'Oh, I can't believe it!' Plumleaf's mother fluttered her delicate green hands before her teary eyes. 'My son, a member of The Dark Lord's Mindless Horde! Oh, I'm so proud of you, Plumleaf!' Plumleaf the Goblin comes from a long line of minions. His father was a minion, his father's father was a minion, and so on into the dimmest mists of recorded history; and if there's one thing minions don't do, it's quit. At least, that was the case until Plumleaf quarreled with his boss, left his job, and moved back in with his parents. But everyone needs an income, and so this disillusioned young goblin must embark on an epic quest to find new employment. A quest that will take him through barren wastelands, up dragon-ruled mountains, and into the very heart of enemy territory. Roughly 7,000 words.

You’ve heard the story before: an orphaned boy, raised by a wise old man, comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil threatening his world. But what if that hero were destined to become the new dark lord? The Academy of Chaenbalu has stood against magic for centuries. Hidden from the world, acting from the shadows, it trains its students to detect and retrieve magic artifacts, which it jealously guards from the misuse of others. Because magic is dangerous: something that heals can also harm, and a power that aids one person may destroy another. Of the academy’s many students, only the most skilled can become avatars—warrior thieves, capable of infiltrating the most heavily guarded vaults—and only the most determined can be trusted to resist the lure of magic. More than anything, Annev de Breth wants to become one of them. But Annev carries a secret. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers. Seventeen years later, he struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When Annev is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must finally decide whether to accept the truth of who he really is … or embrace the darker truth of what he may one day become.