Agora’s botched exposé on Sandda City’s raging coal-burning fissures packed an emphatic moral: don’t fuck with the mayor. His hack job ripped her from the pedestal she’d occupied as an Mlog darling. Discredited and desperate, she’d foolishly accepted a hooded city official’s offer of dirt on the corrupt leader. …

Winner of the 2022 Derringer Award for Best Flash Fiction     “You smell anything funny?” Angelo asked. Rosa, hard at work with her whetstone, said, “No. Hold it tighter, okay?” He adjusted his grip on the sword. It was braced against the tabletop, gleaming in the yellow lamplight as …

  Reijiro had wanted to die. Though he had discovered the greatest pleasure in fishing, it was not what he felt he had been created to do. His soul was restless. He’d already established a legendary status, but it did little to satisfy his ennui. His name had been recited …