Brandon Crilly

Street magician Mavrin Leed doesn't believe in what he can't see or prove. His performances are mere tricks; the only true magic in Aelda comes from the benevolent, god-like Aspects circling it. As long as They keep the Lifesphere intact, he stays out of Their way. Labeled a heretic, Eyasu Temergon is convinced that Aelda's true history was hidden, even from the Aspects. He scours forgotten shadows for proof of the Raw, creatures of energy tied to the fracturing of his world. When their sudden emergence leads to destruction and chaos, Eyasu puts aside his estrangement with his old friend, and hopes Mavrin can do the same. Ex-soldier Deyeri Renn has a mystery of her own: why are her city's leaders so interested in the Raw? She spent too long fighting in the Winds to let a myth harm her city, and too many years alone to accept the life-worn man who bumbles back into her home, with no right to ask for her help. As Deyeri, Mavrin, and Eyasu unpack the secrets that once drove them apart, every seal in their relationship means one more crack that could unravel Aelda's very existence. Catalyst is the stunning debut by Ottawa author Brandon Crilly, a fantasy tale of magic, friendship, and holding a broken world together.

In this issue: Take a ride down the river with kc dyer on Akem's Seabus. Stop along the way for haunting fiction from Patrick Bollivar, Brandon Crilly, and Erin Kirsh, with a ghost at the end of the bed for Mel Anastasiou's Stella Ryman, and a lighter side of hell from FJ Bergmann. Magpie poetry award winners Oak Morse, Leah Komar, and Glenn Pape take us to three different kinds of hell; Susan Pieters and Rina Piccolo carry us to the stars in the past and future; and Greg Brown brings us back to where the heart is, while the young hero of Allaigna's Song by JM Landels get ever farther from home.