Tales of Blue Rose: Quartet of Thieves (Short Fiction, Three Electronic Formats)

Quartet of Thieves
A short story from the World of Aldea
Author: Clio Yun-su Davis
Editing: Jaym Gates
Proofreading: Samantha Chapman
Graphic Design: Hal Mangold & Kara Hamilton
Interior Art: Hal Mangold
17 pages, three formats: PDF, ePub, mobi (Amazon Kindle)

A young woman travels far from home to deliver an important letter but must band together with a boy thief, his rhy-fox companion, and a caravan guard to steal it back when it gets taken by a criminal organization.

About Clio Yun-su Davis

Clio Yun-su Davis is a Korean American game designer and writer who splits her time between Arlington, Virginia and Austin, Texas. She studied interactive storytelling in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she became involved in writing and producing immersive theater pieces. In 2017, her fairytale “Flowers for the Moon” was published in the June issue of Luna Station Quarterly, and her science fiction short “Half a Mile and Six Years Between Us” earned an honorable mention from Sci-Fest L.A.’s Roswell Award. Her K-pop themed freeform game The Long Drive Back from Busan won the 2017 Golden Cobra Challenge award for Best Game That Incorporates Meaningful, Non-Romantic Relationships. When not writing or creating games, she can usually be found living one of a thousand possible lives in a LARP.

What Inspired You To Write This Story?

"I’ve always enjoyed stories in which characters who really shouldn’t be working together join forces out of desperation, especially when everyone is out of their depth. As an adult, having to work with a troublemaking adolescent can feel like a nightmare babysitting assignment, and when you’re an adolescent, being stuck with an adult can feel like you’re constantly being slowed down and judged. Heists can go wrong in so many ways, so it felt like the perfect adventure to throw these poor characters into.

"Lysana’s Crossing is a liminal space, as most people who find themselves there are on their way to or from Veran Marsh. Lido and Fayn are both stuck here due to life circumstances, Savania works for a caravan and is accustomed to never being in one place for long, and then we have Arissa who has never been this far from home before. I identify with all four of them, somehow, and I wanted to explore how each of them has a different relationship to the environment.

"As for the reason why this heist is happening in the first place, that single item that Arissa is so determined to retrieve – I have collection of letters from the American Civil War, including the final letters written to my 3^rd great aunt by her husband before he died. I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, and understand the significance of a person’s last words to a loved one."