When Lorkdan, a foreign mercenary, arrives at a lonely inn down a dark road, he hopes for nothing more than a bed to rest his head and a meal to fill his stomach. But things are not well in the county called Valle, nor the kingdom at large; and as the hours progress, he finds himself thrust into a journey that will change him, and the world he knows, forever. This novelette includes a map and an illustrated glossary entry.

Cursed at birth with a wild imagination, AJ Cooper spent his youth dreaming of worlds more exciting than Earth. He is a native Midwesterner and loves writing fantasy, especially epic fantasy set in his own created worlds.
He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of numerous fantasy novels and novellas. His short stories have appeared in Morpheus Tales, Fear and Trembling, Residential Aliens and Mindflights, among others.