Perspichor, Freelance Explorer

Perspichor, Freelance Explorer
Series: None (yet!)
Summary: Perspichor goes into the desert to find out what happened to Emerald Oasis, and instead finds a mummy and a monster.
Word Count: 9200
Warnings: Sex (including that with monsters) is discussed frankly, but none happens in this story. Reference to past mistreatment, including sexual, and magical controlling of someone.
Notes: I am choosing to upload some of my fiction here again, because I've missed doing it, and also because Patreon is TERRIBLE for story hosting. This was originally posted for my Patreon supporters, and I'm considering creating an account on Archive Of Our Own or SquidgeWorld to take advantage of their superior table of contents, story organizing, and ebook format exporting. (I attempted using Smashwords, but Ao3/Squidge are just as accessible and WAY more forgiving and easy to format for.) If you have an opinion on this, you should let me know.


None of it would’ve happened, if it hadn’t been for that mummy.

Perspichor had crossed the Great Dust before, many times, but not this part of it. The Emerald Oasis was the sole major source of water for the area, and the traders and wayfarers over the years had (ahem) dried up. There were conflicting stories as to why, and finally, Perspichor had been hired to investigate.

( To boldly explore faraway lands, unusual people... and possibly to bone them in the future. )

The Sacrifice of the Blood Sisters

The Sacrifice of the Blood Sisters
Summary: Three sisters are sent to seduce three gods… but they have their own plan in mind, and it involves the true meaning of sacrifice.
Series: Standalone
Word Count: 3300
Notes: This story was sponsored by the Patreon and the Liberapay crowd. It owes its existence to two things: a brief segment of Popul Vuh, which really made me want to know more about the women involved, and Kimberley Patton’s essay “Animal Sacrifice: Metaphysics of the Sublimated Victim,” which you can read in A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, & Ethics. (Thanks to @who-is-page for recommending this book!) Warnings for bloodletting and minor discussion of death and divine sacrifice.


Once upon a time, in the lands of ravines and cenotes, there were a powerful people with powerful gods. As everyone knows, gods can only be fed with blood, and their power reflects how well-fed they are. The powerful people kept their gods very well-fed indeed, for they came to the ingenious idea of using their enemies for this purpose. ( Do you know the true meaning of sacrifice, little one? It is 'to make sacred.' )

The Lazar King

The Lazar King
Summary: A dying medieval king has a brief conversation with his private physician.
Series: Standalone
Word Count: 665
Notes: Arguably the deathly serious bookend to The Absolutely Correct Story of King Baldwin IV. This story is based upon that famous figure, the king of Jerusalem with Hansen's disease in the 1100s. Rogan originally clacked this one out on a manual typewriter at an arts festival on 7/16/2022, and it was originally posted for the Patreon crew.

I am so tired, the king said. I have been dying for so long.

There is intimacy in being a private physician. Guillaume had been the king’s physician since he was young and beautiful.

By the calendar measure, the king was still young. But he was no longer beautiful.

He had not been beautiful in a long time.

( The patience of Job )