A Debt to the Dead

Some debts are challenging to repay

In a world of shattered continents floating in endless sky, the once legendary elvish thief Anuhea hides atop a mountain drinking away his memories. The guilt of allowing his only apprentice, Tinnu, to die when the world broke has made him resigned to waste away the rest of his long life... until Astra, a once powerful shapeshifter trapped in the body of a nightingale, arrives to enlist his help. One of two surviving members of the resistance against the new god who undid the world, she needs Anuhea to rescue the other: Tinnu's brother, Ivellios, who has been captured. Driven by his debt to the dead, Anuhea sets off to make the greatest theft of his career.

Michael Kellichner is a poet and writer who grew up in central Pennsylvania, but the call to see the world proved too much to stay put. Now, he's settled in South Korea with his wife and daughter and spends his days teaching ESL to children and trying to find consistent time to write. He dabbles in poetry when not working on speculative fiction, and some has even made it out into the wild. Michael's short stories can be found in various magazines, many for free online, such as Kaleidotrope, The Colored Lens, Marrow Magazine, and Toronto Journal, with more hopefully to come.