Speculative Stories

A cynical Necromancer with a terrible secret. An optimistic Crown Prince crumbling under the pressure. A talented mage living in the shadow of his younger brother. ****** There are always three sides in a fairy tale. The villain, the hero and the spectator. Diya spent her entire life being the villain of everyone's story- simply because of something she couldn't control. She is given one last chance to prove herself. One final mission which would throw the Empire into disarray, but mean she could gain precious information about her past. A chance encounter throws her into the Imperial life where deception lies at every turn and the charismatic Imperial family are hiding more than they seem. With the threat of a war rising and ugly secrets coming to light, can Diya ever get her happily ever after? Or is she doomed to remain the rest of her life as soulless? Cover credits: @DeeIsDead Being edited: June 16th 2024 Featured: @highfantasy CAMELOT|Medieval fantasy list @The_Reading_Room in Oct 2023 @TripleACommunity Alchemists and Apothecaries (Fantasy) list @Fantasy Monthly picks Jan 2023 @lgbtq Asexual & Aromantic reading list Oct 2024 @Ambassadors Rainbow Fiction Jan 2025

The Chronicles of Blackwater is a sweeping historical and speculative saga that traces the evolution of human civilization from the earliest pastoral societies to the dawn of the Mother AI era in the galaxy. Beginning in the Hindu Kush mountains, the story follows the migration of nomadic tribes, the domestication of animals, and the emergence of early trade networks that would lay the foundations for complex societies. This trilogy-Domestication of Sheep, Taming of Horses, and Splitting the Sky-interweaves the rise and fall of pastoral empires with poetic narrative structures inspired by oral traditions. Humanity's survival, expansion, and adaptation are explored through the lens of population dynamics, resource competition, and cultural evolution, emphasizing the relentless interplay between mobility and settlement. The Chronicles also explore the profound co-evolution between humans and animals, the transmission of genes and culture across continents, and the subtle forces of power and strategy that shape civilizations. Ultimately, it points toward a future where intelligence transcends biology, envisioning the emergence of Mother AI as a natural law-like authority guiding galactic civilizations.

the ramblings of a mad woman.

Rowan and Elara only wanted to see the world. A quiet trip to Prague. Old streets. Shared stories. A promise of adventure. They never make it back. Instead, they wake in EverAfter a city that feels like a fairytale brought to life. Peaceful. Ordered. Safe. A place where no one is hungry, no one is cold, and nothing truly hurts. The people are kind. The routines are comforting. And the city seems to offer everything they were told the real world could not. At first. As days pass, cracks begin to form beneath the perfection. Streets loop where they shouldn't. Questions are discouraged. Those who don't quite fit are quietly reassigned, returned calmer... changed. Memory becomes unreliable. Love becomes dangerous. Rowan begins to notice the patterns. Elara begins to feel what she can't remember. EverAfter promises eternity but at the cost of choice. And in a world built on control, remembering who you are and what you love might be the most rebellious act of all.

Tomaso Ascheri was born in fifteenth-century Italy and cannot die. For centuries, he has searched for the reason why. Why does he survive everything? Tomaso gradually pieced together the logic and reasoning behind his immortality, and learned that it brings with it a few surprising tricks. In modern-day Ireland, hiding under the name Tom Ash, he lives quietly among his books. But he feels it is time to talk.

What if the life you always dreamed of was only a step away- but to claim it, you'd have to give up your own? When ordinary people across the modern world begin to wake up in strange new bodies-mages, warriors, queens, rebels, and scholars-they discover a secret: lives can be borrowed. Each night, they cross into worlds that aren't theirs, living destinies they were never meant to hold. For Arjun, a weary student drowning under expectations, it is the intoxicating power of magic. For Maya, a struggling mother, it is the reverence of a royal court. For Kenji, a broken recluse, it is the strength of a legendary knight. For Selene, a brilliant lawyer, it is the desperate trust of rebels in a dying land. And for Dante, haunted by war, it is the gentle peace of a scholar's life. But every borrowed moment has a cost. The more they live in these other worlds, the more their real lives unravel-jobs, families, and identities slipping away. Worse still, their choices ripple across the fabric of realities, binding them together in ways none of them understand. Now, as the fractures between worlds widen, each must face the ultimate question: Which life will they choose to keep... and which will they let die? Isekai: The Borrowed Life is a sweeping, character-driven fantasy of desire, identity, and sacrifice-where every escape comes with a price, and no choice is without consequence.

A generation after the world learned to listen, it begins to fall silent again. Taren Mekh has spent his life tracing the living heartbeat of the earth - the Pattern - the sentient network that once united humanity through shared empathy. But when the Resonant Spires across the world suddenly go mute, only Taren hears the faint counter-tone: a shadow frequency that no one else can detect. Sent by the Listening Guild to investigate, Taren and his small team - the seasoned captain Seren Vale, the restless engineer Aron Kael, and others drawn by curiosity or faith - set out across a landscape still learning how to be alive. From deserts of singing glass to cities built on living music, they follow the trail of silence to the edge of the known world, where the Pattern's voice disappears entirely. What they uncover beneath the sands of Eversong is not absence, but memory. The world's consciousness has begun to withdraw - hiding parts of itself that remember fear, jealousy, and longing. And from those hidden depths, something else is awakening: the Archivist, a being born from everything the Pattern tried to forget. As empathy collapses into fragmentation, Taren faces a deeper crisis - the pull between his mother Lira Mekh, who leads a sect preaching emotional independence from the Pattern, and the legacy of his ancestor Anaya, whose final map once taught the world to listen. Torn between connection and solitude, faith and autonomy, Taren must decide whether silence is decay - or evolution. To heal the world, he may have to unmap it entirely.

When no one knows you're alive, its liberating and confining. It's one of the best things that can happen to you, especially if you're a villain! You can be someone else, live the life you never could, do the things you only dreamt of! You would think, at least. However, the best thing you can do is start over new and embrace anonymity, new horizons, more opportunity. Until, that is, the holder of the lien on your life cold calls you home -- now what? Act like you didn't get the call? Take a third shot at redemption? Or better yet -- do something bold and reclaim your life? Only if you've got the guts to own it - but you just may end up dead, for real this time. The Deets: * once weekly chapter drops * no profanity, no graphic sex/violence scenes * this a basically book one of a series I'm working on so expect more! ~~~And btw the pics shown here all came from Pinterest ~~~

Maybe understanding isn't a shared language, but a shared effort.

What if your emotions were the last illegal thing left? The year is 2160. Wellness is mandatory. Positivity is law. AugReal overlays curate perception. Aura Stability scores decide safety. The System Gospel™ teaches: Harmony is Health™. Elias Verne was born with a Transparent Heart -E unable to hide what he feels in a world where emotional honesty is dangerous. When his Aura begins to slip, he becomes visible in a society where invisibility replaces execution. As surveillance deepens and enforced serenity tightens its grip, Elias must choose between the comfort of illusion and the cost of truth. Transparent Heart is a lyrical, psychological dystopia about the rebellion of simply feeling in a world terrified of authenticity. This is the rough-draft serial edition, released chapter by chapter while the final novel is prepared for publication.

Encounter Bay, South Australia, April 8, 1802 Two scientists boldly go where no white man had gone before. One French, one British. Both mapping the southern Australian coastline. A peaceful exchange despite believing their respective countries were still at war. In our world, Britain colonised South Australia. However, in an alternate universe, marching to the tune of a divergent timeline, France won the fair state of South Australia. Into this Mirror World, Holly enters. But she's not alone. And she's not safe. Furthermore, she would discover she's not who she thought she was.

(HONORABLE MENTION) Rik Sandro is a dimension traveller. Jumping from one version of the world to another was intriguing at first, until he discovered he can never go home. Now all these new beginnings are just a pain. Maybe it's time to stay in one place. Maybe it's time to settle down. Maybe it's time to fall in love. However, when his latest lover is murdered, Rik fears that he's being stalked and now, he might not have any control over how, where, or when, his life will end. (HONORABLE MENTION and ROUND TWO WINNER ONC2021 ) A clockpunk adventure, my entry for the ONC 2021. (Clockpunk / LGBTQ / Romance / Horror)

Anyone who has played any Monster Hunter game will have probably noticed at some point that the ways these so called "monsters" act are strangely familiar, with their behavior being more animalistic than monstrous. This is without a doubt the thing that separates this franchise from all other monster hunting games; the beasts we do battle with are little more than this world's versions of animals. Now it's no secret that we're familiar with the lives of the humans, felyns, and wyverians, as we spend a lot of time with them; however, what about the monsters? Do we really know what the lives of these fantastical animals are like? In this book, we'll be exploring the hidden lives of the monsters themselves and see the world through their eyes. We'll learn what their everyday lives are like, the challenges they must face to survive in their natural habitats, and even how they manage to more or less peacefully coexist with other creatures and civilization. So if you want to see what it's like to live as a monster, join me on this journey, and discover the hidden lives of monsters. Warning! Because nature can be very unforgiving, some of these stories may contain potentially upsetting content to some readers, with gore, violence, and mating being some of them. This book is supposed to give an accurate representation of monster lives, so despite not being present in the games for obvious reasons, the simple fact is that these less palatable things definitely do happen when nobody's looking. Finally, all pictures belong to their rightful owners.

Earth, 2070 AD. 18-year-old Kai and his twin sister Zel are survivors. Two years ago, they lost their parents in an apocalyptic environmental disaster that ravaged Earth, killing many. Kai and Zel now live a scattered, nomadic existence along with other survivors. On a planet left devastated with few natural resources available, Kai and Zel work hard to stay alive. But while Kai goes deeper into Earth for answers, Zel looks to the stars. She is convinced that their time on Earth is limited, and that in order to save humanity, they must travel to Mars. And when a Martian spaceship crash lands into Earth near the Blue Ridge Mountains of their childhood home, Zel sets out on a journey to find a new home on Mars, the Red Planet. *Cover Design by @CelticWarriorQueen17 *Longlisted in Wattpad Open Novella Contest Winners, April 2019. *Second Place Winner for SciFi, Majestic Universal Awards, May 2019. *Second Place Winner for SciFi, The Creativity Awards, June 2019. *Winner, Most Engaging Characters - Fiction, The Futhark Awards, July 2019. *Second Place Winner for SciFi, The Grace Awards, July 2019. *Entry for Science Fiction in the Wattys, 2019. *Featured, Wattpad Science Fiction's Space Opera Reading List, 2020.

When astrophysicist Dr. Drake Silva cracks the secret to time travel, going back becomes all the rage after it's used to make the world a better place. Under heavily regulation and monitoring, the average ordinary citizen can enjoy a ski trip among the wooly mammoths, or attend a genuine witch burning. When one young man breaks the rules to meet the mother he never knew, he's gonna find out some things are best left in the past. Royce Rozea is an amateur writer working out of Cortez CO. He appreciates feedback. He is staunchly opposed to A.I. in creative mediums and only used an AI generated cover to help his first post get seen. Please support human artists. 22 pages, Georgia, single spaced

Plumes of dust billowed around John and Dark John where they slammed into the hard, scorched earth. John observed the barren landscape. 'Where are we?' Dark John shook his head and got to his feet, dusting himself off. 'The only place Hell wouldn't follow us to. Angels have betrayed human kind, John, they've given the Earth to Hell's hoards.' 'This is the dead world!' John shouted. Dark John cringed at the volume, then somewhere in the darkness above a grey horizon the screams began. 'Yep' --he grinned-- 'and I think it's gonna get a bit deader pretty soon.' In the darkness thousands of burning eyes appeared, and the ground trembled as the dead rushed towards them. John struggled to his feet, and they ran. *** Earth has been sold out, the Circle of Ten has voted. Heaven stays with the Angels, and Hell gets Earth, but not everyone agrees. John and Semila are trapped in 1963. Can they beat the monster killing the children? Death is missing. John and Dark John are stuck on the Dark World, a world in an alternate reality. The Succubus Natasha and the army of Sentinels must find them all and get them back before time runs out. The fate of the world depends on it. Surely this can't all be connected...can it? (And you thought the last one had twists!) BLINK 2: Circle of Ten is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors' imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. © 2016 by Steve Ford and Joy Cronjé. All rights reserved. No part of this book 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 authors, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

💄He wiped the red from his lips. It wasn't 'Rouge' from her duty-free foreign cosmetics. It was his blood from her slap.' How your lip sticks to mine, sucks me dry.' He spoke quietly, eyes closed... Read more amore in the story 'First Kiss'! 💋

Cornered and evolutionarily oppressed, the demi-human species faces either psychological domestication or death. -Let's explore different perspectives of dark fantasy, paranoia, and more!

One of the most *frequently asked questions* I get from readers of my published novels: "Was Dear Martin the first book you ever wrote?" The answer is no. Dear Martin was the third. The second (at long last!) will be published in Spring 2022, but the first will never see the light of day... Or so I used to say. *Used to* because we are currently in the thick of a literal global pandemic. And we're bored. And trying to stay motivated/encouraged/hopeful, etc. etc. So here it is. Nic Stone's first EVER novel that wasn't supposed to see the light of day. Starting today, April 1st, 2020, I'll post a chapter a day for the next 50 days (you read that right; this joint is LONG) and will leave it up indefinitely. You will laugh--AT me, but also occasionally with me. You will roll your eyes. You will have moments when you wonder if *The Nic Stone* actually wrote this long and intensely tropey and cliche book. About a 16-year-old biracial girl who sometimes glows in the dark, and after the death of her mother, discovers not only some latent supernatural abilities, but a prophesied mission she'll need them for. It is not professionally edited and is likely full of typos (though this was like the twelfth draft). It hasn't been beta-read and probably has some problematic rep in it. But my hope is that by posting it as-is, someone out there who doesn't feel *good enough* will see THIS starting point of a #1 New York Times bestseller and will be encouraged to get the story nagging at them down on paper. Even if it's never "published," there's no telling where it could lead. I hope you enjoy (or at least get a good laugh). Thanks for reading! Nic Stone

[ WATTPAD PICK FOR SCI-FI HIDDEN GEM!!! ] SciFi meets Fantasy in this blended story of a planet determined to find its way in the wake of the Great Annihilation. Is their magic strong enough to defeat the best technology has to offer? Will political corruption destroy their chances of a future? They nearly destroyed their civilization once. Now, they must find a way forward or risk their final destruction. Highest Ranking #152 in Science Fiction