Tag Archives: Wrath

30,000 Curious Came to See the Show

What a mad, grand day for Lita Burke’s blog. 30,000 views. Smiles from Lita for all of you lovely and curious Gentle Readers who visited.

Suppose there is a most interesting street where the houses look like books. Inside these houses are places where fey-folk fairies play, wizards sing their magic, and Enchanters give kisses. Anyone can walk down this street, and glimpse at these fantasy worlds through the windows. Lita’s blog is that street. 30,000 Gentle Readers have already walked its twisty cobblestone ways. Here are a few of the wonders in the windows.

Ride on a Wizard’s Airship

Ride on a Wizard’s Airship

All aboard now for a trip to a plate-shaped ocean world, where islands float far above the sea. Dragons fly the sky, and clockworks creations inhabited by minor demons join human and elf-kind magicians in absurd adventures.

A proper wizard uses an airship to visit these floating lands. Others of more modest means use Ornithopters designed by Leonardo’s Airborne Contraptions.

Join in the sometime fun, sometimes scary, but always delightful adventures of Wizard Kadmeion, his half-elf assistant Sir Bright, and their friends in the fantasy world of Clockpunk Wizard. Get your first ride on Kadmeion’s airship, and meet a special dog that digs deadly mandrake roots in Forever Boy.

Unicorn Herd

Unicorn Island

There is a floating island in the royal elf-kind archipelago that has a herd of unicorns. They run in the steppe lands, and gather in the border forests.

The unicorns shed the husks of their alicorns, and the elf-kind collect these precious magical artifacts. An illness has stricken the herd. Lady Luck’s young daughter, with her favorite wizard in tow, visits the unicorns. She learns how to talk to the birds to get to the bottom of the unicorn illness in Glitter Ponies.

Enchanters’ Luscious Magic

Fire and a Hidden Spell Book

Lanith, a magical curios merchant, loses her shop and home to a mysterious fire. Her magician husband Tredan has gone missing.

The morally strict Church magicians, and the Enchanters with their luscious magic that they distribute with kisses, are in constant battle to do whatever is necessary to gain the upper hand in their world of Sye. She learns that her husband wrote a powerful spell book that will subjugate the Enchanters’ magic. His book sits in the middle of the decades-old conflict between the Church and the Enchanters.

With only her dragonette and the clothes on her back, she enlists the help of the Enchanters, and unravels her husband’s life-long secrets. His kidnapping tale starts in Wrath, and Lanith’s story continues in Tredan’s Bane.

Also see:

Book of the Dead: Catacombs

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The Book of the Dead explains the nature of Church magic in the Enchanters of Sye world.

Sciomancers Perform Ritualistic Spells to Maintain the Ghosts in the Catacombs

catacombs [kat uh kohmz] noun, c.800, ME catacomb < OE catacumbe < L catacumbās < G katakýmbās, hollow, cup; also Under Church or ghost hall.

Physical: Underground stone-lined enclosures
Magic Type: Church/Piety
Spell Group: Incorporeal Matters
Restrictions on Physical and Magical Construction: Priest only construction, Sciomancer only maintenance; all other secular, Magic Guild, and Enchanter magicians disallowed. Only Sciomancer magic may bind a ghost to the corporeal world using a relic.
Ghost Magic: Secular magicians, Magic Guild, and Enchanters may summon a catacomb ghost provided the magic does not confine the spirit.

Sciomancers Light Candles to Warm the Ghosts

Catacombs are underground hallways, alcoves, and tunnels beneath Church buildings that house receptacles for ghost relics.

To build a catacomb, three Priests combine their magical power and draw on the pooled enchantments of an above ground Church building. The town’s Priest tends the structure spells afterwards.

Sciomancers furnish the catacomb hallways and alcoves with candle niches, metal name markers, and locked drawers to hold ghost relics. They support a favorable ghost environment by tending the upkeep of the catacombs, performing ritualistic spells, and lighting candles to warm the spirits.

Visitors Leave Dishes of Magic-rippling Water For the Ghosts

Church followers visit the catacombs, leave small remembrances in the niches, and recite spells to encourage the ghosts to stay in the corporeal realm instead of journeying to the Fields of Yalu.

The gifts are usually flowers or plants, dishes of magic-rippling water, or tiny wind chimes on a stand that have a small spell to make the bells sound.

Explore Sye ghost care and meet a valued catacomb ghost in these blog posts:

Read more about ghost amulets, the Book of the Dead, and how ghosts help a magical charms maker hide a dangerous spell book in these Enchanters of Sye stories:

Guild Matters Sye: Tredan’s Magical Curios

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds.

Street Lamp Outside of Tredan’s Magical Curios

Tredan’s Magical Curios was a small magical charms shop in the town of Isor in the Enchanters of Sye world. It featured bulk supplies for amulet crafters, and offered ready-made charms for household and personal use.

Its proprietor, Tredan Vendbebelot (Guild Designation: Curios Merchant) was a retired Enchanter, and excelled in all aspects of custom charm making. His wife Lanith ran the business side of the shop, and was skilled with invoking the magic in charms, amulets, and fetishes. Tredan’s Magical Curios was centrally located in the merchant district of Isor, at the intersection of Byrtwold, Upton, and Goldwine streets. The two merchants lived upstairs from their store until it burnt down, and Tredan vanished during the fire.

After the loss of her husband, Lanith established a new store called Ghost Orchid Charms on Attewater Street in downtown Isor, across from the Magic Guild House and the Isor Enchanters School. Her new store sells Enchanter-made charms supplied by the local school.

Discover more about the Enchanters of Sye world:

Book of the Dead: Marriage Ring Spells

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The Book of the Dead explains the nature of Church magic in the Enchanters of Sye world.

Priests Weave Marriage Ring Binding Spells

marriage ring [mar ij ring] noun, c.1400; Anglo-Fr marier to marry < ME marriage; c.900; Ger ringen < ONor hringja < OE hringan < ME ringen; also love rings

Physical: Metal charm consisting of 4 finger rings, no stone settings
Magic Type: Church/Binding
Spell Group: Corporeal Matters
Restrictions on Physical and Magical Construction: Priest only; all other secular, Magic Guild, and Enchanter magicians disallowed

Marriage rings are magical jewelry worn by couples to show fidelity, to bind their magic, and create a Church-approved family unit. Only a Priest may create the rings and weave the binding spells on the couple’s marriage day.

Marriage Rings Bind Their Magic

Each partner wears two rings. The first ring accesses the wearer’s magic, and the second binds them to their partner’s magic. Marriage rings contain the following three spells: Abiding Love, Fidelity, and Wander.

Abiding Love is the first spell, and it is the fundamental enchantment a Church Priest puts on a couple’s rings on their marriage day. This spell magically joins the rings, and the couple, using their Life Echo threads. When a spouse dies and passes to the Fields of Yalu, the Abiding Love Spell returns the dead spouse’s rings to the survivor, and terminates the couple’s magical binding.

Abiding Love Spell Joins the Couple Using Their Life Echo Threads

The second enchantment on marriage rings is the Fidelity spell. It detects when spouses have been unfaithful. Disloyalty includes sharing physical intimacies and exchanging magical essence with a non-spouse. Unfaithfulness requires immediate magical intervention to correct the moral failure.

One caveat exists for the Fidelity spell. The Church allows a married petitioner to exchange essence kisses with an Enchanter during the Enchanter Consent test. If either spouse has an Enchanter-approved Consent ranking, the Magic Guild requires partners to sign waivers. This waiver allows the partners to continue taking magical essence from non-Church sources. The Enchanter Consent awardee must also wear a patch on their trades uniform tunic that shows their special magical status.

The third, called the Wander spell, senses when a spouse has lost love for their partner. Same as for unfaithfulness, waning love requires immediate magical intervention by a Church Priest to adjust the marriage rings’ enchantments.

Explore Sye’s history of Enchanter, Church, and secular magic in the Necronomicon Enchanter book:

Find out more about Sye’s Church magic in another entry from The Book of the Dead:

“Book of the Dead: Ghost Amulet“

Read how Lanith uses marriage ring spells to find her kidnapped husband in these Enchanters of Sye stories:

Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane FREE e-book!
Tredan’s Bane

Dramatis Personæ: Lanith

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The Dramatis Personæ is the roster of conjurers and sentient magical creatures staying in the many rooms, grottos, and byways of Lita’s castle. Here is the guest book for the Enchanters of Sye Tower.

Lanith A’edredohr Vendbebelot

Lanith [lān ləth] proper noun, c.1614; Sumerian lilla, a demon < Akkadian lilītu < H lîlît; also A’edredohr

Profession: Vendbebelot (“Curios Seller”)
Race: human, female, age early thirties
Appearance: Beautiful. Lanith has blond hair, hazel eyes, and fair skin. She has an average build, but tends toward slender.
Common Name: Lanith
Private Name: A’edredohr (“Stream Daughter”)
Native Magic: Lanith is a superior tradeswoman magician. She has expert level skills with the many spells for charms, magical lockets, fetishes, and amulets.
Education/Vocation: Isor Convent Finishing School
Milieu: Lanith is a denizen of the Enchanters of Sye world.

Lanith is a Merchant’s Wife in the Seaside Town of Isor

Lanith spent her childhood as a poor farmer’s daughter. When she was a teenager, Lanith’s parents sent her to the city. At a young woman’s finishing school, Lanith learned a lady’s genteel ways that would prepare her for acceptance into city society. During a Church-sponsored event, she met Guild Maji’ker (“Magician”) Tredan. After a proper courtship, they married. She now lives the comfortable life of an urban middle class merchant’s wife in the seaside city of Isor. After nine years, their union has yet to produce children.

Lanith and Arnl’jhott

Soon after marriage, Lanith attended classes at the Merchant Guild. She and her husband run a well-respected magical curios shop. They import more than half of their stock, and buy the rest from Isor’s local magical tradespeople. Tredan’s skill is with making pleasure charms, which they sell in their shop.

Lanith owns a rare pet—her blue male dragonette named Arnl’jhott. This affectionate and talkative creature joins her on monthly visits to the Church orphanage, where she holds a crafts workshop in amulet making. The merchant woman and her dragonette are a favorite with the children.

Lanith lives a magically unusual life. Her husband is a former Enchanter, and these magicians are the most powerful mages in her world of Sye. They hold the key for producing magical essence, which fuels all the spell casting arts.

Tredan and Lanith Run a Magical Curios Shop

Practicing Enchanters have delicate magic and are surprisingly vulnerable. They live apart from society in one of five enclaves to protect themselves from hostile magicians. Among other peculiarities of the Enchanters’ magical profession, the Church refuses to let them marry. Tredan left the Enchanter discipline and adopted the Church-approved life of a secular magician. Although he no longer can produce magical essence in the same quantities as before, he has plenty to lavish on his wife, dragonette, and custom curios in his shop.

Tredan’s Magical Essence Made Lanith Beautiful

This essence-rich environment gives Lanith the luxury of cultivating her native magical talents. Tredan’s magical essence has also enhanced her natural beauty, and made his wife especially attractive to the Enchanters.

Lanith’s attention to details makes her an exceptional trade magician and proficient in these thaumaturgical skills:

Charms. Her skills include many spells to create, diagnose, and repair all types of magical charms, lockets, and fetishes.
Soma Touch. Lanith’s magical empathy ability allows her to sense the emotions in her store customers and recommend the proper charm, especially when she can touch their hand.
Paersenwierding (“person warding magic”). Cultivated by her husband Tredan, this skill allows Lanith to protect other magicians while they cast spells. Powerful mages, especially Enchanters, are at risk from attack while distracted with the intricacies of spell weaving.

Read more about Lanith in these Enchanter of Sye stories:

Stop Your Blather

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Lita takes Gentle Reader to the Enchanters of Sye world today, with an excerpt from her award-winning short story, Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane.

It Had a Heavy Golden Chain. And Potent Spells.

Retired Enchanter Tredan is alone in his magical curio shop, unpacking a box of charms.

A routine shipment holds an unpleasant surprise–a rival magician called a Church Enforcer has planted a charm inside the box that captures its recipient within a powerful enthrallment.

Tredan poses as a harmless secular magician now, and thought he was far removed from the Enchanter versus Church politics. But he has a shameful secret. This Enforcer knows about Tredan’s spell book, and the day of reckoning has arrived for the retired Enchanter. The Enforcer talks to Tredan through this Compulsion Charm.

Tredan forced his fingers open and stared at the Compulsion Charm. Unlike the other cheap charms in the box, this one had intricate scrollwork etched into a sparkling outer casing. It had a heavy golden chain. And potent spells.

He Kept His Hideous Journal Safe All These Years

Come to me. Bring the journal.

He had been cautious and kept his hideous journal safe all these years. How could he have been so susceptible? He was now caught and could not escape. Tredan bowed his head. His world went dark. For a time, all else went away except his despair. If the Enforcer came now, Tredan would surrender and be done with his furtive struggle.

Time passed. His black stupor lifted. Tredan raised his head.

“I will not hand over the journal. My bane.”

You will, Tredan.

“My marriage would be a sham if I gave up the journal now. I would not have Lanith think I used her to hide my secret.”

Tredan’s Marriage to Lanith Would Be a Sham If He Gave Up the Journal Now

You failed long ago when you accepted His Divine’s magic.

“He tricked me.”

Enchanters were gullible then. That’s why you fell.

“The Enchanters trusted the Church then. There’s a difference.” Tredan took a deep breath. “His Divine’s magic forced me to write the journal. I accept what’s happened.”

You’re resigned. Good.

“I’ve hidden it well.”

I’ll find the journal despite your stubbornness.

Tredan dropped the Compulsion Charm into his pocket. “Stop your blather, Church filth. I have matters to attend to.”

Guild Matters Sye: Midwinter Festival for Enchanters

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds. This is the third of three stories about Sye’s Midwinter Festival.

Previously:

Ghosts of Former Enchanters Enter the Five Schools During the Midwinter Festival

The Enchanter magicians in the Enchanters of Sye world celebrate Midwinter Festival by allowing the ghosts of former Enchanters to enter the five Schools of Magic. The ten Grandmasters adjust the Schools’ foundation spells to coincide with the Priests’ spell weaving at Soul’s Midnight. This coordination keeps Sye’s fundamental magic in balance.

The visiting ghosts are confined to the common areas of the schools. The living and dead Enchanters exchange stories and magical wisdom during the three days of Midwinter Festival. Sye’s ghosts are intellectual beings devoid of emotion, and the quality of the ghosts’ memories have many variables. The living Enchanters plan for months what they will discuss with certain ghosts. Sometimes this preparedness is for naught if a ghost does not visit during the Midwinter Festival.

Enchanters Share Loving Dreams During Their Midwinter Festival Slumbers

During the three nights while the ghosts roam the schools, even the Enchanters who normally sleep alone find bed partners. They retreat into their private rooms where the ghosts cannot go.

Whether bedding other Enchanters or their favored Consents, the most powerful magicians in Sye weave spells to share loving dreams during their Midwinter Festival slumbers. Their emotional and physical intimacy during these three nights stave off the madness that would otherwise result from commingling with the ghosts.

Read more about the Enchanters of Sye world:

Guild Matters Sye: Midwinter Festival for Church Magicians

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds. This is the second of three stories about Sye’s Midwinter Festival.

Previously: Midwinter Festival for Secular Magicians

Sciomancers Put Candles on the Tombs in the Burial Yards

Sciomancers in the Enchanters of Sye world honor the wandering dead during the three-day Midwinter Festival. These Church magicians visit every tomb in the Burial Yards and catacombs during the weeks before the Midwinter Festival.

The Sciomancers leave unlit candles in sheltered niches on the doors of the dead’s homes. They also recite traditional prayers to prepare the tomb for its ghost.

Unlike the window candles that secular magicians use, Church candles do not burn Enchanter essence. They are traditional paraffin candles protected by containers that hold Church magic. The Sciomancers leave charms in the candle niches to link the candles magically.

Sciomancers Visit All the Tombs in the Autumn Months

At Soul’s Midnight of the first morning of Midwinter Festival, the town’s Priest leads his Sciomancers in weaving one of the Church’s foundation spells. This magic lights all the linked candles in the Burial Yards. During the Midwinter Festival, the wandering ghosts will seek out the lighted tombs and catacombs instead of visiting the houses of the living. The Priests stop the illumination spells at Soul’s Midnight of the fourth morning.

Next time: Midwinter Festival for Enchanters

Read more about the Enchanters of Sye world:

Guild Matters Sye: Midwinter Festival for Secular Magicians

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds. This is the first of three stories about Sye’s Midwinter Festival.

A Secular Magic Worker’s Home Decorated for Midwinter Festival

The Midwinter Festival in the Enchanters of Sye world is held on the three darkest days of the year, when the sun shuns the northern sky. The yearlong snow fields of the mountain passes creep down the slopes and claim all but the low coastal towns and arid desert in the continent’s interior.

Almost all of Sye’s mountain dwellers abandon the heights during winter and join their family and friends in the more hospitable coastal towns. They begin this journey in late autumn because the ghosts walk during the three darkest days of winter. Without the proper magical preparations, ghosts can drive the living mad.

Small Light Charms Fueled With Enchanter Essence

Sye’s living denizens adorn the windowsills and the outside of their homes with small charms that shed light fueled with essence. Because the dead do not care for the Enchanters’ magical essence, the ghosts avoid the magical glows.

The living decorates the inside of their homes during Midwinter Festival with rich colors, sweet-scented pine branches, and musical charms that play soft tinkling melodies. The secular magicians gather friends and family for feasts on all three Midwinter Festival nights.

Next time: Midwinter Festival for Church Magicians

Read stories from the Enchanters of Sye world:

Hobnobbing With the Wonderful Wizards of Words

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Lita recently left her castle in the snowy northern realms for a visit to the 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest ceremony in the sultry swelter of Miami, Florida.

2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards Contest, Miami. Left to Right: Lita Burke, Lorrie Farrelly, Jalpa Williby.

Lita met fellow writers of many genres, exchanged spell papers (okay, business cards), and drank magical potions (cocktails).

The night air crackled with breathless talk and the lightening-strike pops of flashbulbs. Women wearing sparkling gowns made of starry fireflies floated past tuxedoed gents. The authors clutched their precious books stuffed with beguiling stories, and held them up for the obliging cameras.

RF Miami 2014. Photo courtesy of Jalpa Williby. Used with permission.

2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards Contest, Miami. Left to Right: Lita Burke, Jalpa Williby, Linda Watkins. Photo courtesy of Jalpa Williby. Used with permission.

And then there was that breathless minute: walk to center stage, accept the award, and all but swoon from the applause for your story. Heavenly.

Allow Lita to introduce Gentle Reader to the books that the authors are holding in these pictures. Be sure to check out the award-winning stories that these wonderful wizards of words hobnobbed over at the 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest ceremony in Miami.

Terms of Surrender by Lorrie Farrelly is a historical western romance about a former captain in the confederate army, Michael Cantrell, and his search for redemption in the ranch lands of Wyoming.

Terms of Surrender is a Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal Award Winner in Fiction-Western (2014).

Timelapse by Lorrie Farrelly is a supernatural thriller about Alex, a graduate student, who tragically loses his wife in an accident.

Alex is swept into a time warp where he battles the harsh emotional reality of an alternate universe.

Timelapse is a Readers’ Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner in Fiction-Paranormal (2014).

Chaysing Dreams by Jalpa Williby is a young adult romance about a teenage girl named Tess and her journey to find the meaning of her disturbing dreams.

Chaysing Dreams is a Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Award Winner in Romance-Suspense (2014).

Chaysing Memories by Jalpa Williby is a young adult romance about a now grown up Tess who has moved on with her life and joined the US Military Special Forces.

Chaysing Memories is a Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Award Winner in Romance-Suspense (2014).

Mateguas Island: A Novel of Terror and Suspense by Linda Watkins is a supernatural thriller about a family down on their luck who inherit a magic-filled malevolent house on an island off the coast of Maine.

Mateguas Island: A Novel of Terror and Suspense is a Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Award Winner in Fiction-Supernatural (2014).

Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane by Lita Burke is a fantasy about a retired Enchanter who battles a powerful magician to keep a dangerous spell book from falling into the wrong hands.

Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane is a Readers’ Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner in Fiction-Short Story (2014).