Dear Reader,

In my twenties, I cut my teeth writing stories for video games. Those characters, their words and stories, became some of my best friends, and were the first ones I'd ever been paid for. But my first words, the first ones I wrote worth writing, the first characters who talked back to me, those will forever find their homes in Elsewheyr.

I take words very seriously. Stories can be packaged and sold as commodities, but they are not in themselves something to be consumed. They can be entertaining, but they are not entertainment.

Words matter. Stories matter.

They are not just tools. They are not the means to an end. They are the end. They define us, draw the shape and form of us. We are made of words.

It's often said that stories describe the human condition, that they are our mythos, that stories tell us what makes us human.

I disagree. Stories don't tell us who we are. They make us who we are.

Be careful what you read. Even a silly story about kids with magic powers might change you.

I hope you enjoy my story, and that you love my characters as much as I do. Have fun, make lots of friends, and remember: Don't talk to Strangers.

Si Caelum Ruat,

S. D. Mills