June Short Story
Added 2025-06-28 23:18:26 +0000 UTCAlright! So, bit of an explanation first. I prioritized this for the last two days because I'm about 97% sure that Left Hand Magic is going to suffer a couple of days of delay. I figured, if that was going to be the case, I could at least get the short story reward out so that Left Hand Magic is the only thing delayed. As for the why of that delay. Frankly, I hit a burnout point that was bad enough I had to stop working on much of anything for a day or two. It was a long time building and I'm still not really over it, work on LHM moving at a crawl as I'm having to force myself every step of the way. For now, I'll leave it at that.
As for the short story itself, due to replacing the Story Poll with the Short Story Reward Survival Poll this month, I simply selected one of stories that's been most popular in the last several polls. In this case, another new entry for Aylia and the Magic Shop. The attached story is a solid new entry for that series, coming in just under 4,500 words. So hopefully everyone finds that a decent compromise :-).
As for aforementioned poll. I have to admit I'm a little frustrated with the result. It indicates a significant chunk of you actually do read the short stories. Which is good. But it then leaves me baffled why there's barely ever any significant turnout for the Story Poll >_<. Seriously, that's what made me wonder if anyone was even reading them, since it's rare that more than 20 or so people vote in that poll.
sigh
Well, whatever. Story polls will resume as normal next month. For now, the new entry in the Aylia and the Magic Shop series is attached. Enjoy!
