It doesn’t take much when you’re talking about a writer’s fertile imagination, to spark a story. One headline this time fueled a world-building that took me to Pandemonia. “Incarceration rates increase.” That’s it.
Add in one very naive researcher, mix in one very jaded prisoner. Throw in a dangerous and deadly environment. Strip about past, deny a future, liberally sprinkle in a vast scientific agency with the power of life and death over the inhabitants of the Pandemonia sector. This is the world that Dr. Swane Fox has unwittingly stepped into.
This is Swane’s journey, his fate, or maybe a better term would be his destiny, and it’s not determined by the turn of one card, nor a rather random spread. But it is the hero’s journey as depicted in the symbology of the Major Arcana. Swane’s journey is a complete circle, but he is changed as he follows his journey, his eyes are opened to possibilities, to challenges, and he ends up discovering what his true destiny is.
The power of love changes us for better or for worse. Discovering our soul mate isn’t always an easy path to follow. But in discovering our destiny, love can add powerful magic to our journey and add meaning and dimensionality and purpose in our lives. This is the story of Swane’s journey, as he meets the challenges of the unknown and steps outside of safety.
Fortuity is a step into the world of Pandemonia. Watch for more stories, including the upcoming Combustible, which is the the story of Drayce, a dragoen mutant, and his newest captive, Crispen.
But for now, here’s an excerpt from Fortuity, where fortune, love, and destiny collide.
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The Fool - A beginning to the journey. Perhaps fraught with peril. Infinite possibility abounds…as well as danger.
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Ground Zero. Pandemonia Penal Colony, one of a number of penal sectors that populated the Old Earth of 4035 after the destruction that had turned the planet into a wasteland following the intergalactic war that had put Earth at the very center of the battle.
“You will receive no special considerations while you’re inside,” the commandant at the palace said, as he reviewed Swane’s papers, stamped them, and handed him a special magnetic identification card, then gave them back to Swane.
Sucking in even a shallow breath was painful. He was certain a few ribs were broken and who knew what else. The next thing he realized was that he was naked beneath the blanket. Well, naked except for the bracing bandage around his torso. Someone had obviously undressed him, and then tended to his wounds.
He gazed around the room, noticing shelves with books and tools and wooden crates filled with odd assortments of round metal discs. Stacks of what looked like white cloth were piled around the room. And finally he saw a big man in rough clothing seated on a bench in front of a tall worktable, hunched over and using a soldering iron, several wooden frames were spread across the table that looked like wide embroidery hoops like what he’d seen his
mother use for her tapestries.
Swane tried to sit up, and he groaned, dizziness swamping him as his bare feet touched the floorboards. Where was he? The last thing he recalled was being air dropped into Pandemonia, and the excitement he’d felt in the realization that all he’d worked for the last two years would finally come to fruition. It had taken a good many bribes to gain him this opportunity to study the behavior of this confined society.
The dark-haired man glanced at Swane. “Hmm. So you’re awake,” he said in a gruff voice.
“How did I get here? And exactly where am I?” Swane asked.
“Lots of questions for someone whose first day down almost got him killed right off.”
Swane searched around, frantically looking for his satchel, which contained everything he’d brought with him. Barter goods, clothing, food, his identity cards in order to get him out when he’d completed his work.
“Where’s my bag?” Moving quickly was not an option. He wrapped the blanket around his bruised and aching body, and slowly rose to his feet.
“No bag. No nothing. You remember anything?”
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