I had the unbelievable honor of being interviewed by USA Today best-selling author Helen Garraway. Helen is the USA Today and Amazon Bestselling author of the Epic Fantasy Sentinal series and the Fantasy Romance SoulMist series. She has been writing about the world of Remargaren, a fantasy world of her creation, since 2016. If you get a chance, check out her amazing fantasy stories. They are worth the read for any fantasy fan.
Helen offered me the chance to sit down for an interview about my new dark fantasy, A Maker of Magic. I opened up about the inspiration for the story, my journey as an independent author, and what’s next for me. It is something we all do in the vast community of self-published authors… We support each other because we all know what the other is going through.
Check out the full interview HERE and make sure to check out Helen’s story and her wonderful books too. You can preorder A Maker of Magic at Amazon, and I’ll be looking for ARC readers soon, too! Also, if you’re in Central Pennsylvania, come to the Key City Steampunk Convention NEXT WEEKEND in Gettysburg, PA, August 7-9, to meet me in person.
My new dark fantasy, A Maker of Magic, was one of grief, sorrow, and love. I understand that may sound a little strange, but that’s why I wanted to explain how I came to write this story. It was rather spontaneous and came together in about three months.
In December of 2024, I had just returned from a Christmas vacation in Quebec, Canada. As my wife and I prepared for Christmas Day with our kids, I received a phone call from my brother. My father collapsed and was admitted to the hospital. He might not have long. I immediately jumped in my car and drove from Virginia to my hometown of Phillipsburg, New Jersey. On the drive, the song Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns came on the radio. I couldn’t stop crying. I knew this was the last time I would see my Dad.
He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 88. My dad was a Marine Corps veteran, serving 22 years in the Corps including two tours in Vietnam. He was one of the reasons I joined the Navy, or rather he pushed me into it since college didn’t work out for me. He forged the man I am today.
For the next three months, I traveled between Virginia and New Jersey to help my brother with funeral arrangements, helping take care of my mother, and getting things settled. At night, I sat in that empty house I grew up in and listened to the whispers lingering there. It felt so different, sitting there in the quiet. The only sound echoing through the house was the TV in my Mom’s room as she sat quietly alone. It was a cold emptiness and that void filled me with grief.
I remembered my life growing up there. I was a big fan of the old horror movies, the Universal monsters. I used to build these models of Dracula, the Wolfman, and others that had these “glow in the dark” features. As I recalled these pieces of my past, a story filled that empty void. A story of love, of family, fighting against a dark and terrible enemy. I opened my laptop and began writing. That was the start of A Maker of Magic.
As a writer, we always put part of our soul into each story. The grief, sorrow, and love I was feeling at that moment seemingly supercharged my imagination and this story just flowed out of me. I never even thought about anything like this before. It just came to me, and in those three months, I wrote this entire book. It was about love, about family, good vs. evil, and service to your nation. These are all things my father instilled in me and so I can honestly say he is a big part of this story.
Although the story centers around the Blademancer and the Enchanter, Levi Richter and Danielle Nichols, it was Levi’s father, Jurgen, that centered the story for me. In Jurgen, I emulated my father: his strength, authority, love, and leadership. I put my father into the heart of the story as Levi’s guiding light. As I wrote those pages, it was as if my father was guiding me through it all.
I can honestly say that, my Dad and I were polar opposites. I liked fantasy and he loved westerns. He never really understood my quirkiness in my love of fantasy and science fiction, but when I joined the Navy and rose through the ranks, we connected more and more. I wanted to gain my father’s approval in everything I did. I think that, through this book, I finally have.
My mother didn’t last long after my father. She died about a year later. She never got to see this book completed, but I knew she would like it. The book is dedicated to both my Mom and Dad.
A Maker of Magic is something that sits deep in my heart and soul. It’s such a beautiful and powerful story, but to me, it means so much more. It’s my way of saying “thank you” to the parents that raised me. In life, and in death, they’re still with me.
Return to Attlain in the next chapter of the award-winning fantasy/steampunk series, The Last Magus: Demon Song. The saga of Marcus Gideon, the Last Magus of Attlain, continues to span this dystopia of magic and machines.
Marcus Gideon, the LAST MAGUS of Attlain, has chosen his own path. Haunted by memories he cannot fully recall, Gideon is set on protecting his wife, Wren, and his son, Henri, using the strength of the Silver Moon Guild. For five years, they have tracked down the Magus’ stolen weapons across Attlain, pursuing the deadly assassins of Ishtar. Now, at the edge of the Iron Wasteland, Gideon faces a new and even greater threat to everything he loves dear.
In the haunted ruins of Nyx, the demon sorceress Vasileesa Morozov has found a way to escape the cursed island and plans to release a new demon horde. Nyx was once the center of civilization, but centuries ago, the Demon Spire erupted from its heart, spreading corruption and turning the city into a place of nightmares. The Demon Spire is not just a monument; it connects the demonic realm to the mortal world and gives power to those who seek its dark magic. Now that the demons are free from their prison, all of Attlain faces their relentless hunger.
Gideon and the Silver Moon Guild race across Attlain to discover the sorceress’s plans to create a new Demon Spire and bring chaos to the world. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that put Gideon’s family in grave danger and threaten to erase the legacy of the LAST MAGUS. Everything Gideon has fought for, including his own life, is at risk.
So, I have a new fantasy story coming out this spring, but there’s a bit of a back story I want to share first before I tell you more about the book. It all began about two years ago, in December of 2024. I just got back from my vacation in Quebec, Canada. It was Christmas Eve, and I got a phone call from my brother. My Dad was in the hospital and he was not breathing on his own. I needed to get home to New Jersey ASAP. I drove from Alexandria, VA, to Phillipsburg, NJ, as fast as I could. Although it was Christmas Eve it was not a night of joy or celebration for me. Before the night was over, my father passed away. He was 88 years old.
For the next four months, I spent every other week traveling between Virginia and New Jersey, dealing with funeral arrangements, taking care of my mother, planning for her future care, etc. So, I was teleworking with my regular job during the day and spending my nights doing what any writer would do when sitting in a big empty house filled with memories, pain, sorrow, and guilt from more than fifty years of family life. I sat down at the kitchen table with my laptop and I started writing. I poured the emotions of those months into a story that had started to form into my head. I don’t know if it came from all the grief I was feeling or perhaps from the love of my family supporting me in that moment. I can honestly tell you there was a lot going on at that time, so it was probably a little of both. Needless to say, I poured my heart and soul into this book.
I don’t want to go into the story just yet. However, I can tell you that a major character in this novel was the father, and I think I saw a lot of my own father in the father figure within this story. My Dad was a U.S. Marine, serving two tours in Vietnam, raising a family, including his two sons who both served in the military (my brother was a Marine, and I served in the Navy). The father in my novel was a former military officer too, teaching his sons how to be soldiers in a time of war. He did it by example, through leadership, strength, love, discipline and hands-on training to make his sons better than him. I wanted to instill that same feeling I got from my father into these characters.
But behind it all, there is also a love story. This is a deep, soul-searching love that transcends time, distance, and separation. This part of the story imitated the many years I spent apart from my wife on deployment with the Navy. I think we spent more time away than together in our first ten years of marriage, and yet we’re still together after over forty years. We share a bond that’s so deep that a simple touch, a song, or a picture brings us together even though we’re miles apart. I also think of my parents, who were married for over sixty five years but spent time apart in overseas deployments, too. That kind of love is rare to carry on for so long. Its the inspiration I found to fill within the pages of my story.
The same goes for the villains behind the scenes. I normally use the standard fantasy trope villains in evil wizards, devious nobles, demons, goblins, etc., in my stories. You know, the regular fantasy villains you’ll find in any D&D campaign. However, this was my first time dipping my toe into a darker vibe, a more horror themed villain. I wanted to really dive into the darkness within my soul, maybe because I was in such a dark place when I wrote this story, so much so that I dipped into the shadows with vampires, ghouls, zombies, and other creatures of the night. These were the monsters of my childhood that haunted me, the ones my father was always there to protect me from. I think that’s why I chose them as the monsters of this story. It’s full blood and gore, something I’ve never done before but it seemed necessary for this story. I felt a lot of despair and loss and I wanted to evoke that in this story.
I don’t want to go into much more detail about the story just yet, except for the teaser image from the cover of the two MCs, the Blademancer and the Enchanter. Sorry, no more spoilers, not yet. A Maker of Magic, coming soon from Franklin Publishers, so stay tuned here for more information! I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
I got a couple of early Christmas gifts this week. First, the government shutdown ended so I am back to work in my regular full time job (yeah!) although I did take that time to really focus on my writing (more to come on that later). Second, Kirkus Reviews provided a top level book review of my steampunk historical fiction Corsair and the Sky Pirates. Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine’s publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. Kirkus Reviews confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature.
I appreciate honest reviews that focuses on the story, not every little technical aspect that some reviewers nitpick at. It means they really took the time to read my book and understand what I was trying to convey in my story.
“The author envisions an epochal meeting in the late 19th century between visionary author Jules Verne and young inventor Nikola Tesla to pool their ideas and create mechanistic miracles made possible by an alien element (“Uriel”) found in fragments shed by a passing comet that provides a seemingly inexhaustible power source. Now, in 1907, a transformed Earth’s skies are crisscrossed by airships, and there are steam-power-armored warriors, cybernetic limbs, punch-card “Thinking Machines,” and other steam- and battery-based technological wonders. The ruthless and amoral Thomas Edison leads a cabal of industrial elites who want to rule the world absolutely—and possibly incite a global Great War between Germany, Britain, and France to bring this about. Opposing them are Tesla’s “Vernians,” among them a flying fleet of rogues tagged as “pirates” (though a Robin Hood comparison is more apt).”
Kirkus Review of Corsair and the Sky Pirates, Published November 17, 2026
The Golden Wizard Book Prize is renowned as the top children’s book awards program globally committed to supporting talented authors who possess the ability to weave words into spells, creating stories that inspire and uplift young readers.
GWEN IVER & PENDRAGON’S PUZZLE takes you to the town of Camelot Cove, a quiet village on the shores of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Most people know it as a fishing town, but this sleepy little community has a secret. Camelot Cove is the home of the Fae—magical beings from myth and legend. From mermaids, dryads, and centaurs to ogres, elves, and dwarves, the community is a mixture of humans and Fae. They were brought together in this out-of-the-way place by the wizard Merlin and the mysterious Lady of the Lake under the protection of the Pendragon.
The power of the Pendragon has passed from generation to generation through the descendants of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. That power now waits to be passed to the next descendant to continue the legacy as the protector of the Fae.
Gwen Iver is a fifteen-year-old girl starting her first day of high school. Surrounded by friends and facing off against her rivals, including Morgan Moor and her infamous Dreadmoor Gang, Gwen’s idyllic life is about to be turned upside-down. She begins a journey into a magical world of infinite possibilities when she attempts to unlock PENDRAGON’S PUZZLE.
Thank you to Ravven White and Curious Corvid Publishing for their continued support of this independent author. I am so happy to have a voice through their love, advice, and editing. I also want to thank the art students and teachers at my alma mater, Phillipsburg High School, for contributing to the art of my novel. It was inspiring to work with these talented artists. Lastly, I dedicated this book to my great nieces and nephews, the future readers that inspired me to write this story. My family is the reason I continue on my journey as an author. I could not do this without them.
Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!
Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other fantastic worlds as he weaves through a myriad of flights of fancy in his tales.
The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazonand otherbooksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Luluand otherbooksellers.
I’ve had my Fan Fiction page up and running for some time now, but I decided to finally include some of my short stories in there. There are stories for contest that I’ve entered, some won, others did not, but I wanted to be able to share them with all of you.
These are stories that mean a lot to me and come from both my imagination and my heart. They were not just written for competition but rather inspired by a heartfelt twang. For example, I wrote The Clock Tower after my sister passed away two years ago. My niece took her death very hard, so I wanted to immortalize her in my writing. My sister loved Disney World so I turned her into a princess in her own magical kingdom. It’s an adventure in itself.
The Chalice came from a nightmare I had. I woke up one night after dreaming of being attacked by a witch in a dark alleyway. This was my first venture into horror, not something I’m used to writing, but I needed to do this to purge myself of this nightmare.
The last one, The Moonlit Black Cat Tavern, came from not only a dream but an idea. What if there were a place where monsters, humans, and demi-humans could come together and work out their differences? I worked from that idea into a fun like any Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
There’s also a link to all the fun Log Horizon anime fan fiction I wrote last year. I binged on the third season of that anime and it inspired me to write my own fan fiction based on the characters and story.
I will be adding new short stories as they come along so please take a look and read them. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did writing them.
Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other worlds as he weaves flights of fancy in his tales.
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms (6 February 1952 – 8 September 2022)
With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, thus ended the reign of the longest reigning monarch of the modern era. For 70 years, we have only known one queen and her name was Elizabeth. She was not only the queen, but she was also a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. I am not a subject of Her Majesty, but I respect and want to honor her service to her country and the world. When she was only 21 years old, she pledged, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” She lived up to that pledge until the day she died.
As a fantasy author, monarchs are a part of my genre. I have loved the idea of a monarch since I first read the stories of King Arthur and Camelot, something I based my first novel, Forever Avalon, around. Britain and the monarchy are the stuff of legends, and Elizabeth II was no exception. She led Great Britain and the commonwealth by example in pursuit of nothing but the best for her people. She served in World War II at the tender age of 18 in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver and a mechanic. Can you imagine, the future Queen of England driving an ambulance and performing tune ups on vehicles?
The world was a different place when she became queen. Women did not lead in many roles in our society in the 1950s and yet, she did it with steadfast determination. That’s the kind of inspiration a writer like me looks for in creating monarchs for my fantasy stories. Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by strong women, whether in my family or my military service, and Queen Elizabeth was a part of that. You can’t fake that kind of character when writing, you have to see it and experience it to believe it.
So now, we have a king, King Charles III. He has enormous shoes to fill to live up to the legacy his mother laid out for him, but at the same time, he had her as the best teacher possible. I hope and pray he will continue the great service of her life. These are trying times and leadership is desperately needed. Even as a writer, that continued inspiration is needed. In all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the eventual coronation of King Charles III, it fuels the fantasy stories within me. We live in an age where kings and queens, princes and princesses, and other royal titles are mostly found in storybooks.
Queen Elizabeth II was the true representation of what it meant to be a monarch. May she rest in peace. Thank you, ma’am, for your service to us all. God bless the Queen. God save the King.
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Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other worlds.
The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—is available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.
So, I’m in the middle of a crisis at the moment. I have multiple ideas for stories, both ones I’m working on, new ones, and ones I haven’t even put down notes on yet. They’re all rattling through my head, begging for life. I try to work on what I can, but then my mind drifts elsewhere. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up at 3am with one of these stories nagging at me. Like I said, maddening. I wish I could get committed to an asylum just so I could sit quietly and write. I would take a vacation to work on them, but then I probably wouldn’t have a wife to come home to anymore. I mean, she puts up with me dragging her to conventions, art festivals, and book signings.
This is a dilemma, one every writer runs into from time to time. I know I’m not alone in this madness. The difference for me is that I am not looking through multiple storylines in one genre or story. I have a multitude of ideas streaming through my head like a Netflix playlist. From steampunk sky pirates to mercenary demon hunters, a wayward Magus, and knights of Avalon, I don’t know where to begin. Add to that the short stories I’m constantly plugging away at to ply my trade within the many opportunities available to the writing community.
Curious Corvid Publishing . . . Publishing a variety of gothic works that bring a voice to the darker side of life.
The one good thing I can say about these shenanigans is that I feel a sense of relief within this madness because I have a publisher now. Being one of the myriad of talented authors under Curious Corvid Publishing has given me pause in my madness . . . Well, partly. Having a publisher that supports me as a writer takes away the worry of frantically searching for someone to publish my stories. I have that support system under me so I can focus on writing and no worry about who’s going to publish my next fantasy trope. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be a part of this up-and-coming publishing house. Thank you Ravven!
I’ve been self-published for more than ten-plus years. As a side job, I know I’m still operating in the red. I spend more money on publishing, marketing, etc., than I earn from selling books. That’s the rub for any independent, self-published author. We do this because we love it, no matter what the cost. Not saying that I want to go bankrupt being a writer, I just want to tell my stories the easiest way I can. Just reading a good review or hearing someone say they liked my story is reward enough for me. The problem is getting the damn things out of my head.
For now, I need a calm mind and a cool head. That will get me through my writing dilemma. One thing at a time, maintaining my focus, and this will all work itself out. But maybe, just maybe, I do need to take a small vacation to push through all this frustration. Maybe I can talk my wife into a nice spot on the beach where she can catch some rays while I sit under the umbrella, tapping away on my laptop. There’s a compromise in there somewhere.
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Mark Piggott is an independent author of the Forever Avalon fantasy book series and other fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon and as an audiobook from Audible and iTunes. The Dark Tides: Book 2 of the Forever Avalon Series is available as a paperback/ebook at iUniverse Publishing, Amazon, and other booksellers. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series, is available as a paperback/ebook from Austin Macauley Publishing and at Amazon and other booksellers. His latest fantasy novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.
Get ready for The River of Souls fantasy novella, coming soon from Curious Corvid Publishing along with the steampunk historical fiction, Corsair and the Sky Pirates. The Prometheus Engine: Book 4 of the Forever Avalon Series and The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel are future installments of his current fantasy book series, plus so much more coming soon.
Before heading out to the Watch City Steampunk Festival, I wanted to post the next installment in my Log Horizon fan fiction project. This is the duel with the warlord general Mizufa Trude and its implications for Gideon Hawkmoon’s future on the Crescent Islands of Yamato. I love Mizufa as a character because she is one of the People of the Land, and she can fight on the same level as any adventurer. There’s also a crazy side to her that, as a writer, is fun to play with. That really says something about her as a character. In any case, Gideon has his hands full in Part Seven of A Tale of Log Horizon—The Gunslinger vs. The Warlord.
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Part Six Recap: In the world of Elder Tales, more than 70,000 Japanese players found themselves trapped inside the world of their favorite MMORPG. In the adventurer’s town of Akiba, the Round Table Conference maintains the peace amongst the guilds calling this city home. After a year-long journey across the ocean and four continents, Gideon Hawkmoon, the sorcerer gunslinger from America, reunited with his wife, Henrietta of the Crescent Moon Alliance. Gideon was given his first mission to see if a proposed peace conference between Westlande and Eastal was possible. With Henrietta by his side, the two set off for the Palace of Eternal Ice to get the approval of Duke Sergiot Cowhen before heading to Minami. Once there, Princess Nureha made a proposal to Gideon . . . Defeat one of the Ten Seat Council or join Plant Hwyaden. It was Mizufa Trude who stepped up to challenge the sorcerer gunslinger.
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The word spread like wildfire through Minami—a duel between Gideon Hawkmoon, the sorcerer gunslinger from America, and Mizufa Trude, the warlord general of Westlande. Both adventurers and the People of the Land were excited to see this one-on-one contest. They poured into the amphitheater, built on the remains of an old baseball stadium, to witness the match.
While the stadium slowly filled to capacity, Henrietta repeatedly scolded her husband for even accepting this match. It wasn’t that she doubted Gideon’s ability to beat the warlord general in a PvP match. Instead, she didn’t like the overwhelming advantage Plant Hwyaden had in their favor. Her argument, however, went on deaf ears.
“Gideon, this is ridiculous! You can’t trust this to be anything other than a fair fight,” Henrietta argued as they walked into the amphitheater. “You are walking into a trap!”
“Actually, Henrietta, I see this as a level playing field,” Gideon explained as he carefully loaded his weapons. “I know everything about Mizufa’s fighting style from my conversations with Chief Nyanta. I’m sure she’s been told everything there is to know about me from Indix. So, the way I see, this here’s about as flat as Kansas wheatfield.”
“But how can you be sure Kazuhiko will referee this fairly. He . . .” she questioned before Gideon stopped her rambling. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close.
“Darlin’, I know you’re looking out for me, and I love you for it, but I picked Kazuhiko because I knew he’d be the only one I could trust to call this fight fair. So, don’t worry about these little variables and put all your faith in me. Now, give me a kiss for luck before I kick her ass.”
Henrietta loved the uncanny way her husband waltzed through her worries and pushed them aside. She kissed him passionately before taking his hand and whistled a tune into it—a bard giving him her strength and power before the battle.
Gideon walked out into the stadium to a chorus of cheers and boos from the assembled crowd. He saw Princess Nureha sitting in her royal box, surrounded by other members of the Ten Seat Council. Gideon glanced up around, tipping his hat politely to the audience. He paused and bowed politely to her, showing his respect to her royal highness. She nodded and smiled back, earning the princess a sly wink from the cowboy. Then Gideon turned his attention to Mizufa.
She grinned from ear to ear, exuding confidence. Gideon knew she was far more powerful and skilled than her level 68 dictated. His attitude may appear overconfident, but the sorcerer gunslinger took this duel seriously. Mizufa may be one of the toughest challenges he’d ever faced.
Kazuhiko stood between the two competitors to explain the rules of the PvP. “This is not a fight to the death, understand Mizufa?” he started, knowing how out reckless the warlord gets in a fight. “The first one to knock the other below fifty percent of their hit points wins. Is that clear?”
“Yeah, I know the rules, adventurer,” Mizufa retorted.
“Alright, then step back into position and prepare to fight!” Both competitors moved away to give room before the PvP duel commenced. Gideon, however, had a gnawing question eating away at him that he just had to ask.
“Before we begin, Kazuhiko, I’ve got a question for the general,” he began. “Tell me, Mizufa, why did you volunteer for this little gunfight at the OK corral? I heard you were a fighter, but this seems a little out of character. Did Indix talk you into it?”
“No one talks me into anything, adventurer. I’m bored with the local talent and looking for a challenge, that’s all. When I take you down, all of Yamato will hail the General Warlord of Westlande, Mizufa Trude, as the greatest in the land!”
“Don’t count your chickens until the fox is out of the henhouse, Mizufa. You haven’t won anything yet,” Gideon said as he flipped back his coat, itching to draw his weapons. Mizufa drew her weapons—a cutlass in one hand and a thorn whip in the other. Both of them took a defensive stance, ready for a fight.
Kazuhiko looked over at both of them one last time before raising his hand. “And fight!” he shouted, dropping his hand. Gideon took the first move, reaching into his saddlebag and throwing a few of his foxfire grenades at Mizufa. However, the warlord was ready for this ploy. She swung her cutlass, slicing them all at once to render them harmless. Indix warned her about this little trick, and she was ready for it. Unfortunately for Mizufa, Gideon counted on that.
“Inferno Strike!” he chanted, firing off a volley of fireballs from his six-shooter. With the foxfire billowing in the air around Mizufa, his spell ignited the powder as she became engulfed in flames. She jumped back, avoiding some of the blast damage, as Gideon fired off his next attack. “Sinking Sand!” He squeezed the trigger and fired off his next spell, causing the earth beneath her feet to liquify as the warlord began to sink into the ground.
Mizufa used her whip to wrap about Gideon’s gun hand. As he tried to break free, she used the momentum to escape the quicksand and lunged at her opponent. She slashed at him repeatedly, cutting into his hands and face. He had no choice but to drop his weapon. Mizufa saw this as an opportunity to end this duel, and she thrust her sword at Gideon, only to be blocked by rather a large bowie knife.
Gideon reached inside his coat and drew a foot-long blade to parry her thrust. Once he pushed her back, he drew a second blade in his other hand. Mizufa was both angry and confused at seeing a sorcerer duel-wielding a pair of bladed weapons.
“Indix was right; you are a cheater!” she shouted. “How can a sorcerer be wielding blades like a fighter?”
“You really don’t know anything about our sub-classes, do you? I am a blacksmith, armorer, bladesmith, and weaponsmith. I rose through the ranks, mastering each of those sub-classes before moving on to the next one. Because of that, I get a bonus skill to master any bladed weapon of my choosing. After all, what good is being a weaponsmith if you can’t test your work, and I have a rather fond appreciation for the Bowie knife.”
He twirled the blades around in his hands to show off his skills with them. “You see, Jim Bowie was a hero of mine growing up,” Gideon continued. “He died, sick in bed, fighting off Mexican soldiers with only this knife in his hand. He was one of the reasons we have the great state of Texas today.”
“I never heard of this country of Texas you speak of, but if you think a dead man’s knife will help you against me, you’re sadly mistaken!” Mizufa screamed as she launched another assault, swinging viciously at Gideon. To the surprise of many, he held off her attack with those two knives, only taking minimal damage.
“Icicle Blade! Dread Weapon!” Gideon chanted, putting a spell on the edge of each of his knives, making them inflict more damage with each strike. Mizufa realized that his abilities as both a sorcerer and a fighter made him even more formidable than she thought. A change of tactics was the only way to ensure her victory.
Mizufa changed her attack, wrapping up Gideon in her thorn whip to pin his arms down. “It’s over, cowboy!” she shouted in glee as she lunged for a final blow, but Gideon turned to mist and freed himself from her clutches. She spun around quickly to see the gas reform into the sorcerer gunslinger. He used his oral art to initiate the spell, Gaseous Form, to escape her attack. He thrust his knives into her before beginning his incantation.
“Lightning Nebula!” he chanted as he used his blades as a conduit for the electrical attack. It penetrated deep into Mizufa, shocking to the core. Then, without warning, a second lightning nebula rang out and struck Mizufa again until her hit points dropped below 50 percent. Gideon released her, and the warlord general fell to the ground. The match was over.
“Winner, Gideon Hawkmoon!” Kazuhiko declared, raising his hand toward Gideon. The sorcerer gunslinger sheathed his knives and picked up his revolvers from the arena floor before he acknowledged the adulations of the audience. Even though he was an outsider, they appreciated the incredible performance. Gideon tipped his hat to Kazuhiko, earning him a smile and a nod from the ordinarily quiet assassin.
Henrietta rushed out to be with her husband, but their celebration was interrupted by Indix. “Just one damn minute!” she screamed, storming onto the arena floor with the rest of the Ten Seat Council. “How did you cast two Lightning Nebula spells in a row? That spell has a 90-second cool downtime. You shouldn’t have been able to launch another attack so quickly. I see you’re back to your cheating ways, Gideon.”
The crowd mumbled amongst themselves as they listened to Indix’s argument, reasoning the possibility that the sorcerer gunslinger cheated his way to victory. Gideon just laughed at her assertion. “I swear, Indix, you are about as thick as peanut butter in a snowstorm at the north pole at Christmas.” His insult caused a few chuckles in the crowd, but her glare quickly quieted them down. “I didn’t do anything but use a magic item to fire off that second Lightning Nebula.”
He held out his hand and showed her his gold wedding band, inscribed with magical notes around it. Indix looked at the ring, just as confused as before. “Your wedding band? What does that have to do with this?”
“This is a magic item and a gift from my darling wife, Henrietta, who happens to be a bard. She had my wedding ring enchanted with the bard attack spell ‘Maestro’s Echo,’ allowing me to fire off a second magical attack after I cast my original spell. It’s not as powerful as the original but effective enough. It’s how a husband and wife work together to protect one another.”
Indix grew incensed, looking over to Kazuhiko for a ruling on it. He simply shrugged his shoulders. “The use of magic items is not prohibited in a duel. Gideon did nothing wrong, and my decision stands.”
Before she could say anything, Mizufa slowly got to her feet, laughing at the situation. “Damn, cowboy, you sure know how to show a lady a good time,” she exclaimed as she struggled to walk over to Gideon. “You’re not like the other adventurers. You’re not afraid to take a life, even one of the People of the Land, are you?”
Before Gideon could answer, Mizufa wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. As much as he struggled against her, Gideon couldn’t make her release him. Henrietta was outraged by her behavior, while Indix was disgusted. Finally, Mizufa let him go.
“I like you, Gideon. We’re going to do this again . . . and again, and again.” She dragged her finger across his lips before she walked away, laughing aloud. She may have lost the duel, but it seemed Mizufa found a kindred spirit in Gideon . . . one that enjoyed fighting as much as she did. It didn’t matter that he was married. Eventually, Gideon would belong to her.
The sorcerer gunslinger wiped the spittle off his lips. “That woman’s as crazy as popcorn on a hot stove,” he said before Henrietta came over and took out her handkerchief to wipe his face clean of that disgusting woman. Gideon then turned his attention to Princess Nureha. “Well, Your Highness, I hope you’re not going to call a foul ball on our duel, are you?”
“Of course not, Master Gideon. I will abide by Kazuhiko’s ruling in this matter. It was a spectacular demonstration of why you are the number one PvP in the world.”
“And, the matter of this conference between Eastal and Westlande?”
“I will coordinate a date and time with the Senate and Prince Saiguu,” she replied. “I’m sure we can have something established within the next month that will accommodate both sides.”
“Well then, if you don’t mind, we’ll be on our way. We’ve got a long flight back to Akiba,” Gideon said with a tip of his hat. Nureha bowed her head politely as Gideon and Henrietta said their goodbyes to KR and Kazuhiko before Gideon called his giant golden eagle to pick them up. Soon, they were flying off toward Akiba.
Nureha watched them leave before she spoke. “Did you get all the information you needed, Jered Gan?”
“Why yes, Princess Nureha. Luring that fool into a duel was a stroke of genius on your part. It was a simple task for me to hide my scanners under the arena floor and around the stadium itself. My equipment took detailed readings from his Fairy Ring Chronometer. Still, it will take me some time to interpret the information and build our own facsimile.”
“You have until this conference begins, Jered Gan. They wanted to show us their resolve. Now we will show them ours.”
* * *
The flight back to Akiba was quiet as Gideon and Henrietta were content to return home as soon as possible. Henrietta had a wedding to plan, and her mind raced with dresses, flowers, and other potential excitement. For Gideon, he contemplated his encounter with Plant Hwyaden repeatedly in his head—the run-in at the gate, the conflict with Indix, and the duel with Mizufa. As tricky as that fight was, everything went too easy. He felt like he had walked into a trap, but he couldn’t place his finger on how or why.
Maybe Shiroe can shed some light on it after he chews me out for fighting a PvP duel like I did. I’m sure to get an earful about that, Gideon thought as he prepared himself for the scolding he was about to get.
“You did what?” Shiroe shouted. Gideon sat there quietly, taking his tongue lashing like he should once he got back to Akiba and reported into Log Horizon. The rest of Log Horizon was there, along with Marielle, Serara, and Major from the Crescent Moon Alliance and Soujiro and Nazuna from the West Wind Brigade. They listened intently to the rundown of everything that happened in Minami. Some of them laughed, knowing that this was precisely how Gideon acted, while others worried about his reckless behavior.
“Come on, Shiroe, it all worked out in the end! No need to get a burr in your saddle,” Gideon retorted.
“That’s not the point, Gideon! You could have lost that duel. You can’t take chances like that,” Shiroe shot back, frustrated that the sorcerer gunslinger failed to comprehend the severity of the situation.
“But they didn’t want me to lose. The princess wanted me to fight in that arena,” he replied. “If they wanted to beat me, Nureha would have sent in Kazuhiko or even Indix. Hell, KR would’ve given me a better fight than Mizufa. Don’t get me wrong, that firecracker is a helluva fighter, but that whole duel was staged for my benefit. I just can’t figure out why.”
“It seemed strange how quickly they orchestrated the match when Princess Nureha just proposed it,” Henrietta interjected.
“So, this wasn’t a ploy to get Gideon to join Plant Hwyaden? Then why do it?” Naotsugu asked.
Shiroe thought about it for a minute, but he needed more information. “Did you sense anything out of the ordinary while in the arena?”
“You mean besides Mizufa sticking her tongue down my throat,” Gideon replied, much to the chagrin of Henrietta.
“Woah, really? Tell me more about it! Did she . . .” Naotsugu started to say, but both Akatsuki and Henrietta kicked him for his lewd inquiry.
“That being said, I can’t say any shenanigans were going on, Shiroe. It’s just a gut feeling.”
“Well, I’ve never been one to question anyone’s instinct, but until we get more information, we’ll have to leave it as an open-ended question until the conference.”
“Good, then in the meantime, Gideon and I have some wonderful news!” Henrietta announced, stepping up behind her husband. “We’re going to get married!”
There was silence in the room. “Ah, hello, you’re already married!” Akatsuki countered.
“I mean, we are going to get married here in Akiba. Gideon promised me a big wedding that we never got around to having, so we’re finally going to have it here. And, Marielle, I want you . . .”
Yes, yes, I’ll be your maid of honor!” Marielle screamed as she jumped to her feet and ran over to Henrietta. “Oh my God, this is so exciting!” As the two friends started exchanging ideas, Akatsuki realized how this would affect her and the other girls.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed.
“What’s wrong, Akatsuki?” Minori asked.
“A wedding means bridesmaids, and that means . . .”
“Bridesmaid dresses!” Akatsuki, Minori, Serara, and Isuzu all said the same thing.
“Frilly, gaudy dresses . . .” Akatsuki screeched.
“With ruffles and bows . . .” Minori added.
“Hideously ugly!” Isuzu concluded, but Henrietta wrapped her arms around all of them before they could run away.
“Oh yes, my little cuties, I have the perfect dresses in mind for you! Pale pink for a spring wedding! You will look so adorable!” She crushed them in a tight bear hug, squeezing their faces with hers. The four girls succumbed to their fate, much to the amusement of the men, until Gideon burst their bubble.
“Don’t think ya’ll getting off so easily,” he admonished them. “I’m gonna need some groomsmen to escort these lovely ladies.” That announcement quickly shut down all the snickers from the men in the room as they realized their fate. “First things first . . . Chief Nyanta, Henrietta, and I would like you to officiate our ceremony again if you don’t mind.”
“Mew would be honored to preside over your marriage vows one more time,” Nyanta said with a bow.
“Naotsugu, old buddy, I would be honored to have you as my best man,” Gideon said, placing his hand on the guardian’s shoulder. “What do you say?”
“Oh yeah, we will have an awesome bachelor party!” Naotsugu shouted before a wayward glance from both Henrietta and Marielle brought him to his senses. “I mean, yeah, sure, you got it, hoss.”
“Now then, Henrietta darlin’, you only have four bridesmaids, five if you include Marielle. Seven is my lucky number, so how about we add a couple more to the mix.”
“Well, I suppose so,” Henrietta replied before she started looking around the room for additional candidates for bridesmaids.
“Not me, uh-uh, no way. A rising galaxy starlet like me wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those frilly, poofy dresses. I have my reputation to think of!” Tetora announced, waving off any chance of being picked for the lineup.
“Well, since we have three from Log Horizon, maybe one more from Crescent Moon,” Marielle interjected.
“Wonderful idea, Marielle. I’ll ask Liliana since she’s been with us the longest. So, we just need one more . . .” Henrietta and Marielle glared at the only other eligible female in the room, and Nazuna grew nervous from their overt stares.
“No, no way, I love you, Henrietta, but no frickin’ way!” she complained until Gideon said something to change her mind.
“Look at it this way, Nazuna. I’ll have Soujiro be one of my groomsmen, and he’ll be the one to escort you down the aisle. That’s something you can laud over your girls in the West Wind Brigade,” Gideon whispered to her, which made her fox ears perk up. His idea caught Soujiro off guard, but he couldn’t say no when he saw how happy it made Nazuna.
“Okay, Gideon, you win. If Nazuna wants to be in the wedding party, then who am I to say no,” Soujiro reluctantly agreed, bringing a massive smile to Nazuna’s face.
“Well, okay then, I’d like to have Shiroe, Touya, Rudy, and Major for the rest of my groomsmen. If Miss Liliana says yes, we’ll add Shouryuu to even things out to lucky seven. There’s only one thing left . . .”
“Oh, what’s that?” Marielle asked before Henrietta walked over to Doc.
“Doc, in the absence of my father, I would like to ask you if you would stand in his place. You did so much in bringing Gideon back to me. I would be grateful if you would give me away.”
The Inuit medicine man was brought to tears again by the love and affection shown to him by these people he had just met months ago. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he couldn’t speak. Doc just nodded his head before Henrietta hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Even a few others in the room were brought to tears by the monumental gesture, even the men who wiped them away quickly to avoid any sign of unmanliness.
“Well, alright then, let’s turn this wedding into a full-blown Akiba celebration!” Gideon proclaimed, drawing cheers from everyone.
* * *
I have a lot going on in the month of May so I will probably get back to my fan fiction in June. In the meantime, you can catch up on the story in my Fan Fiction archive and get ready for Part 8 of A Tale of Log Horizon: The Wedding of the Gunslinger and the Bard!
Mark Piggott | Fantasy & Steampunk Author 