. There was only one place she could plausibly be thinking of.

In any city worth the name, there will be a place that acts as a social venue for the local supernatural community. In most cities of any real size, there will be several, catering to slightly different crowds. The exact form varies widely, but they all have a few qualities in common. They’re usually neutral ground, not particularly affiliated with any major group or faction. They generally have measures in place to enforce that neutrality and prevent fights. They are usually businesses of some kind that allows for easy socialization. Some actually prevent normal people from going there, but even if they don’t, ordinary humans rarely come in and rarely linger when they do. I wasn’t sure if this was because of some subconscious awareness of the magic in the place, or just a more ordinary feeling of wrongness, of a subculture that does not welcome them.…

Chapter Two

Audgrim didn’t say anything until we were back on the road. He was driving slower now, on quieter streets, not so much trying to get somewhere as just driving for something to do while we talked. The equivalent of walking while you’re on the phone. “So,” he said eventually. “Interpretation?”…

Chapter One

I really hate being woken up by phone calls. Not a huge fan of phone calls in general, but I don’t sleep well, and having it interrupted when I did manage to sleep was particularly obnoxious. The fact that this call had woken me out of a fairly nasty nightmare made me resent it less, but did not make me sound any happier when I answered.…