Genre: Fantasy scifi, heavy on worldbuilding.
Narration: First-person POV + Epistolary narration (i.e. newspaper snippets, messages, transcripts of audio recordings, other documents)
Setting: Fillor, a country on the planet of Thuluke. A place where you can stitch with light, fire, water, semi-sentient thread, where you can ride on clouds, breezes, rays of sunlight, where some lizards breathe fire and some squirt water and others fly and some other animals, the shapes, are just… geometric shapes, growing from flat to 3D. A country where there are many different Aboveground and Underwater areas, and above the country itself are the cloudlands, where the mysterious yet powerful Divines have lived for 800 years, and now they spread word amongst those on the surface against the ‘traits of criminality’. A planet whose people connected with the people of Earth, the only other people who they know of in the galaxy, and now they collaborate to build prison planets. A country with a rich culture, thrown into socio-political turmoil because of conflict between the two major powers ruling it.
It was 4-2-101 FC.
And there was this girl. She was living in Siph, in Fillor, on the planet of Thuluke. Quite an ordinary girl, really.
She’d joke about making a love potion, just like any other girl, though she’d maintain secrecy about who this love potion would be for.
She was secretive. Strangely, strangely secretive.
And now no one can find out who it was, because she actually tried to make the love potion, and then it exploded and released too, too, too much magic into the atmosphere.
Last time someone did this they got sent to the Can, the Can, and now her name is Kriya Petri and she’s travelling to Naebo to start a new life as another regular stitchcrafter.
The girl who started the outbreak, the perfectly normal girl living in Siph, who is now the originator of the potion explosion that started the Brain Harm outbreak of 101…
Well, no, that wasn’t me. Not anymore, because now I’m Kriya Petri.
Where?: In Naebo, in Fillor. On a planet which has above its core the Can, a horribly magical place deep beneath the ground reached through Grey Portals. And if someone goes there, their name, it’s unthinkable, and in Fillor you’ll get there either by accident or by committing a horrible act of criminality. Right above the Can is the Room, containing… well, most Fillorians think it doesn’t even exist, so it doesn’t matter.
Those who do think the Room exists are called Roomers, and Roomers are destined to be sent to the Can. Meant to be sent to the Can like the criminals. Meant to be sent to the Can like the originator.
Content: Mental health issues. Many late night conversations, sometimes sleepless nights. Unlikely friendships which are sometimes their lifelines. Names, what are they? Emotional support. A slow burn romance involving a lot of tea and infodumping, in which one of them doesn’t notice it’s love and the other is in denial of it. Staring at the sky, at the stars, at the moon, at the planets. And staring straight at the sun, in so many more ways than one. Memory. What’s memory, and what are names? Identity. Might it shatter? The sky. The ground. What’s remembered. What’s forgotten. What’s not known. What and who is named.
Who’s here?:
• Someone who attempts to protect the inheritors of the world, her attempts started at an old age and she may be gone soon, but she tries the role of protector despite everything.
• Someone who just wants to find his wife, he isn’t being told anything about it by those he trusted, he’s disillusioned and it seems the world is ending every single day but he’ll find out what happened to her despite everything.
• Someone who finds herself to be more complex than she bargained for, wanting to just be herself but that’s impossible, needing to keep all the people around her safe even though it seems impossible, but she vows to do the impossible despite everything.
• Someone who tries to make the world a better place even though something in him just wants to burn all he is, escape everything and turn from flame into ashes, stop burning and give in to the lethargy, but he tries despite everything.
• Someone who has goals she’s about to fulfill, doesn’t know what she’ll do after that besides chase even more goals, but then she finds someone and it might start making sense, she doesn’t know but she works despite everything.
• And then there’s someone who… someone, someone, someone who…
Who’s Kriya Petri? She’s a stitchcrafter and potioneer living in Naebo. Quite an ordinary girl, really.
She jokes and talks with people about life and what’s happening in Fillor.
And there’s a lot that’s happening in Fillor. The outbreak, the protests, the power struggle between the Fillorian government and the Divine Monarchy.
And among all that, there’s the Thought magicians, patrolling the country undercover, blending in with the crowds. They hear, see, feel everyone’s minds. They’re looking for specific people. Anti-Divine dissenters. The Roomers. The originator.
And see, this girl from Siph, Kriya, she’s secretive.
Strangely, strangely secretive.
