The following twenty-one stories represent only a fraction of the reader requests made during the Kickstarter. They fall into two sections: events that happened before Only the Open, and (for the most part) events that happened during and after From Ruins. By the time I’d noticed that I’d skipped the middle of the series without any vignettes from the fourth and fifth novels, I’d written 170,000+ words of fiction and covered all your initial requests. While I’m fairly indefatigable, I admit I ran out of ideas to fill in the gaps, and I was a little afraid if I tried for a couple more ‘shorts’ they’d turn into novellas, like some of the others…! In the end, I think the list we came up with together is exactly right. Those additional requests will end up in my little file for next time I want to write some bonus material, and it’s never a bad thing to have a bonus material bucket.
So, we begin the collection with some scenes from before the series opens, starting way back with Liolesa’s investiture in “Prophet’s Vigil,” and moving on to meet Maia, Lisinthir, and the Slave Queen. (In particular, I call out “Opening Maneuvers” as the oldest vignette in the book; it was written when I wrote the initial draft of Wingless in 2003!) Then we fill in some of the blanks in Even the Wingless and proceed into a couple of scenes in and around Some Things Transcend and Amulet Rampant. After we visit the kitchen at Brooke’s, the story “Legacy” sees us into some ancillary scenes we didn’t get a chance to explore in From Ruins. “Courting Rights,” the story of Sediryl asking for Jahir’s hand in marriage, straddles a chronological line: its first scene takes place during From Ruins, and its last scene moves into the final pages of that book. After that, “Moving Out” introduces the last set of stories, those that take place after From Ruins and prior to Healer’s Wedding.
Our final story, “Second Son,” actually falls after the events of Farmer’s Crown, and hints at events to come.
Each story is prefaced by where it falls in the chronology, which is sometimes very vague (“long long before stuff!”) and sometimes alarmingly specific (“between pages x and pages y”). If you ever feel at sea, check the beginning of the story and that should place you in the timeline.
That’s enough from me! It’s time for Liolesa to open the show. Let’s step back in time….