The Stone (Patreon)

A Scholar hired the aid of two mercenaries to guard him as he travels to a mysterious land, but a chance revelation has dire consequences.

This is the first of many short stories I'll be uploading to Patreon, which will be listed under the 'fiction' collection for ease of access.

This is one of the first short stories I ever wrote for Elyden, many many years ago, and I actually had to go back to change some lore details before I could upload it. Minor stuff that had no relevance to the plot (such as it may be) but things that were wildly outdated. Pretty much every place mentioned in the story was under the yoke of Korachan when I wrote this. today, all these regions have been 'retconned' into being independent. Not really retconned - I have just developed the world's story more over the ensuing years.

This is the first of many stories I've written that mention the Demiurge Vorropohaiah, the nation of Vârr, and the Prison Carceri - three of the oldest concepts of Elyden that have largely survived untouched.

This also marks the first appearance of the manumitted clone Slaven, one of the recurring characters that appear in my stories. My first novel, should I ever finish it, is centred around him and his search for answers to his creation. Fingers crossed, I get there one day!

I'll slowly be making all finished fiction available to all paying Patrons over the coming months. I'm aiming for one uploaded every week, though as the need to edit the texts lessens as I catch up with more recently-written stories, that might increase, and I'll then post new content whenever I write something new.

I've included the text as a PDF and an epub file, which should let you read it in any E-reader of your choosing. The text is about 20,000 words long, which technically makes it a novella.

PLEASE let me know what you think, even it its bad! I know a lot of you have been asking for fiction in Elyden for some time, so I'm happy to start sharing more off my writing.

The text can be cumbersome in places. lots of history (I cant not!) and I've seen the term purple prose being banded about too. And it might be a bit of an anticlimax (a bit of a theme, I've come to realise), as I concentrate more on the journey and characters. I'm such a good salesman!

I know my writing style might not be for everyone, though I hope not to turn too many people off. When reading this, I have noticed that I have mellowed in my style over the past 20-years - my writing is now easier to follow and hopefully less heavy on the descriptions. So please follow me on this journey through the years!