To whet your appetite, here's the opening page from the new Short Tale:
1: Assault
Dawn came with screams in the small town of Ghastar.
The sun was barely a green sliver on the horizon when the first sounds of calamity and destruction erupted.
By midday, the town would be exterminated.
By midnight, every building would have been torn down and shattered apart.
* * *
Minutes before the attack.
Twelve thousand people slept in their homes, in anticipation of a day like any other... A quarter of them would awake soon to go to work, either out to the farmland surrounding Ghastar or inside one of the many businesses of this prosperous town. Within an hour, the quiet of night should be replaced by a rising bustle of activity: people travelling; deliveries being loaded or unloaded; craftsmen working metal, stone, wood, pottery and glass; and, along the eastern side of Ghastar, the building of a new street. The stores, taverns and other establishments would open sometime after. The garrison of seventy soldiers – assigned both as police and as protection against Callis incursions – would be the focus of shouts, clashes and roars as warriors trained. Throngs of children would head dutifully, if unwillingly, to school. The chaotic hub-hub of urban life would continue until dark, when it would gradually dwindle until the last taverns and brothels shut their doors...
Today would be different. Predictable routines would never even begin. The inhabitants of Ghastar were to meet the Apocalypse in a head-on collision.
There had been unease in the town for several days, but it was not a disquiet of fear – rather of curiosity, idle chatter and bold opinions. For many centuries, the distant northern horizon had been permanently aglow with the Wall of Light, which cordoned the North Pole of Emeran. Three nights ago, that glow had vanished. Everyone wondered and speculated about what might have been set free by the barrier’s fall...
Today they would find out.