Saga

🌌 Music for Spaces That Don’t Exist: Soundtracking Imaginary Worlds . AI-Generated.
There’s music for parties. Music for breakups. Music for long drives, chill Sundays, heartbreak recoveries. But what about music for worlds that aren’t real?
By The Yume Collective7 months ago in Chapters
Teeth in the Water. Content Warning.
“...and honestly how dare he not believe me, because I know I killed a captain and he should’ve known what I’m capable of!”
By M. A. Mehan 7 months ago in Chapters
After The Sunset The Stars As My Witness. Content Warning.
“Perseus” his mother’s voice whispered as she shook him softly out of his deep sleep. “Yes, mama?” he responded, struggling to open his eyes in the moonlit room.
By Ropafadzo Thokozani Zinyuke (Fadzo) 7 months ago in Chapters
church perfume
Previous chapters in this series: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 // Thursdays are a wash, but she prefers it that way. Even on the cusp of being a septuagenarian, Ada Lorraine DeShields rises shakily with the sun for what an old friend of hers once called "movement medicine."
By Erin Latham Shea8 months ago in Chapters
Chapter 04 | Starbuilders
"What you do?" Nothaar probed with concern. "Ifu and Syraaq do something bad? How fix?" Instead of answering him, Syraaq changed the subject - as she seemed quite apt at doing - by querying, "You've said a term a few times now, and I'm wondering what it is. This 'Sky Shift' that you've mentioned, could you explain to me exactly what that means?"
By J.P. Prag8 months ago in Chapters
The Day My Dog Became My Therapist
It all started on a Tuesday. Now, Tuesdays are usually uneventful. But this particular Tuesday, the universe decided to hit me with a whirlwind of chaos, confusion, and cold leftover lasagna. The morning started with me waking up to the sound of my alarm doing its best to imitate a dying robot. I slapped it into silence, stumbled out of bed, and stepped directly into something cold and squishy.
By shittu adeola8 months ago in Chapters
Chapter 03 | Starbuilders
Standing before Nothaar were two people - if that word could be applied to them - that did not look like any other person Nothaar had ever seen before. Examining the duo as well as he could by the light of the campfire, Nothaar saw that they shared a skin tone coloration similar to the children, but it was somehow more pronounced and vibrant. If anything, the youngsters looked like they were a dull mixture of the complexion of people born before the Sky Shift with what Ifu and Syraaq had wrapped over their frames. As observed by Nothaar, the stark differences Ifu and Syraaq possessed did not end with just their pigmentation.
By J.P. Prag8 months ago in Chapters
Every Day Is Theirs: A Heart’s Tribute to Our Parents Beyond One Day
✍️ By: Umair Ali Shah Yousafzai --- 🌸 Introduction: The Problem with “One Day” In an age where love has been reduced to emojis and celebrations are confined to trending hashtags, it’s become common to see people dedicate just one day a year to their parents — usually in the form of a well-edited photo, a generic social media caption, or a short video clip. "Happy Parents’ Day!" they declare, and with that, consider their duty fulfilled. But can one day capture the essence of lifelong sacrifice? Can a Facebook status outweigh a mother’s sleepless nights? Can an Instagram reel compensate for a father’s decades of toil? The answer — spoken by the heart — is a resounding no. Parents are not a seasonal celebration. They are the soul of our lives. They do not deserve a day; they deserve our every day, our every breath, our every success, our every prayer. --- 🕊️ A Love Beyond Comprehension Parental love is not poetic — it is prophetic. The mother’s womb becomes a sanctuary before we even open our eyes. Her body breaks to give us life. Her nights shatter so our dreams can form. Her meals go cold so ours stay warm. She becomes our shadow, our comfort, our shield. And the father? He becomes the silent mountain who absorbs the storm before it reaches us. He ages behind the curtain so we can grow on stage. His shoes wear thin so ours stay new. His pockets empty so our dreams can fill. His hands become rough while ours remain soft. Such love cannot be compared. It cannot be counted, priced, or postponed. It is as eternal as the sky — silent but all-encompassing. --- 🏠 From Cradle to Grave: They Gave Us Everything The truth is simple and painful: the very people who gave us everything, we give them the least. They carried us when we were weak. They taught us to walk, to speak, to eat. They encouraged our smallest achievements and bore our greatest failures. They forgave our rebellion, our rudeness, our rejection. They kept loving even when we didn’t love back. And what did they ask for in return? Nothing — except a little time. A little respect. A little remembrance. And yet, many of us fail even in that. --- 📅 One Day is Not Enough — It’s Almost Insulting Designating one day for parents is, in many ways, an insult wrapped in sentimentality. It suggests that gratitude can be scheduled, that love can be timed, that sacrifice can be acknowledged only when it's convenient. Do parents love only once a year? Do they support us only on Sundays? Do they pray for us only during exam season? No. Their love is relentless, their loyalty unconditional, their prayers eternal. Then how dare we give them just a day? --- 🕯️ Real-Life Reflections: Forgotten Candles of Our Lives Visit an old age home and you will see forgotten candles flickering dimly, waiting for someone to relight their flames. Mothers who once carried their children now carry loneliness. Fathers who once stood tall now sit silently by windows, hoping someone might knock on the door. "I gave him everything," says one mother, staring into her fading memories. "And now he sends money, but not himself." What do we owe them? Not riches. Not luxury. We owe them presence. We owe them honor. We owe them time. And if we fail to pay that debt in life, we will spend the rest of our lives repaying it in guilt. --- 🌙 The Islamic Perspective: A Duty, Not a Favor In Islam, honoring one's parents is not optional. It is second only to worshipping Allah. The Qur’an places “being good to parents” immediately after “worship none but Allah” (Surah Al-Isra, 17:23). > “And lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy and say: ‘My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up [when I was] small.’” — (Qur’an 17:24)
By Umair Ali Shah 8 months ago in Chapters
Chapter 02 | Starbuilders
Deciding that he must take a calculated risk, Nothaar stepped out from his hiding place and presented himself. He positioned his hands into the universal gesture of peace, demonstrating that he was not brandishing a weapon. After making a noise with his throat to ensure that the strangers would notice him and not be taken unawares, Nothaar began in the dialect he had heard from them, "Greetings be to you, fellow travelers. Me hear you speak Language of Children, too. You speak Language of Children good; me very impressed. Language of Children very difficult for people not children!"
By J.P. Prag8 months ago in Chapters
Smoke Over the Sun
Blank stood with her back to the sinking Honesty. The restless sea would soon consume it and even the smoke rising in a black pillar would be swallowed by the waves. The sooner the better, she thought.
By M. A. Mehan 8 months ago in Chapters
Songs of the Silver Wizard. Top Story - June 2025.
COMPENDIUM “Be wary of those who wear their piety for all to see. The sincere rouge is less likely to stab you in the back than the boisterous priest.”
By Matthew J. Fromm8 months ago in Chapters
Chapter 01 | Starbuilders
Nothaar Akii had left the village near the southern edge of the world tardier in the spring than he would have preferred. Over the long, dark, and cold season, the settlement's Keeper, Baubu Yoordi, had finally succumbed to his advanced age in the middle of his eighty-third winter. While Nothaar had originally found the geriatric man to be spritely and full of life, spending more time with Baubu had revealed how precarious his health situation really was, and how scared he was for his people's future. It seemed like all his actions were an intentional feint, trying to manipulate me into staying and taking over for him, Nothaar divisively thought as he continued his lonely trek through the now fully blooming woods. He even waited to die until he met me, using his passing to the next world as a way to get me to supersede him in this one!
By J.P. Prag8 months ago in Chapters