Previous Posts:
About the Story: Blood for Wind
Tura has one chance to save her father’s doomed rebellion, but the gods give nothing for free. Featured in Swords & Sorcery Magazine.
About the Story: The Dead Don’t Lie
Trained from youth to serve as a false oracle of the dead, Alenka finds herself dangerously overqualified for the position.
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 14: Homecoming
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. I hurried to the Gloriana’s rail at first light, eager to watch the fog lift from Ravencourt’s dawn-lit silhouette. I have hungered so long for the merest glimpse of my home. Why, now that I return, do I find it so diminished? It’s nothing I can put a finger…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 13: Coldspur
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Of the six gods of Thael, there is one seldom named and never worshiped, at least not openly. Or so I’d thought. Opting for the shortest route home, I invested the last of my savings in a share of the trading ship Gloriana, bound for the Frozen Coast. The…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 12: Leiloken
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. I should have known that people in masks could not be trusted. The bazaar at Leiloken, the City of Mysteries, never sleeps. At the Day Market, one can buy fruits and spices grown nowhere else, raw and cut gems of every hue, and the finest silk in Thael. A…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 11: Shroud
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. I have been a frequent supplicant at the Grand Temple of Sepha, and have stood in awe of the Cathedral of Light. I have watched the sun set on Umbar’s holy ruins, and wandered as close as an infidel dares to Haephesto’s sacred flames. I will not, however, be…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 10: Emmensburg
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. As an alliance of supposed equals, the Federated Principalities has no capital city. That said, the capital is clearly Emmensburg. Allow me to make my case. Each principality has its claim to greatness. Tourden has the Pearl Tower and Serry its orchards. Leiloken boasts both the Shadow Theater and…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 9: Olesh
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. After descending east of the mountains, I traveled by river barge to Olesh. Though I’d known it was called ‘The City on the Lake,’ I hadn’t expected to find the name so literal. Walking the wooden ‘streets’ of Olesh, it’s impossible to say where city ends and lake begins.…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 8: Valen’s Gap
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Today I entered Valen’s Gap, crossing the invisible line between East and West. Beyond lie the Federated Principalities, built on the bones of the Cyprian Empire, whose people claim that ancient blood in their veins. Rather than press on, hoping to make the descent before dark, I took lodging…
About the Story: The Second Miracle of Lilleford
Brother Mayner sold his town’s sacred relic. Now, with the storm of the century closing in, he’s in need of a miracle. His only hope: the faith of his young ward.
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 7: Almadyn
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. And I had thought Ravencourt a city of splendors! The Eternal City, Almadyn, is indeed the center of the world, in more than mere geography. Almadyn — last city of the old world, first of the new. It alone straddles the Cataclysm, sole survivor of a legendary age. To…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 6: Mazaca
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Though the days in Mazaca are by no means cool, I am glad to have the desert behind me. I came to understand its harsh beauty, but even so, I pray to never set foot there again. Straddling the low ridge that divides Almadyn from the desert, Mazaca is…
New Release: The Second Miracle of Lilleford
Featured in the Dragon Gems Summer 2023, coming July 7th(ish?).
Interruption: The Void
I have not written lately. I have not felt inclined. This piece is both exception and explanation.
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 5: Muradeva
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. For the time being, call me Patrus Cominatus, grain merchant of Valen’s Gap. The caravan guards advised me, if I wanted to enjoy my time in the Muradeva, to keep my citizenship a secret — and having seen the cold welcome Ravencourt offers Muradevans, I was inclined to agree.…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 4: The Great Desert Road
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. More than camels, more than centipods, I have come to loathe the dust. Bowing to the wisdom of my friend, Master Vianello, I secured passage with an eastward-bound caravan — and, as if I had not imposed on his kindness enough, he purchased for me a parting gift of…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 3: Sunhome
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Though I’ve not forgotten the splendor of my home, I can no longer consider it the sole wonder of the world. I have seen the Cathedral of Light bathed in the glow of the setting sun. After my journey by sea, I was more than pleased to travel the…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 2: Shearcliff
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Three weeks by fast galley, around Breaker’s Bluff and up the western coast, brought me to the inlet port of Shearcliff. It also brought me the realization that I, in all humility, am no mariner. For the most part, the journey had been pleasant enough. We had a good…
A Pilgrim’s Tour of Thael, Part 1: Ravencourt
From The Travels of Zanino Moli. Before embarking upon my grand expedition around the continent, I’d like to dedicate an entry to Ravencourt, my home and the city of my heart. Indeed, if you’ve ever watched the sun rise upon the grand canal, soul full with the cries of gulls and the tang of sharp…
Character Spotlight: Karg & Arvind
This third and final installation rounds out the cast of The Door in the Mountain with the remaining expedition members, Karg and Arvind.
Character Spotlight: Nym & Gorthon
The next installation in our series of profiles features Nym and Gorthon, the two other characters whose perspectives we follow in The Door in the Mountain.
Character Spotlight: Rorik
To celebrate the release of The Door in the Mountain, I’ll be sharing a series of posts highlighting the major characters. And who better to start with than Rorik himself?
About the Story: The Shadow-Thing
Published in Hypnos, Fall 2020. At the edge of a small town, far from the political and intellectual centers of the world, a sign on a humble cottage reads “Ambrose Thiddle, Chirurgeon and Purveyor of Tonics.” To the resident within, what it does not say is writ just as large — Ambrose Thiddle is not…
History: Shadows
Collected notes of Hugo Vanek, coroner of Olesh, on the “strangler’s plague” of 921 M.E.
About the Story: The Desert Queen
Published in Adventure Awaits: Volume 2 (2021) The Muradevan Desert is a crucible, in which the strong are tempered into steel, the weak reduced to ash. And the flame that heats the crucible is Haephesto, Lord of Flame. Farah is a warrior of the Karda, a people on the brink. With their wells failing and…
History: The Muradevan Desert Tribes
Selected entries from the caravan log of Alfonso Trezi, of the Garzone Trading Consortium, Ravencourt. Addendum by Jacopo Rambaldi.
About the Story: Crazy Ezzo
Published in Wyldblood, Issue 7 (Winter 2022) For the city-state of Ravencourt, commerce is lifeblood. Its merchant galleys ply every coast, trading Ravencourt glass for wines and fabrics, jewels and spices — the myriad commodities that make the city’s grand bazaar a wonder of the world. And looming over the heart of the city is…
History: Leviathans
Witness statement on the sinking of the galley Soranza. Lost en route to Sunhome approx. ten miles WSW of Breaker’s Bluff. Wreck unrecoverable; all cargo lost.
About the Story: The Changeling
Published in Silver Blade, Issue 48 (Winter 2020) Even the best-intentioned changeling leaves eddies of chaos in its wake. Odette causes hurricanes. Let us call her Odette for convenience, as changelings have no names of their own. Created by a god of chaos, they are creatures of constant flux, driven by the persistent need to…
History: Changelings
“The Brief, Bizarre Reign of Euthymius I.” Excerpt from Historia Almadia, Volume 5: The Empire Fragments, by Constantius Cydones, 9th century M.E.
About the Story: Heart of Stone
Published in Metaphorosis, February 2020. Grand is weapon of the ancient world, crafted by the Lord of Earth to shatter the cities of his foes. He has a role to play in my novels, so I wrote this piece to get to know him better. “Heart of Stone” is a story of alienation, and of…
History: Umbar, Lord of Earth
Fragmentary text, presumed to be from the apocryphal “Book of the Builders.” Transcribed from tablets discovered in western Leiloken. Pre-cataclysmic, exact age unknown.
About the Story: Sanctuary
Published in Metaphorosis, March 2021. Most of my short fiction explores the people and places that inhabit my novels (not yet published, perpetually being revised), and this piece is no exception. Of course the Patriarch has a role to play, because who doesn’t love a villain who earnestly believes it his duty to save the…
History: The Seraphim
Excerpt from “An Archaeological Survey of Ancient Jacynth,” presented to the Almadish Archaeological Society, 952 M.E.
About the Story: At the End of All Things
Published in DreamForge Magazine, Volume 7: The Hopes of the Dreamers, 2020. Relative to most of my stories, this flash piece takes place at a pivotal moment in the distant past. It follows King Aurelian III of Almadyn, ruler of the last city standing, one the eve of what he has every reason to believe…
History: The Iskandran Heresy
From a parchment nailed to the doors of the Grand Temple of Sepha in Ravencourt, circa 800 M.E.
Chris Cornetto - Fantasy Author 