VoicesOfBrian

Three: A Frantic Escape and a Grand Entrance I caught sight of further damage done by the blast. The moorings of several airships had been blasted free, causing some of the smaller craft to drift loose and bang into one another. I leaped, head-first through the new opening in the side of the warehouse, uncertain of where it would lead, but feeling confident it could not be any worse than what I was leaving behind. Cold sea air blasted my face and the pungent smell of the docks greeted my nose. For a split second, I forgot what was chasing me and reveled in the sensations of being outside and free. That all came back to me as the ground sla

Two: Stumbling in the Dark “Can I help you, boy?” said the voice from the man-shaped machine in a metallic rasp. Its gaze bore into my own with an intelligence, and dare I say it, malevolence I did not know automatons could possess. I struggled for a breath and when I could finally manage one, I croaked, “You could set me down.” Then, it laughed. Gods below the machine actually laughed at me. And not just it, but a collection of the same type of machines found my predicament particularly hilarious. As best I could tell, there were four others. Three were roughly the same size as the one that had me, but one was small. S

Chapter One: Old Friends and New Let me get one thing perfectly clear: Heroes are those individuals that get themselves and usually an army or two of other people killed. They stand up to authority. They stick their necks out. They are admired, emulated, and even worshiped. I am not one of those people. I am a liar. I am a thief. I am a pickpocket, a scoundrel, a brigand, a rogue, a misanthrope, a scallywag, a coward, and a cheat. And once, just once, I stooped so low that I even pretended to be a lawyer. Please don’t hold that against me. Even I have my weak moments. I want these facts clear as mermaid’s piss before I impart