Kevin L. O'Brien's Blog: Songs of the Seanchaí, page 27

Next eBook: Jigsaw Dragon

The next story in my schedule to be published through Smashwords will be:

Jigsaw Dragon

Eile, as the fighter and thief Braveheart, and Sunny, as her magic-user partner White-Lion, are playing a scenario in the online role-playing game Otherworld. They have been hired by a powerful count to rescue his young wife, kidnapped by a dragon. However, there is a snag; the mission won't be as simple as it sounds.

This will be another free ebook.

New eBook: Pyrrhic Victory

I have just published my latest ebook:

Pyrrhic Victory

The Zombie Apocalypse has been going on for a year. Though hard numbers are difficult to come by, it is estimated that 90% of the Human Race has been wiped out, with the first three-quarters killed in the first month alone. Most governments have collapsed, and America is the only remaining superpower. The survivors are desperate for hope, but none seems forthcoming; though not indestructible, the Zombies are unstoppable. How can you kill what's already dead?

Lt. Richard West leads one of the last few intact Marine platoons, augmented by civilians, women as well as men, who went through rapid induction and training. A combat veteran before the dead rose, with a willingness to adapt to the ever-changing environment of war, he has managed to keep his unit intact and most of his people alive through the worst, but even he realizes that it is only a matter of time before Mankind's defeat is total and irrevocable. As such, when he and his soldiers are assigned to protect and support a self-described wizard who offered to call up an ally that could totally eliminate the Zombies, he allows himself a small hope that the old man is neither a faker nor insane. Besides, he's a soldier, and he follows orders.

But, is the enemy of their enemy really their friend?

This ebook is free and can be downloaded from Smashwords.

On Pseudo-Skepticism

A Commentary by Marcello Truzzi

"Over the years, I have decried the misuse of the term 'skeptic' when used to refer to all critics of anomaly claims. Alas, the label has been thus misapplied by both proponents and critics of the paranormal. Sometimes users of the term have distinguished between so-called 'soft' versus 'hard' skeptics, and I in part revived the term 'zetetic' because of the term's misuse. But I now think the problems created go beyond mere terminology and matters need to be set right. Since 'skepticism' properly refers to doubt rather than denial--nonbelief rather than belief--critics who take the negative rather than an agnostic position but still call themselves 'skeptics' are actually pseudo-skeptics and have, I believed, gained a false advantage by usurping that label."

Read the rest of the article.

Roads of the Dreamlands

A track way is a generic term for any form of travel route. There are three types of track ways in the Dreamlands: trails, paths, and roads. The term trail literally refers to a game trail, a track way regularly used by animals. A path is a track way of exposed hardened subsoil or bedrock. A road is a manufactured track way covered with a paving of artificial material.

Trails
Trails are first created by animal traffic, then Humans discover them and use them for themselves. Constant travel beats down the vegetation until it is stunted and distorted, creating a visible track way through the surrounding vegetation. Depending upon the nature and thickness of this vegetation, however, the trail may be obvious or so well hidden it requires an experienced tracker to locate and follow. Heavy vegetation can obscure a trail from anything but direct observation, and can hamper movement by obstructing the track way from the sides and overhead. Light vegetation can make a trail almost invisible due to very little contrast between the vegetation in the track way and that surrounding it. Trails also tend to move as weather and seasonal patterns shift, are generally only wide enough for two travelers abreast or a single mounted rider, if even that, and are unsuitable for wagons or even pack trains.

Nonetheless, some 75% of all track ways in the Dreamlands are trails. This percentage varies with location. Wilderness areas generally are higher while more settled, civilized areas tend to be lower. However, even in the Six Kingdoms or Ooth-Nargai, there are more trails than paths or roads combined. This is partially due to the fact that even in those locales, urban centers are few and far between, with farmland, pastures, and uncultivated ground filling the surrounding land. The roads and paths link settlements, but the trails link the more numerous homesteads, cultivated fields, and important natural features, such as springs and herb patches. Perhaps the most well-known series of trails are those that crisscross the Plateau of Leng, which offer reasonably safe passage since the local animals know better how to avoid the dangers.

Paths
Some trails become used so often that the vegetation, top soil, and to varying degrees the subsoil are worn completely away, revealing hard-packed ground or basement rock. This surface has the advantage of being more durable and easier to walk on. Being fairly water-resistant, it also offers good drainage, and only becomes muddy after especially heavy rains or flooding. Paths tend to be wider and are more permanent, though they too can change course over many years. Their greater durability allows them to accommodate heavier traffic, however, too much traffic, or too rapid transit, can damage a path. Paths form 20% of all track ways in the Dreamlands, with location variation similar to trails. Like trails they also tend to link homesteads and smaller hamlets, but they may also form the only viable trade between two otherwise inaccessible larger settlements.

There are three types of paths. Footpaths traverse level ground. They are generally at the same level as the ground, which can affect drainage, allowing pools of water to stand long enough to soak in and form mud. They also have to weave around trees and heavy vegetation, boulders, and general debris, and often contain rocks or roots poking out of the surface. Even so, footpaths tend to be the widest, smoothest, and most level, affording the best route for transporting large amounts of goods and supplies, with the wider ones called cartpaths. Perhaps the best known footpath is the "road" skirting the southern edge of the mountain range that forms the northernmost border of the Northern Lands, that connects Vornai with Inganok, and is the main trade route between the Plateau of Leng and the Land of Lomar.

Holloways are paths that have been worn down below the level of the ground, forming sunken lanes. They traverse valleys and other low or flat areas, winding around hills and mountains, rising only to cross a ridge; this makes them fairly level, though some grading can be expected due to terrain. The banks on either side, which can sometimes be quite high and steep, are often covered with vegetation, some of it heavy, especially along the top. This can create the impression of a tunnel, but also provides shade from the sun and some shelter from rain and wind. Drainage is often a problem, as water will run down the banks to collect in the path, and the sheltering vegetation can reduce evaporation. Holloways also tend to be the roughest, with a fair amount of debris in the lane, as well as the narrowest. Though they can accommodate pack animal and wagon traffic, often there is no room to pass except at specially excavated passing places. Also, the banks restrict where travelers can enter or leave the path. Perhaps the most familiar holloway is that which forms part of the track way from Nir to Kirin, across the plain north of the Faulklyn Hills. This is the most direct trade route between the Six Kingdoms and the Oukranos River.

A ridgeway is a path that follows the top of a hilly or mountainous ridge. The soil is naturally thinner there and the vegetation sparser, so traffic is able to more easily wear it away to bare rock. Rain and soil creep help in this process, forming a hard and fairly smooth surface free of debris that needs virtually no maintenance. Ridgeways are also well drained and tend to stay quite dry. They are straighter than other paths, since ridges tend to be fairly straight, deviating around peaks only when necessary, but they are rarely level, and sometimes the grades can be steep. Also, ridges eventually come to an end, and the path must cross a ravine or valley before ascending to the next ridge. They can be fairly narrow, and they are often exposed to the sun or harsh weather. Nonetheless, they are second only to footpaths as the best routes for commercial transport, though pack animals traverse them better than carts and wagons. Perhaps the most famous ridgeways are those that cross the Thorineach Hills as part of the track ways between Hlanith and Mozam, and Broidh and Creachabh.

Roads
Trails and paths tend to be natural; roads, on the other hand are artificial. They may be based on existing natural track ways, but they have been modified in some fashion. The point is, the route of a road is predetermined, even if it isn't meticulously planned and surveyed, and the road itself is manufactured. The modification can be as minor as clearing away debris and obstacles, or widening, leveling, and straightening an existing track way, to as elaborate as establishing a new track way, excavating it out of the land, and surfacing it to make it durable. Unlike trails and paths, they tend to link only important urban and commercial centers, but some minor roads can link towns, villages, and larger hamlets. Also, certain types of roads are easier to build and maintain than others. Roads make up 5% of all track ways in the Dreamlands, and while this again can vary with location, roads are always the fewest available.

There are a number of different varieties of roads, each based on a different paving method. The simplest is essentially an artificial path, known as a dirt road. Those that are old enough or have enough traffic to be worn down to hard ground or bedrock will have all the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of paths, depending upon whether they were made level with the ground, excavated below it, or built above it. The rest, however, are covered with soil or loam, hence the designation, which makes them dusty in dry weather and morasses of mud even after light rains. Nonetheless, they are the easiest to make and maintain, and are probably the most common roads encountered. The road that runs north and west from the Thorineach Hills to Hlanith is a sunken dirt road, but because it forms part of the route of the trains that run between Hlanith and Creachabh, it has been well worn to hard-packed subsoil supported by basement rock.

Dirt roads that have vegetation growing on them, whether due to deliberate encouragement or low traffic volume, are known as greenways. Though the vegetation can impede travel, it also strengthens the road and cuts down on mud. The road that runs from Thran along the Oukranos River to Hlanith is a greenway, because most traffic goes by river.

The purpose of paving is two-fold: to increase the durability of the road and to make travel easier and more comfortable. Many different kinds of materials can be used. The simplest method is to cover a dirt road with some kind of loose, granular material, to reduce wear and tear and improve drainage. Any local material can be used, such as ice, wood chips, and crushed shells. The road that runs along the shore of the Cerenarian Strait between Hlanith and Ogrothan through the Jungle of Kled is a woodchip road. However, the most commonly used material is gravel bound with sand, silt, or clay, hence these are usually referred to as gravel roads. Such roads are often cambered to increase drainage, and can have ditches built on either side or be raised on causeways. However, because the gravel is loose, constant use can push it off to the side or into furrows which create ruts, so the roads can become damaged unless the gravel is reshaped. Furthermore, erosion can cause washboarding, which makes for a very uncomfortable ride. The gravel can also damage cart and wagon wheels, and is unsuitable for bare feet or unshod hooves. The road that skirts the eastern edge of the Dolinar Hills, from Joachimstahl to Fort Segar, is a gravel road.

A special type of gravel road is paved with a material known as laterite. Laterite is a form of subsoil created by the chemical weathering of the underlying basement rock. It is a conglomerate of soil and rock particles of varying sizes rich in iron and aluminum, as well as other light metals. When mined, crushed, and mixed with sand and water, it can form a slurry similar to concrete. This can then be poured onto a prepared roadbed, and when it dries the metals form a crystalline matrix, locking the sand, clay, and gravel into a hard material similar to sun-dried bricks. Laterite surfacing is water-resistant, giving it good drainage, but it tends to be porous, and is therefore subject to freeze-thaw damage, forming potholes and cracks. And the presence of clay particles can make it slippery when it's wet. As well, despite its hardness, it is not particularly strong and can be brittle, hence it is easily damaged by heavy traffic. However, such damage can also be easily repaired by pouring on new slurry. The road that links Nir and Mozam along the River Skai is a laterite road.

The major problem with a gravel road, other than the looseness of the surfacing material, is that it depends upon the strength of the underlying ground for its support. This problem becomes acute in low-lying areas such as wetlands and floodplains, where the road can be washed out completely after just one heavy rain, or collapse when the wet ground gives way. To strengthen the road bed, logs can be laid down perpendicular to the track way and covered with sand, gravel, or laterite. This is known as a corduroy road. While the logs are usually treated to dry them out and/or waterproof them in some fashion, acidic soils tend to preserve them better by slowing decay. However, this type of road can be place almost anywhere the soil is deep enough to bury the logs. Though this kind of material provides a stronger road surface, the covering material is still loose, and so needs frequent maintenance, it may not drain well depending upon local conditions, and the unevenness caused by the logs creates an inherent washboard effect that cannot be completely eliminated. The road that connects Fort Segar with Fort Grant through the Forest of Parg skirting the eastern and southern edge of the Dolinar Hills is a laterite corduroy road.

An improvement over a corduroy road is the plank road, also known as a puncheon. It is made from wooden planks laid perpendicular to the track way, with additional planks set on top of these that run parallel, forming the running surface. No further surfacing is used. Unlike corduroy roads, plank roads are not sunk into the ground but raised above it on wooden or stone supports. As such, they are not only suitable for wetlands and low-lying areas, but also rugged or uneven ground. Plank roads are smoother than corduroy roads and so more comfortable, but the exposed wood is more easily damaged and needs constant repair. The road that runs from Ogrothan to the city-state of Siwah in The Stoney Desert has sections of puncheons traversing parts of the Jungle of Kled and the Caucaesion Hills.

Two special types of plank roads are boardwalks and duckboards. Boardwalks are broad and sturdy, and can accommodate heavy traffic, including wagons, but they are expensive and labor-intensive to build and maintain, so they rarely cover any great distance. The final hundred yards of the road along the Naile'en River, that runs between Mapungu and Ogrothan, before reaching the latter is a boardwalk as wide as a six-lane highway. Duckboards, on the other hand, can run for miles because they are fairly cheap. However, they are narrow, usually only wide enough for two people to pass, and they are barely strong to carry the weight of a single pack-laden animal. In this respect, they are more like artificial trails, and are not known to be used anywhere dedicated to commercial traffic. Even so, the hamlet of Shyre west of Ulthar is surrounded by a web of duckboards that give farmers easy access to their wetland fields.

So far, the types of roads discussed require only minimal ground preparation to construct, often being little more than clearing the path of major obstacles; leveling and compacting the earth, and cambering it to provide drainage, or putting in supports to suspend the road above the ground; and when necessary digging ditches or building causeways, before adding the surfacing material, if any. Harder, more durable surfacing, however, requires a stronger roadbed as a foundation, and that requires more extensive construction. More often than not, such construction consists of a trench filled with material to form the surface, which is convex to allow water to run off to the side into gutters, and often with footpaths on either side. Even roads built on causeways have a trench dug into the embankment itself. As well, no natural material is both strong enough to withstand heavy traffic and soft enough to be shaped into a well-graded surface, necessitating the need for using a mixture of different types of material. The corduroy road is an initial step down both paths, but its limitations prevent it from becoming widespread.

The most durable natural material available is stone, and the best roads make use of it in their construction, at least partially. The Minoan-style road makes use of stone blocks for the foundation bound by stone fragments and aggregate overlaid by a layer of flat, smooth flagstones. This produces a particularly strong road that is also waterproof. However, a stone block foundation is not absolutely necessary. The Roman-style road uses crushed stone fragments, rubble, and aggregate for the foundation, capped by concrete followed by smoothed, shaped blocks. The secret is to compact the fragments, rubble, and aggregate into a solid mass. A major variant of this design dispenses with the capstones and just uses concrete for the surface. Roman-style roads, of both types, are used extensively throughout Ooth-Nargai, whereas Minoan-style roads appear to be exclusive to the island nation of Punica.

Even so, concrete can be dispensed with altogether. A modified version of the Roman-style road eliminates the concrete and tops the fragments, rubble, and aggregate with gravel and smaller fragments. This evolved into a form of road surfacing that uses multiple layers of stone fragments of progressively smaller size. No material other than pure hand-worked stone is used in the foundational layers, and no binder is used to seal the topmost layer. Instead, the action of wheel, hoof, and foot travel shifts the fragments so that they oriented themselves within their own angles and locked together, forming a solid surface that can withstand weather and traffic. Even so, heavy rains can soak into the road and erode it away. This type of surface is known as macadam. The road that runs from Joachimstahl to Hatheg is a macadam road.

However, macadam roads can be sealed to help improve drainage. One method is the use of a mixture of stone dust and water; as the water evaporates, the dust cements the fragments together and forms a smoother surface that is more water resistant. This is known as water-bound macadam. Most of the roads in the Six Kingdoms use this as their surface. Another method involves spraying the surface with a mixture of tar and sand, which also cuts down on dust. This is known as tar-bound macadam. Tar can also be applied to the prepared ground before layering on the stone fragments. The road that runs south along the eastern shore of the River Skai from Ulthar to Dylath-Leen uses this surface. Mixing the top layer of aggregate into the tar before applying it to the road is called tarmacadam, or tarmac for short. The roads through the western deserts are surfaced with tarmac.

Street paving in settlements follows the same trend as roads, except that the trenches are shallower. Hamlets and villages usually have dirt, gravel, or laterite streets, though some use corduroy or plank surfacing. Because of the shallowness of the streets, Minoan- or Roman-style roads, or the various types of macadam roads, are not possible. However, some derived forms are used instead.

Dirt and gravel roads can be paved with cobblestones. Cobbles are smooth stones, essentially large pebbles. They are half-buried in the ground or a layer of sand in specific patterns, and may even mortared in place, but do not completely cover the ground. Bare space is left around them so that horses and draft animals can get a good grip on them. However, any form of traffic moving over cobblestones makes a great deal of noise, so straw or sawdust is sometimes layered over the street to deaden the noise. Also, cobblestones are uncomfortable for pedestrians to walk on. The streets of Ulthar are paved with cobblestones.

Bricks can also be used to pave streets, as can setts, which are stone blocks or flagstones. The city of Hlanith paves its streets with bricks, whereas Dylath-Leen uses setts. Concrete by itself, or layered onto flagstones or aggregate, is not used extensively because of its expense, however, it is smoother, quieter, and more durable. The main streets of Celephaïs are paved in concrete. Finally, tar or bitumen can be spread over a prepared surface, then layered with fine aggregate that is embedded into it. This is known as chipseal; the desert cities all use chipseal to pave their streets.

It should be noted that some more exotic materials are used to pave streets. Travelers to the city of Marib on the western edge of the Bnazie Desert report that the streets are "paved" with rattan matting. The streets of the royal district and that of the Knights are paved in slabs of the same sky-blue marble as the buildings. Onyx setts pave the avenues of Hazuth-Kleg and Inganok. Ilek-Vad coats its streets with a glassy-smooth pink, orange, and turquoise travertine. The city of Oonai paves its streets with a gray fine-grained rock that looks dingy during the day, but at night sparkles with all the colors of the rainbow. Rinar covers its boulevards with thin sheets of moss-agate inlaid with copper. The marble cloud city of Serranian paves its streets in red-gold. Thran on the Oukranos River covers its byways with alabaster bricks. The city of Zais is the Venice of the Dreamlands, with rivers and streams for streets. The seaport of Zakarion paves its avenues with mother-of-pearl. And the village of Gleandara covers its lanes with planks of a teak-like wood harvested from the surrounding hills.

Specialized Structures
No matter how well planned, roads cannot entirely avoid natural obstacles, and paths and trails rarely try. While most can be circumvented or overcome with a bit of ingenuity, others require special structures to allow the track way to cross them. Examples of such obstacles include ravines, rivers and other watercourses, lakes and other bodies of water, and bogs and other wetlands.

Bridges are the most commonly used method to cross ravines, watercourses, and bodies of water. Though the material that can be used to construct a bridge is limited to pre-sixteenth century technology, a bridge can use any conceivable design, provided the chosen material is strong enough to support that design. Hence, bridges in the Dreamlands can be as simple as beam, clapper, log, rope, or step-stone designs, to as elaborate as cable-stayed, through arch, or suspension designs, though basic arch, trestle, and truss designs are more common. Additionally, a number of unusual designs are frequently encountered, such as kintai, moon, hoogholtje, covered, tubular, pontoon, pigtail, and bascule bridges. Packhorse bridges are common on trade routes, particularly ridgeways or roads through hilly regions. Many paths use simple footbridges. Regions where canals are the primary method of transport have water bridges. And while not strictly speaking bridges, aqueducts use similar design principles.

Causeways are an alternative to bridges for crossing watercourses and bodies of water. One design resembles a dyke, a sloped earthen wall used to contain a watercourse during flooding. This type of causeway will act as a barrier, cutting one side of a watercourse or body of water off from another. In watercourses where a natural flow needs to be maintained, culverts can be inserted perpendicular to the length to allow the water to pass through the barrier. An alternative design resembles a long, low bridge, almost like a long boardwalk. This structure allows watercourses to flow unimpeded, and is less vulnerable than the dyke design to heavy weather or flooding, but it is more expensive and labor-intensive to build and maintain, and can be prone to flooding during bad weather or high run-off. Causeways are the primary method for crossing wetlands, particularly the dyke design.

Fords are natural shallow places in the beds of watercourses that allow travelers to cross over by wading. Artificial fords can be created by building a submerged bridge, essentially a bridge that runs under the surface of the water. This is often cheaper and easier to maintain than building a regular bridge or causeway. The vast majority of such fords are created by raising the bed to a foot below the surface, usually with large rocks, but heavy gravel or cobbles can also be used. The tops of these are then usually covered with flagstones. The major problems with any ford is the algae buildup that can make the walkway slippery, while flooding can not only raise the water level but also the strength of the current, making the crossing more hazardous. Artificial fords can be found anywhere, but are most often encountered at mountain streams.

Drainage
As has been mentioned previously, drainage is a perennial problem with any track way, but particularly roads. Standing water not only makes traveling difficult with mud and debris, it can damage the surface through erosion, creating ruts and potholes. It can also seep below the surface and damage the foundational substructure, weakening the road so that it could collapse or wash away. Various methods are used to make a road surface waterproof, but none are perfect, and some seepage and damage is inevitable.

Instead, the best method is to drain the water away so that it cannot stand long enough to create damage. This includes using methods to seal the road surface, such as various mortars and cement, laterite, concrete, paving stones, tar, and bitumen. A more effective method is to camber the surface, which means to shape it into a convex curve, higher in the middle. This allows water to flow off to the edges, usually into ditches or gutters. The greater the curve, the faster the water will flow, and the less time it will be in contact with the surface. However, too steep a curve makes travel uncomfortable, even difficult, and increases the erosion on the down slope. Rather, most surfaces use as level a curve as possible; a thirty-foot-wide macadam road only rises about three inches. Instead, the road either relies on sealing the surface, or by the counter-intuitive method of making the subsurface layers permeable.

Even so, the most effective method is to raise the road above the water table. Since water always seeks the lowest possible level, it would naturally run off the road and not have a chance to collect. Where the water table is at or just below ground level, the road can be built on a causeway; where the water table is deeper, a trench can be used, in which case it must be filled with waterproof material, such as stones. Except in the case of Minoan-style roads that use mortared blocks as a foundation, or Roman-style roads that cap the surface with concrete and flagstones, the secret is to allow water to flow down through the subsurface around the gravel, aggregate, and rubble into the subsoil below. This is known as a French drain. This cannot work effectively if the water volume is too large, hence the need to drain as much water off the road as possible. Nonetheless, the French drain principle can remove whatever water seeps into the road before it can do substantial damage. In areas with heavy rainfall or frequent flooding, or a higher water table, a perforated hollow pipe can be buried at the bottom of the trench to collect the percolating water and drain it off faster than simple ground seepage. Most of the macadam-style roads in the Dreamlands use the French drain principle to keep themselves dry.

Caerleon Order Watercraft

The Order's need for waterbourne vessels is less important than the same for land vehicles. Mostly they are used for ferrying squads to and from operational destinations. However, two vessels are held in reserve for the Order's use for larger operations.

Jump to the webpage.

Synopsis: Cat's Peril (A Team Girl Adventure)

One morning after a blizzard, Eile and Sunny discover a half-frozen cat outside their front door while retrieving the paper. They wrap it in a towel and place it on a heating pad, and feed it warm milk. It recovers enough that they can take it to a nearby vet, Dr. Joyce Luasaigh. After she has started treatment, she does a routine scan and discovers an implanted microchip. A quick check of the database reveals an address, but no name or phone number. The girls decide to go there and tell kitty's owner that they found her and where she's at.

After the girls leave, Dr. Luasaigh asks kitty what happened. It responds weakly in a series of meows. The vet replies, "Just like the others." She then asks who did this to her. When kitty answers, Dr. Luasaigh gets grim-faced and says, "Mabuse."

When the girls arrive at the address, they find an abandoned factory. They decide to explore it. They are surprised by robots, who capture them, put them in an elevator, and take them down underground. It opens onto a lab complex. The robots then take them to the end of the corridor into a room divided between a control station and an isolation lab separated by an armored wall with an observation window. They find an elderly woman standing over a control panel. Inside the lab the girls see a cat in a Plexiglas cage with electrodes attached to it. It is writhing and screaming as the woman turns a dial and urges it to comply. As the girls watch, it gives one last ear-splitting shriek, spasms, and collapses. The readings on the control panel flatline, indicating the cat is dead. The woman orders the carcass removed, and a robot steps into view and opens the cage. The girls then notice that one wall of the lab is covered with cages, most of which contain cats.

The woman greets the girls and invites them to sit. She introduces herself as Dr. Elizabeth Rebecca Mabuse. She then asks who they are. Sunny introduces themselves, and Mabuse looks surprised. "You are Sonne Hiver?" When Sunny confirms she is right, Mabuse gives her an odd look, but then asks why they are there. Eile explains they found a stray cat and are looking for its owner. Mabuse confirms she is the owner and asks where it is now. The girls tell her it is at a vet. Mabuse explains that the cat is part of a very important research project and she needs it back. When the girls seem reluctant to accommodate her, she demands Sunny go retrieve it, saying that otherwise she will use Eile as a subject in one of her other projects. Sunny has no choice but to agree and is escorted out by a robot.

Sunny heads back to the vet's office and begs her to release kitty. Dr. Luasaigh refuses at first, even after Sunny explains that Eile is being held hostage. However, kitty speaks to the vet and she tells Sunny she has volunteered to be returned to Mabuse. However, Dr. Luasaigh insists on going with her.

While they wait for Sunny's return, Eile asks Mabuse what she's doing with the cats. Mabuse explains she believes cats are sapient and she is trying to prove it. When Eile criticizes her for the pain and suffering she is causing, Mabuse states she has no desire to cause pain for its own sake, but some suffering is needed to force the cats into revealing their sapience. Unfortunately, she has gone through a dozen cats already, with no evidence of sapience. Yet she is convinced she is right and will not end the project.

Sunny and Dr. Luasaigh return with kitty. Mabuse puts it in the cage in the lab and starts torturing it. With the robots present, the girls and the vet can do nothing. As kitty shrieks and convulses, Mabuse gets excited about her readings. Sunny gets interested as well, much to Eile's shock and disgust. Then kitty begins calling out "Help me!" in a meowy voice. That breaks Sunny's spell. Horrified, she begs Mabuse to terminate the experiment, but Mabuse refuses. Dr. Luasaigh takes that moment to act. She blasts the robots watching the girls, and Eile picks up a stool and smashes a console. Mabuse orders the robots to restrain them, but the vet blasts the rest and Eile smashes two more consoles. Sunny joins in with her own stool, and triggers a feedback loop that builds towards an explosion as the control room catches on fire. Mabuse flips a switch, but all it does is open the lab door. She instructs the girls to release the cats and get them out. Eile opens the cages as Sunny gets kitty. The cats rush to Dr. Luasaigh and the girls join her. When Sunny tries to get Mabuse to come with them, she refuses, saying she has to retrieve her data. She orders them to leave and directs them to an emergency exit she has unlocked. Eile pulls Sunny with her as she follows the vet, and they find and climb a stairwell beside the elevator. As they near the top, they hear explosions. Once outside, the cats scatter in all directions. The girls follow the vet as she races for a van sitting on the street. As they reach it, the factory is demolished by numerous small explosions, and it drops into the earth.

Dr. Luasaigh drives back to her clinic. Along the way she explains that she is a high priestess of Bast, the first in over a thousand years. She channels the power and will of the Great Mother, but retains her own human personality. She asks the girls to keep this a secret for now, even from Medb. When Sunny asks, she confirms that cats are sapient, self-aware beings, just as Mabuse suspected, but this too must be kept secret. Nor will any cat reveal this sapience to any human, not even them. Even kitty must keep the secret, or face the wrath of her own kind. The girls swear they will tell no one, and they will not treat kitty any differently from a normal cat. The vet does, however, inform them that Medb knows the secret because she was initiated in the Central Mysteries of the Bast cult millennia ago, and she can speak both the Common and Sacred feline tongues. She wants to keep kitty for a few days, to make sure she'll be alright, but afterwards she will need a lot of love and care. The girls decide to adopt her, and Sunny names her Snowshoe Kitty, because of her four white paws.

The Friends of Medb hErenn

Friendship is an unfamiliar concept to Medb hErenn. In ancient Ireland, people had spouses, lovers, comrades-in-arms, siblings, parents, children, overlords, dependents, and bondservants, but no friends. The closest anyone came to it were the bonds of love forged between the members of a warband; indeed, many of the ancient sagas describe how one member would love another more than he would a wife or a brother. There is a hint of homosexual relations here, and though nothing is ever revealed in the myths and legends, the Classical writers, especially the Greeks, mention it on occasion.

Yet in the Dreamlands, there are fourteen women whom Medb considers to be her personal friends, as opposed to being companions or mere acquaintances. How or why she doesn't know; as far as she's concerned, it just seemed to happen on its own. And while she does have sexual relations with three of them, these friendships are not based on sex, especially in the case of Laylina and Karella Gündersen, who are more like protégés; this is borne out by the fact that there are no men on this list. Instead, Medb has developed a deep, sincere, and abiding respect for each of these persons, usually forged through shared adversary (though there are exceptions). Though Medb is on friendly terms with a large number of men, she does not have the same level of respect for them as she does these women, and mostly she thinks of her male friends as lovers.

Click on a name below to open a hidden panel, then click on it again to close it. A key on how to pronounce the various word sounds is provided with each name. Click on an image to see a larger version of it.

Jump to the webpage.

Next eBook: Pyrrhic Victory

The next story in my schedule to be published through Smashwords will be:

Pyrrhic Victory

A zombie apocalypse has nearly wiped out Mankind. One of the last intact Marine platoons protects a self-styled wizard as he summons an ally that can destroy every zombie that exists. But is the enemy of our enemy really our friend?

This will be another free ebook.

New eBook: A Deliberation of Morality

I have just published my latest ebook:

A Deliberation of Morality

According to long-standing folk tradition, we all have shoulder angels and devils; personifications of our own good and evil sides. They "appear" whenever we face a moral dilemma and offer advice on how to resolve it; we then choose which advice to take. This trope has classically been used in theatre as a means to portray a character's inner dialog to the audience without engaging in a monologue. Nowadays it mostly serves as a form of parody or comic-relief, though even then its allegorical nature is instantly recognizable. Even so, the trope still appears in serious works, such as The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, wherein the classical roles are reinterpreted in the forms of the Tempter and the Guardian Angel. Even so, for the vast majority of people this trope remains metaphorical. After all, no one ever actually sees these personifications.

In the world of Sir Differel Van Helsing, however, the allegorical battle between Good and Evil takes on a more personal and concrete form. Furthermore, she has many enemies who wish to destroy her, or corrupt her and turn her to their cause. It therefore should be no surprise that one would impersonate this trope and actually appear to her in person.

This ebook is free and can be downloaded from Smashwords.

Sex and Women Characters in Fantasy

Though art and video often depicts sword & sorcery warrior women in an erotic manner, especially certain iconic characters such as Red Sonja, the stories themselves, whether printed, digital, or cinematic, practically never depict these women (or men for that matter) proactively (as opposed to re-actively) using their sexuality, even their bodies, as weapons to defeat an enemy (with a few obscure exceptions).

Is this due to a respect for social mores concerning depictions of sex; is it due to a desire to avoid a charge of sexism; is it because warrior women often are deliberately patterned after warrior men; or has no one thought of it before?

Excerpt from the Preface of "Sacrificial Offering":

Medb hErenn was directly inspired by Maeve, the legendary Irish queen of Connaught and the villain of the great Ulster epic, Tain Bo Cuailnge, or "The Cattle Raid of Cooley". In numerous superficial ways, however, she can be thought of as a female Conan-clone. I mean superficial in its secondary sense, as pertaining to the surface; a surface detail or being taken at face value. Another way to think of the relationship is stereotypical, though iconic might be the better term. The idea is that she shares certain features that have come to be associated with Conan but which, while reminiscent of Robert Howard's depiction, are not altogether faithful.

For example, Howard used adjectives like "giant" and "massive" to describe Conan, which can be equally applied to Medb, but his likening Conan's agility and movements to that of a panther rather than a bull suggests that Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't the best choice to play the Cimmerian. Similarly, Medb's body actually more closely resembles that of Anna Nicole Smith when she posed for Playboy than it does someone like female bodybuilder, actress, and wrestler Nikki Fuller (though from the back Medb can look intimidating). Then too, Conan is often depicted in art and video as wearing minimalist garb--a loincloth or a short kilt--when in reality Howard usually described him as being more fully dressed, even wearing armor, especially after he became king. Medb does practice nudity, both heroic and otherwise, but she too tends to be fully dressed, though how that's defined varies from one culture to another, and Medb usually tries to blend in (as much as she can) wherever she currently resides. As well, she tends to wear the richest garments she can afford (when and where practical).

Outside of Howard's stories, Conan tends to be portrayed as grim and humorless, but in fact Howard gave him a "gigantic" sense of humor with a ready wit that could run the gamut from ironic to burlesque. In various stories Medb can be depicted as haughty, arrogant, prideful, vindictive, greedy, bloodthirsty, and grimly obsessed, but she is also a talented singer and storyteller, and possesses an irreverent, ribald, even bawdy sense of humor. She is a master of bardic satire. One constant of Howard's stories is Conan's straightforward manner and barbaric code of conduct that makes him more honorable than civilized people, but outside of them these traits tend to be glossed over, even ignored. Medb can be deceitful, treacherous, even merciless; she has slain helpless prisoners in cold blood, including her own father. However, her actions are guided by the ancient barbaric Irish warrior code: courage, loyalty, and generosity. And if at times she seems anything but, her personal honor is such that, once she gives her word she will die before she breaks it.

Even so, there are three important ways in which she differs from Conan. The first is intelligence. Conan is very smart; in fact, Howard depicts him as much smarter and cleverer than other authors and creators tend to portray. For example, he is a talented tactician and strategist, he speaks many languages, and he has advanced reading and writing skills. But for all that, Howard still depicted him as solving problems by beating them to death. Such is the nature of this kind of hero. In contrast, Medb does tend to react to threats aggressively, even preferring to fight her way out of a jam rather than think her way out, and she tends to leap before she looks, but unless caught by surprise she will analyze a situation to determine the best course of action, and as often as not that can include trickery, misdirection, delaying tactics, even negotiation.

The second concerns Conan's superstitious dread of magic. While he doesn't fear it, Howard portrays him as trying to avoid it as much as possible, and has never (to my knowledge) shown him using anything other than a magical artifact. Medb, on the other hand, not only embraced magic, she has learned all she can, and is adept at musical enchantment (through the bardic arts), druidry, sorcery (specializing in alchemy and thaumaturgy), and fairy glamour.

The third is that, while Conan is lecherous, he confines his sexual activity to wenching, and deflowering the damsels he rescues, especially princesses. In fact, Howard depicts him as being quite gallant and respectful. It is almost inconceivable that he would use sex as a weapon, to defeat his opponents. Granted, that may have been as much because of the mores of that time as any deliberate characterization choice, but I think it goes deeper than that. Medb has no such scruples. Her prototype, Queen Maeve, is understood to be a euhemerized sovereignty goddess whose province included both warfare and fertility. As such, to say that Medb is lecherous is a gross understatement. Like Conan, she "wenches" and "deflowers" whenever she has the chance, but unlike him she is not adverse to using her naked body or her sexual magnetism to her advantage, either as a distraction, for intimidation, or even as a weapon in sexual combat. With a few exceptions, to my knowledge this is fairly unique in sword & sorcery, and even considering the possible exceptions, Medb uses her sexuality proactively, as a well-planned offensive maneuver, rather than reactively, as a form of self-defense. It seems to me that, it isn't so much that Conan does not consider it but that he wouldn't even think of it, because it would be so alien to his character.