A war. An escape. No time to lose.
The Chase Begins
Catastrophe Incoming Volume 1
by Aimee Donnellan
Genre: New Adult Epic Fantasy
"She's escaped. Gods help us all."
The Theocracy of Izirm is losing a war against dragons. While the Bishops scramble for a solution, the holy city of Kequm faces a more immediate crisis: the murderous mage, Nightingale, has escaped prison and only one person can stop her.
Lark is a devoted follower of the Scholar god who searches for adventure around every corner. Ever since apprehending Nightingale three years ago, they've done whatever they can to forget the hole she ripped through their heart, and can think of nothing worse than facing her again. But when Nightingale's meddling leaves Kequm vulnerable, Lark has no choice but to act.
A whimsical New Adult fantasy adventure set in a queernormative, mysterious world begging to be explored.
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Opening excerpt from The Chase Begins (chapter 1 opening):
The first shimmer of magic through the sky interrupts a mouthful of fried bread and a convoluted story about a drunk wyvern.
“Did you see that?” Lark asks, to check that the flash of blue hadn’t been their dragon eye playing tricks on them.
“See what?”
Gravy stains Wren’s chin from how quickly she has devoured her own bread, and her face is still caught in laughter. It should be a crime to look away from something so wonderful and yet —
Lark glances up. The sky is clear now, and they mourn the days when they could trust their first impression of the world around them. The market they are standing in is full of people who haven’t paused and are continuing to shop and chat.
“Come on, what happened after it got kicked out of the vineyard?” Wren asks.
“Oh, I offered it a lift, wherever it wanted,” Lark says, snapping back to attention with a grin. “It didn’t exactly have faith in my mode of transport, but it told me about its home nest in specific detail. And off we went.”
“And that’s how you ended up in a snowbank.”
“And that’s how I ended up in a snowbank.”
Wren shakes her head as another laugh rocks her body. “I don’t know why I believe you. Ever.”
“Because you know it’s true!”
“But it shouldn’t be! So why do I believe you?”
Lark blinks at her. “Well, I’m told I have a very honest face. When people aren’t put off by the dragon eye, that is.”
“One day, you’re going to tell me how you got that.”
Lark grins, if only to hide the sting of the memory in question. They push down the voice that had coaxed them into it, any and all memory of that voice and the person it belongs to.
“Oh, Wren. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” they say. That part is truthful enough.
A flash above them — magic like crushed sapphire in an arc, revealing the dome shape of the city wards. Horns start blaring and a hush falls over the marketplace, followed by a wave of uncertainty and hesitation. A moment later, people begin to disperse at top speed. Fearful whispers of dragons linger in the empty spaces.
“Alright. That one, I saw,“ Wren says, gaping. “Are they right? A dragon, incoming?”
A dragon would make the most sense in the current war climate. Lark’s hometown, being in fact the holiest city of the Theocracy and the most westward city, is a crucial and dangerous location. And in their entire time in the city, they have only heard the horns once, when the first dragon attack had seen a massive creature of ocean blue scales decimate a quarter of the city.
“It can’t be a dragon,” Lark says, licking their lips, their hands beginning to gesture excitedly, “by all logic, the only danger should be a dragon, but… they’ve just changed the wards to inward.”
“So it’s not just not a dragon,“ Wren says, voice slow, “it’s something serious enough… they’re leaving us exposed to dragons. What could that even be?”
“I have no idea!” A laugh escapes Lark’s throat, inappropriate and delighted. “I love not knowing.”
Wren snorts. “You hate not knowing.”
“I love the not knowing that comes before the knowing, Wren, or else there would be no cause to be excited about knowing anything in the first place. Although there is something to be said for the acquisition of knowledge you never knew you were lacking—”
“Lark,” Wren says with fond amusement, “possible crisis. Do you have a plan?”
Lark runs a hand through their chin length dark hair, eyes darting around the city and mentally mapping routes and destinations before returning to Wren’s face. “Well, we could head to the ward hub and see what additional information was passed on with the order to invert the wards. The temple of War is bound to know something, and my own temple is of course in the know by nature—”
Wren’s eyes have drifted beyond Lark’s shoulder. “Or we could ask that city official who seems to be headed straight for us.”
Lark whirls around. A well dressed person bearing the city office crest is striding towards them with purpose, flanked by a pair of guards. They are talking animatedly to the guards as they walk and getting little in return. A long braid of white blonde hair comes past their partly elven ears and hangs over their shoulder, while their red and cream robes mark them as a follower of the Everflame, God of Summer and Fire.
“Seeker Lark!” they call out. “Wonderful to meet you in person.” They offer a hand in greeting, and when Lark takes it they shake vigorously. “The name’s Cillian. Emergency admin.”
“Good to meet you,” Lark says, returning their hands to their trouser pockets. “What can I do for you? There must be something going on if you’ve inverted the wards.”
Cillian grins as an odd, possibly nervous laugh escapes them. “One could say. I’ve been asked to escort you to the Tower of Justice. Your assistance is required.
The Collection Awakens
Catastrophe Incoming Volume 2
"Well, you have armour. It's the lyre and the goose that have me a bit confused."
The Dragon War has left its mark on everyone, and Reverie Rosetia is no exception. After her brother is struck down in a skirmish, it is on her to take up the family legacy of greatness – no matter what her plans might have been before that. She must find his sword and bring it home.
With no better place to start her search, Reverie arrives at the Collection, an isolated place full of magical oddities and artifacts. Soon after her arrival, the eclectic visitors to the Collection and its owner find themselves trapped inside. A magical force has broken free and is determined to break them, one by one. Can Reverie solve the mystery of how their attacker manifested and put it right before it is too late?
Reverie meets adventurers Lark and Wren as the trio are trapped in this claustrophobic and irreverent fantasy mystery, which may have more to do with Lark and Wren’s chase than they think…
** New Release! **
The Collection Awakens (opening of chapter 4):
Reverie has heard the applause of a thunderous, ecstatic audience. She has heard the swell of an orchestra and the chaos of a string section aiming for discord. She can never quite forget the awful, wretched noise that had echoed through the forest, despair given sound, and the nausea of realising it had been herself.
The quiet murmur around her is more powerful than them all. The shifting of shoes on the floor. The almost uttered sentences never leaving the tongues that begin to form them. It is nearly silence, but the gap where it falls short is deafening in its implications.
There is something about fear. An emotion she had thought she had understood, until now. In reality, she had never thought to lose that which she held dear until it had already been ripped away. Imagination is so much of a danger.
And yet, emotion feels too small a word for the energy in the room as Lark announces that they are all trapped with this mysterious, malicious magic.
Fear is a force. An entity. And it can possess people.
“Trapped?” Ernest cries. “No way. You’re a fancy Seeker, get us out of here!”
“I’ll try, absolutely, I promise,” Lark assures him, and double-checks his name, as well as Bela’s. “I’ll do everything I can.”
“What if everything you can do isn’t enough?” Bela asks.
“This is my Collection, this thing has some damn nerve,” Grena is grumbling.
Their voices overlap and weave until it is awful, chaotic noise and gestures and little else. A horrible honking laughter joins the din.
It would be so great if you died here, Ferdinand cackles, that would be hilarious.
“We’re not going to die here,” Reverie mutters. ”Shut up. Seriously.”
Ernest gapes. “Who said anything about dying?”
“No one, just the goose, ignore him—”
More pleased honking. More arguing. Lark grabs the Wayfinder back out of their bag and waves it above their head.
“Now, we’d have to wait for the charge to come back, and that won’t be until dawn, but that’s at least one way out if nothing else—”
There is a crackling sound and Lark cries out. They shake their hand with astonishment and suck on the hurt skin of their palm.
“Hey!” they say, muffled by their own hand, blinking at the Wayfinder, “what are you—”
Another attempt to touch it results in another zap.
Colour floods Lark’s cheeks. “This…doesn’t usually happen, I swear,” they say to Grena. “You saw it before, it was fine!” They smack their palm against the metal, as if to shake it out of its nonsense. “Stop embarrassing me! Some mystical, prestigious award you are!”
“So we are stuck,“ Bela says, wiping at the blood under her nose. “And you have no idea what attacked me.”
“I wouldn’t say no idea,“ Lark says. “It was an illusion that seemed to target something deeply personal and painful within your psyche and then used that link to harm your mind directly. If it weren’t so awful, I’d call it genius. Who makes magic like that?”
Aimee Donnellan is an author of whimsical queer fantasy for new adults. She is proudly bisexual and on the aromantic spectrum, and loves to write bisexuals even more chaotic and disastrous than herself.
She lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her fiancè — who helps her write and worldbuild — and dreams of dog ownership when not playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons.
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