WORK IN PROGRESS: Heartburgh
Heartburgh: Part 1
Duke Percheval stood on the steps of Heartburgh Castle and looked down on the town green in front of him, where half-a-dozen wagons were lined…
Heartburgh: Part 2
Geoffrey found Flame Bunyips in the stables, brushing one of the horses. “There you are,” he said. “Who, me?” said Flame, turning around. “No, the…
Heartburgh: Part 3
The atheneum turned out to be a drafty old library. Geoffrey arranged the stack of books on the table in front of him. He couldn’t…
COMPLETED STORY: Krimspiracy
Krimspiracy: Part 1
Damp darkness surrounded the back door of the Aldwich Row Community Center. It was colder by the door, with a mist rising up from somewhere…
Krimspiracy: Part 2
“So let me get this straight,” said Ellison, looking around the office. “You want us to find evidence that Krim World administrators kidnapped your leader…”…
Krimspiracy: Part 3
Taenaran the Bard confirmed that he saw nobody else upstairs except Brother Fulke before the rehearsals began, then nobody else went up and down all…
Krimspiracy: Part 4
“Apparently, to have a completely realistic physics engine, you need a computer as big as Krim itself,” said Ellison, walking up to Matilda’s table at…
Krimspiracy: Part 5
“You should have come and talked to me first,” the waitress said. She came up to the banister, keeping Ellison between her and Matilda, and…
Krimspiracy: Part 6
After getting back to city center, Ellison veered off for the central gate while Matilda continued down Knots Hollow Way, to the rooming house on…
Krimspiracy: Part 7
Returning to Krim never got any easier. Even knowing that the fleas were all in his head, the minute he stepped through the gate, his…
Krimspiracy: Part 8
In the hallway outside Remember Keturah Bohannon’s office Ellison stopped to check the floor. “Do you see any scuff marks?” he asked Matilda. “You mean, from…
Krimspiracy: Part 9
Matilda and Ellison exited the Aldwich Row Community Center through same back door that they had come in through. There was a line of people…
Krimspiracy: Part 10
The wench avatar was a big mistake. Barking Street was much shorter when Ellison had walked up it while wearing the assassin outfit, with its…
Krimspiracy: Part 11
Ellison and Matilda met with the Round Krim Society late the following morning to deliver the bad news. The brothers were in the main meeting…
Krimspiracy: Part 12
Ellison stepped through the gate in his new avatar, wearing a randomly-generated face and a default adventurer outfit. He looked around as if he were…
Krimspiracy: Part 13
Ellison didn’t know if the cult was watching him or not, so he followed the recommendation to go the King’s Arms and asked loud and…
Krimspiracy: Part 14
Ellison lunged towards the fire, trying to grab the poison capsule, but it was gone. One of the guards immediately grabbed him by the back…
Krimspiracy: Part 15
The accountant rubbed his wrists and staggered around the fire. “Did you have to kill them all?” Ellison stepped over one of the corpses, working…
COMPLETED STORY : Krim Cross
1. Perchance a missive
“World of Battle doth have much to be admired.” The speaker raised his flagon of ale, spilling some on the bar patrons around him. "To…
2. Mayhaps a petty chare
Ellison walked away, not glancing back. If Usman was going to stab him in the back, Ellison wanted it to be a surprise. He didn’t…
3. Back from the dead
One benefit of dying, Ellison thought, was that he got a fresh new avatar. A washed avatar. An avatar wearing new, clean clothes.
4. The oldest artifact
"The man had me kidnapped and tortured." Ellison tried to dig his heels in but Matilda easily dragged him out of the Barley Mow Inn…
5. All fun and games till someone gets their throat slit
Rodge Bannister led them to the other side of the room, where heavy curtains hung across the entire back wall, a guard at each corner.…
6. The list of suspects
“Well, I’ll leave you to do whatever it is you need to do. Let me know when we can move the body.” Rodge frowned at…
7. Time to see the wenches
Before leaving, Ellison and Matilda had a chat with some of Rodge’s security team. They weren’t happy that Rodge had brought in outsiders to deal…
8. The street of ill repute
Marylebone Place was a street of ill repute. Not because of its various houses of prostitution but because it was a street that saw a…
9. Time enough for love
It was getting late in the afternoon, but Derek decided he had enough time to walk them down to Lothbury Street. “I haven’t had a…
10. Horse sense
“They’re the Gang of Four,” said Matilda. “They’re famous. They case their targets, figure out who has access but doesn’t interact with other people much,…
11. Stabbing, the old-fashioned way
“I really thought you were onto something there,” Two Teeth Tom told Ellison. “One of the maids saw Gorehair and the other two walking back…
12. Around the corner
Ellison stepped out through the front gate of the Armforge guild, onto Knots Hollow Way, and debated about whether to head straight back to the…
13. A cold walk to a dank place
Two Toe Toe continued his circumnavigation of the Armstrong Guild compound, but Ellison had had enough. He was tired, and his bones hurt from having…
14. As the bowl turns
“Don’t look now, but there’s a table at the back with four guys at it,” Matilda told Ellison in a low voice. “I know. My…
15. First one trash chute, then another
The four thieves laughed in relief when Matilda left with the two other warrior women and ordered another round of beers for the road. Then…
16. A steaming pile
“I suspect that Gervis has been finding opportunities to climb that back watch tower and drop the stolen goods down to one of his accomplices…
17. Start with the toes
The rain had ended by the time Ellison left the guild and he went straight back to his room at the inn and fell deep…
18. A long view off a steep cliff
Ellison didn’t stick around for any of the torture. He didn’t think it would be particularly useful, first of all. Back in the old day,…
19. Not to be taken via enema
On the way back through Krim’s welcome area, Ellison took the opportunity to reset his avatar, so he wouldn’t have to go back in wearing…
20. Send for the fishmonger
Rodge Bannister didn’t want to offer a reward for the return of the Jewel of Rhotar. They’d recovered everything except a dozen or so of…
21. Pretzels, fur coats and trash chutes
The city hall was, in theory, a great place for secret meetings. Krim administrators didn’t allow any hanky panky inside the building. They had no…
22. Fork full of skirrets
“Wait at the entrance,” Matilda told Ellison as she walked into the inn. “Don’t let him go upstairs or into the kitchen.” She pantomimed a…
23. Not bad for an amateur
Matilda left, to put up more reward signs and to listen for gossip about the jewel. Ellison stayed behind. With Rodge down in the basement,…
24. A spider in the corner
Quimby Plummer, owner of the Barley Mow Inn, refused to tell Ellison where Donna lived. “I know you’re working for that Rodge guy,” Quimby said.…
25. Angel with a jewel
Why would Rodge hire someone to steal a blank notebook? Ellison stopped under a streetlight and pulled it out of his pocket. He felt the…
26. Ale, wenches and minstrels
Ellison put his hands in his pants pockets. He could feel the notebook in one of the inside side pockets of his jacket, just under…
Krim Tales
COMPLETED STORY: The Pocoto Investment
The Pocoto Investment: Part 1
“And finally we’ve come to the worst of Krim’s fine drinking establishments, the King’s Armpit.” Matilda Scarletstrike swung open the door so that Ellison Davo and his brother, Jerald Rex Crew, could walk in. Jerald hesitated in the doorway. The…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 2
“It’s a little firm called Pocoto,” said Norbert. Ellison restrained himself from giving Matilda a high five. That’s what they were looking for. Instead, he walked closer to Jerald and Norbert and pulled at Jerald’s sleeve. “We turn left up…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 3
“We only had a small window of opportunity to grab him,” Matilda explained to the client, Count Simond. “The building had multiple exits. If we’d taken the time to get enough bodies together to guard all the exits, we would…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 4
Matilda and Ellison walked Jerald back to the main gate. The company he ran, Crewe Investigations, now had its main office in a business district on Facepage. Jerald had been renting space in a nice office park, but that world…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 5
The docks were located to the west of city center, where Krim River flowered into the Bay of Krim. They were easy enough to find. Ellison could simply follow the fishy smell. Krim’s owners were remarkably unimaginative when it came…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 6
At the Crow’s Nest Cafe, Ellison and Matilda grabbed beers and a bowl of fried skirrets and sat at one of the two tables on the balcony with a clear view of the docks. They could see Ander’s ship down…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 7
Ellison deliberately avoided looking at Pompas’ ship as they walked past it, for fear of somehow spooking him. “So, going over the edge of the world, huh!” he said, in a extra-high pitch. “I don’t know, the weather looks a…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 8
“I’m sure my boyfriend will be back any minute now,” Ellison said. “I’m not in the way, am I?” The sailor grunted and looked up at the setting sun, the same way that someone on a different, more civilized, world…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 9
Ellison got to the Simond Fine Art Gallery first, even though he made a detour to the Central Plaza so that he could pop back out through the main gate and change into his regular avatar. For a few minutes,…
The Pocoto Investment: Part 10
Two weeks later, Ellison and Matilda met up with Simond and the other investors at the docks to see the boat set sail. She’d been renamed the Nina. Ellison had been following the gossip in the bars. After Pompas had…
COMPLETED STORY: The Assassin’s Assassin
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 1
“Have you heard the latest?” Matilda Scarletstrike took one of Ellison’s greasy, overly-salted deep-fried skirrets. The skirret was a stringy, pale root vegetable about the…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 2
There were two guards on duty at the assassins’ guild house. They’d beefed up security a bit since the murder. Ellison didn’t recognize either of…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 3
Ellison had never been inside the Paladins of Death guild hall before. The entry hall was two stories high and was a museum of artifacts…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 4
“Hey!” Just outside the doorway, Gus threw up his hands. “Warren already told you that he didn’t see who attacked him!” The chancellor grudgingly nodded.…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 5
Ellison met up with Matilda again back at the Barley Mow Inn. And she immediately started in about the elephant. “It’s a smallish elephant, but…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 6
“So it all hinges on Ismena’s testimony.” Ellison leaned over the hand-written statement from Gus’s girlfriend and sole alibi. “Do you think she’ll be credible?”…
The Assassin’s Assassin Part 7
The guild had rearranged the furniture in the member’s lounge for the hearing. The couches and arm chairs had been pushed back against the walls,…
COMPLETED STORY: The Tapestry
The Tapestry Part 1
Fried skirrets. Fried cabbage. Fried skirrets with cabbage. Cabbage soup. Ellison Davo stared at the chalkboard with the day’s menu. His stomach growled. Last night’s…
The Tapestry Part 2
“Your wife is trapped inside the rug?” Ellison stepped away from Bob to get a better look at the man. He didn’t look crazy, but,…
The Tapestry Part 3
Back on Banking Street, Ellison shifted Bella’s framed portrait from one shoulder to another. He should have argued harder for removing the canvas from the…
The Tapestry Part 4
Ellison teleported to Facepage’s Main Street. Eventually, everybody came through here. Even people who hated Facepage dropped by, because their friends lived here, or because…
Krim Books
COMPLETED NOVELLA: Time of the Meatheads
1. Anything but McMeaty’s
Mitchell got to McMeaty's the normal way. He walked out of his real house, through his very real gate in his real white picket fence…
2. Roses are White, Bloodstains are Red
Donna looked at her reflection in the shop window. It was dark inside, so it was almost a perfect mirror.
3. Saturday night at the Barley Mow
The four of them — Charlie, Mitchell, and two other guys — walked through the gate and into Krim proper. The rest of the bachelor…
4. Death cures what ales you
Donna leaned over the bar to peer into the mirror on the back wall. One of her curls was starting to droop. She wet a…
5. All the way down
Everyone was staring. The other party attendees. The wenches. The musicians. Charlie. And Harmon, of course.
6. Meatless Monday
Fried skirrets and egg, skirrets and cabbage, and slaughtered cow parts. Donna rattled off the lunch menu like an old pro. Her fourth day and…
7. Chop you up with a rusty knife
"I'm not a weirdo stalker," Mitchell told the bartender at the Bouncing Octopus. The tavern was about twenty-minutes from Krim's gate. That was about how…
8. A bite at the Dirty Apple
Michell crossed the street to the Dirty Apple. There were more bars further down, he was sure of it, but he was equally sure that…
9. Crystal clear and present danger
"I couldn't be any clearer." The tavern's day manager slapped her hand on the table in front of Donna. "The salt goes into the white…
10. The sum of ale fears
The coach rolled down one street, made a turn, and down another. Mitchell peered out the window as the gate faded from view. The gate…
11. The ancient scepter of Krimtheros
The door to the King's Arms banged open and Donna, startled, dropped the stack of souvenir coasters she was in the process of distributing to…
12. A meeting at McMeaty’s
It was Wednesday, so Mitchell had the day off. For a while, he puttered around in his garden, watching the dragonfly drones nibble at the…
13. The Butcher of Banking
Mitchell rushed through the Krim main gate, through the central plaza, across the street, then paused in front of the King's Arms to catch his…
Blog
With a new cover and a Labor Day promotion, Krim Times hit Amazon’s Best Sellers in Two-Hour Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads today, reaching spot 29 on the top free books list.
All 13 installments of the Time of the Meatheads novella are now up. The full text will remain free until it goes through final editing and is posted on Amazon. This is also an opportunity for early readers to comment on the text and suggest improvements and corrections before it goes live. You can even …
Final installment posted in Time of the Meatheads Read More »
ABOUT MARIA KOROLOV
Maria Korolov is a science fiction writer who covers cybersecurity, AI and extended reality as an award-winning tech journalist at her day job. Check out her author page on Amazon or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. She is also the publisher of MetaStellar, a new online magazine of speculative fiction.