Reflections in Dark Epic Fantasy
Von is cast into the pages of Ananael, the Order’s tome ofsecret knowledge. However, his venture into the past takes an unexpected turnas he awakens within a cosmic void in the presence of the eternal being, whogrants him perspective through others woven through his existence. Yet beforehe may commence his time-altering quest, a trial of discovery, revelation, andhorror surrounding his origin awaits him.
Benson’s monstrous heart sews the seeds of a vile pastbrimming with betrayal and hate. Through unimaginable deceptions and buriedsecrets, familial bonds once forged from love, honor, and acceptance areupended and broken forever. The souls of integral births, sprouting frompillaged and neglected foundations, unfurl a path towards disarray.
Distorted memory fragments challenge Von’s grip on reality,and the reveal of a horrid truth ignites a vicious fury of vengeance. Thoughhis quest for answers falters along the way, he finds help from an unexpectedally. Meanwhile, a mysterious power awakens within Navaryn, putting her at oddswith both her friends and herself. And as the motivations of Celestine’s leaderbecome questionable, her suspicions involving her role within the Halryncontinue to grow.
As the disparate worlds of Celestine and Daeva teeter on thebrink of war, Von and Navaryn are drawn together by unseen forces. Twodestinies, once parallel, now collide. But where bloodshed beckons, a valiantact of courage challenges the course of their fates.
At last, an uneasy silence fell upon the sopping wetgrounds, though the shambled arena creaked eerily. Von quickly Paralleled tothe ground and proceeded to walk toward Navaryn’s limp body lying in a muddycrater several meters away. As he gradually brought his power down, his clawsbegan to retract, and his horns receded into his skull. Clutching his side ashe trotted along, he heard clamoring voices in the distance and a distinctivepair of boots running through the mud towards him.
“Von!” shouted a sober Claymar. “Wow, you’re alright.” Heran to his side and acted as a crutch to hold him upright. “That was, uh,really something back there. Care to explain what all that was?”
“Later,” said Von exhaustedly. “Where’s your uncle?”
“On his way, most likely. He nabbed Illiya and had her scoutfor other Celestines while you were off playing with the shimmery blue one. Whydo you ask?”
“I need to know how much time I have,” Von replied.
“Time? For what?” he asked, peering ahead at Navaryn. Hiseyes widened as she slowly began to stir.
“Hold it, Clay,” ordered Von, pressing his hand against hischest to break his stride.
“What are you worried about? You got her!”
“It’s not that.”
Claymar scrunched his face and asked suspiciously, “Thenwhat is it?”
“She’s strong,” said Von. “Immensely strong. She very wellcould have killed me.”
“Uh, but you’re the one still standing, are you not? Can’tbe that strong,” he teased.
“Something happened, though. She lost control. Her powerspiked with mine, but didn’t stay with her.”
“Ha! You almost sound like you feel sorry for her.”
Von ignored Claymar’s remarks and walked towards Navaryn,who was slowly rising to her knees with her back to him. Claymar followedbehind, but Von turned to him with a furious eye.
Claymar folded his arms and asked, “W-what are you doing?”
The rain calmed, and the moon peeked through the partingclouds, casting a peaceful light onto the glistening, moist ground. Von drewcloser, catching silver scintillations atop the bloodied and scorched wounds onher back.
Navaryn winced in pain as she struggled to rise to her feet,chattering her teeth as the cold, wet mud chilled her bruised skin. Assquelching footsteps neared, she spun around. “W-who’s there?” she uttered,shielding the moonlight from her eyes with her forearm.
Navaryn’s inquisition made Von stop in his tracks. As hereyes adjusted to the razor-sharp rays of light over his silhouette, she quicklyrecognized the warm glow of his crimson eyes.
“Stop! Don’t hurt him!” Navaryn cried out.
Her strange and sudden outburst jolted Von. He looked aroundto find who she was pleading to, but saw no one.
“Wh-what happened to me?” Navaryn asked herself as she gazeddown at her hands.
The confusion in her voice affirmed Von’s earlierassessment. “You’re fine now,” he assured. “You’re back.”
Navaryn’s eyes widened as she looked back up at Von. Withthe simplest of words, uttered with a palpable coldness, he gave her comfortand validation. In him, she found the first person able to convey anunderstanding of what she was going through when all others couldn’t begin to.An essence dwelt within her. One that seized control of her body once triggeredinto play, and left her only with the ability to spectate. A similar plightrang true for Von regarding his notorious beastly transformation. Yet, as hissecond encounter with Navaryn unfolded, his energy had learned to work intandem with the essence that would otherwise overcome him. Von and Navarynbecame locked in a stare just as before, only this time without the presence ofaggression. They saw themselves in each other, in a reflection no longerdistorted.
“Hey, Von!” Claymar called out. “Um, not sure what you’redoing over there, but you should know the cavalry is incoming.”
Sidwell approached with his entourage of soldiers and avexed group of eastern Daeva in tow. As the last of his squadron funneled outof the arena, many of the ceremony attendees emerged from hiding within thesurrounding brush and trees. Mixed in among the crowd were the rest of Daeva’sleaders, Killian, Morgan, Adair, and Godric, with Merisek alongside them.Weaving through the approaching crowd was Joro, whose surreptitious footstepsevaded the spotlight. Although the chattering among the crowd was indistinct,even for Von’s hearing, he could feel the tension steadily rising.
Sidwell stroked his gray, scraggly goatee, suspicious of thepair’s peculiar exchange. Marching with mighty strides, flaunting his prowess,Illiya approached him from the side.
“Have you done what I asked?”
“Yes, sir,” Illiya replied. “I’ve scouted thoroughly, andthere’s no sign of any Celestine formations in the surrounding area. She seemsto be the only one.”
“A spy. Just as I suspected. And a dumb one at that. Shetipped a bartender with Celestine coin,” he replied with a chuckle as hedismissed his lieutenant.
Sidwell and his entourage moved in to surround Navaryn.
“Well, it took you long enough. But you managed to take downthe Celestine without incident to life. That’s as much of a ‘thank you’ thatyou’ll get out of me,” Sidwell uttered to Von before addressing the chatteringcrowd. “People of Daeva! You’ve now witnessed our realm’s very threat with yourown eyes…”
The Chimera Snare:Fragments
The Chimera Snare Book 1
-Winner: 2025International Impact Book Awards – Fantasy-2nd Place: 2025 BookFest Awards – Fiction- Dark Fantasy-Winner: 2024 Indies Today Awards – Best Urban Fantasy-Winner: 2024 Literary Titan Gold Book Awards: Fiction-Finalist: 2024 Literary Global Fiction/Debut & Dark Fantasy Sci-fi-Book Nerdection “Excellent Read”
For Rayshell and her best friend Trish, senior year of highschool is going to hell in a handbasket. The feud between Celestine and Daevais bleeding into their world. When a mysterious visitor infiltrates her dreams,Rayshell is thrust into a realm of profound, otherworldly secrets. Together,Rayshell and Trish uncover the unbelievable—they are the living vessels for twobanished Celestine guardians.
Amidst mystical recollections and a wondrous magic system that shatters theveneer of their everyday lives, the two friends embark on a journey againsttime to connect with the Celestine guardians’ allies in hopes of freeing themfrom their imprisonment. Simultaneously, the shadows cast by Daeva darken. Thenotorious outlaw, Merisek, has positioned himself to claim dominion over theOrder of Existence—a trio of powerful artifacts capable of reshaping reality.Armed with two of these relics, Merisek races against the emergence of theCelestine guardians to claim the third. The stage is set for a showdown that willdetermine the fate of existence itself.
Rayshell and Trish are all that stand between Merisek and his unhinged desireto twist the fabric of reality into his making. As the threads of destinyunravel, the question looms: who will be the author of existence, and whatprofound truths will be unveiled in the final, decisive act?
Clay UrnPublishing * Amazon * Apple* B&N* Bookbub* Goodreads
Breathing anxiously, Navaryn clomped atop a patterned runnercarpet in her dirty boots. The gilded elements within the maroon corridorflashed as she passed under the waving candlelight of each chandelier. Thoughshe tried her hardest to refrain, her eyes wandered back to the series ofhaunting paintings hanging on the walls. From treasured times with Von,Lowenna, and Claymar to bouts of training and battles in Opiri and Celestine,each painting depicted a memory from Navaryn’s past, seen through her eyes.Brimming with tears, she continued down the damned corridor with no end insight and no way to turn back. Behind her, a cloud of darkness kept a closepace and consumed all that she passed.
Navaryn’s heart fell to her toes as the next painting cameinto view. Captured inside the ornate golden frame was Von lying shirtless onhis back, in a moment of ecstasy. His lips, delicately parted, wore the glossysheen of her passionate kiss, and his tense red eyes were rolled toward theheadboard behind him. The very memory was etched within her mind so profoundlythat looking upon it in such an outright fashion set her heart ablaze.Confused, distraught, and with no other choice but to press forward, Navarynsprinted ahead unheedingly.
The corridor eventually ended at a remarkably ornate, darkwooden door. With the cloud of looming darkness twisting behind her, Navarynwiped away her tears and steadied her breathing as she pushed it open. Amidstthe scant candlelight, the gilded elements within the capacious room twinkledlike gems inside a cave. She carefully scanned the room until she happened upona curvy figure cloaked in elegant red and golden brocade standing by the farwall.
“Hello?” she called, but no answer came.
Navaryn turned back to the door and found a wall in itsplace. Apprehensively, she placed her fingertips where she remembered thedoorjamb to be only moments before. As she motioned to approach her obscured,gilded companion, her gaze fell upon an immense painting hanging in the middleof the joining wall. One after another, the candles around the room caughtfire.
With a racing heart, Navaryn muttered, “What is this?”
Standing arm in arm in garish, clinquant garb, Navaryn sawherself beside Kumiko as they gestured proudly to a Celestine crowd below. Thefalse instance and her disturbing, unfamiliar expression, painted as ifcaptured through a spectator’s eyes, sent chills down her spine.
Navaryn turned away but found the very same toothy, pridefulsmile mocking her from within the other paintings hanging on the walls. Herface soured in disbelief as she skimmed over them. She was depictedprominently, boasting her pristine Celestine wings beside Benson and Kumiko,sitting tall above the Halryn council. Just as well, she found herself picturedbeside Kumiko in a catalog of moments when they had started a family. Yet, nota single painting in the cursed room housed her beloved friends Lowenna andClaymar, her dearest Von, Aalrija, Fallon, or the number of others who held aspecial place in her heart.
Dizzy from a fit of rapid respiration, Navaryn struggled tomaintain her composure. When her eyes fell back upon the painting of herpregnant belly, draped in fine silvery velvet and lace, she frantically rantoward the embellished figure. Through teary eyes, her vision quaked with awhite blur, and she lost her balance under her clumsy feet.
“What is this place?!” shouted Navaryn as she gripped theshimmery train of the woman’s dress.
The sound of Navaryn’s incessant crying filled the silentroom. Lost in her despair, she felt the fabric slip from her hands as the womanturned around, gently hushing her. Her eyes jolted open once the delicate cooscaught her ear. Fearful for what she knew she would see, she slowly raised herface to the woman.
“Everything that surrounds you here in this room will now beset into motion,” said the woman, placing her decorated hands upon Navaryn’scheeks. “For our imperator commands it.”
The gentle voice and placid countenance, framed in aheaddress of gemstones and twinkling gold, was undeniably her own.
Navaryn recoiled in disbelief. “Our imperator?Benson?”
She watched the sparkling ruby-painted lips of herdoppelganger curl into a smile. “Look around you. Your imperator is no longerBenson.”
The ominous statement immediately coaxed heavy tears to hereyes. “I want nothing to do with anything here!” she roared with flashing whiteeyes. “This is not my life!”
Navaryn’s decorated doppelganger gestured toward a multitudeof paintings that suddenly materialized from the shadows. Following a lightchuckle, she replied, “You’ve never had a choice in the matter. It’s a shameyou didn’t realize it sooner.”
One by one, the paintings morphed perspective, appearing asthough they were moments Navaryn had experienced firsthand, like the ones thathung in the corridor.
“What’s happening?!” Navaryn shouted, then jumped to herfeet.
One haunting image in the distance immediately grabbed herattention. While she approached the painting in disbelief, her doppelgangerstrolled to the far wall, placed her hand against a door concealed by darkness,then saw herself out of the room without another word.
Husband & Wife author duo Shannon Vierra & EdwardAyllon write under the pen name S &E Black. Together, they craft the award-winning series, The Chimera Snare.They share a deep appreciation for music and credit a great number of bands andartists for inspiring their writing journey. Currently, they live in thegreater Chicago area amidst a rich and diverse culture with their clowder ofrescue cats.
Shannon is anurban gardener and an avid seed collector. In the makeup community, she goes bythe moniker zoomzoommacaron and hosts an international, zombie-themed makeupcollab called the #zombabescollab. She also enjoys anime, horror movies, craftbeer & kombucha, cooking (and eating), sunbathing, photography, and singingbadly. Music fuels Shannon’s many passions, especially writing and creatingart. She credits music with saving her life on multiple occasions in herteenage and young adult years.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Edward first discovered the joys ofcreative writing through his early high school studies, and has spent manyyears exploring and developing a deep appreciation for the arts. Since firstcollaborating with his wife, Shannon, he has sprouted a passion and true affinityfor storytelling and crafting literature. In addition to refining his skill increating written works, his other interests include playing bass guitar,listening to music, and dabbling in photography.
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