"A Heretic by Degrees"

The king was dying, and nothing in the world could save him.

The Councilor Paramount said, "Then we must look outside the world for help."

---

Driftwood: where worlds go to die.

It's a setting I thought up a few years ago, and I suspect it will continue to spit out stories at odd and unpredictable intervals for years to come. If I write and sell enough of them, this page will move off to its own little directory, just for Driftwood. But in the meantime, it lives here, among the miscellaneous stories.

Imagine the apocalypse coming, tearing your world apart and killing almost everyone in it. Then imagine a fragment surviving . . . floating through the space between worlds . . . until at last it fetches up against a mass of other fragments, all with the same tragedy in their past. Seasons, laws of magic, even time itself can change as you cross from one into the other, in a shifting city composed almost entirely of borders. And bit by bit, no matter what you do, that fragment will fade, until nothing at all is left of you or your world.

Depressing to live in, but fun as hell to play in.

"A Heretic by Degrees" has been purchased by the Intergalactic Medicine Show, to be appearing some time late this year. I'll post more when I know more.