A festival morning, cold river water on your hands, and a whole day's small resentments—right up until the moment the ordinary stops being safe.

This is the chapter where a mother counts her children with her eyes and refuses to let her voice shake. It asks what a person owes the neighbors who never quite trusted them, and whether a secret carried for fifteen years is a debt that can ever be paid. The dread here is quiet, domestic, and relentless: the fear of not being enough, and the colder fear of being turned away when you offer.

—

Narrated by Rebecca Hasler.

Set in D.W. Sheppard’s vast interconnected world where protective Gates hold back deadly monsters and treacherous flora, where safety is never guaranteed.

Support the show:

• Grab the full novel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWNBQWZM
• Stream sats or boost on Fountain.fm to support more episodes
• Leave a rating or review to help new listeners find the series

New episodes every Tuesday.

There is a particular loneliness in standing among people who used to be your neighbors and feeling the warmth drain out of every glance.

A gray morning, a town on edge, and a woman who knows that being innocent is not the same as being safe. Watch how a friendship frays, how quickly a whisper travels, how the people closest to us can wound us most when they're afraid. How much can one heart carry before it breaks?

—

Narrated by Rebecca Hasler.

Set in D.W. Sheppard’s vast interconnected world where protective Gates hold back deadly monsters and treacherous flora, where safety is never guaranteed.

Support the show:

• Grab the full novel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWNBQWZM
• Stream sats or boost on Fountain.fm to support more episodes
• Leave a rating or review to help new listeners find the series

New episodes every Tuesday.

A festival is taking shape in the square—lanterns, painted paths, the smell of apples—and beneath all of it runs a colder current.

Behind a closed door, a conversation turns careful, then pointed, then unbearable. When the people you trusted stop meeting your eye, how do you prove you are who you've always been? Some rooms are hardest to leave not because of the lock, but because of who stands silent on the other side.

—

Narrated by Rebecca Hasler.

Set in D.W. Sheppard’s vast interconnected world where protective Gates hold back deadly monsters and treacherous flora, where safety is never guaranteed.

Support the show:

• Grab the full novel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWNBQWZM
• Stream sats or boost on Fountain.fm to support more episodes
• Leave a rating or review to help new listeners find the series

New episodes every Tuesday.