Archives

The world shifted. The hilltop of gentle grass, the stone gateways—changed. Not disappeared. They blended into another form. A truer form? No. Just a different perspective. The flowers were swords. And the hilltop was barren. Just dirt. Dust. A substance that was less than either. A powder of the end of the world. On the […]

She walked out of the forest with Nama. Behind her, the wind howled. The blizzard was beyond anything Ryoka had ever seen or could ask the wind to be. A storm that would herald the end of other worlds. An ice age in itself. She left it behind her. Sheltered by her strange protector she’d […]

And she was back. Nama spoke, insistently. “Remember what you saw. That’s it. Back. Back and back and…there you are.” Ryoka stood on the ground of the dirt road. Behind her, the forest lay, perfectly tree-like. No vast world-roots, though. Just trees. Sixty feet high, maybe. The city lay ahead of her, more like a […]

“hEy, WhAt’s WRoNG?” The thing holding Ryoka’s arm bubbled. A clicking, jittery mass of flesh wobbled, gripping her other arm. “!!$GH -^*(@!” It made a sound that screamed in her ears. She had already begun screaming. “don’T yOU wANT to CoMe iN?” The first asked. Ryoka looked ahead and saw. The vast, insectile hive bloated […]

The fae’s voices faltered. The chanting slowed. “Begone. Be—” Even some of the mortals had joined in. But they stopped as the rotting figures revealed themselves. Yet even then— The first of them crossed the boundary into the party. It had been the bearded man. The leader of all. He reached for Laken. “I will […]

Chrysanthemum’s subtle scent blew upon the halting wind. A breeze which moved between the dappled light, spotted shadows traced beneath the sky of branches. Green eyes, like the leaves of the very trees she stood underneath, opened. The young woman’s torn clothing ruffled in the breeze. A splatter of dried blood rendered scentless stained her […]

(The Wandering Inn will be back on the 9th of January! The 12th for Public Readers)   On the Summer Solstice, Ryoka Griffin ran into another world. The darkness of the evening and the lengthening shadows, the clash of swords and Melidore’s roar of fury she left behind. She ran—fell—through what she could not explain. […]

They descended on the party and brought stories. From another world. From many worlds, perhaps. Timeless tales. A strangeness in the air; as if anything could happen. The opposite of the days when Ryoka had looked up at the sky and seen only smog, seen nothing to do or dream of. These folk were the […]

The longest day of the year was a special moment. A time of meetings. A time of power. Of magic. On the day of the Summer Solstice, The Wandering Inn was filled with the grieving. A lost young woman who was neither dreaming, nor dead. Disaster. And broken promises. Lyonette had not left the inn. […]

The hilltop in the garden lay in silence. The bright air seemed dimmer. Certainly—colder. Frost rose, from where the bier lay. Just a plinth of smooth stone, covered in a sheet of ice. A body lay on it. Her hands were crossed. But those who had put her there had done little else. They had […]

Can you feel it? Sense it in the air? The Fraerling hummed as he adjusted the doublet in the morning. He checked his reflection in the full-length mirror, barely more than a compact for anyone else. He was the most famous Fraerling in the world. The only one with a name, really. One that remained. […]

(A podcast talking about The Last Tide is out, featuring one of our Discord moderators, Blue Juice! Check it out here!)   War had come to Terandria. Ailendamus vs the Dawn Concordat. It was one of several wars in the world. But this was an actual war on the ground, rather than a war in […]

(The author is on their monthly break! The story will be back on December 5th, or December 8th for Public readers!)   The Meeting of Tribes. Mrsha stopped playing teleport-tag in the inn and looked up. The other Gnolls looked up, ears perking. Many were City Gnolls. Or—straddled the brink between City and Plains Gnoll. […]

A day had passed since the run that defined Izril, for a moment. No—just a night. And what a sleepless night, for so many. The electric shock of adrenaline in the veins, the excitement. The grief and fury and satisfaction of victory—all of that mixed together in the body, both chemical, emotional, until sleep was […]

They had four hours, in the night, before they were found again. Two precious hours, snatched by the transformation, and then two more after that. They had made slower progress as horses, ironically. They had to act like…horses. And they were slow because Ryoka threw up about fifty times over the course of the first […]

Memento mori. It meant, in the way of such odd phrases that remained in the common tongue, ‘remember death’. It could be art, a symbol, an event— To Lady Bethal Walchaís, it had been the sight of the famous pink carriage, overturned, broken. That was when she had known the Guild of Assassins was a […]

On that day, it began with meetings. The Wandering Inn was as of yet dark as the Worker crept up through the inn. He noted how messy it was as he edged through the common room. No blood, though. Which Bird took to be a good sign. He hadn’t been here. He had, in fact, […]

(The Wandering Inn, Volume 3 – Part 1 is up on Amazon! Check it out and consider leaving a review—the audiobook should begin recording in January, 2021!)   The wind blew in her hair, lifting it up and letting it stream behind her. Not at her back, and not blowing so hard that it was […]

(The Wandering Inn, Volume 3 – Part 1 is up on Amazon! It took a little bit to get through the review process, but it’s for sale right now! And the audiobook will hopefully begin work in January! Remember, this is Part 1 of Volume 3, not the entire Volume! Look for Author’s Notes for […]

(The Wandering Inn is on break until November 3rd for the author’s hands! November 7th for non-Patreon readers. See you then!)   Here’s a fun fact for you that I learned today: people are really scared of little girls. Okay, I was aware of this. There’s…commonalities between worlds. For instance, I’m aware of evil little […]

On the fifth day of their sickness, Tyrion Veltras snapped. He summoned Jericha, his [Majordomo], Ullim, and gave them a single order. “Watch over Sammial and Hethon. I am going to secure an [Alchemist].” The Circle of Thorns had left a mark on House Veltras already. Over two dozen dead [Healers] and [Alchemists] in the […]

It might have been all the old faces, because Lyonette had a dream of the past. Not the long-distant past, the chronologically undeniable history of Lyonette’s childhood when she and her sisters—a herd, a group, a flock…?—a snob of Calanfer’s [Princesses] had been growing up. Some quirk of fate meant that Calanfer had so many […]

Ryoka, Fierre, and Salamani were over two thirds of their way to Invrisil when the news about the Raskghar caught up to them. Rather—they had to go to the Mage’s Guild and get a letter from Mrsha addressed to Ryoka. Dear Ryoka—the letter began, because of course, you had to have manners and Mrsha’s mother […]

They were still dying. Geneva Scala’s optimism was tempered by that, in the back of her head. That—despite the cure arriving, it had to be cultivated. And it had yet to reach many places where Yellow Rivers was eating away at the populations. As well—the cure was a finite resource. Geneva Scala, had, after some […]

(Entropy Games has created a fan-game of The Wandering Inn where you serve guests as Erin! Check it out here!)   All things changed. Everything good someday came to an end. Freedom, thou fleeting thing. Innocence lost. Mrsha du Marquin was crying. Weeping. She hung on, but the unkind hands tore her away. She turned […]