LE MORTE D’[          ] - “She walks forward. The scalloped ceiling of the opera house behind her falls away in a jagged maw, stitched against the starry sky like a writer’s delicate scrawl. She minds the gaps and the cracks in the stone, following the trail of her blood to where the abrupt edge of the bridge disappeared into the water. Her own sword taps against her side. It’s hard to think of it as her sword. She’d never felt like it had belonged to her. The Lady awaits her in the water at the end of the bridge’s spine. Her dark hair is threaded with pearls and shells, and the red of her dress (the same red they wear) spreads out from her like the petals of a rose. One of The Girl Knight’s sisters had once likened that dress to blood and she flinches at the memory. She slows to a stop and meets The Lady’s eyes. She’d been gifted a sword and now she was returning it and more but each time The Lady’s shark-black eyes had seemed to swallow up more and more of her.“ 

My completed piece for @forgedzine ; a zine about women, women-aligned people, and girls with swords and what they mean to us. I wrote about the consequences of making faustian deals with women who live in bodies of water and distribute swords as a basis of government heavily inspired by classic Arthurian Legend and the poem, “The Lady of Shalott.” This was a lot of fun and I’m proud to be in the same zine as a number of other talented and determined creators! c: 

• LE MORTE D’[         ]

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LACHRYMOSE - “The wax paper was balled up in his left hand, his chin was in his right, and his bagel was only a memory when Wen finally spoke again. “Did mom have it?” he asked. He was watching the sleepy town scroll past his window, the car’s console glowing in the eerie pallor of morning. This was his favorite time of day – where everything was breathless and chill and it felt like he could hear an entire town breathing. It was comforting and apprehensive all at once; it made him think of being underwater. That content feeling edged with the realization that he’d drown if he didn’t return to the surface, but everything was weightless darkness until his lungs started to prick and burn.“ 

Another experimental entry that takes in the same universe as “IMPOSSIBLE OCEAN.” This excerpt follows a discussion between Li Wen, a young psychometric witch, and his father about the nature of his powers and his attempts to lessen their influence. 

• LACHRYMOSE

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IMPOSSIBLE OCEAN - “The woods were lovely, dark, and deep but she had no promises to keep and only a few miles yet to go before sleep. Just a job, unconventional enough that quest might have been a better word for it, but it lacked the importance. It lacked much of the dignity as well, what with the way her boots scuffed into the muddy undergrowth and sank into the peat moss. It was all very grim and also very Grimm. She made whorls though the mist with the point of her knife“ 

A small, experimental, three-part series about Salome Grey, a hedgewitch, fighting monsters in the liminal space between our world and another in order to fulfil a magical request. 

• PART ONE

• PART TWO

• PART THREE

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THAT’S WHY THEY DIE - “Halifax clicked his tongue. He still hasn’t looked at her, and she still hasn’t looked at him. They’re conducting a sideways conversation - peering at each other around corners and through the cracks of opened doors instead of stepping into the room proper. “Yes,” he said. ‘But that would be cruel, and I try not to be cruel.’“ 

An excerpt from an original story about immortal, the price of changing history, and the cost of magic. It recounts a conversation between Riley, the protagonist, and Halifax - her erstwhile tutor and consummate bastard. 

• THAT’S WHY THEY DIE