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The Oxidized Garden

by M.D Schultz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Horror/Scary · #2261883

In the valley of bleached metal and sunken vessels, an eternal sun must set.

Listen close, child. There is a place far from the streets of man. A place littered with the bleached metal of sunken vessels where a sundered clock rings from twelve to five. There are things there that skitter in the sand and wear ocean liners like conch shells. The Gnatu, metal fae who stitch soleless shoes, steal teeth from under your pillow and worship a goddess of soft metal. Nona, the life-weaver, wetnurse, and third daughter of the Immaculate machine. She is the glue that holds them together as she grants their desires for change.

"I want to be a bird."

Nona smiles as she stitches feathers upon steel rims and spinning rivets.

"I want to be a cat."

Whiskers, a scruffy tail, and white mane all sewn between iron slats and nickel plates.

The Gnatu cheer her efforts, but cough in the shade for a terrible illness has taken hold of their minds. A disease that leaves the metal folk inert and dysfunctional. After a hundred years of care, the duchess of the Oxidized Garden heard a different request from her children.

"I want to die."

Convinced that her father's burning coal, the sun that will not set, is responsible, Nona makes a deal with her twisted cousin Bismarck. A duke who hails from the circular labyrinth of Sidra and who possesses a philosopher's stone, able to see past, present, and future. What were the terms of their contract? To set the eternal sun in exchange for Nona's tears.

It seemed a simple bargain. But Nona's contract will shake the white city and drive a man with ice in his heart to kidnap a princess from the kingdom of Annsburg. Further still, it will cause a young boy to kill his sister, becoming a plaything of the crimson carnival, and force a girl to offer her hand in marriage to lasso a blazing star.

In the end, while the Gnatu may be saved, Nona must decide at what point the costs are too high.

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Hey Everyone,

Thank you for stopping by to view the Oxidized Garden! Please note, this is a work in progress and is still unfinished. I upload new chapters every Friday with the corresponding artwork. Hang in there. This is my most ambitious project to date and is taking me longer than I had planned :)

Thanks for the support everyone!

-MDS

Table of Contents

Chapter	1	I am the one who sees an uncertain future	13.38k
Chapter	2	A Deal Struck to Set the Eternal Sun	18.98k
Chapter	3	The White Whale	13.05k
Chapter	4	We who have ice in our hearts	16.04k
Chapter	5	Hauberk, the City of Glass	11.04k
Chapter	6	The Girl who Cried, and the God who Answered	15.49k
Chapter	7	Viscountess Laura	15.35k
Chapter	8	Let us out!	9.42k
Chapter	9	Gentleman Santiago and the Tower of Ilphoria	16.67k
Chapter	10	Daughter of the Immaculate Machine	13.94k
Chapter	11	The Crimson Fiend and a Summoner's Debt	13.47k
Chapter	12	I am the one who cracks the whip	18.76k
Chapter	13	A New Age of Ritual and Steam	13.44k
Chapter	14	The Duke of Cypress	20.12k
Chapter	15	Gentleman Oslo, the Keeper of Borrowed Time	16.17k
Chapter	16	Dry Ice	16.24k
Chapter	17	I am the one who will swallow the sun	21.29k
Chapter	18	The Butcher of Arowan and A Girl's Winter Touch	14.34k

© Copyright 2022 M.D Schultz (UN: fafnir313 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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