Vise Manor - Lost Prologue

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Vise Manor - Lost Prologue
Photo by Manos Gkikas / Unsplash

The original prologue from Vise Manor, probably dropped because I don't know this character from the inside. I know how he speaks and behaves from the outside (see Hybrid Mechanics), but how he thinks is another story.


I don’t know how long we waited in that room, in that darkness, staring at the barely visible folds of a curtain beyond a wall of glass. We could hear them all night. The talking. The laughing. Discussing us like we were products to be bought and sold. We sat there while they got drunk, while they sparred with each other and tried to figure out who had more money and more power.

And what did we have?

Besides the clothes on our backs and the anger in our hearts?

Daniel Verastiqui

About the Author

Daniel Verastiqui is a science fiction author based in Austin, Texas. He is currently writing The Vinestead Anthology, a series of standalone novels set in a shared universe where virtual reality, synthetic humans, and one very powerful corporation keep making everything worse. His latest book, House of Nepenthe, released in June 2026.