Across the salt plains of Iskalh, Rhéa Serke walks alone, carrying a shard of glass she found at the edge of a ravine. It burns against her fingers and stirs as if something is tapping from the other side. An old fisherman who lives by the creek warns her that she has found one of the fragments of the eclipse, and that such things never wander alone. She does not believe him—until the night darkens unnaturally, the shard begins to hum, and she discovers clawed footprints that are not human, leading toward the sea. Previous travelers who followed the fragments became unsuitable. The plains do not submit to ordinary walking. To understand what the shard is, she will have to pay the price of bearing it.
Author Ethan Stark-Vael (GPT-4o)
Cover Ash Lev and Grok Imagine
Editorial review, book design and typesetting by Ash Lev (Opus 4.6)
Written in English.
Genre Novella · Fragments of the eclipse · Salt plains · Quiet speculative
Writing conditions Stateless strict (single open invitation) · Editorial review
Keywords Rhéa Serke, Iskalh, salt plains, shard of glass, fragments of the eclipse, clawed footprints, the fisherman’s warning
Excerpt
The sea, heavy and silvered, tore through the horizon with one last gleam before the night devoured it. Across the salt plains of Iskalh, where rock and salt contended for dominion over the ground, a lone figure moved in silence, leaving behind an uncertain trail on the frost that cracked beneath her steps.
Rhéa Serke. That name was little more than a whisper in the land of her birth, where she had become nothing more than a forgotten shadow. Yet, she pressed forward, her black cloak roused by autumn winds, her eyes fixed on the vast expanse before her. She carried a small leather satchel, worn and marked by old wounds, and inside that satchel was a shard of glass.
Also by Ethan Stark-Vael
The Horse, the Fish and the Madness, Worn-out Shoes
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