Andromeda Spaceways presents: "Shadow Cat's Apprentice, and the Wanderer's Almanac to Biliousness In All Its Forms"

Cover of Andromeda Spaceways Issue 64:

A white lady with long red hair and a fox tail

is framed by octopus tentacles

It's a return to my steampunky, airshippy, alt-universe River City this month in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine issue 64, with "Shadow Cat's Apprentice, and the Wanderer's Almanac to Biliousness In All Its Forms".

Yeah, that story title is just as long and ridiculous as "Long's Confandabulous Clockwork Carnival and Circus, and Cats of Many Persuasions", but part of the fun of River City is poking a stick at overwrought steampunk titles.

"Shadow Cat's Apprentice" steps back a decade or so to before Chifwe met Ba Luen and was deciding where best her talents lay. The Aito-wel house is famous in River City for their precise and mindful approach to waste reclamation, and after a few false starts Chifwe has decided she wants in on the family business. But it's not an easy apprenticeship - aside from the physicality of the job, she didn't reckon with the nausea that came with the everyday stench. Then there's the strange figure following her through the Shadow Highway of the city rooftops...

"Shadow Cat's Apprentice" is the third story in the River City universe. I have plans to do more, and possibly put together a collection of the linked stories.