Umi Siskin of Lumis leads the mischievous Prince Tatsuya of Planet Cygnet across the Plutonian Sea to the land of alchemists and rebirth.
Category: Fantasy
The Adventurer’s Guide: Lumis
The beloved and ever-imaginative Dragon Warrior proposed a collaboration to explore our fantasy worlds together. Some of you may already be familiar with her planet Cygnet, and some of you might know Lumis from my draft "The Stars Went Out."
Bonus Round: “The Stars Went Out” Bloopers
I'm having some trouble letting go of the "Stars" daily excerpts, so here's one last hurrah: the crazy nonsense garbage sentences I wrote before I fell asleep on my laptop! I've been combing these ugly babies out of the draft for three days now, but here are some of the best.
Day 31: Past in Incense
Umi closed his eyes and imagined in the thick, dreaming aroma of Shiori’s room both of them were in their childhood again. He imagined he didn’t have to worry about who didn’t (or did) want touching him. He imagined someone would wake him, in the morning, and tell him what he should do. He imagined they would tell him how to be happy.
Day 30: Name of the Stars
The discovery of Saikasu had been an accident. A seasonal priestess on her way to Bhin, sailing on the mapped way she’d used for a decade—Lotus, Queen’s Tattoo, Threecorn—found her route interrupted by a body in the stars she’d never seen before.
Day 29: Stage Magician
"I told you, I'm not a priestess." Shardae shot up, every bone in her fist pronounced black and rattling with dark magic. Arsemia dissipated lazily into ashes, eddying outwards.
Day 28: Mosaic Harbor
Workers hauled ashore cages of feathered game and trunks of malachite ore, lined in synchronized, silent pairs.
Day 27: Arrogant Red
The bushes overflowed with every shade of color, but in particular crimson. It was Shiori’s favorite color, and arrogant red flowers spilled over the blues, purples, and pinks. The other woman servants grumbled about it to each other every now and again--that many in the same soil, they shouldn’t grow like that.
Day 26: Coming Snow
Umi folded the summer curtains while Shiori sat watching. The winter drapes were long overdue; the windowpanes were gray with fog in the morning and had been every morning since Umi had arrived.
Day 25: Tumbleweed Girl
The yard behind the atrium was empty of the harem children and their carers. Only half of the parakeet cages swung outside, empty of birds. The only noise between the evening gusts was their metal hooks, clicking and creaking on their lines. A single white-robed woman stood in the yard’s center, standing on a block to pull the cages down.