Serial · ongoing
The Rain Wedding
In a realm where the Chancery catalogs every god and strikes every outlawed name from the official Roll, Judah Ward has been erased from record for twenty years. Exiled to the remote North Heron mountain and heir to the lost sigil arts of House Hollow, he wields a black fan that cuts through stone and spirits alike. When his family’s sacred guide-lamp is stolen and traced to the rain-soaked heights of Sable Ridge, he descends into the valley to reclaim it — and walks straight into a centuries-old nightmare far larger than a stolen relic. For three years, unending rain has turned Cedar Hollow to mud. The starving villagers struck a bargain with a faceless broker who trades in grave-weddings: deliver brides to the river god Mister Sable, and the rain will fall. Too broken to give a living girl, they carried a carved log up the mountain to deceive him, never guessing they themselves were the pawns. Joined by sharp, unflinching swordswoman Wren Ashby of his own order, Judah cuts through river-wraiths, Chancery patrols and buried Urnfolk tombs to untangle the truth. Chasing the trail south, he crosses paths with Elias Crane, a towering quiet wordwright with a crate of paints and a bloodline tied to the fallen House of Ashcrow, and old grudges ignite in the raucous river town of Mercy Bend as the secret behind the lamp pulls him toward something that will rewrite every story he ever knew. A dark, atmospheric epic of borrowed power and forgotten history, *The Rain Wedding* weaves grim folklore, sharp political intrigue and unforgettable characters into a world where words are weapons, gods are prisoners, and the most dangerous truths are the ones carved in stone.
Chapter 1: Rain-Wedding
Third watch of the night, and the rain came off the ridge in one long sheet, the kind that lays the grass flat in the ruts and leaves it the…
Chapter 2: The Man Who Doesn't Eat People
The teeth did not come. What came instead, from up over his head, was a laugh. It was not the broker's laugh. Hollis opened his eyes. The fi…
Chapter 3: Bought Weather
Rain came over the threshold in a long slow sheet and lay in a wet line across the boards, and nobody in the temple got up to close the door…
Chapter 4: The Other Hand
The Other Hand For a while after Quay finished, nobody in the temple said anything. They stood in their ring, close enough to hear one anoth…
Chapter 5: Dead Weight
Dead Weight The hand had been playing dead since the moment the cloth closed over it. A breath earlier the fingers had been stepping at the…
Chapter 6: A God Out of Mud
Rain, straight down, no wind in it. They were out past the trees where the ground lay open and the grass was flat under the water and had gi…
Chapter 7: River-Money
River-Money The river came down out of the ridge the color of wet slate, and by the time it reached the landing it had slowed and spread and…
Chapter 8: The Second Hearse
The Second Hearse Down in the Coil there was no up, no sun, no weather, nothing to measure himself against, and he had been going down long…
Chapter 9: No Eyes
No Eyes The coach sat where they had set it, and the five little dead stood at the shafts and held it down against nothing, and not one of t…