by John Bierce
On the banks of Lake Nelu, the Heir of Ithos, a creature that might have been human once, turned to face the ruined city that they had once known as the dark, known as their home. And insomuch as the Heir was capable of feeling anything but hunger and fear, they felt nostalgia twined with hate twined with fear of leaving, all aimed at the ruins of Imperial Ithos.
And it was there, as the Heir spent a few moments gazing out into the mists and the ruins that filled them, that the Heir readied itself to call the Wise Ones to this light place so they could be warm again.
And it was there, as the Heir began to look away from its former home, that it would never enter again, that they felt a sudden flare of pain that ended as quickly as their tragic life did.
And it was there, on the banks of Lake Nelu at dawn, as the light of the sun usurped the light of the lake entirely, that the Mage-Eater became the first being since the long-extinct Labyrinth Builders to thwart the plans of the Cold Minds. It was there that the Mage-Eater became the single greatest hero in the history of the Ithonian continent, of Anastis itself.
No one would ever know, of course. And even if someone managed to ask the Mage-Eater about it, it was doubtful that the tigress had any thoughts on the matter, save perhaps irritation at the Heir being so stringy.
Appendix: Galvachren’s Guide to Anastis
Annotated by [Redacted]
The world of Anastis should, by any account, be a hub for multiversal travelers. ([Redacted]’s note: Isn’t it, though?) There are more mana wells than nearly any other known inhabited world, with a preponderance of them being junction wells.
For some reason, however, the labyrinths on Anastis have run amok. They’re far deeper and more tangled than any others I’ve encountered, going far beyond the original design of the Weavers. Whether this is a result of the unusual characteristics of this universe’s Aether, or a result of how close to going aether critical this world is, is unknown. It’s also possible that the labyrinths are evolving over time. I’m curious what the Weavers would think of that, but, alas, we’ll never know. ([Redacted]’s note: Galvachren is, so far as we can tell, the only scholar to refer to the Labyrinth Builders as Weavers. We have no idea why. We remain fairly confident that he’s not old enough to have encountered the Labyrinth Builders— Galvachren might be ancient, but he’s no Cold Mind.)
Physical Overview: Anastis is disproportionately geologically active, even for a young world. Much of this can be attributed to Anastis’ preposterously large moon. Moon is a poor name, really, since Anastis and its moon actually orbit one another— it’s not significantly smaller than Anastis itself. This also results in the massive tides of Anastis, which have resulted in the unusual population distribution on the continents— sapients on Anastis only inhabit the coast atop seacliffs or other raised landforms. Atmospheric pressure is also marginally higher than most inhabited worlds— in combination with Anastis’ moon, this results in some truly impressive storm systems.
([Redacted]’s note: “impressive storm systems” is understating it.)
Anastis has recently exited an ice age, but it doesn’t seem to be thanks to interference by [redacted]. ([Redacted]’s note: The ice age is only geologically recent. To anyone else other than Galvachren, recent is a terrible adjective. And of course there’s no [redacted] presence— Anastis is one of our strongholds, not theirs.)
Ecological Overview: Anastis’ ecosystems are, to say the least, a mess. Remnants of the original ecosystem can still be found in some parts of the world— Ithos’ Endless Erg, Gelid’s great mudflats— but for the most part, it has been supplanted by invasive species that have poured out of Anastis’ countless labyrinths over the eons. I’ve personally identified species from dozens of known worlds, and countless more I don’t recognize.
There are at least a half dozen tool-using sapient species, and half again as many non-tool using sapients present. None are native to Anastis. This doesn’t count the numerous members of the “Great Powers” of Anastis that are the only representative of their species on Anastis. It also doesn’t count Aether mutations and [redacted] that can’t properly be counted as members of their species any longer. ([Redacted]’s note: Our assessments of the count differ from Galvachren’s, but this is, as usual, thanks to differing definitions of what counts as a species. Our official nomenclature also differs with who counts as [redacted]— while many of the Great Powers of Anastis can go toe to toe with [redacted], there’s more to becoming [redacted] than mere power. Galvachren, after all, is no [redacted], and, well... Anyhow, by our definition, there are no [redacted] on Anastis. Which is one of the reasons we established this as one of our stronghold worlds.)
The strangeness of what native life is still present leads me to hypothesize that Anastis originated in a relatively distant habitable reach of the multiverse, and that its connections have shifted over time.
There is a truly splendid diversity of spiders on Anastis. I could fill entire volumes on them. None are native, however.
Aetheric Overview: The Aether of Anastis is singularly unusual. While in many respects its Aether resembles a fairly typical liquid Aether world, there appears to be some process interfering with the free flow of Aether. Aether density is radically variable across Anastis, something usually only found in gaseous Aether environments. Even then, however, it’s seldom even close to the Aether density variance of Anastis. There are a few rival hypotheses as to why this occurs.
The most popular hypothesis points to the unusual number, depth, and complexity of Anastis’ labyrinths as the cause. While plausible sounding, an actual mechanism for this is seldom put forwards.
Another hypothesis claims that the Anastan Aether is thixotropic— that it responds to shocks by changing its viscosity. Shocks in this sense, of course, being heavy draws upon the Aether. The downside of this analysis, of course, is that no-one has ever felt said viscosity change.
There are a few other minor hypotheses to consider, ranging from the eccentric to the insane, but the last I find worthy of inclusion is that there is some sort of substrate through which the Anastan Aether flows. This is controversial, to say the least— there has never been direct evidence of any such substrate, and solid Aether is, to say the least, quite easy to perceive. Still, there is a marked similarity between the Anastan Aether flows and the movement of liquids in aquifers. ([Redacted]’s note: So far as we can tell, Galvachren was the originator of this hypothesis, but he shows his usual reticence in claiming credit for anything.)
Regardless, as a consequence of this, Anastans tend to do well as multiversal travelers. They tend to recover from Aether sickness far more quickly when traveling between worlds than natives of worlds with more stable Aether. It seems likely that the variable Anastan Aether density has acclimated their systems to an extent.
As an added benefit, Anastis is far less prone to Aether exhaustion than many other worlds. One city-state overusing its Aether will seldom even affect many of its neighbors.
The magic of Anastis is also unusually versatile in function— not on an individual level, where mages tend to have quite specific portfolios of power, but overall, it’s astonishingly diverse.
Political Overview: Thanks to the variable Anastan Aether density, political organization tends to lean towards smaller nation states and city states. While a few empires exist, they’re far less common on Anastis than other worlds. The lack of Aether exhaustion as a major threat to civilization also changes political interactions, though in a perhaps less easily definable manner. ([Redacted]’s note: What a polite way to say that Anastan politics are an unstable, constantly shifting mess of coups, civil wars, and assassinations.)
There is relatively little organized multiversal presence on Anastis. [Redacted] have planted none of their [redacted], [redacted] incursions are unknown, and the [redacted] has built no [redacted]. ([Redacted]’s note: We most certainly have, and Galvachren’s visited them. What’s he up to? Perhaps he thinks he’s doing us a favor by not lettin
g others know we’re here? We might be one of the weaker multiversal powers, but we’re not that weak], [Redacted] infections are a non-factor, and there are few [redacted] on Anastis. ([Redacted]’s note: there are no true [redacted] on Anastis. Again, it’s why we made it one of our stronghold worlds. Anastis’ Aether is inherently hostile to those belligerent, imbecilic godlings.) The Radhan are, as with most human worlds, present, though as is often the case, they have little idea how far their own civilization extends. There are a larger than normal number of demons on Anastis, but that’s simply a consequence of the numerous labyrinths. ([Redacted]’s note: It is, as always, exasperating trying to figure out who Galvachren considers to be a multiversal power. His list is considerably shorter than expected, and excludes quite a number of powers that we’d include. Most notably of course, Galvachren himself.)
Author’s Note on Tigers
I spent a long time researching man-eating tigers before I started writing this book, and you know what? Honestly, I had to make the Mage-Eater considerably less scary than actual man-eaters.
Take, for instance, the Champawat Tiger. Or, tigress, really. She was the single deadliest man-eater on record, killing and eating at least 436 humans, averaging one a week for over a decade in Nepal and India. (Some of scholars think the number is even higher- 436 is what we can reputably prove.)
Most man eaters are wounded tigers, who are no longer capable of hunting the more dangerous large game they prefer, like water buffalo, wild boar, and even occasionally rhino and elephants. The Champawat Tiger lost a number of her fangs to a gunshot wound. (Seriously, whoever labeled humans the most dangerous game was being a bit egotistical— we’re actually super easy to hunt, thanks to our relatively weak senses, slow movement, and lack of natural weapons.) The combination of old lingering wounds and expanding human presence is what generally drives most man-eaters to prey upon us.
It’s also notable that man-eating tigers, especially the Champawat Tiger, rarely attack at night, favoring the daylight. Though if they are inclined to attack at night, they wouldn’t have much trouble tearing through walls or doors to get to people. Tigers are by far the largest big cats, and they’re absurdly strong, even for their size. They can easily kill with a single bite or swipe of their paws.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of conflicting and unknown information about how tigers hunt. You don’t really want to get too close to that sort of thing, unless you want to risk pissing off the tiger. (Pissing off a hunting tiger or a mother tiger is a serious risk to tiger researchers, and often a fatal one.)
There is one major exception to the normal tiger hunting pattern- Sundarbans tigers. The Ylosa River Delta is in great part based off the tidal mangrove delta of the Sundarbans, in India and Bangladesh, where the world’s only population of active man-eaters live. For some reason, tigers there (and nowhere else we know of) consider humans a perfectly reasonable part of their diet, and an average of fifty people die to tiger attack in the Sundarbans per year— at least, that are recorded. Sundarbans tigers have been even recorded swimming out into the Bay of Bengal to steal people off of boats— tigers are magnificent swimmers.
There’s a lot of theories as to why Sundarbans tigers are the way they are, including from the fact the only water they have is brackish, but it’s a bit of a long-winded discussion to have here.
The Mage-Eater is something of a mix of a Sundarbans tiger and a standard man-eater, with a bit of a vindictive streak that I think is quite reasonable to attribute to a cat. I also feel quite comfortable speculating that cats would be able to see magic if it were real.
Man-eating tigers are just too terrifying for me to have included without toning them down a bit— the reality is just too unbelievable.
For how horrifying man-eaters are, it’s important to note that most tigers aren’t man-eaters, and vastly prefer to avoid humans at all times. We should respect tigers, yes, but right now, they also need our help. Thanks to habitat loss and poaching, tiger numbers in the wild are dangerously low. They’ve started slowly climbing again after decades and decades of precipitous losses, but there are still less than four thousand alive in the wild worldwide.
Tigers are an essential part of their ecosystems, and, like other apex predators, serve a vital function in regulating herbivore populations. Losing them entirely would cause incalculable environmental damage. And, on a more sentimental level, a world without wild tigers would be a far sadder, less magical place.
I’ll be donating a percentage of the proceeds of this book to wild tiger conservation. (I normally donate 10% of my income to charity anyhow, so this will be on top of that.) If you have a little spare cash, I highly encourage you to do the same— you can, among other routes, adopt a tiger through the World Wildlife Fund.
I never want to see a wild tiger up close, but nor would I ever want to live in a world without any.
Afterword
Thank you so much for reading The Lost City of Ithos, Book 4 of Mage Errant!
We’re moving into the endgame now- from here on out things are going to get crazy! Mage Errant is currently planned at 6 books and a short story collection, and with any luck, I’ll have book 5, The Siege of Skyhold, out by the end of this year. (It’s not like I’ve got much else to do at the moment but write— COVID-19 is back in Vietnam, so we’re all back in lockdown at the moment. And there’s only so many videogames I can play.)
If you enjoyed The Lost City of Ithos, please consider leaving a review online! Reviews, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, can make or break an indie author like myself.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], on Twitter (@john_bierce), or on Reddit (u/johnbierce). For news about the Mage Errant series, other upcoming works, and random thoughts about fantasy, worldbuilding, and whatever else pops in my mind, check out www.johnbierce.com. The best way to keep updated on new releases is to sign up for my mailing list, which you can find on my website. You can also discuss Mage Errant and my other books on the r/MageErrant subreddit!
I’ve also have a Patreon, which can be found at patreon.com/johnbierce. There, I post monthly Mage Errant short stories. (Including the story of The Wanderer, who gets briefly mentioned in this book!)
Edited by Paul Martin.
Cover art by Tithi Luadthong.
Cover design by James of GoOnwrite.com
Special thanks to my beta readers Jacob Perkins, Francis James Blair, Travis Riddle, Sarah Lin, Sundeep Agarwal, Eliot Moss, and Adam Skinner.
Additional special thanks to my Patreon backers Otto Schloegl, Diallo Bennett, Josh Fink, Andrew Alves, Andrew Cogan, Jeff Chang, Dylan Alexander, Cortney Railsback, David Kidd, Jacob William Perkins, Robert Rodabaugh, Jeff Petkau, Stephen Neville, Paolo Ruiz, Mikal Hofstad, Andreas F. Sørensen, Jeremy Miller, Kyle Matthews, Anika Howard, Andy Barnett, James Titterton, Ruediger Pakmor, Daniel Williams, Ryan Campbell, Cory Leigh Rahman, Joseph Lee, Scott C. Adams, Zachary Tilson, Nathaniel Ownbey, Marcus Thomas, and Florian Kotnik.
If you enjoyed this book, here are a few others you might enjoy:
Evan Winter’s The Rage of Dragons: This book is, well, intense. It’s a pretty classic vengeance tale setup, with a boy determined to avenge the unjust death of his father, and throwing himself wholesale into training to achieve his goals. Where this book shines is when it comes to execution- Winter does a fantastic job of exploring the emotional depths of vengeance, and the struggles real life can present in staying on that path. Not to mention, the African-inspired Bronze Age setting is one of the coolest settings I’ve encountered in a long, long time.
Sarah Lin’s The Brightest Shadow: Wuxia meets epic fantasy. Absolutely fantastic first volume in a doorstopper epic fantasy series. Fast-paced action, fascinating cultures and races, and, best of all, it’s one of the few fantasy books I’ve encountered set on a prairie!
Shami Stovall’s Frith Chronicles series: Follows a gravedigger’s son, Volke, as he seeks to become an Arc
anist- a magic user whose power comes from bonding to magical creatures. Rather than the phoenix he’d been seeking, however, he finds himself linked to a very different magical creature, as he’s put toe to toe against devious foes and a mysterious magical plague.
F. James Blair’s Bulletproof Witch series: Fast paced fantasy western series following a pistol witch who’s hunting the demon that killed her family. Talking horses, magic duster jackets, demon possessed outlaws, and magical gunfights galore.
Blake Charlton’s Spellwright trilogy: A fascinatingly clever and original setting, where magic is done via magical languages, where misspellings can have disastrous consequences. Which means that few look kindly on the protagonist, who happens to be magically dyslexic.
John Bierce’s The Wrack: Hey, look, it’s one of mine! The Wrack is a depressing standalone epidemiological fantasy novel following a plague across the continent of Teringia. It… was pretty surreal releasing it alongside COVID-19, to say the least. Definitely not my plan there. The Wrack is part of the same multiverse, The Aetherverse, as Mage Errant, and you’ll notice some really interesting and unusual crossovers between the two— though you don’t need to read one to read the other.
If you’d like to learn more about tigers, I highly recommend:
Dane Huckelbridge’s No Beast So Fierce: A history of the Champawat Tiger, the deadliest killer of humans in history.
Sy Montgomery’s Spell of the Tiger: The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans: A fascinating exploration of the strange world of the Sundarbans mangrove forests, the man-eating tigers within it, and the beliefs and traditions of the people living alongside them.