Year 2200. Elysia Novarum awoke to the gentle hum of the alarm integrated into her brain—a common modification in Aetheria to adapt to the planet's extended light cycles. She got out of bed and walked towards the window, opening it to the outside world. The landscape that unfolded before her eyes was surreal and vibrant. Aetheria's sky had a deeper shade of blue, almost purple. The vegetation, adapted to the different lig...

Emma lay face down on the massage table, her breath shallow and controlled. The room was dimly lit, with soft ambient music playing in the background, creating an atmosphere of relaxation that she desperately needed after a long week. Her muscles were tense, knotted from hours spent hunched over her computer at work. The promise of a deep tissue massage had been exactly what she needed to unwind. The door creaked open, an...

Honor Banet's plan for a single small profitable patisserie-bistro was swiftly blasted to pieces by a combination of customer demand, Marq Haydn and other events beyond her control. After opening on Carlisle Street, Rick Ford's prediction of people lining up for miles had not exactly come true ... but it came close. After four months, Marq apologized for getting it wrong and advised that she should open another branch on...

"No clothes, huh? How convenient," Sarah said to Honor, grinning. The store had a decent bistro within sight of the till. They were sitting at a table, nursing coffees while Marq was standing in a queue, a basket of new clothes in hand. Honor grinned back. "That's what I said." She giggled as she looked in his direction, lips parting. "I have no idea why he needs them anyway ..." She had made full selfish use of all two d...

"Woooooo!" Sarah screamed again as she drove the van through another intersection. "Oh my @#&%! You were so effing awesome!" Honor smiled at her friend, gesturing at the other cars around them, all with drivers looking with some alarm at the screaming woman behind the wheel. Sarah didn't care. "You kicked so much ass!" Sarah punched the air, hitting the roof of the van and screaming again. Honor laughed this time and join...

"What the hell did you do to my best friend?" Sarah whispered, staring at his face. She was on the website of Ascent Kapital GmbH, headquartered in Zurich, looking at his picture on the founders' and management page for the umpteenth time. He kept his black hair short, almost a buzz cut, and he was wearing a black suit, a light blue shirt, and a silver and matching blue fractal pattern tie in his headshot. His smile was s...

Honor felt him before she opened her eyes, his nakedness against hers, his fingers tracing meaningless whorls across her back. As if he were trying to capture the feeling of her skin under his fingertips and lock it in his memory before ... The awful weight in her chest came back in all its hateful glory, making a mockery of all her efforts to banish it, to make what was to happen, what had to happen, less painful. She fe...

He led her on a longer and more scenic return route from the restaurant, walking off the food, their path leading to a barefoot walk on the beach. She had blushed as he took off her shoes, finding it romantic as he knelt in front of her to remove each one. He held them for her with his own as they stepped onto the sand. A live band was playing in the distance, the faintly familiar music somehow mixing harmoniously with th...

"In my opinion, I think I did a good job," Marq said as Honor looked at herself in the mirror. She turned to him, playfully furling her lip. "You're so arrogant, Mr. Haydn." His lips quirked up, self-satisfied. "Well, what do you think? Am I wrong?" She sniffed again, then she turned back to the mirror, looking at her sides, turning around to look over her shoulder at her backside, examining the new pattern on her skin. T...

The island was kidney-shaped, with eight villas ringed around its outer concave edge, each with its own small swimming pool, private dock and stretch of beach. There was a larger communal beach with its own set of docks spanning the convex side, leading to a common area at the center of the island hosting a supermarket, a spa and gym, no less than three five-star restaurants, and a small cinema. Honor had discovered the i...