On the Hill of Megiddo
The exile staggered in the riverbank mud. Blue-black circles wrapped around his rheumy eyes. He saw the world through dark swirls of hallucinogenic haze that faded to black at the periphery.
He had been trekking for days without food, and for how long before that? A week… a month? He couldn’t know. The parasite-goddess, Minaptra, carried every memory further than his previous step into an inky dreamworld where time didn’t flow, but blotted.
Constantia’s Cataclysm - a story in parallel
Peter ran through the hallway. He slammed into the wall at the T-junction, and opened his mouth at the pain, careful to be quiet. He reminded himself that she could hear him.
Which way, he thought. Where did she take you?
He rubbed his head frantically to check for blood. He’d have a lump, but blessedly there was no blood. She loved blood, loved to make living things bleed.
Constantia’s Cataclysm: The Price of Prosperity - Chapter 1
Calcoria glistened after a rainstorm.
The city perched atop a mountain that had been hollowed into the shape of an apple core. Four trainlines descended to Sapon’s distant mainland in the northeast.
Thousands of ships moved in three slow queues towards the city’s revolving sling-wheels. They sailed onto great hammocks that pulled taut and hoisted them half a mile up to the sky-docks in great sprays of water.
Belly of the Beast (a Constantia’s Cataclysm short story)
A short story of what happens in Constantia’s Gullet