Kaleidotrope, January 2026
This epistolary science fantasy novella follows Sastu, an ambitious anatomist working at a research outpost called Janartash near the Inclusion Zone—a region transformed by chaotropaic forces that cause grotesque bodily mutations in those exposed to it. The story unfolds through letters Sastu writes to a dear friend back at the Institute.
Sastu has been stationed at the Pragmatic Sanction to study “mixlings”—people transformed by the chaotrope into human-animal hybrids. Initially repulsed by these transformations, Sastu’s perspective shifts dramatically upon meeting Ayanni, a Lummary woman who has been transformed from the waist down into a horse. Unlike other mixlings, Ayanni’s transformation is remarkably coherent, and she possesses an unexpectedly graceful bearing and keen intelligence.
When Sastu discovers that Ayanni is pregnant, an opportunity presents itself: to be the first to study a chaotropaic child’s development in utero. Sastu conspires with Ayanni to hide her pregnancy from the Sanction authorities, who would certainly terminate it and sterilize her. Sastu secretly provides her with harmless saline instead of the experimental “cure” that Ayanni’s husband Zida desperately wants her to receive.
As the months progress, Sastu becomes increasingly obsessed with both the research and with Ayanni herself. Meanwhile, Sastu begins experiencing disturbing dreams of being drawn toward the Inclusion Zone’s center—the Pashulla borehole where the chaotropaic catastrophe originated. These dreams feature Sastu’s own transformation, though Sastu insists medical tests show no signs of change.
The situation reaches a crisis when Zida confronts Sastu on a wind-walk platform. In the ensuing struggle, Zida falls from the tower. Though still alive after the fall, Sastu finishes killing him with a rock, then disposes of the body in the marsh. Sastu rationalizes this murder as both self-defense and mercy, then rushes to tell Ayanni they must flee together into the Inclusion Zone.
However, Sastu arrives to find Ayanni’s home abandoned, stripped of possessions. The final note reveals Sastu’s delusion: believing Ayanni has fled to Pashulla and will be waiting there, Sastu plans to follow into the heart of the chaotropaic zone.
The story is a masterful exploration of obsession, colonialism, and transformation. Sastu’s narration reveals an unreliable narrator whose scientific rationality masks deepening madness and self-deception. The colonial dynamics between the Eshtur (Sastu’s people) and the indigenous Lummary people parallel Sastu’s objectification of Ayanni—initially as a research subject, then as an object of romantic obsession. Schwob uses the horror of bodily transformation to explore themes of control, desire, and the violence inherent in trying to possess another person under the guise of helping them.
Anneke Schwob is a lapsed academic and former robot impersonator whose stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Baffling and elsewhere. Anneke has attended Clarion Writers Workshop and the Banff Centre Early Career Writers of Fiction Residency, and can most often be found wandering a rocky shoreline or online at annekeschwob.info. Technically, though, they live in Montreal.