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Rigel Ailur has been a writer since composing her first novel--seven handwritten pages!--at age seven. In grade school she was the bane of her creative writing class because for every two-page story her classmates turned in, hers was usually twenty. She is the doting mother of a swarm of felines and an
avid fan of cinema and theater. She's worked backstage doing various jobs from Lights to Sound to Stage Manager. Having lived in Germany, she is bilingual and has worked as a translator and interpreter. Rigel's credits include "Brigadoon" in the Star Trek anthology Strange New Worlds 10 and (writing as Kris Katzen) "Kaboom, Ka-bye" in the Shadowrun sourcebook Seattle 2072. She's currently working on original fiction in various genres, including more adventures set not just in Azencer but in different queendoms all over the planet Mimion.
Sisters, they sat across the table from each other. Sendell, younger, meticulous, wise and quietly implacable. Danzor, instinctive, impetuous and charismatic. Lost concentration meant death, the victor winning the queendom of Azencer--and the man.
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Their hands on the square table top, they watched a knife hover in mid air equidistant between them. Inseparable from childhood, they'd long since become bitter enemies. Their telekinesis focused on the gleaming blade, each woman trying to thrust it into the other. Neither had suggested a non-lethal contest. Neither would have accepted.
The knife quivered, spun and plunged into Danzor's chest. Sendell sighed, relieved.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Author Comments
Ok, yes, that was short. Really, really short. And if you're wondering, "But… but… When? Why? How? What about…?" true, I could have added a lot. There is--I hope--enough between the lines to fill a whole novel. But I hope you still feel you got a whole story.
The thing is--paradoxically--I normally write long. Really really long. Two hundred thousand words long. So my goal with this particular story was to challenge myself, go in the opposite direction, and make it precisely one hundred words. That is why in this particular instance I didn't add any additional details.
Thanks for reading.
- Rigel Ailur
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