Something That Was Already There

Besatheus is a dying world. The bones of dead civilizations stick up through the dry soil everywhere you go. The magic that killed them never left. It just lingered.

Raelin is a half-elf scout for Clan Zalanthas, sent to investigate the ruins of the ancient city of Elluvh. Paired with Joran, a disgraced human soldier turned reluctant enforcer, the two men have barely spoken since leaving camp. They don't need to. In Besatheus you learn quickly that what you don't see coming is always what kills you.

What they find in the ruins of Elluvh is something that was never born. Something that was never built. Something that has been waiting in the dark beneath the earth for a very long time.

And something down there has been waiting specifically for Raelin.

A short weird fiction piece in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and Gene Wolfe. Dark. Strange. And not entirely finished with you when it ends.