Welcome
and Welcome Back
Dear Travellers
Welcome to Book One of The Glass Wizard.
You may be here for the very first time. You may also have been here before — perhaps even three years ago, when the original tale of Yves and Midnight first found its way into our world.
Whether you have followed their path in its earlier days, or whether you have simply wandered in now and find yourself wondering why fate, questionable judgement, or possibly a duck has brought you to these pages, I am very glad to have you here. Thank you kindly for daring this journey into the The Glass Wizard world; be it the first time, or to discover what changes the feathers of fate this humble duck has made along the way. Your presence gives life to the fantasies, philosophies, and peculiar little terrors gathered here, and I am deeply grateful for your adventurous spirit to seek them out.
The Glass Wizard is an oh so slow-burn fantasy story; sometimes dark and oftentimes psychological, with wizards, witches, adventurers’ guilds, dystopian human habitats, and many more fantastic peoples and disturbing individuals. At its core, you will follow the life of Yves, a wizard artefact hunter. There are no promises that it is a good life. Or that he is a good person.
BOOK ONE leads through the most desolate of deserts, on to the forlorn ruins of the Northlandic Coast, and into the rather twisted mind of Yves himself. Alongside him, you will fight terrible beasts and strange phenomena in the Dimension of Light. His familiar Midnight will drag you through the depths of the Albweiss Mountain crevices. There will be images and music, as well as quite a bit of rhyming and experiments with layout, typography and font to expose the characters’ mental state or to make magical occurrences more immediate on the page.
If this story has found its way into your hands, I hope it gives you something for the heart. It is written for those who find comfort in lingering with a character through his journey; for those who seek a sense of solace not because the world is gentle, but because someone else has walked through the darkness and left a trace behind. It is for readers who turn the pagesin search for something, just like my characters are searching for a purpose or a place to belong. It is for those who wish to explore the depths of someone else’s soul.
Thank you for reading.
May you travel well through the unforgiving Northlands and the Realm of Light.
With heartfelt appreciation,
The Duckman