Richard Bailey
Bio
I am currently working on expanding my writing topics and exploring different areas and topics of writing. I have a personal history with a very severe form of treatment-resistant major depressive disorder.
Stories (91/596)
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Eclipsed by Flame – Part II
The wind howled through the jagged peaks of the Ashspire Range, carrying with it the dry scent of scorched stone and the faint tang of sulfur. Snow should have blanketed this northern province, but instead, the mountains steamed—coated in layers of heat-hardened glass and ash. The land was still burning.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Eclipsed by Flame – Part I
The sky bled with smoke. From the ridgeline above Myrrhal Crag, the land below looked like it had been clawed apart by fire itself. Where wheat once swayed in the wind, only blackened stalks remained, waving like funeral flags. Homes stood as hollowed husks, their timber skeletons still glowing with ember-light. The air shimmered with rising heat, distorting the world as if reality itself had blistered under the flame.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Ashes of the Drowned Part 5. Top Story - April 2025.
The compass spun faster now. Not wildly, but with purpose—always tilting toward the east, even when Elira turned it in her hands or pressed it to stillness. The spiral engraved beneath the glass glowed faintly with a tide-washed blue, and every so often, it pulsed like it was syncing to a heartbeat that wasn’t hers.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Ashes of the Drowned Part 4
The rain hadn't stopped in two days. Not the usual kind of storm either—it moved wrong, spiraling in waves over land, creeping up riverbanks and flooding low valleys in hours. Villages inland were seeing tides roll through their streets, saltwater in their wells. Birds vanished from the skies. Fish leapt from empty air.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Ashes of the Drowned Part 3
The relic whispered in the dark. It hadn’t stopped since Elira touched it. The conch—once dormant, sealed in sea-crystal and warded runes—now pulsed with a rhythm not unlike a heartbeat. A slow, wet thrum, felt more in the bones than heard in the air. When Elira closed her eyes, she could feel the sea breathing inside her skull. And sometimes, the whispers became words.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Ashes of the Drowned Part 2
The water was ice-cold, and it didn’t feel natural. Vaelin and Elira trudged through the southern quarter of Nareth, where the map she recovered had marked something hidden beneath the streets. Mossy stonework arched over their heads in crumbling remnants of coastal architecture—half-drowned, half-forgotten.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
Ashes of the Drowned Part 1
The mist never lifted in Nareth. It clung to rooftops and ruins, swallowed the streets, and settled into the bones of the village like a secret it refused to share. When Vaelin and Elira arrived, the fog parted only enough to allow them entry, curling around their cloaks and armor like curious fingers.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
The Shattered Oath Part 5
The shattered remnants of the altar still pulsed with the echoes of what had transpired. Elira sagged in Vaelin’s arms, her breath shallow, her skin ice-cold. Her eyes flickered with traces of the Veil’s lingering energy, a storm of power barely contained within her mortal form. The chamber was eerily silent now, the survivors of both the Oathsworn and the Vowbound stirring amid the rubble. But something was wrong—Vaelin could feel it. The air was too still, the shadows too deep.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
The Shattered Oath Part 4
The chamber erupted into chaos. Vaelin barely had time to react as the Vowbound warrior in obsidian armor lunged at him, the crackling energy in his gauntlet warping the air around it. Vaelin twisted aside, his sword flashing in a desperate parry. The impact sent a shockwave through his arm, the force unnatural—tainted by Veil magic.
By Richard Bailey9 months ago in Chapters
The Shattered Oath Part 3
The path through the Wraithwood twisted through ancient ruins, remnants of a forgotten age swallowed by time. Vaelin kept a firm grip on his sword as they followed Nyara and the Oathsworn deeper into the heart of the forest. The deeper they went, the more the air crackled with Veil energy—Elira could feel it pressing against her skin like a whisper of something long-buried waking from slumber.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
The Shattered Oath Part 2
The journey beyond the city was a gauntlet of unseen threats. Vaelin and Elira rode hard through the storm-lashed countryside, following the path Garran had scrawled on a torn parchment before the Vowbound attacked. Each mile carried them deeper into the unknown, and further from the kingdom’s reach.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
The Shattered Oath Part 1
The dagger came without warning. Vaelin barely had time to twist aside as the blade hissed past his throat, grazing his skin with a cold, unnatural sharpness. The assassin moved like a wraith, black-cloaked and silent, vanishing into the shadows of the inn’s dimly lit room before he could land a counterstrike. Elira’s voice cut through the chaos—sharp, urgent.
By Richard Bailey10 months ago in Chapters
