I love Atefómu, the old woman in this chapter. She represents one of the many archetypes that appeal to me. For her, it is the broken warrior, a woman who had seen everything and no longer had time for the crap going on with politics or among the spirits. If you've been reading from the beginning, there is another character with that attitude, Mikáryo. There are other parallels between the two women, but we won't see that until the next chapter.

Atefómu's clan powers are similar to Rutejìmo's in results but they go about it an entirely different way. While he can move very fast, there is still the physics behind his movement: the wind blow, sand is kicked up, and he is physically exhausted. Her powers, on the other hand, are focused on one of the rarer magics in my world: folding (also known as teleporation).

Overall, as a storyteller and a game master, I don't like teleporting. It is great from moving characters from one place to the other. The problem is that it lets characters move easily around which forces the world to grow quickly; if a storyteller isn't ready enough, it can quickly create an untenable world with flat characters because everything doesn't have enough time to settle, grow, and refine.

Having a character with speed powers also doesn't help. I found that the desert had to grow much faster when characters can do thirty miles an hour and I have one character who can break the sound barrier while running. Naturally, I have two characters who will be able to hit Mach 1 (a certain dog girl in the next novel of that series).

If I had advice, avoid speedsters and fliers.

Atefómu's limitations are much shorter, she can only teleport only as far as she can run while holding her breath. Missing is deadly with a miss, so they only do it in areas they are intimately familiar with every rock, bump, and tree. Most of them also teleporting a few inches from the ground and land to avoid tearing up their feet.

Midnight Flight Rejection

I got my rejection from the Hath No Fury anthology. I think it was awesome that the editor gave a respond to every story. Sadly I don't know why it was rejected or if there was any advice, all I know is that it wasn't good enough.

I'll probably look at Midnight Flight a few more times and then release it. It has spoilers for this book as a short story happening during the events here.

Sand and Bone 21: The Dying

One of those moments of truth when Rutejìmo has to choose between the safe route home or the potential death. Well, we know what he's going to choose but the reasons and conquences of that choice could affect him for the rest of this life.

Read the chapter at https://fedran.com/sand-and-bone/chapter-21/. If you like it, please become a patron or review one of my previous books. Subscribers get access to all my novels, including the unpublished ones.