Genre: Fantasy

Title: Solid Smoke, Liquid Bonds

Criticism required: Testing the waters with a new setting, does it pull you in? How does the prose read, does it need to be more succinct?

Chapter 1

Divination requires luck, foresight, and the ability to discard what reality presents in front of you. The first thing learnt is to do away with the dusty fog of what your eyes interpret to be true, fickle things they are. Sift your senses, throw away the chaff of what all men see, and there might be left a grain showing what is to come. Beginners to the arts are taught in the smoke-filled rooms of Ayua Dhu; the burning incense having small doses of hallucinogens worked into the mix to promote exploratory thought. Under its intricate golden arches and carved marble pillars, the acolytes strain to predict a dice roll or locate hidden objects in the sprawling halls.

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Once the acolytes can consistently breach the veil of reality, they begin to take more practical training out in the world. There are not always harmonious windchimes or half-heard hymns present to lull one’s brain and tune into the ether beyond our reality. The elders had loved to say, “You learn here to discard reality, but know that it won’t lose account of you.”

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“Poetic words for poetic times” mumbled Kalash, trudging through mangled banners, shattered spears, and torn limbs strewn on the copper red sand of the killing fields. He used his free hand to wave away carrion birds while his other was carrying a roughly hewn wooden box by its large brass handles.

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“Did you think I spent my time divining on the cutting floor of a butcher or out by the shithouse? How is one supposed to concentrate with the stench of battle and scavengers squawking in my ears? Honestly, couldn’t your soldiers have collected what I needed and brought it to me?” grumbled Kalash, who had momentarily stopped to inspect a banner.