Tag Archives: Fields of Yalu

Lita’s Magic Show: Desire and a Spell Book

Enchanters and Ghosts Walk in the Fields of Yalu

Welcome to evening time in the forest near Lita’s castle. Wandering wizards camp here in colorful carts and put on their magic shows.

A lovely blond sorceress stands and gives us a winsome grin. She curtsies, twitches the skirt of her sparkly green gown, and scatters its earth magic in a mint-scented cloud around the campfire.

“Be careful whom you kiss in Lita’s fantasy worlds,” madam magician says. “An Enchanter’s kiss awakens inner magic and destroys resolve. I have a story about a magical tome and sunny tombs. Let us speak with the ghosts and follow the Enchanters into the Fields of Yalu. We might return with our heart’s sour and lovely desire.”

The sorceress gives us her cautionary tale about magical passion and an oddities dealer who hides her kidnapped husband’s spell book.

Here begins the magic woman’s warning.

Next time, a half-breed elf whistles his haunting magic about Mermaid Fare and a Dragon.

See the other magic shows where a talking dog tells us about Mandrakes and Minor Demons, a dapper wizardling spins his yarn on Harsh Words and a Familiar, and a mage speaks of a Dire Secret and a Dragonette.

Enchanter Kisses

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It’s Kiss an Enchanter Day

Let’s observe Valentine’s Day today and talk about one of Lita’s favorite subjects–Enchanter magical essence kisses.

It’s been some time since Lita has talked about the Enchanters in the Sye world. Here’s a quick recap, then we will get back to magical hanky-panky.

Sye is a world where the Enchanters, Church magicians, and others (called “non-Maji’kers”) live. The humans, and some sentient magical creatures, use magic (called “essence”) as an energy source for mechanisms that would otherwise use physics or natural laws in other worlds.

The living world of Sye is a separate place from the afterlife, called the Fields of Yalu (or the “city of the dead”). Ghosts from the Fields of Yalu are regular visitors to Sye. Powerful magicians keep dragonettes as pets. Everyone has a secret name given to them clandestinely by their mothers, which is the source of a person’s magical ability.

Enter the Sye Fantasy World

Lita has visited Sye before, and wrote about her visits with the Enchanters, dragonettes, and ghosts. Here are her Enchanter stories if Gentle Reader has not had time to investigate:

Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane is a short story that starts things off at a run. In Wrath, a retired Enchanter (Tredan) battles a powerful magician to keep a dangerous spell book from falling in to the wrong hands. Read the back cover blurb, watch the short Wrath book trailer, or read Chapter 1.
Masked Ghosts Threaten the Enchanters in “Ghost Orchid”

Tredan’s Bane plunges in to the thick of things with Tredan’s wife Lanith, a magical oddities dealer, getting a ghost’s warning, then returning home to find her home on fire and Tredan missing. After enlisting the help of the Enchanters, Lanith finds and hides her kidnapped husband’s dangerous spell book. Read the back cover blurb, watch the Tredan’s Bane book trailer, or read Chapter 1.
Ghost Orchid continues Lanith’s adventures, where she investigates crypt murders that release masked ghosts in to the living world who threaten the Enchanters. Read the back cover blurb. Release date for Ghost Orchid is summer of 2014.

Magic Must Make Sense

One of Lita’s pet peeves with some fantasy fiction, especially epic or high fantasy, is how the powerful magicians just wave their hand and bolts of magical energy shoot from their fingertips. Or sometimes it’s the end of the hero’s journey, and he/she has the magic wand/orb/book, and this magical lightweight (at best) use this thingummy to produce the bolts of magical energy.

Balderdash! Be gone, silly images. Magical energy isn’t that way at all. Here’s the truth–you get magical energy from kissing an Enchanter.

Just like the taste of Enchanter kisses–chocolate, cinnamon & peppery spice

What does magical essence taste like? Chocolate. Cinnamon. Hint of peppery spice.

Only Enchanters can produce the magical power that fuels the Sye world. What would be the life of an Enchanter man (or woman) if some magicians will stop at nothing to control the source of magical power? It’s not all smooches. Some of it is big trouble.

Find out for yourself. Lita suggests that you fix a cup of hot chocolate in a favorite mug, add a dash of cinnamon, and curl up with Wrath and Tredan’s Bane. Oh, and keep your Valentine darling nearby if you want to practice your own magical essence kisses.

Afterlife and Crypt Magic

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Tredan’s Bane explores the magical politics between two rival factions: the Enchanters and the Churchies.

In Sye, magical power has been formally split between the two camps. Enchanters create magical essence that all persons (and many creatures, such as dragonettes) need for survival. The Church magicians see to the matters of moral living, marriage magic, orphans, hospitals, ghosts, and the afterlife.

A Ghost’s Garden in the Fields of Yalu

The Fields of Yalu

In the fantasy world of Wrath and Tredan’s Bane, powerful wizards can visit the afterlife (called The Fields of Yalu), interact with the dead, and return intact to the living world of Sye. Marriage partners with a strong loving bond may unintentionally pull their willing spouse with them into the afterlife, especially if one of them dies traumatically.

The Fields of Yalu is a bright and beautiful city, but filled with perils for the living. The ghosts surround their homes with lush gardens, but no creatures inhabit the Fields of Yalu. A vast stony desert filled with puzzling gravel paths surround the city of the dead, and all paths lead to its borders. Tredan’s Bane describes one of the few ways to return.

Sciomancers Tend the Homes of the Dead in Sye’s Old Burial Yards

Ghosts and Sciomancers

The Church’s speciality magicians for crypt and ghost spells are Sciomancers. They can call ghosts at will and bind them to prepared niches in the catacombs, or hold them in bewitched amulets.

The Sciomancers, along with a town’s Priest, make sure that the deceased’s crypts are properly attended in the sprawling Burial Yards. Just like the gardens that surround the homes of the dead in the Fields of Yalu, lavish crypts huddle in the rich forests and manicured lawns of Sye’s Burial Yards. The oldest crypts fade from Sye and reappear in the Fields of Yalu. Enchanters returning from the city of the dead describe endless green hills filled with the dead’s relocated crypt homes.

Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead

Another Sciomancer magical talent is transcribing copies of the Book of the Dead–it is a tome containing poems, songs, and advice for the deceased in the Fields of Yalu. The book also has guidance for the living person on proper magical and moral conduct–this will keep their soul undammed for the Hall of Two Judgements.

Avoiding magical temptation is the biggest struggle. Enchanters, with their delicious-tasting magical essence that no one can survive without, are tempters and the greatest threat (according to the Church magicians) to a person’s soul.