Curiosity and the Cat of the Imperial Capital

Grimalkin and Hegemone are rather unlikely roommates—a scientist and a mage, a biped and a cat. 

Grimalkin is an exiled cat from Sine with a penchant for magic and a love of teaching. Hegemone is a retired military leader and scientific researcher who thinks very little of magic.

But when the military asks Hegemone to return and finish the research that she started—research that has led to the destruction of at least one city--the two must decide together if they can stand by and watch the imperial military carry out dangerous plans. 

This story is set perhaps a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand years before the events of Stars and Soil. 

This story was originally written as part of Campfire Communities "Story Seeds Competition" in Spring 2024.  Each entrant was given a random writing prompt and had 30 days to write a 3500-word short story. This story won "Best Worldbuilding." The full anthology of Story Seed Winners can be read for free here.

---

Content Warnings: War, military expeditions, PTSD,  prescribed psychiatric medications, mass destruction

Word Count: 3500

Page count: 15 pages

Original Pub Date: July 2024.

Cover design: Dax Murray

---

Read More Scions and Shadows Stories:

Or, the entire series so far in this omnibus:

NO AI TRAINING NOTICE - RIGHTS RESERVED

I do not consent to my work being uploaded to sites that are frequently scraped by genAI companies. I do not consent to my work being used to train genAI or LLMs or other neural technologies. This book is provided DRM-free with the understanding that the reader will not knowingly train LLMs/genAI with it or make it available somewhere that can reasonably be expected to be scraped for the purpose of training genAI. I do not consent to my work being used to train genAI for public or private use.