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You’re eighteen. Your fairy godmother just fired you, because after three balls, the prince has grown bored with you. Tonight you stepped on his foot during a gavotte. “If you’d been cleverer,” the fairy godmother says—her words silver chimes girded with steel—“you’d have pretended your clumsiness was really punishment: a reminder to focus on yo...
By E.M. Linden in Issue #466 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine Afterwards, while the mother and baby slept or cooed at each other, Jesset was freed to the fresh air to deliver the grace-bread. Sister Grain baked two loaves after every birth. One for the church, to be blessed and broken for the poor of the village. One for the Kind Ones ...
Lise’s personas have no warning when the XexlCo Construct appears at the gate of her memory garden, smiling cheerfully at each of her personas in turn like a neighborhood milkman making his daily rounds. They watch the newcomer saunter by with open curiosity, moving aside to let him pass as though he’s a regular guest in Lise’s subconscious. The...
Congratulations on your Magic Sword"! For all inquiries as to its powers and perils, please consult the Virtue Exercises Manual". However, we know new users sometimes get in over their heads. That’s why messages like this may appear on your blade. If you see such a message, heed it promptly, and everything will be fine. Welcome to heroism. We’ve...
By Sally Sultzman in Issue #462 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine —then this child wearing Jen’s clothing, with Jen’s hair pulled into tight braids that she hates, smiling with Jen’s face is running toward me, laughter ringing from her like a bell, clear and bright—a sound I’ve not heard before—and as she gets closer she cries out, “Mot...