To Sand, To Sea: An Eilosian Ballad | ONC 2025

[Set in Eilos, the world of 'Echoes of the Reach', and can be read standalone.]

Where ripples of the past lead, the tidal waves of history soon follow.

Jaster Brand is an artificing prodigy. From enchanted tools to automaton companions to his own right arm, his passion for arcane engineering has carried him to the Malkest Throne's biggest cities in search of work. Working with his fellow travelling apprentice, the rookie hunter Astrid Forrester, they scrape up enough money to support themselves and their families.

On Jaster's latest visit home, however, something changes. The road to Flatsands transforms into a sunken cove, a seabound scape of sand and shells cut off from the wider world. Worse still, the village itself is abandoned, its residents vanished and their homes claimed by an insidious dark coral.

Mysteries rise at every turn, yet none more startling than the sudden reappearance of Calypso, Jaster's one-time imaginary friend pulled back by forces unknown. Stranded together in a drowning village, the three must race to find the missing villagers, undo the curse that has befallen Flatsands, and face the ancient threat that stirs beneath the blackened waves.

***

Written for #ONC2025.

96. "The road you've travelled almost every day of your life begins to change - transforming into a dark, terrifying place right before your eyes."

105. "Your childhood imaginary friend, who disappeared years ago, suddenly returns - only this time, they're real."

Cover and chapter-end banner skilfully crafted by the wizard of legend @-DeeIsDead- (thank you so much again, Dee!)