THE BASTION OF MIDNIGHT BELLS

“The bastion rose from the evening shadows, and Hiroki paused on the mountain path. A crevice separated the buildings from the rest of the peak, and only a narrow bridge led up to their entrance. Fog drifted through the windows and over the battlements, easing into the scars and pockmarks of a long-forgotten onslaught. This…

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THE ISLAND OF MASKS

“The sea spits a man onto the shores of an island. Every wave hurls his blood against the cliffs and drops fragments of broken bone. The storm roars like white noise inside a conch shell. And yet, the man opening his eyes is whole.” Published in: Exterus, Vol. 1, March 2021

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THE KINGDOM OF VOICES

“A man called Sefu marches along a rural trail. He carries a sword on his back, and when he sees his shadow, he remembers its age. Impatience pulses in his step, a barely contained force like a spring that is wound up too tight. Mineshafts burrow through the earth beneath shanties towns, somewhere in the…

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ELDER GLASS

“Shadows rushed along the sewer walls and turned them into a kaleidoscope of black. ‘I saw my future in a shard of glass.” The scavenger slogged through the runoff, his ghost-light hovering before him. “Follow me, and I shall lead you to safety.’” Published in: Fantasy Shorts, June  2020

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WORDS OF STONE AND STRAW

“Absence of light played over life-sized strawmen and creaking shelves. A door flew open, a fugitive rushed in from the street, candles flickered violently. ‘You must help me!’ The shopkeeper looked up behind her counter: ‘Must I?’” Published in: Fantasy Shorts (April 2020)  

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THE BEDFOLK

“an empty bottle blinks from the canal small people dwell in the murky water   at night they mend sandals and wash laundry gut fish and string up their scales they scrub the washrooms and pull the towels leave little gifts on the doorstep a bowl of milk for the disappeared rice and sambol for…

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THE DUST BATHYNAUT

“The rift divides the land in two halves, but neither of them is interesting. It is the rift itself that calls to people, entices them with its siren’s call from worlds away: only a dozen meters wide, with steep cliffs of grey rock and a bottom that can never be seen. Shine a light into…

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THE MOON-SEALED MUREX

“The moon-sealed murex had been right in front of Lokala, so close she felt its radiation ripple over her skin, transforming it in gentle waves.

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THROUGH TILED SPACES

“Their work done, Phalendra and her people gathered for the trek home, to their old lives and waiting families. None of them had seen the sky unfiltered for a long time, only through glass ceilings or high windows, and they longed for fresh air, without the stench of chlorine and disinfectants. They had stayed in…

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FROM WITHIN MIRRORS

“”A being of another … state. A thirster. A greeder. A leecher. A needer. A left-over from the White Table. A being that craves what it doesn’t have anymore, what it remembers vaguely, what it can no longer feel: life.” The mystic rummaged with slender fingers through the satchel she wore around her shoulder, then produced…

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