Arguably the most eventful year in the Middle Kingdoms since the ancient downfall of the Dark has finally drawn to an end, with the defeat of the resurgent Shadow and the re-establishment of peace and the royal magics that protect humankind in the Kingdoms from evil.

You could be excused for thinking that the Five most responsible for this outcome—swordsmith and Firebearer Herewiss Hearn’s son, his lover Prince (now King) Freelorn of Arlen, their lady the Companion of Dragons Segnbora tai-Enraesi, the DragonChief Hasai ehs’Pheress, and the fire elemental called Sunspark—would be entitled to some time off.

As if.

Because in the wake of the triumph and anguish of the battles’ aftermath, after the celebrations and the declarations of peace, after the enthronement of the new King—and his wedding to the rest of the Five—come the day-to-day details of working out what normal life will now look like for them, and their people, in the wake of the near-destruction of their world. Now the heroes who kept the world from ending have to help build the new normal… assuming they can work out what that looks like.

The Tales of the Five deal with highlights of their individual stories during this transitional period. The first two installments of this prose miniseries, the novella-length Tales of the Five #1: The Levin-Gad and the novel-length Tales of the Five #2: The Landlady, cover events from Herewiss’s and Segnbora’s new lives—his as a father-to-be and mage-in-training learning to navigate the difficult path between service to the Power and to his kingly husband, and hers as a woman mothering her first daughter while resuscitating the fortunes of her diminished noble house. Both works are presently available at Ebooks Direct.

Tales of the Five #3, The Librarian, to be published in Q2 of 2024, will tell how the new King of Arlen—to combat a mysterious danger to his land that could undo all the work done so far—must embark on a perilous journey into territory never successfully explored by humans… with no company but the post-wartime friend who once sent him to death’s Door. Tales of the Five #4 and #5, episodes from the lives of Sunspark and Hasai, will follow later in 2024/5. The five works together lay the groundwork for the events of the fourth and final main-sequence novel in the original Tale of the Five series, The Door Into Starlight.