03 27 2025 ♃
All of this is copyrighted material and that means you're going to ask me if you can reprint or use any of it. To date, no one has – and no one has my permission to use it, therefore.
WARNING: Please don't read if you're offended by:
• Naughty language, blasphemy, sacrilege, etc.
• Insensitive and uninhibited references to disabilities and/or differences
• Recreational drug use and alcohol abuse
• Paganism and unconventional beliefs/practices
• Homosexuality
• References to the supernatural
• People praying and saying "praise God" and so on
• References to slavery and slavery-related subjects
• Expressions of misogyny, "homophobia," and so forth
Also, do not read any of this stuff – any of "JTPYO" – to children or allow them to read it. It's not for kids. Come on, you know that! If you've let your children read this at any point in the past, you're already having problems. (Actually, no one should read it, but that's another topic for another day.)
Anyway, yeah: Back to teh children. Tell the other parents before it's too late. Form a support group; you could call it "nax-alt" or something like that, i.e., a wholesome alternative for kids (and retarded adults) who have become a nuisance because they're constantly trying to act out scenes from my stories.
If you have made use of any of my writing – especially including past chapters, etc., from "JTPYO" that have been published in this blog – you should let me know ASAP by contacting me by email: rscribes@gmail.com. I'm not necessarily indemnifying you, but we should talk.
––––
JTPYO – King of the Land of the Dead [3] / a devil's work (excerpt from "the streghi") PARTIAL OUTLINE
Copyright © 2025 by Kristi A. Wilson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Which is me.
(This is a partial outline of "the streghi" that I'm publishing here out of sheer perversity.)
At the story's outset, Naxosos is awakened in the middle of the night and called to help the sorcerer Joliel on a shady undertaking that only becomes shadier as they make their way toward the port of Jaraniesca, where a deadly creature called a "streghi" is expected to be put on a ship and transported to its new owner.
Joliel's desire is to liberate the creature and gain its trust and cooperation with the help of the Goddess-on-Earth's Second, Nirith, and describes great benefits that Naxosos will gain from helping their project. Naxosos agrees and they travel on foot toward Jaraniesca town – near the crossroads they meet the warrior Merelioides/Red, who rather insists that he be allowed to accompany them. (They take a detour around the town walls, as Naxosos has promised his wife, the Goddess-on-Earth, that he will stay out of the town.)
_____
Naxosos follows Red through a "fishing and trade district" that lies outside the walls and west of Jaraniesca and notes again that there is a lack of what would be expected to be normal nighttime activity; there are people up and lighted windows, and dogs run out and bark at them, but no one is about – Naxosos suspects that more than a little rain is what kept everyone at home.
They are finally drawing near to the isolated rows of warehouses and wharves where the streghi is supposed to take ship.
Naxosos, still trailing a few dozen yards behind Red, has a surprise encounter with Nirith who has substantially changed her appearance and even her smell. She gives Naxosos a lot of last-minute instructions and cautions. Naxosos becomes more and more irritated with Joliel wanting to bring him along on what is becoming clear to be a dangerous expedition but he realizes he can't turn back even if he wants to, and (also) that he desires to go on, this due to his pity for the streghi and having heard its cries of despair. Nirith explains she is part of the company bringing the streghi to the dock and supposedly helping them to keep the creature under control.
Naxosos, following rather far back, begins to hear the approach of the cart and the detail bringing the streghi to the pier. He doesn't see anyone he knows anywhere and the area seems completely devoid of life, except that he can smell Joliel somewhere up ahead. He feels a lot better after having talked to Nirith.
Everything is very quiet at first, and ghostly.
Naxosos drifts closer and closer, aided by the giant boulders that litter the beach and increasing fog, and finally gets a decent view of the detail with five men dragging the cart and five men with crossbows to guard, and five robed figures, Celan magicians, to ensure the streghi stays under control. Nirith is also with them, he observes, and she is out ahead of the procession; he hears her muttering a nonsense spell under her breath.
Up to a certain point, the whole thing goes like clockwork – they get to the pier and the crate is unloaded without incident. Nirith stays right next to the cage (all the rest of the party are plainly fearful of drawing too near to it and are happy to deposit the crate upon the dock and draw back a safe distance, crossbows at the ready). Nirith continues her chanting and the streghi remains completely quiet and still. There is very little sound otherwise; even the slave-ship approaches with as much stealth as possible. Once the crate is on the dock, one of the carters brings out a lantern to signal the slave-ship, that signals back and begins to draw up to the pier.
The ship is quite close to the dock – again, a dire and ghostly sight because everything is so quiet and dark – when suddenly the streghi begins to make sounds.
Note: Naxosos remembers what Joliel is afraid of at the last possible second (angel's appearance at Sabelko’s death in kotlotd a bitter draught) (from editing notes)
One of the Celan magicians expresses suspicion of Nirith and then senses that Naxosos is near and he also says something about that. However, when the streghi starts to act up – and he's advancing on Naxosos – he has to return to help his company.
When the bowmen run off, Naxosos is able to see that they don't actually run off; they are seen by him – since he's so far back – to hide themselves behind boulders as he has done and so observes that something may have been unforeseen by Joliel or Nirith. Though he knows Red is somewhere near, he can't see or smell him. There is no way he can alert anyone without using mind-speech and giving himself and their operation away.
(He thinks of the young boy Imladi, Fekhis Khistallehi's son, having singlehandedly killed a highwayman who was attacking their family, and wonders if he is that doughty, that he could sneak up on a man and try to kill him – then realizes that's probably won't solve anything at all: so here he is presented with quite a puzzle.)
When Joliel confronts the Celan magicians, who he expected to leave the scene with the bowmen once the ship started to back away, he begins to call for Merelioides – who has remained in hiding – and saying that Nirith has betrayed them. Naxosos, who is also hiding, is very alarmed.
So, actually, there are two magicians who Nirith compromised: One a raw apprentice, in charge of keeping the streghi under control while it is being drugged, and the other the head magician, who she has also made a friend of, this time in her own persona as the Goddess-on-Earth's Second, willing to expose a traitor among the devotees of Vranaps and more, as she has grown tired of traveling with the Children of God and wishes to "go north" on her own.
(end of outline)
