Emery heard a bark. The shoe hung in mid-air. Emery turned to look but coughed into his hand. The air felt dense around him. He coughed with his eyes closed and clenched his eyes. He observed green and purple fractals form in his mind’s eye as he hacked over and over into his hand. The density of the air remained, and he occasionally heard a weird popping sound.

Then another bark. And another. He opened his eyes, and the fractals remained, overlapping his own vision for a few moments as the blurriness cleared and he looked into his hand, which was drenched in blood that was thick and pasty. He wiped it on the yellow grass and looked up. The sun was out again. His shoe was firmly on the ground. The bark again. He looked.

Lulu came trouncing out of the forest, whining.

“Lulu?”

Lulu licked his face and cried. She jumped all over him and buried her tongue into his face.

“Easy, easy girl.”

Lulu started licking the blood on his hand.

“No, no, you don’t want that. Lulu. Lulu.”

Lulu jumped up and down on Emery as he slowly stood back up with his walker. He made his way over to his once floating loafer and put it back on.

“Did you do that?”

Lulu kept headbutting his knee.

“Where’d you come from, girl?”

Lulu stopped. She pulled back a bit, and took a step toward the southern woods, and barked.

“In there?” he said.

3

3

THE ROOM ONLY OTHERS SEE

An Excerpt from The Riverside Ascetic

By Edi Markham

“Have you ever seen someone die?” Torbil asked me.

“Yes,” I answered.

“How?”

“The Kingdoms of Veti, Cam, and Sedna will invite us out to observe their battles during times of war. They will also request Recorders to accompany their generals on campaigns where they are fighting against bandits, Orcish or Human tribals, Myconids or monsters.”

“So, tell me when you saw someone die,” Torbil asked.

“I came of age at the tail end of the Diamond Wars, around eight years ago. I was called to Record the battle of Chubby Neck,” I said.

“And?”

“There were casualties in the battle,” I said.

“What were their names?”

“I did not know. I was up on the bluff in the Winter Hills overlooking the descent into Vetian territory.”

“I fought in the Diamond Wars,” Torbil said.

“I know,” I said.

“I met a few Recorders. Miserable little mutilated freaky fucks. Pointless. Generals invited them only so they could be written about. Pure fucking vanity. When your order ever showed up uninvited, they just put you in cages. Miserable.”

“Their vanity is not our concern. We aimed to Record the war.”

“You never get up close,” Torbil said.

“Is that a problem?”