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 Discord server for this project is here: https://discord.gg/DFavYcvzxG

The Girl

A forest fire has destroyed Farisa's home, her good name, and even her memory. Those who knew her describe a loyal friend, an animal lover, and a gifted teacher, but all signs connect the young witch to the blaze, so she becomes a fugitive overnight from the false justice of the Global Company, and must survive on her wits in a newly hostile world.

The World

Gas lamps, telegraphs, and machine guns have remade human 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. Magic, no longer as powerful as it used to be, exists mostly as a memory and a curiosity.

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 possibly ancient curses. Rumors tell of a high-altitude trail—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 parent, as her mother was murdered by the Global Company in her infancy; her father's mysterious disappearance is thought to have reached the same end. When she learns of a rumor that her father is alive and pursuing the Mountain Road, in the aftermath of her old life's destruction, she begins her new one with a team of outcasts—criminals, gamblers, spies—to see where the search might lead. As they go south, her magic becomes stronger, and she increasingly believes she may be the one to establish contact between the Known World and the Antipodes.

She will run at midnight through cities rife with ethnic tensions, cryptic graffiti, as fast-draw gunfights. 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, endless deserts, and cursed ancient labyrinths. But, as her memories return, the journey that scares her the most is the inward one, the inevitable reckoning with her own deepest self—the person she has been and might become, the things she has done that have led her here, 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 — on-time finish

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: bottle the fairy (5/22)

21: last train out (5/24)

22: five days' rent (5/25)

✓ PART III: The Road — on-time finish

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: ambition (6/5)

29: other than human (6/7)

30: the calling (6/8)

31: portal (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 — on-time finish

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: powder and nectar (7/10)

49: the first of december (7/12)

PART V: The Lovers

50: the view from the air (7/13)

51: zadka mazita (7/15)

52: lethe tell (7/17)

53: strangers (7/19)

54: the city of honey (7/22)

55: the trial begins (7/24)

56: the verdict (7/26)

57: amethyst (7/29)

58: world revolution (7/31)

59: p.s. (8/2)

60: akana lyris (8/3)