by Kell Inkston
“You have much time before it happens entirely, but I can guarantee you that you will be more alive at that moment than you have ever been.”
“Ahh, most excellent!” The boy’s gaze sharpens again, causing Chaos to lean closer in interest.
“No, Mr. Chaos. Being more alive not only means being able to feel the goodness and blessings of life, but the pain as well. Hold strong, Mr. Chaos, and you will see the end of your tale, as immense as its agony will be.”
“My tale?”
“Yes, you may be surprised, but there are people reading about your achievements, both righteous and depraved, right at this moment. There are many realms above your own that know well your exploits.”
“Fascinating ... Our Omniverse is quite the miracle, is it not?”
“It is, Chaos. Now you have all that you need to know. You should be on your way,” the moon-lit child says with a bow of the head in respect.
“Alright then, oldling. It has been a pleasure sharing tea with you.”
“Likewise, Chaos; thank you for spending this time with me,” the child says with a true, touched gaze. Chaos nods, and then rises from his seat. He turns from the first realmer and then exits from the doors.
The first realmer watches him leave and then, just as the doors shut, and the dimension of the High Tea begins to fold, being plunged from existence.
“I wonder if they’ll ever figure it out,” the child says with a weary, almost parental coo.
-TO BE CONTINUED-
(A note from the author below)
Good day to you!
I’d like to thank you for reading Woodcastle!
Your patronage is very much appreciated, and I very much hope you had as much fun reading the book as I did writing it!
Previously named The Fairy Book and then Kingdom through the Swamp, this novel’s gone through a ridiculous amount of development over the past four-so years, but I must say I’m very pleased with the result and I think it’s hard work paid off!
I probably would have let this project just gather dust on my amazon bookshelf if it weren’t for all the great feedback and kind emails from readers that inspired me to give it a release deserving of the book!
So to those of you who have been with me from the start, thank you again!
Now then, I beckon you for aid!
Onto business matters (nothing you’ll get arrested for… yet), it would mean the very world and the stars above if you would write a quick, honest, thoughtful review for the book’s amazon.com page. It would help more people find the book and I would gladly shake your virtual hand for your support.
If that’s not the kind of thing you’re into, I totally understand. In that case, just send me an email at [email protected] and let me know what you thought about the book. I don’t get many emails, so each one is a highlight in my week.
Oh, and of course if you don’t like sending emails either that’s also okay. I mean you are just reading words on a page or screen, so personal interaction is sort of a guaranteed option.
All things considered, I very, very much hope you enjoyed the story, and that you look forward to the continuation of the series, of which you can find out about on my website, kellinkston.com.
I wish you all the very best on finding your next read, and hope your days are filled with comfortable rainy days indoors, or sunny afternoons on the beach, whatever strikes your fancy.
Kind regards to you and your kin,
Kell Inkston
Head Analyst
Inklend S.E.E.R. Department
(P.S. I’ve added an appendix in case you’re interested in more of the lore and characters, just read on.)
This page is nothing but a frightening forest.
You best travel on.
Appendix
Dimension #13 – No one thinks to name their own plane of existence, do they? Turns out the O.E.L. found the realm containing Dimension #13’s so-called “Earth” twelfth among their millennia-long studies, granting it the simple classification of the thirteenth of all dimensions.
#13 has it’s own planets, solar systems, clusters and galaxies just like most universes, but damn, the magic there is heavy.
Known point of origin for countless Omniverse-known figures, but particularly Lord Knight General Order, and Overlord Chaos.
Dragon-kin – The full bastardization of a human and dragon, this species was created through a magical union between a human princess and a dragon tyrant before recorded history in Dimension #13. They’re of three varieties, arranged by most-human DNA to least: lesser, higher, and heraldic. Lesser kin, like Overlord Greed, are almost human in stature, and sport a great aptitude for magic in the human way, using things like spells and incantations. Higher dragon-kin, like Knight Law of the R.K.O.K.R., are stoutly built, incredibly strong, and enjoys the structure of humans with the musculature and biological traits of dragons, though they are largely magic-averse. Heraldic have much more dragon and human in their veins, and is largely incapable of common society. They are a secretive fold, hidden about all cracks of Aerna in hiding from humanity, who hunt them to this very day.
Kanvane – The magical center of the W.K.D.R. and the third most populous of the four kingdoms. Seated between the fairy tea woods to the West, Trench to the South East, and The Swampwoods to the North, Kanvane was a desirable choice for its founder, Allna Wise Eye, who erected her primary wizard’s tower in the spot of the future capitol building: The Great Council.
Always under continuous construction, the old streets of Low Kanvane have all but faded out into obscurity as layer upon layer of steps are made to accommodate more laboratories, more cute cafes, and more area for Keruz Magic Academy, widely regarded as the very best university of its kind in all existence.
It’s people are curious, considerate, and very fond of coffee.
Liefland – The Kingdom hidden in the leaves is more of a city as it sports no towns outside the royalty’s direct demesne and no formal fortifications outside of Liefholn keep, which triples as the capitol building and royal palace.
It is the final bastion of the unified fairy folk society known through the Omniverse, as poachers, hunters, and admirers mess their shit up constantly at every turn. They are peaceful people who have a great many loves, especially for art and music, though among their myriad races there are ten times as many passions found in their people.
As it stands, they have an uneasy, but trusting relationship to the W.K.D.R., who has officially stated any contact with fairy folk outside of trade or state business is to be punished severely. It is for these reasons that the birth defect of Algandar’s is so deeply reviled, though bears no threat to those inflicted, and honestly looks quite pretty.
Necromancer - Any person or thing that usurps the laws of nature to give life to that which should not have it. Many necromancers are old, cranky, senile men that want to join the Lich club, only to achieve lichdom and get smashed by the nearest paladin to its lair. Other necromancers are edgy teenagers who dye their hair black and then get beaten up for being so weird.
Neither of which are all that bad.
The really bad necromancers are those that have their lives prolonged by other necromancers. In the simple act of entrusting their soul, they allow their brethren to create any number of new bodies out of any form they desire.
Sick of getting old? Just make a new body every twenty years and be done with it!
The lord of this sect is Oa, ruler of their kind and the first of the necromancers. Only a handful know how old Oa is, and they’re all older than Chaos, who in his own right is pretty damn ancient.
Oa is a minion “child” of Ohkiij, who is the Master of the Night and God of the demons, the dead, and all that crawls in the dark.
Omniverse Expeditionary Librarium A.K.A. “O.E.L.” – The first transdimensional association to spring up in the Omniverse, their stated goal is to catalog every dimension in existence.
Of course, on the back end, they’re also raiding an
y society they find for their magical and scientific discoveries, but that’s not really the “appendix appropriate” version.
Oops.
Headed by an ancient, mysterious figure named Ywn, they are the military and scientific center of the Omniverse. The only reasons Dimension #13 isn’t fully under their thumb at this very moment are two in number: The Royal Knights, and High Overlord Chaos, neither of which are quite partial to their presence.
Overlord – A sought-after title among the mighty and the ambitious, overlord is a term used to denote the very highest apex of a community, usually its ruler; not always by right, and usually by force.
Overlords are many in the Omniverse, as there is not really an authority to decide who or what gets to be an overlord. This has led to certain overlord communities to form, which for all intents and purposes are basically a bunch of really tough people fighting constantly to figure out who’s on top.
And to cut things short, when Chaos is around, he’s always on top. For this reason, most of overlord society has placed Chaos on an unspoken “always target” list. He has many, many more enemies than he has friends.
Ragnivan – Military center of the W.K.D.R. and closest neighbor to the Royal Knight’s headquarters of New Reinen. The most populous of the four in the W.K.D.R., it is a sprawling kingdom of good fields and rolling hills. Ragnivan is home to a spirited people that hold loyalty to a seated nobility that claims to have related heritage to King Rayda. The claims are dubious, but don’t let them catch you saying that.
Its folk love drama, the arts, martial and otherwise, and sports of all kinds. True go-getters, they’re an enthused people who are always thrilled to try their hand at competition, and have a superior record in the bi-annual Inter-Kingdom Games.
Rayda – The leader of The Knights of the Reign and the wielder of the quintessential blade: Caliburn. This figure, often argued to be either god or man, crossed the boundary between realms to do battle with the draconic armies. He was a laid-back sort of man, speaking little but always being of good company to friend and foe alike. His achievements during his seven thousand year reign are numerous, but most notable would be his deliverance of mankind from the dragon hordes, the foundation of Reinen of the Far North, and his climactic battle with Overlord Apocalypse, though very, very few remember the tale as such; most assume it was Chaos that defeated him.
Legend has it that in his final breaths, he asked to be rejoined with his sword, Caliburn, which disappeared mysteriously during the turmoil.
Realmancy – Banned in all kingdoms but Spirakander and among the operational elite, Realmancy is a craft of the outright insane, and one of the most mentally-degenerative of magics known to man. Though most of the population does not believe realmancy is, in fact, real, there are a few circles of elite academics that do not only know of it, but can in some limited fashions perform it. Such uses are often fatal, however, as the incantations are mercilessly complex, meaning the caster could at any time “dis-exist” parts of their own body, but usually just their entire body.
Realmancy is the collection and alteration of objects and information that may or may not exist. This is accomplished by gaining “causal strands” and “pulling” until one opens up an alternate reality’s composition network, and inheriting the items into reality. There are no rules, so a person can be as irresponsible as they wish.
For instance, have you ever wondered if you were a character in someone else’s book? With realmancy you can find that out.
While the process is statistically overwhelmingly fatal, there are in fact a small, small handful that can use realmancy and survive, however, and they are right off their rockers. One should always be weary before trusting a Realmancer.
Reinen – Lord of Kingdoms and Invincible bastion against the dragons. Reinen of the Far North was long the Western Kingdom’s capitol city before the destruction of the Planar Sphere, which was the only magical device capable of holding back the immensely inhospitable cold of the surrounding arctic environment. While the other kingdoms are wide domains with great midland towns and sprawling countryside, Reinen was a small land that stretched only as far as its unwalled boundary at twenty kilometers from the center of the Planar Sphere’s placement.
Under The Sphere’s power of temperature alteration, the snowy tundra was transformed into a brimming paradise for all who would take shelter from the dragons and their kin, who could not brave the immense cold of -30 Celsius, and thus could not attack from land nor sky.
The ruination of the Planar Sphere plunged the realm back to its original colds, killing the kingdom’s harvests in the first three days, and then the citizens began to starve. Migration was a simple process, as Reinen boasted one of the only non-Rondi-constructed Space Gates in the Omniverse. It is from there that the entire population of the kingdom, along with the head quarters of the Royal Knights and its corps, all migrated to the other four kingdoms, which are now considered political and cultural peers.
Reinen remains in ruin to this day, its many secrets and ghosts upturned by only the most intrepid, or nostalgic, of explorers.
Royal Knights of the Old Kingdom of Reinen (R.K.O.K.R.) – The prime defense association of the Western Kingdoms, the R.K.O.K.R., commonly referred to as “The Knights” is the last remaining vestige of King Rayda the Golden’s legacy.
While founded officially in the year R.F. 0 alongside Reinen, The Knights, (known as The Knights of the Reign at the time) have been in service to Rayda as long as he has been in recorded history. It is the prevailing theory among historians that Rayda recruited the first knights upon his immediate arrival to the Aernan continent.
School (of magic) –
The manner in which mana expresses itself when exiting the body. The “School” is the form the conscious (and in some, more extreme cases, the subconscious) mind assumes when attempting to press its will on the waking reality.
Often this state requires the use of words or symbols, all in the pursuit of causing one, fleeting, second-long thought required for the spell’s proper expression. Schools tend to group into elements, phenomena or singular methods of interaction, like changing an object’s weight, or shooting sick-ass bolts of lightning out of one’s hands.
Spirakander –
Long south kingdom of tourism and agriculture, Spirakander is settled in the hostile Zhan’Vant Gulf, which by the way is Draconic for “Fatal Swimming”. Despite such risk from aquatic unpleasantries, tourists and locals from all around converge onto Spirakander during the warm seasons for swimming and games of all sorts. With all that sun and sand, it would be hard to say no, after all.
Aside from the danger of the water, it’s considered to be the safest of the four kingdoms, where its scarce crimes only tend to occur due to its lax stance on less approved magics. This lenience has drawn in mages from less influential schools of magic to practice their craft and study their magics here, much of which borders on the depraved.
To the north are the dragon clan canyons, its multitude of mesas and drop offs named after the many relocated dragon-kin reservations forced to take refuge there after The Extermination Wars.
It’s people have a healthy love for a good day’s work, athletics, and music. Take a walk through King’s square sometime and pull in all the exotic sights. Those magicians and merchants certainly know how to entertain their customers.
Towerne –
High Overlord Chaos’ tower network, Towerne could rightfully be called a kingdom simply by the expanse of its demesne. As Chaos and his dimensional operation minions maintain a truly ludicrous amount of towers in a multitude of different dimensions, and they almost always go undetected, Chaos has a perfectly fortified assault point for the majority of high-society dimensions in the Omniverse.
It also makes for very easy vacation travel. Sick of your job as a mechanic minion? Change over towers and enjoy the mountain air for a bit. Sick of that? Change over again and take a dip in a beach. Sick of that? Just change jobs, Ch
aos wants you to be happy, after all, and he pays you in food, so it might as well be doing something you enjoy.
Trench –
A great canyon between Kanvane and Ragnivan spanning miles across, the Trench has been around as long as cartographers have survived the visit to the locale.
These old map-makers weren’t just hopping into the whole without regard, of course, rather there is a nation of insects that actively defend it as their nest. These “Trenchlings” are intelligent, speaking creatures and are many in variety, as if they are in fact multiple terrible races banded together to protect their king.
They’re a weird bunch, and not the sort you’d want for tea.
The innards of Trench sports a pleasantly-cool, if dreary atmosphere, what thin slivers of light peering inside bearing life to the sparse evergreen forests within. There’s a lot of room down there; it would be a fine place to put something.
Whihelmish –
The least populous kingdom of the W.K.D.R. and a certifiable shithole. If you don’t believe me look up the Justice Department’s crime statistics on the Western Kingdoms at large. There’s a reason the general public calls the well-snowed Whihelmish “Ninety five percent of the problem”. It is in fact because Whihelmish boasts 95% of the department’s recorded crimes, so that said it’s a dangerous, cold, rotten place, ruled by a small oligarchy of overlords who call themselves “The Lords of Desire”.
Popular pass times are drinking, gambling, prostitution on both the giving and receiving end, and murder.
Don’t go there, it’s garbage.
About the author:
This is Kell.
