Page 1 of Sunsplitter

Previously, inVoidwalker

No one remembers how the Shatter happened. One reality fractured into many, an infinite number of worlds called Planes. Smaller pockets of reality, Shards, act like stepping stones to travel between Planes. Outside both Planes and Shards, the Void is the endless liminal space beyond reality.

Daeyari gained immortality from the Void. They were mortal once, carnivores with claws and tails and antlers. Legend says that a daeyari, Veshri, died but refused to pass to the afterlife. He wove a new body of Void ether and returned to the physical Planes, teaching other daeyari to do the same. Now, all daeyari are born immortal. They’ve conquered many worlds beyond their origin on the Twilit Plane, devouring humans as their primary food. But as part of a peace pact, a Lord Daeyari is appointed to rule each territory, gifting protection and technology to their human subjects. In return, humans send living sacrifices to keep their ruling daeyari fed.

Fionamara “Fi” Kolbeck lives on the Winter Plane. She nearly drowned in a river as a child, the brush with death making her what humans call a Voidwalker, able to see Curtains, the thin spots between worlds. Because of this rare ability, Fi’s father wanted to give her to their ruling daeyari, Verne, to serve as a human Arbiter. Fi, terrified of being eaten instead, fled her home and never returned.

Fi became a smuggler, moving contraband between Planes. After her father died, she and her brother, Boden, started a new life in the remote village of Nyskya, in the neighboring territory of a less strict daeyari, Antal. Fi was hired to smuggle a bomb into Antal’s capitol building, unwittingly becoming part of a coup that killed the mortal governor andousted Antal, revealed as a power grab by his rival, Verne.

Antal never wanted to rule a territory. Born on the Twilit Plane, he fell in love a century ago with a human, Razik, who served his family. When Antal’s father—a powerful member of the Daey Celva, the ruling council of the daeyari—discovered the affair, he killed Razik and assigned Antal to govern a territory on the Winter Plane as punishment. Antal tried to be a lenient ruler by eating as few humans as possible, but this earned him the ire of his daeyari neighbors.

Fi and Antal joined forces to defeat Verne and reclaim Antal’s territory. They sought help from Tyvo, Antal’s other daeyari neighbor, but Tyvo attacked Antal and would have killed him if Fi hadn’t intervened, cutting off Tyvo’s antler before they escaped. They recruited the residents of Nyskya to form a rebellion, led by Boden and trained by the tavern keeper, Kashvi.

When Nyskya was attacked by Verne’s forces, Boden was killed, and Fi fled in grief. She was cornered alone by Verne, only managing to escape by cutting a Curtain off the Plane. But instead of stepping onto a Shard, Fi fell into the Void itself. She encountered a daeyari resembling Veshri, who taught her how to travel through the Void,realVoidwalking—not the mortal approximation, which daeyari called Shardwalking.

Antal and Fi confronted Verne, who teleported away with Antal. Fi Voidwalked to follow him, and they defeated Verne by cutting off her head, the only way to kill a daeyari—and a taboo, as dead daeyari reincarnate as feral beasts.

Antal returned to ruling his territory with the promise that he would no longer feed on living human sacrifices, but would instead accept donated corpses as food. Fi returned to the capital city with him, rebuilding the damage of Verne’s rule, but wary of how the ruling council of daeyari will respond when they learn of Antal’s changes in policy.

He’d never heard the forest this silent.

The Winter Plane was always quiet, muffled by eternal snow and trees as dense as tar, but tonight, even the jays in the canopy fell still. Nothing but the creak of his cart and horse hooves churning sleet, the occasional thump of ice drooping off shiverpine branches, the whisper of aurora overhead.

He felt foolish, when he gripped his reins tighter. This was the type of night he’d heard of in the old folktales, a silent forest and an unsuspecting human traveler, doomed to spot red eyes among the branches. News from the territory capital claimed their Lord Daeyari was kinder now, no longer feasting on live sacrifices. Still, the man sat tense on the cart bench, peering into dark trees. He found no beasts lurking in the boughs.

Only a woman standing by the road, hunched against the cold in calf-deep snow.

He reined in his horse, pausing his cart alongside her.

“Evening, miss. You alright out here?”

The woman smiled. She was tall, her skin warm brown, features soft around dark eyes. He was surprised when she reached for him, an entreating squeeze at his wrist. Her fingers were warm against the night chill.

“I’m traveling,” she said. “Hoping to rest for the night. Do you live nearby?”

Her words sounded strange. Some accent he couldn’t place.

He shrugged and beckoned to the seat beside him on the cart. It was only him and his sister at the mill. They had a bed to spare, and hospitality went a long way on Winter.

The ride passed in silence. He minded the reins but snuck a glance at his passenger.

She was beautiful.

He chastised the thought, no intentions of ogling a woman stranded in the forest. Maybe peculiar was a safer word to describe her. Black hair fell past her shoulders, laced with snowflakes. Dark lashes veiled over inky eyes. Her jacket seemed too thin for the Winter Plane.

“Do you travel this way often?” she asked.

He chastised himself again, caught staring at her lips. They hardly seemed to match her words. His wrist felt warm where she’d touched him.

“I’m coming back from Runeyska. I sell my furniture at the city market, near the Bridge gate.” He gestured to the cart, two hand-made wooden stools all that remained of his wares. A profitable visit.

The woman appraised his cargo. “Beautiful work. Near the Bridge gate? You sell to merchants from the other Planes?”

“Of course.” He laughed. “Spring, Summer, Autumn. I’ve sold an army of dining chairs across all four Season-Locked Planes.” He’d returned with different treasures, a bundle of Spring Plane tulips and Summer Plane nectarines, rarities in Winter, sure to make his sister smile.

“Any Planes beyond these four?” the woman asked.

An odd question. The four Season-Locked Planes were unusually close together, well-connected for travel and trade.Beyond these Planes, there were hundreds of other worlds—possibly infinite, some people claimed. A vastness that fuzzed his brain to contemplate.