front: a mental protection that prevents one’s emotions from being sensed by another.
gender-locked: an Alsean who is unable to temporarily shift genders for the purposes of reproduction. Considered a grave handicap, denying the individual the full blessing of Fahla.
grainbird: a small black and red seed-eating bird common in agricultural fields. It is known for singing even at night, leading to an old perception of the birds as lacking in intelligence—hence “grainbird” is also a slang term for an idiot.
grainstem powder: powder derived from crushed stems of a particular grain, which yields a sweet taste. Commonly used in cooking; also used to sprinkle over fresh bread.
holcat: a small, domesticated feline.
horten: an Alsean delicacy, often used in soup. It comes from a plant that, once harvested, stays fresh for a very short time and must be processed immediately. Due to that short window of time, fresh horten is very expensive and usually served only in the nicer restaurants.
hornstalk: a very fast-growing weed.
joining: sexual relations. Joining is considered less significant than Sharing between lovers. The two acts can take place simultaneously, though this would only occur in a serious relationship.
kyne: honorific for a builder.
marmello: a sweet, orange fruit.
midmeal: lunch.
molwine: the curved apex of the pelvic ridges on both male and female Alseans. A very sensitive sexual organ.
molwyn: Fahla’s sacred tree. It has a black trunk and leaves with silver undersides. A molwyn grows at the center of every temple of decent size.
mornmeal: breakfast.
mountzar: a carnivorous animal that lives at high elevations and hibernates during the winter.
panfruit: a common breakfast or dessert fruit.
Return: the passage after death, in which an Alsean returns to Fahla and embarks on the next plane of existence.
Rite of Ascension: the formal ceremony in which a child becomes a legal and social adult. The Rite takes place at twenty cycles, after which one’s choice of caste cannot be changed.
shannel: a traditional hot drink, used for energy and freshening one’s breath. Made from the dried leaves (and sometimes flowers) of the shannel plant.
Sharing: the act of physically connecting the emotional centers between two or more Alseans, resulting in unshielded emotions that can be fully accessed by anyone in the Sharing link. It is most frequently done between lovers or bondmates but is also part of a bonding ceremony (in which all guests take part in a one-time Sharing with the two new bondmates). It can also be done between friends, family, or for medical purposes.
shek: vulgar slang for sex. Often used as a profanity, along with shekking and shekken.
Sonalia: the larger and more distant moon of Alsea.
sonsales: one who is empathically blind.
thantane: a potent pain reliever, on a level with morphine.
tyrees: Alseans whose empathic centers share a rare compatibility, which has physiological consequences. Tyrees can sense each other’s emotions at greater distances than normal, have difficulty being physically apart, and are ferociously protective of each other. Tyrees are always bonded, usually for life.
warmron: an embrace. Warmrons are shared only between lovers, or parents and children—and only until the child reaches the Rite of Ascension. A warmron is too close to a Sharing for it to be in use at any other time.
weeper: a soap opera.
wristcom: wrist-mounted communication device, often used in conjunction with an earcuff.
Coming Soon By Ylva Publishing
www.ylva-publishing.com
Without A Front: The Producer’s Challenge
by Fletcher DeLancey
When the Voloth invaded Alsea, Lancer Andira Tal thought the hard part would be fighting off a technologically advanced army.
It wasn’t. In the aftermath of war, Alsean society is deeply divided and Tal is facing issues no Lancer has ever dealt with before. How to rebuild, what to do with the Voloth prisoners, when and how to release the new technologies—the pressure is building and Tal is showing cracks, which her enemies are glad to exploit.
The most divisive of the new technologies are the matter printers, desired by some castes and feared by others, especially the producers. When a challenge gives Tal the opportunity to bring the producers to her side, she leaves the capital to work in the fields of Hol-Opah. There she finds an unexpected sanctuary—and the promise of something she has wished for all her life.
But sanctuary and dreams are distractions, and Tal’s inattention may cost her everything.
Without A Front: The Warrior’s Challenge
by Fletcher DeLancey
Lancer Andira Tal made Alsean history when she accepted the producer’s challenge to work a holding as a field laborer. She should have known that the peace of Hol-Opah couldn’t last. Now her hosts are cleaning up blast debris and she’s searching for both a traitor and a missing member of her family.
Just as she thinks she’s solved one of her problems, Tal falls into a meticulously planned trap that threatens her title, her new family, and her freedom. To top it all, she loses her greatest support right when she needs it most. There’s no possible way out, so she’ll have to do the impossible—and the clock is ticking.
About Fletcher Delancey
Fletcher DeLancey spent her early career as a science educator, which was the perfect combination of her two great loves: language and science. These days she combines them while writing science fiction.
She is an Oregon expatriate who left her beloved state when she met a Portuguese woman and had to choose between home and heart. She chose heart. Now she lives with her wife and son in the beautiful sunny Algarve, where she writes full-time, teaches Pilates, tries to learn the local birds and plants, and samples every regional Portuguese dish she can get her hands on. (There are many. It’s going to take a while.)
She is best known for her five-book Star Trek: Voyager fan fiction epic, The Past Imperfect Series, and for her geeky romance Mac vs. PC. Currently, she is working on the next books in the Chronicles of Alsea and as an editor for Ylva Publishing.
CONNECT WITH THIS AUTHOR:
Website: http://www.chroniclesofalsea.com
Blog: http://www.chroniclesofalsea.com/blog
E-mail:
[email protected] Twitter: @AlseaAuthor
The Caphenon
© Fletcher DeLancey
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-254-9
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-255-6
ISBN (pdf): 978-3-95533-256-3
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First Edition: March 2015
Credits:
Edited by Nikki Busch
Cover Design by Streetlight Graphics
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, and locations are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Fletcher DeLancey, The Caphenon
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