Land of Death and Ash

The castle sat on a broken piece of land, surrounded by a bottomless chasm, with only a long bridge to connect it to the forest of ash. In the courtyard, the Beast walked through a damaged part of the wall, trailing around its perimeter. They made their way down the cliff. Eris groped the wall for support, hissing in pain with every step.

They came to a small depression in the land, and the dark stones of the castle towered above them. Broken columns littered the field, showing more of their marbled texture than the flecking murals that used to cover them. The Beast stood on the edge of the cliff.

“There used to be a spring here that spilled alongside the other waterfalls,” he said, motioning to the smooth rocks that now baked in the sun. “I thought that this would be a suitable place for you to understand the magic here.”


Thank you to my patrons:

Tamar, Jennifer, Val, Dustin, Olga, Naomi.