Her beautiful, brilliant mind might destroy the world... or save it.

Farisa's Crossing, already complete, will be published in 59 chapters between April 26 and August 3, 2024.

The Girl

A forest fire has destroyed Farisa's home, her good name, and even her memory, with all signs connecting the young witch to the deadly blaze. Although described by those who knew her as a loyal friend, an animal lover, and a gifted teacher, she becomes a fugitive overnight from the false justice of the Global Company, and must survive on her wits in a world newly hostile to her existence.

The World

Gas lamps, telegraphs, and machine guns have remade all of life in their own image. Steam-powered trains achieve the unimaginable speed of 30 miles per hour. Orcs, elves, and dragons have been pushed to the margins of the world. These days, magic is more of a memory and a curiosity than a source of power.

Still, even in this age of invention and discovery, no one was found a way to the Antipodes—the world's southern hemisphere remains inaccessible due to intolerable heat, ferocious wildlife, and—it is rumored—ancient curses. Rumors tell of a high-altitude path—the notorious Mountain Road—that once connected the two worlds, but efforts to reach the other side, over thousands of years, have brought nothing but failure and death. Hundreds attempt the journey every year—none succeed.

The Clash

Farisa has no memory of either of her parents. Her mother was murdered by the Global Company in her infancy; her father died under mysterious circumstance and is believed to have gone the same way. When she learns a rumor that her father is alive and pursuing the Mountain Road, and in the aftermath of the destruction of her old life, she begins her new one with a team of outcasts—criminals, gamblers, spies—to see where the search leads. Although skeptical of the mission at first, her magical talents increase as they go south, leading her to believe it may in fact be possible to establish contact between the Known World and the Antipodes. She will run at midnight through cities rife with ethnic tensions, frequent gunfights, and cryptic graffiti. She will use sorcery, science, and her own quick wit to defuse traps set millennia ago. She will find love and lose it, more than once; she will fight for her life, more than once; she will face betrayal, more than once. She and her companions will encounter blistering jungles, ominous deserts, and cursed ancient labyrinths. But the journey that scares her the most, as her memories return and she discovers her true nature, in the inward one, the inevitable reckoning with her own deepest self—the person she has been and might become, the things she has done, and what really happened on the night of the fire.

RELEASE SCHEDULE

✓ PART I: The Forest — on-time finish

1: the fire (4/26)

2: enter farisa (4/26)

3: sixteen winds (4/27)

4: entanglement (4/28)

5: black harbor (4/29)

6: over land (4/30)

7: cait forest (5/1)

8: analysis of place (5/2)

9: rebels '93 (5/3)

10: the ribbon (5/4)

11: natural causes (5/6)

12: the monster (5/8)

PART II: The City

13: inside / outside (5/10)

14: oubliette (5/11)

15: exodus (5/13)

16: chan verida (5/15)

17: the office (5/17)

18: knowledge and virtue (5/18)

19: gold watch (5/20)

20: a fairy in a bottle (5/22)

21: last train out (5/24)

22: five days' rent (5/25)

PART III: The Road

23: knight's tour (5/27)

24: to the sea (5/29)

25: ball of snakes (5/31)

26: the fifth continent (6/1)

27: naveed (6/3)

28: ehrgeiz (6/5)

29: other than human (6/7)

30: the calling (6/8)

31: last resort (6/10)

32: white berries (6/12)

33: motherless (6/14)

34: the great global company (6/15)

35: rishona (6/17)

36: eye of sophya (6/19)

37: grackenheit 404 (6/21)

38: switch cave (6/22)

PART IV: The Dead

39: ivory ashes (6/24)

40: dune of despair (6/26)

41: hegemon (6/28)

42: heart (6/29)

43: head (7/1)

44: blank spot on a map (7/3)

45: a dream of flight (7/5)

46: the arch (7/6)

47: dead reckoning (7/8)

48: the first of december (7/10)

PART V: The Lovers

49: the view from the air (7/12)

50: and...? (7/15)

51: lethe tell (7/17)

52: strangers (7/19)

53: the city of honey (7/22)

54: the trial begins (7/24)

55: the verdict (7/26)

56: amethyst (7/29)

57: world revolution (7/31)

58: p.s. (8/2)

59: akana lyris (8/3)