A Younger Face by Morning
A noblewoman reaches a desert spring that offers the youth she wants at a price she can choose.
Fantasy short fiction
Read the story →Mind & Inner Work · Fiction
Mind & Inner Work stories
Stories of family, faith, memory, and the strange corners of inner life.
Before Our Last Winter
Mero wants a film to remember her people. Dask would rather have a greasy supper and a proper argument.
Reflective speculative fiction
Read the story →Don't Answer from Upstairs
Inside a closed fae house, an investigator hears a child ask her name.
Fae horror
Read the story →Everyone Dreams at Marrow's
Marrow makes gifts from the dreams she overhears. Giving them back will cost her more than a good night's sleep.
Dark fairy tale
Read the story →Four O’Clock with Bea
With a difficult meeting due at four, Leah asks for a ready-made apology and finds her church mentor has troubles of her own.
Contemporary faith and relationship fiction
Read the story →Guests of the Wax Queen
Tessa can sing the queen’s welcome. Her partner wants her to keep singing long enough to steal the ruby.
Comic fantasy caper
Read the story →Last Pick for Keeper
Beren owns the ball. That has always got him into the game, until his team needs a reserve keeper.
Coming-of-age football fiction
Read the story →Leave a Chair for June
At a Thursday Bible study, Victor has an answer for a young worker until she asks what his answer will cost.
Contemporary faith short fiction
Read the story →Leave the Question Open
On an overnight train, two friends disagree about what a prayer can promise.
Contemporary faith short fiction
Read the story →Missing: One Shadow
Oss's new client has no shadow and an excellent reason to lie. The ghost detective would rather be at the theater.
Fantasy detective mystery
Read the story →Mrs. Finch Refuses the Angel
An older actor and a young angel compete for attention in a church skit that needs them both.
Church stage comedy
Read the story →One Dream, No Refund
Varo buys a dream for his next play. Its people have other plans.
Comic dark fantasy
Read the story →Only Glass
A thief opens a stolen mirror and discovers what his buyer intends to bring through it.
Fae caper
Read the story →Oona Falls Up
A human tumbler enters a fae circus where falling can take her in the wrong direction.
Fae circus adventure
Read the story →Read the Spaces
A dead killer's last letter sends Hester toward a missing woman, if she can stop listening to its words.
Fair-clue rescue thriller
Read the story →Rose Chooses Yellow
Rose has promised a dead neighbor’s daughter a place for yellow flowers in a church mural. The young painter wants them in a tidy row.
Contemporary faith and community fiction
Read the story →Salt on the Orchard Steps
An elf and a merman seek a way to love without leaving their homes or hiding from their families.
Fantasy romance
Read the story →Saturday Is a Bird
Linet wants a whole day with her wife. A gray bird keeps getting in the way of her plans.
Domestic magical realism
Read the story →Say It Before the Toast
Sabra has a place at Niko’s birthday dinner. She wants him to call it what it is.
Later-life romance
Read the story →Say It Together
Rima wants a show of her own. The old gym's words work only when someone speaks with her.
Teen friendship fantasy
Read the story →Seven Miles with Otis
Celia means to reach the chapel for her mother’s hymn. Her father means to walk every mile.
Family pilgrimage short fiction
Read the story →Stay, Rell
Rell has spent centuries leaving before goodbye becomes final. His oldest friend asks for an ordinary afternoon.
Reflective fantasy
Read the story →Tansy Was Her Own Name
Three new babies, three names, and three mothers who find that a family wish is not a family decision.
Family fiction
Read the story →The Turtle Took the Long Way
A mermaid searching for her brother needs the help of a turtle who has somewhere else to go.
Underwater fae adventure
Read the story →The Witness Who Shut His Eyes
A truthful witness and a broken blade force a human lawyer to question the fae court’s oldest tool.
Fae courtroom mystery
Read the story →Two Doors Down
Harlan wants his sister back in his life. Maris wants him to pay for what he did.
Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →Until Sunset, Regent
With the fae queen missing and her leave ending at sunset, Sel must find proof before the council hands her mother’s power to a stranger.
Fantasy political mystery
Read the story →Wait at the Gate
Mavis's last passenger asks for a gate that no longer exists. Nobody has ever stayed to meet him there.
Contemporary ghost story
Read the story →While the Mesquite Holds Still
A woman steps away from a family quarrel and finds an afternoon beneath a desert tree.
Lyrical desert poem
Read the story →Windfall Guests
A displaced family needs one accessible night in a fae orchard, where the branches dislike noise and the tenant cannot promise a home.
Fantasy refuge fiction
Read the story →You Were Late in Every Life
Veya remembers loving Ardu centuries ago. She also remembers waiting, and won't mistake memory for a reason to move him home.
Reincarnation romance
Read the story →The Bridge That Waited for an Answer
A bridge needs a voice from the opposite bank, while a toll clerk must correct a missing payment entry.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Cup at the Bottom of the Pack
A cart driver reaches a spring of youth with her old dance teacher, who wants room for one dance.
Desert fantasy
Read the story →The Door in the Failing Wall
A courier is trapped in a cold gate chamber, and a mason must find a repair that keeps both sides safe.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Light That Would Not Travel Alone
A lantern repairer steals a bright stone to save winter plants, but its warmth belongs to a garden of moths.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Long Queue for One Good Deed
A café worker buys a stranger a coffee, then finds herself facing a crowd that expects more gifts.
Comedy
Read the story →The Map with a Blank Spring
A boy facing a move from his uncle’s house follows an old map that promises endless youth.
Desert fantasy
Read the story →The Page the Two Scholars Shared
A scholar’s claim about a magical veil meets a damaged orchard and two old records.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Quilt with the Wrong Year
A school quilt turns a family photograph into a neat story that its owner refuses to tell.
Short fiction
Read the story →The Roots Under Platform Nine
Two sisters find a hidden station garden, and its keeper needs a place that belongs to someone else.
Urban fantasy
Read the story →The Seat Nobody Saved
A widower returns to his old cinema and finds that his spare seat has been sold twice.
Short fiction
Read the story →The Smoke That Followed the Water
Three young magic workers must gather dark ash from a well before it spreads through their village.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Visitor with the Fast Questions
Cal arrives with grand questions for his grandfather, who needs an envelope for a chess move.
Short fiction
Read the story →A Passenger for the Sphinx
A sphinx has stopped the bridge tram. Its riddle is simple; presenting an answer takes some work, and the monster has another wish.
Urban fantasy comedy
Read the story →A Place the Wind Could Leave
An elf glassmaker builds a room for the air spirit he loves. She has never asked for a room.
Fantasy romance
Read the story →A Roof for Rain
A dwarf brings a window to the forest where his lover lives. Finding a place for it is harder than carrying it.
Fantasy romance
Read the story →A Score for Moving Hands
After airborne sound disappears, a composer and a percussionist disagree about what a performance can still be.
Speculative fiction
Read the story →An Unfair Wind
Ovi can command all four elements. The kite-race rules are less impressed than the visiting academy.
Fantasy comedy
Read the story →Exit after the King
An actor who can command a room has been asked to attend his daughter's wedding without making a speech.
Literary fiction
Read the story →The Alphanumeric Murder
A detective follows two apparent ciphers into a compensation fraud, where somebody has made the past suspiciously tidy.
Detective mystery
Read the story →The Chimera's Left Foot
An apprentice wakes a three-headed statue and discovers that keeping it awake is easier than getting it to agree.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Desert's Laughter Echoes
Across three campfires, an old joker and a new hand discover who gets to tell an embarrassing story.
Choral cowboy poem
Read the story →The Dust in the Saddlebag
An older rider carries an unsent letter to an empty house, where her daughter is waiting for a promised saddle.
Narrative poem
Read the story →The Floor below the Basement
Three strangers share a lift down from an empty office. Each recognizes something different beyond its doors.
Supernatural suspense
Read the story →The House That Asked for a Spoon
Moving into her aunt’s empty house, Mina hears a question inside the kitchen wall—and discovers how much of the family is still stored there.
Gothic mystery
Read the story →The Last Audience in Dry Gulch
Suki has come to film the pranks in an abandoned town. Its ghosts require something her camera cannot supply.
Ghost comedy
Read the story →The Last Word in the Room
A florist buys the power to end an argument and discovers what her brother can do after the talking stops.
Comic fantasy
Read the story →The Laugh in Row C
Beatrice writes to a friend about her first evening out after a boat accident: a bad seat, an unexpected companion, and a joke she needed to hear.
Epistolary short fiction
Read the story →The Name Beside the Spring
A weary courier follows a guide to a spring that lends younger years in exchange for the memory of a person.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Other End of the Bench
A sign painter visits his sister's market to find fault and discovers that a useful sign must first belong to its reader.
Contemporary short fiction
Read the story →The Piece with the Red Roof
An antique puzzle changes a fire that happened before Oren was born. His sister likes the new world rather more than he does.
Temporal fantasy
Read the story →The Prayer after the Names
At a Thursday prayer group, Amie is offered words for her loss. She has a different request, and it is difficult to say aloud.
Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Quiet Between Stars
A passenger writes to her brother while their ship waits inside unexplained light, where prayer and navigation have different work to do.
Reflective science fiction
Read the story →The Rest Between Bells
Ada has promised a memorial concert of her mother's music. Her sister has brought a different score, and a question Ada recognizes.
Family mystery
Read the story →The Room behind the Still Life
A sign painter inherits three riddles, a locked gallery, and one last opportunity to misunderstand her sister.
Comic mystery
Read the story →The Seed That Kept Its Water
A scavenger finds a seed that can keep water, but the four keepers of an abandoned garden ask for more than hope.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Word for Borrowed
A young translator learns why two people can say the same word and still make different promises.
Fantasy
Read the story →Three Things, Including the Drain
Jan's gratitude notebook begins with complaints. Then the piano on the landing becomes difficult to ignore.
Diary fiction
Read the story →Tomorrow in the Soup Book
An apprentice asks a retiring oracle whether her father will come to dinner. The book requires an answer before it offers one.
Quiet fantasy
Read the story →Where the Stars Sang Low
Pela takes her brother to hear the singing stars before he leaves home. She remembers the way better than she understands the invitation.
Fantasy of wonder
Read the story →A Cat of Considerable Experience
A thief rents a cat's body for a simple job and discovers that three hours leave very little time for professional dignity.
Comic fantasy
Read the story →A Room in the Lining
Before her lover leaves on tour, a seamstress makes them a room out of two dreams—and discovers why its floor will not stay still.
Romantic fantasy
Read the story →Eight Copies of a Dead Man
A translator's customer survives an attack by his own double. By dawn, she must decide which version of him she has agreed to help.
Dark fantasy
Read the story →The Audience Is a Flight Hazard
Abducted to headline an alien comedy club, a stand-up discovers that bringing the house down is a navigational problem.
Comic science fiction
Read the story →The Broken Span at Darrow
With two armies closing on a mountain crossing, a bridge warden and a lynx officer must decide what passage is worth saving.
Fantasy adventure
Read the story →The Charge for Uncertainty
A detective's assistant defends a disputed bill for finding an accordion, though she cannot defend her employer's understanding of quantum mechanics.
Comic mystery
Read the story →The Courtesy Rate
On their motel's final night, Philip offers a guest a favor his sister cannot honor. Correcting it is easier than explaining why he came home.
Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Ground Would Like Another Take
Two grains of lunar dust disagree about a change of position, which takes them from a familiar hollow to the exterior of a spacecraft.
Comic speculative fiction
Read the story →The Summer with No Upstairs
Rafe has rebuilt the seaside hotel where he once worked, with warm water and no breakfast shift. His oldest friend asks to see the floor he left out.
Speculative literary fiction
Read the story →The Window the Moths Ignored
At a field station where moths have stopped circling lamps, a night technician protects a small colony that has not acquired their mysterious new partner.
Science fiction
Read the story →No Points for Thank You
Ellis wants to present the class's gratitude display. One missing drawing makes the thank-you speech much harder to give.
School fiction
Read the story →Sunday, If You Can
Ruth invites the family to one last meal in her house. Everyone replies with a plan for where she ought to live next.
Family fiction
Read the story →The Baker Hated Yellow
A sign painter borrows a marvelous brush for the night market, then finds that its corrections can move more than customers.
Fantasy
Read the story →Five Keys, One Door
At their uncle's funeral, five heirs receive five keys stamped with the same number and one last reason to argue.
Mystery fiction
Read the story →Inventory of a Mirror
A secondhand dealer begins to see her dead husband in a mirror, and notices the price only after customers vanish from her memory.
Supernatural fiction
Read the story →The Club with No Sign on the Door
Four children follow a trail of school riddles and find a secret club whose founder has forgotten the hardest part of inviting people in.
School mystery
Read the story →The Day the River Kept
In a town where the clock controls the river, its keeper is the only person who remembers the day that will not end.
Fantasy
Read the story →The Forecast Was Wearing Boots
A painter's glimpses of possible futures become expensive predictions, until one canvas starts emptying her friend's repair shop.
Contemporary fantasy
Read the story →The Gate on Linden Street
When roadworks cut off a neighborhood shortcut, a pastor and an imam must untangle three padlocks, missing chairs, and their own committees.
Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Good Sides Up
Emilia wants a sign of the Holy Spirit. Her neighbor asks for a ride and for her story to remain her own.
Faith fiction
Read the story →The Saturday Table Handoff
June has run her church's community meal for twenty years. On her first Saturday as a volunteer, she discovers how hard it is to hand over the ladle.
Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →Discussion
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