Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2026

In a dying coastal settlement called the narrow shore, the Favored—descendants of a people whose green land was drowned by the gods—cling to ritual and memory. Tyffan, a fourteen-year-old girl, attends the harvest equinox ceremony with her younger brother Gwyn and their mother, a priestess of Ceru the sea-god. The Favored have dwindled to poverty, surviving on meager harvests and fish, while their drowned palace lies exposed only at lowest tide.

When Gwyn speaks prophecy in an otherworldly voice, Tyffan recognizes it as divine truth: three roads lie before the Favored—stay and die, follow bronze and blood to the highlands, or take the fearful eastern road to the gods’ halls. Terrified that the priests will harm Gwyn as they have other god-touched children, Tyffan keeps his prophecy secret until her elder brother Carag returns from the highlands.

Carag has spent a year with Red Neirin’s people, learning warfare and trading. He urges the Favored to abandon their shore and resettle in the prosperous highlands. When Gwyn finally speaks the prophecy publicly, Carag seizes the moment to lead a rebellion. He storms the drowned palace with followers to loot its treasures, planning to buy land and acceptance from the highlanders with ancient gold and bronze.

Meanwhile, the priest Sawyll imprisons Gwyn, force-feeding him poison to extract more prophecies. Tyffan discovers the gods’ road—a stone causeway rising just above the waves, leading east to the legendary halls of the gods. She feels powerfully drawn to this path, but when she tries to convince Carag, he refuses. His looting has already profaned the gods.

Confronting King Maldwyn at the stair, Carag kills him and flees to the highlands with his followers and their plunder. A massive storm rises from the east, bringing a wave that will drown the narrow shore. Tyffan rescues Gwyn from Sawyll’s chamber just as the deluge strikes.

Clinging to a poison tree torn loose by the flood, they wash up on the gods’ road. Gwyn lies unconscious and dying. Tyffan realizes the gods orchestrated everything—they meant for her to walk their road east, return west with divine vengeance against Carag’s sacrilege, and spread their fame through fear in the highlands. They needed Carag’s violence and the Favored’s destruction to escape their forgotten shore.

But Tyffan has chosen Gwyn over the gods three times. Now she drinks the poison tree’s sap to gain the knowledge to save him. The bitter truth floods her mind: she will die from the poison, but she can rescue coracles and send Gwyn to Carag before her death. She will ensure Gwyn tells no tales of the gods who used him. The gods of the narrow shore will drown in obscurity with their sunken land, their plan for remembered glory thwarted by one girl’s love for her brother.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

R. K. Duncan is a fat queer polyamorous wizard and author of fantasy, horror, and occasional sci-fi. He writes from a few rooms of a venerable West Philadelphia row home, where he dreams of travel and the demise of capitalism. In the shocking absence of any cats, he lavishes spare attention on cast iron cookware and his long-suffering and supportive partner. Before settling on writing, he studied linguistics and philosophy at Haverford college. He attended Viable Paradise 23 in 2019.