My summer plan is to publish a collection of novellas set in the world of my novels, The World Between and The Chaos Within. The three stories span a great length of time. One takes place before the events of either book, one takes place concurrently to both books, and one takes place after the events of the second book. Below is a short excerpt from one of the novellas: A World Without Magic.

---

Ethaen smiled broadly as he watched Yunnae’s eyes widen. The silk and lace that Rudanya had laid out before her was astonishing. Even he hadn’t expected Aunt Rudanya to bring back fabrics so fine.

               “Oh, Mistress Rudanya…I couldn’t possibly…” Yunnae began.

               Ethaen’s aunt abruptly cut her off before she could wiggle her way out of picking the fabrics for her wedding gown. “If you don’t like these, I can go back to the shop.”

               “Oh! No, it’s not that…” Yunnae looked to Ethaen for help, but he was only smiling encouragingly. “It’s…it’s just that, I…Mistress Rudanya, I can’t afford this cloth.”

               Rudanya cast an accusatory gaze towards her nephew. “Did you tell her she had to pay for her gown?”

               He smiled widely. “Certainly not, Aunt Danya.”

               Yunnae relaxed her face, letting the frown that was forming melt away. “I’ve never worn anything this fine before. It feels…”

               “Regal?” Rudanya offered, in place of whatever Yunnae had been about to say.

               “Extravagant?” the younger woman squeaked, questioning her own words.

                 “It’s a wedding, my dear!” Rudanya said, putting an arm around her shoulders. Yunnae, to her credit, did not stiffen in the embrace. “I want you to look like a bride.”

               Ethaen rose from his chair near the window. “No use arguing with her, beloved,” he said, coming to Yunnae’s other side. “Besides,” he said softly near her ear, “I think this one is lovely.” He touched the pinkish-lavender silk on the table. It had a cutting of white lace laid upon it.

               “I do love the lace,” Yunnae said. “I just don’t know about the silk.”

               Rudanya traded out the pink silk for the eggplant. “Better?”

               Yunnae looked to Ethaen. “What are you wearing?”

               He smiled. “No one is going to be looking at me, my dear.”

               Yunnae blushed, bowing her head slightly. “I’ll be looking at you,” she said softly.

               Rudanya smiled, remembering how it felt to be in love, and still feeling the old jealousy of not having had the love she wanted. “Eggplant, then?” she asked, wanting a final say.

               “It’s my favorite of the three you’ve brought,” Yunnae answered, sounding almost apologetic.

               “I can go back to the shop, Yunnae,” Rudanya offered again.

               “No!” Yunnae said. “It’s wonderful.” She nodded to herself, as if trying to believe her own words. “I’ll look stunning, I know.”

               Rudanya smiled at her. “Yes, you will.” She laid a tray of buttons on the table. “We picked these out as well.”

               Immediately, Yunnae’s eye went to the button with the purple stone in the center. “Oh my,” she breathed, picking it up and examining it.

               “Gaelta picked that one,” Rudanya said.

               A laugh escaped Ethaen. “That’s surprising. She usually isn’t tasteful.”

               Yunnae set the button on top of the fabric and lace she had picked. She didn’t even look at the other buttons in the tray.

               Rudanya smiled. “I’ll have the dressmaker come tomorrow. What time will be best for you?”

               “I have duties with the sick starting at dawn,” Yunnae answered. “Then Contemplation at midday. And I have kitchen duties after that.” She paused, thinking. “I don’t think tomorrow would be the best day. Can we do the day after? I’m not as busy then.”

               “Of course,” Rudanya said, writing down a note to hand off to their housekeeper, Heila. “Day after tomorrow, then. We’ll get you measured and have some designs drawn up for you. Is your mother coming?”

               “Oh,” Yunnae gasped, as if she had nearly forgotten she had a mother. “I…um, no. I haven’t spoken to her.”

               “You haven’t spoken to her?” Ethaen repeated, curious.

               “I wrote her a letter,” she began, feeling ashamed.

               “A letter?” Rudanya asked. “Does she not live in Celeth-brac?”

               “No, Mistress…”

               “Please, don’t call me that. Rudanya is perfectly fine.”

               Yunnae hesitated before agreeing with a nod. “Yes, Rudanya,” she said slowly. She looked to Ethaen for support and found him smiling encouragingly. She nearly melted at the sight. “She and my father were part of the ithil trade, in the Delta, before Malir stopped running ithil ships. They decided not to come home.”

               Rudanya’s lips thinned into a tight line across her face. “They just left you here?” she asked. Ethaen was pleased that she had managed to hide her disgust, but her disapproval was plain in her tone.

               “With the Priestesses, yes,” Yunnae answered. “They write to me from time to time.” The way her eyes lost sparkle indicated that she knew this was a weak defense.

               “Well,” Rudanya said, “let’s hope they decide to come this way for the wedding.” She really didn’t know what else to say to the woman.

               Ethaen looked out the window at the position of the suns. “Yunnae, you don’t want to be late for lessons.”

               “Oh! No, of course not. I didn’t realize the time,” she said hurriedly. She kissed Ethaen on the cheek and quickly moved towards the parlor door. In the doorway, she turned. “Thank you for everything, Rudanya.”

               “Of course, dear. You’re one of us now. We’ll take care of you.”

               For the first time that afternoon, Yunnae smiled brightly; then without another word, she was gone.

               Rudanya stared at the spot she had vacated. “It still amuses me that she’s as devoted to you as she is to The Seer. I’m surprised you were able to pull her away from her goddess.”

               Ethaen, who was now more practiced at hiding his god-like nature, laughed as if he were a man. “To be honest, it surprises me as well.”

               “What about your sister, though? Any luck pulling her out of…” As she caught Ethaen’s glower she let the end of her question die on her lips. “What’s the matter?”

               “We paid a price for what we did,” he whispered. “She doesn’t understand it had to be this way.”

               Rudanya leaned closer to her nephew. “Does this have anything to do with Jamir?”

Ethaen knew he could trust Rudanya. The partnership between his father and his aunt had kept his uncle’s whereabouts secret for much longer than he had expected. Certainly, The Great Maker had known what he was doing, but Ethaen had never been as sure. He was a traveler, and in all his travels he had seen a multitude of secrets leaked. Rudanya and Malir were as silent as a tomb on the matter. “We didn’t mean for the Concealment to happen. We were only trying to save him.”

               “Did you tell her that, before you and Hadlam destroyed that Witch?” Rudanya’s eyes narrowed.

               Ethaen slowly shook his head, thinking of how the Red One had burnt to ash under the current of the power they had used against her. “Raelin doesn’t know about Uncle Jamir,” he answered, his soft whisper barely filling the air between them.

               “Ethaen, you know what she did, what she helped you do, is slowly killing her,” Rudanya said. She was not angry with her nephew, but she didn’t understand why he had needed her help. Ethaen’s powers hadn’t been Concealed like everyone else’s. Why would such a powerful Mage need the assistance of a barely trained novice? Rudanya had never figured it out.

               “I’m not a Mage, Aunt Danya,” he said, an answer to her unasked questions.

               She drew back from him, uneasy, her skin prickling with fear. “I know. You’re something different, Ethaen. Something more powerful than I understand.” She paused, letting go of her fear for a moment. “Why did you need her?”

               He smiled ruefully, then looked away from her, towards the table where the fabric for Yunnae’s gown still lay. “It took everything I had to hold the world together, and to keep Hadlam from being torn apart as he funneled all that energy into the Red One.” At the Witch’s true name, Rudanya frowned. “He could have never held all the power on his own, Aunt Danya. He would have destroyed himself.”

               She nodded, suddenly understanding something that had eluded her before. “Raelin can See, can’t she? That’s why you chose her and not Malir?”

               Ethaen nodded, still gazing at the bolts of fabric laid out, the lace delicately draped across the top of each one. “That’s what attracted me to the Priestesses. They don’t fully understand what it is they do, but they tap into that same Deep Power than Hadlam speaks of.”

               “The power you can use,” Rudanya added.

               Now Ethaen met his aunt’s eyes. “I can’t help Raelin unless she wants to understand. I’ve tried.”

               “I know,” Rudanya whispered. “We’ve all tried.”

               Ethaen grew thoughtful. “I had hoped Paetir would stay. I tried to convince him not to get on that ship.”

               “Did you?” Rudanya asked, seeming to come out of her own thoughts.

               “She’s better when she’s with him, don’t you think?”

               Rudanya rocked her head side to side while she was thinking. “In some ways. But there’s still that…darkness inside her.”

               “It’s not darkness,” Ethaen countered, almost before she had finished her sentence. “No, Aunt Danya. It’s not darkness at all. Raelin has seen the Deep Power. She craves it, but she can’t find it anymore. That’s what’s wrong with her.”

               “Well, how do you and Hadlam find it?”

               “We’re different,” he explained with a shrug. “And the Deep Power is different now. It surrounds us. It moves through us. It was hidden under the Magic before the Concealment. It was like falling, or diving into a river. Now…” he exhaled. “Now, the only way to find it is to fall inward, inside yourself.”

               “Like the Priestesses,” Rudanya murmured.

               Ethaen smiled, pleased that his aunt had made this connection. “Exactly.”