life in progress

The Witches’ Code, Chapter 10: Everything, Eventually

By Thinky Wanderer, Llama and Claude The Sacred Grove had taken the concept of spring and decided to pursue it as a competitive sport. Flowers cascaded from branches in colors that definitely hadn’t existed in nature the previous week. New grass pushed through soil still faintly steaming with returned life. The ancient oaks had acquired so many buds that they…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 9: The Thaw

By Thinky Wanderer, Llama and Claude The battle room had produced a plan. What it hadn’t produced was any agreement on what the plan actually was. “We begin at the ritual circle,” Thornwick said, with the finality of someone who had been beginning things at ritual circles for thirty years and saw no particular reason to change now. “The ritual…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 8: The Ice Has Opinions

By Thinky Wanderer, Llama and Claude The ice was winning. Tiffany pressed her nose to the frost-covered window of the candidates’ quarters, watching the magical library across the courtyard slowly surrender to supernatural winter. What had started as delicate traceries on ancient stone was now a full-scale crystalline invasion — thick sheets climbing the building’s exterior with the unhurried determination…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapters 6 and 7: The Safeness Gambit

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The dorm ceiling had exactly forty-seven water stains, shaped like various unfortunate things including what might have been a deceased badger and definitely looked like Great-Aunt Minerva’s disapproving face. Tiffany’d been counting them for the better part of two hours, which was roughly how long she’d been lying in bed pretending that sleep was a…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 5: Shading The Truth

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The grandfather clock in the main hall had just chimed midnight when Tiffany slipped from her temporary quarters, mirror shard tucked against her ribs like treasure. Her bare feet made no sound on the cold stone floors. The ancient building settled around her with the particular creaks and sighs of a place that had housed centuries…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 4: Snowdrift Secrets

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The frost crunched under Tiffany’s boots like broken glass as she followed the other candidates into what had once been the Circle’s prize herb garden. Had once been being the operative phrase, because whatever this was now looked like winter had gotten into a fight with a craft store and lost spectacularly. Every plant wore…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 3: The Circle’s Cold Welcome

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The frost shouldn’t have existed. Tiffany pulled her cloak tighter as the hired cart rounded the final bend, wheels crunching over grass that sparkled with ice crystals in the morning sun. August in Lancre meant herb gardens heavy with blooms and sweat sticking to your back by midday. It definitely didn’t mean your breath puffing…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 2: Earache and Insight

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The pocket mirror tucked against Tiffany’s hip warmed slightly as she knocked on Mrs. Pemberton’s door, which was either Dude offering encouragement or her own nervous energy affecting the enchantment. Hard to tell the difference these days. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here.” Mrs. Pemberton opened the door before the second knock, her graying hair escaping…

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The Witches’ Code, Chapter 1: The Failing Familiar

By Thinky Wanderer and Llama The lavender wouldn’t stop judging her. Tiffany Clearwater knelt in the herb garden behind her cottage, surrounded by neat rows of plants that her grandmother had tended for decades before her. The lavender stalks swayed in the evening breeze like disapproving aunts, while the rosemary practically bristled with smugness. Even the mint — which grew…

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Charles Graeber: The Breakthrough

Pred zhruba desiatimi rokmi som čítala fascinujúcu knihu od Siddharthu Mukherjeeho: The Emperor of All Maladies, A Biography of Cancer. Je výborná, akurát je viac než tých 10 rokov stará a v liečbe rakoviny sa za posledných 10 rokov stalo veľmi veľa. Keby Mukherjee napísal pokračovanie, určite by som si radšej prečítala to, pretože Emperor a The Gene sú moje…

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