Elder Race

Sophos 4 was settled by humans some fifteen centuries ago, but their descendants have lost all memory of science and of Earth. What survives of that knowledge looks like sorcery and myth to them. When a demon starts devouring the land, Lynesse Fourth Daughter, the queen's overlooked and troublesome child, invokes an old pact.

She climbs to the tower of the Elder sorcerer to demand his help. The man who answers is Nyr Illim Tevich, and he is no sorcerer. He is a junior anthropologist from Earth whose mission left him behind.

Nyr is bound by a vow never to interfere with the culture he was sent to observe. He is also struggling with depression, held back only by an implanted Dissociative Cognition System. Lynesse's request puts his oath and his fragile state under direct pressure.

The novella is science fantasy told in alternating chapters. One version of events is given as magic, the other as science, so the reader sees each scene through both lenses. The tone is warm and melancholy, with moments of humour, and the focus stays on two people trying to understand each other across a gap of language and belief.