Lich's Glasses: Legends of Steve the Wizard Episode 2

By Brett P. S.

With his glasses broken, Steve’s powers dwindle and his reading ability halts. With no prescriptions in Alestra, Steve seeks out the advice of a creepy old man in a tavern who offers him a deadly mission. The Dread Lich Speculo, a beast from the beginning of time, awaits the heroes on their quest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brett P. S.
• Release date: Jul 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463006979

Brett P. S.

Brett Sawyer (1986), born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, is an indie author who writes short stories & novellas, from science fiction to heroes. He graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 2015 with a Bachelor’s in education and currently teaches game design at Lake Land College.Short Change arrived at retailers in November of 2014, the start of a hero series where ordinary people gained powers over oddly specific domains, following the story of a shorter than average hero who can telekinetically manipulate small units of currency.Short Change is free on “smashwords.com/profile/view/BrettPS” and Barnes & Noble along with other samples and short fiction.Brett’s popular releases in science fiction include “Dark Station” and “Tales from the Colony: An Interstellar Saga.” Dark Station is a deep space thriller set aboard an abandoned orbital science station where Ben Gebbley and his crew secretly investigate the disappearance of the original staff before others come to claim the lost assets.

Book preview

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

EPILOGUE

Prologue

Aged to Perfection

Speculo’s Lair, Southern Dead Lands

A heavy afternoon sun hung high across the Dead Lands, the sea of scorched earth an undying reminder of mankind’s hubris.  The Cataclysm took more than civilization.  It eroded memories of a better time and razed the land in a hellish rebuke.  Gaia, Avalon, Hades and Leviathan, the four great noble Houses stood as the last vestige dwellings of those left in the absence of a world-ending apocalypse.  Ruin and destruction remain and the evils of men continue on, but not all things lay quiet in the Dead Lands.  From the deepest pits of hatred, in a chasm forgotten by time, a necrotic being of incredible Dark Aura with an unceasing hunger for flesh, plotted its next move.

White crystals adorned his chasm of solitude, glowing bulbs of luminescence carved from the rocky walls of his tomb.  Wires hung from preservation capsules, fueling the electric storage of corpses gathered from across the four great Houses.  Spoils of war and the occasional lost soul.  The devices themselves were older than him, but the bodies were … fresh. 

A figure clad in black, blood stained robes strode up the steps to his all-seeing fortress.  Screens depicting faraway places hung from the walls of the central spire deep underground.  Machine and nature, fused together in a work of art.  The figure looked up at a screen depicting Gaia Sojourn, white light casting a backlit glow against his robes.  He pulled down his hood.  His white decayed flesh smelled putrid and patches of his hair fallen from rot.  The Dread Lich Speculo eyed his prey from afar and grinned through blackened lips.

I can smell you, Wizard, he said.  Aged to perfection, a being older than I.

Speculo raised a hand to his face and pushed up his glasses. 

Oh, what wonders of flavor your flesh would bring!  I must have you!

The Dread Lich cackled in solitude.  His shrill cries echoed through the forgotten chasm while the world spun on.  Day and night meant nothing to Speculo.  Years, centuries did not faze the lord of death, though his meal would not keep for long.  Even still, he waited, plotting his move.  A wizard as powerful as Steve would find a taste for glory soon enough.  Other men had tried … and added themselves to his collection of incarnations.  The Dread Lich Speculo lurked in his chasm, the final test of fortune for any fool enough to challenge the reaper.  Come, Steve the Mighty.  Come and meet your destiny.

Chapter 1

Fashionably Late

Avalon Sojourn

Steve Palmer rode steadily on Carl’s back as the group passed through the gates of Avalon.  Tigris Model MK-2 didn’t have quite as nice a ring to it.  He liked the name he’d given to the big metal cat.  Taller towers than those in Gaia Sojourn rose up to touch the sky, little reminders of his old life.  Same as Gaia, vines and greenery covered the steel and stone monoliths, many of which lay cracked and broken in the rich soil. 

Their journey across the Dead Lands had proved mostly uneventful.  The group passed a caravan on their way, but other than that, a quiet romp from one end of emptiness to another.  He wondered if oceans still existed somewhere near the edges of whichever