https://jesselau.com/en/categories/novel/ Recent content in novel on Hugo -- gohugo.io en Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:28:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-6/ Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:28:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-6/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 6: Secrets of Origin The cramped interior of Elvin’s humble dwelling demonstrably offered scant, meager comfort, yet it undeniably served as a blessed haven, a sanctuary when directly compared to the blood-soaked, gruesome market square that now haunted his waking thoughts. The single, sparsely furnished room, dimly illuminated by a sputtering, guttering oil lamp precariously perched on the very edge of the scarred wooden table, faintly smelled of familiar woodsmoke that permeated the timbers and dried herbs that hung in bundles from the rafters – a meager, yet undeniably familiar, solace in the encroaching darkness. Lina weakly lay still upon Elvin’s grandmother’s worn, thin cot, https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-5/ Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:27:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-5/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 5: Fateful Encounter The stench of cloying blood and acrid burnt oil assaulted his nostrils, hung thick and heavy in the frigid air, a nauseating perfume that relentlessly clung to the back of his throat and violently turned his churning stomach. Oakhaven’s once vibrant market square, just moments before a chaotic, brutal theater of horrific violence, now pathetically lay strewn with the grim, grotesque aftermath – broken bodies contorted into unnatural, impossible angles, discarded weapons gleaming dully and menacingly in the wildly flickering lamplight, expanding pools of dark crimson relentlessly staining the muddy ground like carelessly spilled wine, soaking into the earth. Silence had abruptly descended once more, a heavy, oppressive silence that relentlessly weighed down on the ravaged square, https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-4/ Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:26:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/en/posts/chapter-4/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 4: First Dark Attack The darkness this night clamped down, not as the gentle embrace of peaceful slumber, but as a thick, suffocating blanket that relentlessly pressed down upon Oakhaven, deliberately muting the already faint, fragile sounds of the isolated frontier town. The wind, for once, had strangely subsided, finally ceasing its mournful howl, leaving an unnerving, oppressive stillness in its wake, a silence that felt heavy, pregnant with unspoken, unseen threats that lurked just beyond the lamplight. The moon, a mere sliver of cold bone hanging precariously in the vast, inky sky, reluctantly offered scant, inadequate illumination, desperately casting long, distorted shadows that danced and writhed with the erratic, flickering flames of the few remaining oil lamps that stubbornly fought valiantly against the encroaching, all-consuming night. The Crooked https://jesselau.com/The-Lost-Scroll/ Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:28:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/The-Lost-Scroll/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 3: The Lost Scroll The midday sun, a pale, weak disc, struggled valiantly to break through the stubbornly persistent, oppressive cloud cover, casting long, watery shadows that stretched and wavered across Oakhaven’s muddy, rutted main street. The usual midday bustle, such as it meagerly was in a town that primarily existed at dawn and dusk, revolving entirely around the relentless rhythms of farm work and sleep, was just tentatively beginning to stir, to rouse itself from its slumber. Chickens, scrawny and opportunistic, pecked hopefully, incessantly in the dusty earth, searching for stray grains, a lone, mangy dog yawned widely, displaying pink gums and yellowed teeth, in front of the butcher’s shop, basking https://jesselau.com/The-Relic-Emerges/ Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:27:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/The-Relic-Emerges/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 2: The Relic Emerges The house of Elvin’s fathers, if such a grand name could even be whispered for it, squatted as a small, two-room dwelling, clinging precariously to the very edge of Oakhaven like a tenacious limpet to a barnacle-encrusted rock. It wasn’t much to behold, constructed of roughly hewn logs that grated against each other, chinked with a crumbling mix of mud and straw, its roof a sorry patchwork of weathered shingles that curled at the edges and moss-grown thatch that sagged under its own weight. Inside, the air clung, heavy and still, always holding the persistent scent of damp earth that rose from the floor and woodsmoke that permeated the very timbers, a lingering, musty https://jesselau.com/Ominous-Night/ Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:26:15 +1300 https://jesselau.com/Ominous-Night/ Eternal Realm: Shadows and Radiance Volume One: “Omen of Fate” Chapter 1: Ominous Night The wind, a biting, cruel thing, gnawed at the edges of Oakhaven, howling through the gaps in the poorly mortared stone walls and snapping at the canvas awnings that hung limply before the shops. It whipped in from the western plains, a land of endless grass and whispered secrets, and carried the frigid breath of the approaching mountains on its icy breath. Night had fallen hard over Erechia, draping the small frontier town in a suffocating cloak of deep indigo, reluctantly pricked by the distant, cold fires of the stars. Oakhaven was not a place that invited grand pronouncements or witnessed heroic deeds. It existed as a place of dust and mud, of rough-hewn timber and the ever-present smell of woodsmoke and roasting meat. Its people