{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"Far Fetched Fables No. 123 Spencer Ellsworth and Jeremy Szal","description":"“The Ifrit's Trial” by Spencer Ellsowrth\n\n(Originally published in Human Tales.)\n\nNoble courtiers, wazirs, Sultan and lovely Sultana, salaam. Such fanfare for a poor Ifrit you \nhave brought! I see you have seven red-robed sorcerers arrayed about the room, and seven \nwhite-robed holy men, each holding the seal of Suleyman whom the Hebrews called Solomon the \nWise, and chanting the psalms of David, may peace fall upon him. In the yards of the palace you \nhave arrayed seven times seven of these fork-bearded sorcerers, and seven times seven of these \nshaven holy men, and they each hold the seal and speak psalms and suras. After the time I have \nspent in your service, noble Sultan, do you think that I would be so foolish to not stand at my \ntrial? I am a foolish Ifrit, this much is true, but there is enough sense in my head of air and \nfire to know that I owe you an explanation.\n\nThis is the crime of which I stand accused: of my own malicious nature, I cast a wicked spell \nupon the Sultana Jalima and caused her to love me.\n\nSpencer Ellsworth lives in the top left corner of the USA, the Pacific Northwest, with his wife \nand three children. By day he works as a faculty/admin combo at a tribal college on a Native \nAmerican reservation; by night he writes fiction. His short fiction has appeared and is \nforthcoming at Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, F&SF, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many other \nplaces. His first novels, a space opera trilogy called Starfire, will be released in short \nincrements by Tor.com in 2017.\n\n\n\n“Last Age of Kings” by Jeremy Szal\n\n(Originally published in Fantasy Scroll Magazine #10.)\n\nFog approached the town.\n\nRoshar knew it would happen, but it was still unsettling to see it touch the outskirts of his \nhome. The day before, you could still see the fields. And the week before that Lithgard was \nstill visible if you looked hard enough. But they had all been swallowed up by the spectral fog \nthat scrubbed them out of existence.\n\nAnd soon it would be Northam’s turn.\n\nHe was almost glad that Robin would never have to see this.\n\nBorn in 1995 with a twisted sense of humor and a taste for craft beer, Jeremy Szal’s fiction and \nnonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in such venues as Nature, Nature: Physics, Abyss & \nApex, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and others. He is the fiction editor for a rubbish \nlittle-known podcast you probably haven't heard of called StarShipSofa, a Writers of the Future \nFinalist, and also has a useless BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing. He’s written multiple \nnovels and is on the hunt for literary representation. He carves out a living in Sydney, \nAustralia. Find him on Twitter at @jeremyszal or at his blog, jeremyszal.com.\n\n\n\nAbout the Narrators:\n\nHeath Miller is an actor from Perth, Western Australia. Often found in theaters, recording \nstudios, comedy clubs, television sets, convention centers, and YouTube videos, Heath currently \nfinds himself living on an island off the coast of Maine with two improbably large cats, one \nimprobably large dog, one rather small puppy, and a brace of regular-sized chickens. You can \nfollow him on Twitter at @zaboots or at heathmiller.net.\n\nMark \"The Encaffeinated One\" Kilfoil loves fiction, so much so that he's written some (such as \nthe Parsec-nominated Tainted Roses), read quite a lot (a library of over a thousand half-read \nbooks and growing), and now narrates it (sometimes actually recorded for others). He's found \nthat volunteering for a dozen years in radio was a decent way to get a full-time job as a \nProgram Director at a community radio station in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, but not \nsuch a great way to finish his thesis, so he stopped at a Masters in Computer Science. He can be \nheard frequently on CHSRfm.ca, and two of his shows regularly appear as podcasts, and can be \nfound at encaffeinated.ca and theweirdshow.com. He likes cats enough to pet them but not enough \nto own one, and computers enough to own several but pet none of them. He will someday write a \nmillion words, but at this rate, that will require life extension, so he eagerly awaits the \nability to upload into a computer, if that hasn't already happened and this is all only a \nsimulation.","author_name":"Far Fetched Fables"}