The Madness of Kings
by Gene Doucette
Castles and courts, kings and queens, peasants, swordsmen, and the occasional airship. Welcome to the Middle Kingdoms, the most peculiar place on Dib, where the royalty all look like one another and also like the five founding gods of creation. Nine feudal theocracies that haven't embraced new technology in three thousand years, the Middle Kingdoms is a land that never changes, surrounded by a world that changes constantly. A Death in the Family Battine Alconnot made a promise to return to Castle Totus for the Feast of Nita. She'd very much like to break that promise, except that it was made on her mother's deathbed, to her sister Porra. Disappointing Porra Alcon wouldn't be wise under any circumstance, but it's doubly so given she's also Queen Porra, wife to King Ho-Kenson, sovereign of Totus kingdom. Batt hasn't felt genuinely welcome—in court or among her own family—since she was a child,...