ERASE THE SLATE, by Jonathan Olfert, art by Miguel Santos A proper funeral was not about the deceased. Sermons were to focus on gratitude for the eternal strategy of the Five On High. Ander Carmora — somehow the ranking Churchman in town tonight, senior to his partner by bare weeks of ordination — stumbled through […]

THE PALIMPSEST OF MEMORY, by Deborah Davitt Brother Thomas bent over his desk in the scriptorium. The quill in his big fingers looked frail and delicate, in marked contrast to the worn and calloused palms. He still couldn’t read—the monks had yet to teach him, in the year since he’d come to the monastery—but the […]

BARNABY’S DECEIT, by Al Onia, Audio by The Bard     “I’ll be back before dawn,” Barnaby whispered. A lie, if the night’s task succeeded or went awry. The small man slid from Aida’s cot in the troupe’s lead wagon and donned his tunic, belted his short sword and mouthed a silent prayer to Beltrum, […]

SANDS & FOREST, by Jason M. Waltz, Artwork by Andrea Alemanno The far edge of the empty grasslands came quickly. Too quickly, in Sands’ estimation. Then he realized his horse had fled along a path new to him, though obviously not to it. Perhaps leaping atop the bare back of the shaman’s blue roan had […]

GREAT FIRE, by MR Timson, Artwork by Miguel Santos   They say all stories start with a spark, a fragment of a flame that drifts through the air, landing unnoticed on something ready to burn. The alchemists write that we all have fire in us, just waiting to be released. But to this day, I […]