Ten thousand years ago, before our great-mothers left the Summerlands and bore us out into the greater world, Biyatqio, goddess of Life and great-mother of all, sent her two green and golden daughters out into the mortal-walked world. Instruct them, Biyatqio ordered her daughters, impart unto them a fraction of the Divine Wit, such as…
Eli shudders as the forest canopy devours the moonlight. Though the early-summer warmth abandoned him at forest’s edge, the young boy clutches his parcel and presses forward, the flickering lantern’s glow dancing upon the trees with gleeful menace. With each step a silence grows, as if the trees still to watch. “Deep in the wood…
The villagers would do anything to see rain again, even if it meant wounding a god. They’d tried begging their sky deity to end the drought, but his clouds had simply hung above, as idle and gray as the nearby mountain. Their next prayer was less reverent. Gathered in a dead yellow field, the villagers…
Weary-eyed soldiers drag the bodies from their wagons and pile them on the wharf beside my boat. They’ve traveled far from the frontlines, and though they’re too exhausted to speak, they’re careful not to let a lifeless arm or foot touch the sea’s foamy surface. “Careful, men!” the colonel calls needlessly. “Or your labor will…
