Stories

A swaggering adventurer named Morag the Mighty is indignantly turned away at a city gate by thoroughly unimpressed guards.

An unreliable narrator tells a story about a chance encounter with a stranger.

A weary government clerk works through a long list of furious, blustering wizards to inform them that magic is being banned.

A lifelong runaway recounts leaving home again and again across the decades.

Ninety-three days after the sun vanishes from the sky.

A buyer finally takes delivery of a legendary, history-shaping artefact from its reverent seller.

A minstrel performing for his life before Malfor the Mighty — a tyrant who executes anyone who bores him — talks his way off the chopping block by offering the one thing the jaded king truly craves.

David and Herbert explore the mysterious Planet JL, encountering signs of life and hope amidst the chaos of their journey.

Barry, the bravest mole his colony has ever known, has burrowed in every direction without fear — until he digs too far down and encounters something so unsettling he refuses to ever speak of what lies beneath.

A person chooses to experience the future firsthand by entering a cryogenic facility, exploring the unknown changes that time will bring.

Two old friends reminisce in a cosy tavern about the chaotic days when magical gates spat unpredictable creatures into the world — and they decide to have one last adventure.

Walking home through a rain-soaked alley, a person becomes aware of unseen footsteps perfectly matching their own — and must decide whether to flee or face whatever is there.

A far-future museum guide leads a crowd through the baffling mysteries of early 21st-century technology, culminating in the most horrifying revelation of all: people had to talk to each other.

Moments after a fatal car accident, a man finds himself in darkness where a quietly confident woman in impossible black approaches to guide him — with patient answers — to whatever comes next.

A time-stopping thief slips between the ticks of a frozen party, helping themselves to valuables and mischief before stepping back through a tear in time — never to see the chaos they leave behind.

Jared visits a brusque supernatural functionary who will arrange any act of revenge for a fee — and impulsively commits to something far worse than he intended before he can take it back.

Yasmin tends a beloved garden with one unsettling corner she has never been able to cultivate — a permanently shadowed patch of shifting shapes she has quietly learned to leave alone.

David Bowie and H.G. Wells take a faster-than-light joyride through space in a steam-powered ship, trading quips and setting a course for Mars.

A battle-hardened army camps on the eve of their assault on a great walled city, drinking and gambling as their officers contemplate the uncertain fate awaiting them at dawn.

A regular client visits Jerry Kolynski — psychic slug and therapist — for a 20-minute session of transcendent visions, only to be judged for it by a stranger on the street.

A journalist treks across two continents to interview Alfonso, a 3,437-year-old tortoise and the oldest known creature alive — only to find he has very little to say for himself.

A mysterious website offers vague prophecies about your future — and Morris discovers that knowing what's coming is entirely useless when you have no way to change it.

A narrator casually recounts life with their homemade 'meat puppet' — an eerie physical clone they mostly use for company at bars and dancing — while cheerfully sidestepping any ethical questions.

A soul-finder with a preternatural sixth sense describes their nightly work tracking down panicked, newly-dead souls and guiding them to the next stage of the afterlife.

On his deathbed, legendary dwarven warrior Grangal is haunted by the one quest he fled from — a crumbling castle staircase where a Lich's nightmare curse brought him to his knees in guilt and shame.

After months crossing a lethal desert, a desperate traveller arrives at a mysterious ancient colossus and begins the perilous climb to claim the legendary Bloodstone held in its grasp.

The townsfolk of a coastal village have long ignored the strange nightly walks of cantankerous Ol' Perwiddle — until one bold young thief follows him to the beach and witnesses something she cannot explain.

Friedre wages an escalating battle of wills against a door that refuses to stay shut, resorting to increasingly drastic measures to defeat her wooden adversary.

Frankie the fly accidentally ends up on a plane and finally achieves their lifelong dream of soaring high above the city — right up until a rolled-up newspaper intervenes.

A man wakes every morning from the same recurring vision of apocalyptic destruction wrought by vast, incomprehensible beings — and instead of fearing it, he feels chosen.