Khurshid tapped her chin with the tooth of his curved sword. Umi flinched.

“If she can kill, let her,” the king said. He nodded to Shiori, still unresponsive in the grip of a priestess. “If he can’t, don’t make him. There’s no point turning away good soldiers to force in bad ones.”

The Songbird King flipped his sword away, lashing its wind across Umi’s face. Turning to Shika, he slotted it with finality back to its sheathe.

“You have a son and a daughter. As far as I can see, nothing has changed.”

Priestess Calluna and Shika looked at each other. Umi looked between each of them, bewildered.

“If that is how my king sees it,” Priestess Calluna said slowly, “then we must have been looking wrong. Forgive us.”

-The Stars Went Out

The exhaustion is really starting to sink in. I’ve managed to stay 4,000 words ahead of my daily goal, but I’ve also managed to sleep dismally. Looking awful as the month goes on is like my Nano badge of honor. In other news, I’ve edited my site pages a little, so there is now a Prompt Cellar for all my microprompt sets! Go dig around in there if you’re looking for quick story-starters.