Baen

A story taking place in the world of The SERRAted Edge (and the town of Silence), as a companion piece to Breaking Silence. Read the whole thing on the Baen website!

"…Wanda stood up, careful not to fall into the tidal pool, and stretched. Damn, time really got away from me. She had spent the last few hours talking with Squeak about . . . well, everything. It turned out that merfolk, to the best of their considerable ability, avoided interacting with people; given what Wanda knew about human nature, that was an exceedingly good policy. As a result, however, Squeak’s knowledge about the world of man was . . . spotty, and wildly inaccurate in some instances. He delighted in even the most mundane details of everyday life; cars, grocery stores, how shoes worked, all of it. He desperately wanted to know more about television; it confused and amazed him in equal parts.

For Wanda’s part Squeak’s narrative felt like the best underwater documentary ever—one where someone who actually knew what other creatures were thinking could tell you what was going on. Although she learned details about dolphin sex that really were TMI. Squeak had no filters. That part was definitely not going back to the gang, if any of it did. To be honest, it was very tempting to keep all this to herself. Staci and Tim had all this arcane stuff they shared, and Seth was deeply into all that even if it was on a theoretical basis. Riley and Jake had each other. This was the first time Wanda had ever had something that was all hers, alone…”

Published online October 2020