02 Dec

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 18: December 2022 No comments

Don’t Count Your Sprite Shards Before They’re Caged by Dawn Vogel

Baleful red light crackled across the sky, outlining a mushroom cap atop tentacles, stretching down into the clouds. Conditions were perfect for the abominably misnamed “sprite” to discharge the shards that powered the airship Jubilee on long-range journeys. “You saw where it struck?” Tali asked. Her pilot, Rowan, rolled their eyes. “Yes, Captain.” Tali nodded.Read more about Don’t Count Your Sprite Shards Before They’re Caged by Dawn Vogel[…]

01 Aug

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 14: August 2022 One comment

You, But Only Sometimes by Leah Ning

I meet you in the rain, the fat drops slicking our cheeks. We splash in puddles like children. You kiss like thunder: deep enough to shake the earth, even if only a little. The sun reemerges and sparkles on the wet tar. I turn to see your face sparkle, too, but you’re gone. I lookRead more about You, But Only Sometimes by Leah Ning[…]

01 Jul

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 13: July 2022 No comments

The Doll Mender by Hayley Stone

The doll doesn’t make it to my front door. I find her limp against my woodpile out back a few days after the first cold snap. She’s been rained on, her cloth skin a sodden gray, button eyes damp. “Oh, hello,” she says, with trained brightness. “I do beg your pardon. I seem to beRead more about The Doll Mender by Hayley Stone[…]

01 Jul

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 13: July 2022 No comments

Stormeye Wormhole by Adam Lee Weatherford

In two and half minutes, I’d either become the twelfth certified wormhole pilot or the seventieth-odd loser ripped apart by Jupiter’s storm shear. The decisive moment was speeding up to me. I’d ghost my electricals, coast through the eye of the storm, and slide through the tiny aperture halfway to another world. Even after allRead more about Stormeye Wormhole by Adam Lee Weatherford[…]

31 May

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 12: June 2022 No comments

The Burning Sea by Bennett North

I’d always watched the whaling boats going out to sea in the morning; big, asbestos-lined vessels churning through the lava, leaving a black wake behind them. My parents’ house was close enough to the beach that the shingles warped and blistered in the heat, and if you stood at the kitchen window you could seeRead more about The Burning Sea by Bennett North[…]

27 Apr

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 11: May 2022 No comments

Dragon Dealer by Hugh J. O’Donnell

I ride into the clearing with my lance pointed skyward. My horse is already skittish. The dragon slaying business is always rough on horses, and I replace mine the way other riders do horseshoes. I didn’t even bother to name this one. But losing a horse always gives the story a little something. I circleRead more about Dragon Dealer by Hugh J. O’Donnell[…]

30 Mar

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 10: April 2022 No comments

Shave and a Haircut by Charlotte Platt

Rat-tat tat-tat-tat. Someone was knocking on the door. This would have been strange enough, given she travelled here alone, but Simone knew the other side was bare. Nothing surrounded the doorway but crumbling rubble of the building that had been, the inside gone over to weeds and weather. The door stood in the ruin, aRead more about Shave and a Haircut by Charlotte Platt[…]

30 Mar

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 10: April 2022 No comments

Call of the Sea by T. R. Siebert

The third time the ocean comes to our door, there’s no sister to wake me. I’m roused from my slumber by the lapping of waves and tiptoe past our father’s bedroom door. He won’t rise for another hour or two. By then, the ocean will have receded once more. He’ll wonder at the damp sandRead more about Call of the Sea by T. R. Siebert[…]

02 Mar

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 09: March 2022 No comments

The Usurious Mechanic by Heather Kilbourn

“That carbon scoring came from laser blasts, not a hot re-entry. You might be able to fool the others, Tara, but not me. You should know better. That’ll cost you extra.” Janae side-eyed me while tilting her head towards the marks on the glider while shoving her hands deeper into the pockets of her coverall.Read more about The Usurious Mechanic by Heather Kilbourn[…]

31 Jan

Factor Four Magazine Posted in Issue 08: February 2022 No comments

Here Come the Demons by RJ Taylor

Down in the valley, beneath trees whose trunks rise evenly spaced and straight but whose gnarled arms twine high above, a woman kneels digging. She digs with her hands, nails tearing. Bright-beaked birds watch, hopping among the risen roots. One chirps a sad melody, but the song is lost beneath the waterfall’s thundering: aRead more about Here Come the Demons by RJ Taylor[…]