Steampunk

Mit einem unerwarteten, vorübergehenden Teamzuwachs machen sich Matt, Liz und Aster auf den Weg in die sich ständig ausdehnende Grenzregion. Dort müssen sie sich der Herausforderung eines unerforschten Planeten mit all seinen verborgenen Tücken stellen.

Nothing from Liam's old life as a local factory worker could've prepared him for the reality he's since found himself in. Reincarnated as the noble Percival Shadestone, he's been imbued with unbelievable magic. His days of carefully honing the delicate components of various contraptions are finished as he chases a life of patrician politics and sorcery schooling. But even a protected son of the aristocracy must face hardships. As Percival hones his skills as a magical machinist, he longs for friendly faces in this unfamiliar realm.

Ella Pickering is drowning in debt. Once a Unity skymage trained to make aerial supply runs in the Great War with the Ranneas Empire, following a crash, she now uses a wheelchair and works gruelling shifts making magical weapons in the Unity workshops, thinking of better days. One night, Ella witnesses an experiment by engineer Jackan Grissom go awry. His device morphs into a crude rocket blasting skywards before falling into the war's spell-ravaged No Man's Land. But this inspires a dangerous dream: could such a device reach the moon—the forbidden home of the gods?

Conall thought he'd buried the past with his brother. But when a cryptic summons surfaces—tied to a long-vanished village and a wolf who should be dead—he's forced to retrace the path of the disbanded Squad 54. What he finds in the shadows could unravel not only their fate, but the fragile balance between elf and humankind. Back in New Torwood City, Princess Rowan Andula is done playing the figurehead. With a seat on the ruling council, she's ready to fight for her family's legacy—until the city's giant mech guardian begins to fail. Talos isn't just a machine. He's the heart of the city.

Writer on Demand TM Vol. 5: Tales of an Altered Past Powered by Romance, Horror, and Steam includes four stories: "Dashed Hopes" (approximately 4,250 words) is a tale of invention, romance, and tragedy set in the coal fields of England.