Some say the Spiral Gardens—those rocky hollows within the palace that teem with bizarre plants and insects—are the strangest place in all of Harandaal.
Well. Those people have clearly never been to the chrysling (pronounced KRIS-ling).
Shall we go exploring?
Bulbous stone spires rise like giant coral. Narrow ravines snake between, the rock adorned with moss and fungi found nowhere else in Harandaal.
Pools of glassy water shimmer on ledges, and if you look closely, you might spot a phoenix scuttler: a shy red crab, known to naturalists as Rubicampus harandaali.
Why phoenix? Because the chrysling’s stone is no ordinary rock—it’s phoenix stone, the very same material from which the palace of the Bryndiel family was carved.
You wouldn’t guess it to look at them now, but once, both the palace and the chrysling were solid buttes. A massive one, in the palace’s case.
Ancient stonemasons hollowed that butte from within, carving every window and wall, every staircase and sconce, like a gemstone in reverse.
The chrysling, too, was sculpted—by wind and rain and the steady hand of time.
But speaking of time…
In the chrysling, it doesn’t always behave.
When Mathias takes Evelyn to the chrysling in The Fool & the Threads of Time (Book Zero), as she’s marveling over one of those crab-filled pools, she hears a voice. A whisper that sounds an awful lot like her name…
Bookmark that, dear reader. Evelyn has just experienced a time slip.
She won’t realize it until much later—say, in The Magician and the Labyrinth of Yesterdays (Book One, coming 2026)—but you’ll want to remember that moment.
Because where time slips, other things can slip through, too.
A little birdie tells me a companion short story will be arriving with Book One—one that takes full advantage of the chrysling’s more…intimate distortions of time.
Evelyn finds herself caught between two lifetimes—and between a present-day Matt and his princely past-life self. Both of whom are feeling more than a little possessive. 🌶️🌶️
Apparently, the hottest new trend in Harandaal isn’t multiple orgasms, it’s multiple lifetimes sex.
But you know what they say—what happens in the chrysling, stays in the chrysling. 😏
Get ready with Book Zero, The Fool & the Threads of Time.
