Flooded Secrets
Your story is my story...
In which… three friends find their magical Wagon attacked by a highway bandit, only to be forced to cooperate with her to unflood the way forward.
Flooded Secrets is the second of nine novellas in a fantasy adventure wrapping the high stakes of epic fantasy in the warmth of cozy fantasy, all imbued with an aspec-focused queernormative world and strong platonic bonds.
Fate and friendship brought Horace, Rumi, and Aliyah together in Rumi’s Wandering Wagon of Wonderful Wares, a sentient self-propelling wagon. They seek the forest haunting Aliyah’s dream, hoping for answers about their past and their unique abilities—but for that, they need to traverse a world haunted by Fragments, dangerous shards that can possess travellers.
With the Fragments in the wilderness, banditry was the last danger Horace had expected on the road—but not even that could stop Keza Nesmit. Swift and deadly with a staff, Keza drops on the Wagon crew, claiming most of their provisions before vanishing back into the Tesrima Ridge. As if to compound their bad luck, the tunnel that serves as the only pass through the mountain is flooded and impassable.
Keza reappears, and she’s willing to show them the source of the flooding, a waterway blocked by Fragments, in the hopes that they can unblock it—and just like with the stolen food, she won’t answer any questions about her motives, no matter how friendly. Abrasive, confident, and eager to bicker, Keza makes for a thorny companion, but they’ll need to work together to free the pass and continue their travel.
As they unravel the Fragments’ blockage, so, too, do they chip away at Keza’s walls. But the cost of breaking both is far higher than anticipated, and Horace is about to learn that some secrets are better left untouched.
Queer representation:
Horace (e/em): aromantic, asexual, non-binary, ADHD
Aliyah (they/them): aromantic, asexual, non-binary
Rumi (he/him) : aromantic, asexual
Keza (she/her): cis allo lesbian
Includes several side characters across the queer spectrum, including multiple non-binary people with neopronouns
Content notes: Light violence, forced family separation