The Bulwark

By Allen J. Crom

The last three guardians all came from the same decrepit town, forever known as The Bulwark. The founders originally built the settlement around a powerful and evil portal they secured, and the entire town's purpose thereafter was to guard The Seal, weakening ever since. But the planets aligned, signalling there was only time for one last attempt to repair it. And so, the guardians were summoned together and sent to recover the Attar Gem, no matter the cost.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allen J. Crom
• Release date: Aug 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393501268

Allen J. Crom

I’ve been a data entry clerk, a software developer, a network administrator, and a project manager. From 1997 to 2000, I made a living at an ISP, writing custom software for military vendors. I had been marinating in the tech industry for over 10 years by that point and enjoyed it for the most part. Despite being very analytical in my day job and studies, I really loved being creative. Mostly my creativity was used for software, but I also enjoyed writing poetry. I had written some short stories occasionally and always thought writing novels was out of reach. In the past year, I’ve slowly come to the realization that writing books and telling stories are the best way for me to scratch my creative itch. So, I decided to start with a random story in a random world of my creation, and get to marching. Let’s see how far I get. Hopefully with your support, I’ll be able to leave the old day job and make this author thing a full-time endeavor. I’d love to spend my retirement years in a second career building new worlds and telling compelling stories that subvert my favorite genres and tropes.

Book preview

Prologue

The last three guardians all came from the same decrepit town, forever known as The Bulwark. The founders originally built the settlement around a powerful and evil portal they secured, and the entire town’s purpose thereafter was to guard The Seal, a hexagonal obsidian dais in the town square. The Seal was twelve-feet in diameter, with a small skull-sized crater in the center where the massive Attar Gem was once embedded. Someone stole the Gem it several generations prior, and the Seal continued to show signs of weakening ever since. As the stories go, attempts to find and retrieve the Gem always failed, with no details about what happened to the people involved.

But once again the planets aligned as a signal, there was only enough time left for a single last attempt. The venerable seer of The Bulwark, Qara, died during the attempt to scry the location of the Gem. Though it killed her, she was ultimately successful. And so, the last remaining guardians, being the best hope, were summoned together and subsequently sent to recover the Attar Gem, no matter the cost.

Darius, Ashimar and Baseema were well trained in their duties, but young and inexperienced. They traveled for a dozen days, following the guidance of Qara’s vision, and their chartered ship finally arrived at Sable Island near nightfall. Based on their research, they already knew that the island was small and rocky, far from civilization in a stormy area of the ocean. There was a perpetual hurricane positioned over the island which, according to historians, never dissipated.

Captain Percell was only willing to get so close to the island for fear of being capsized or smashed upon the many stony outcroppings. He only reluctantly agreed to drop anchor and have two of his men, James and Karl, take the guardians to shore on a longboat. They appeared unsettled by the unnatural storm and rowed silently in the dark, intent