03/09/2026
Why a feast can feel more dangerous than a duel
A feast gives a dangerous person a chance to be charming. They can pour a drink, tell a joke, invite someone younger to join a game. Declining might look childish. Joining might mean accepting rules nobody has explained properly.
That is useful territory for a fantasy story.
In Eternity’s End: The Call of Zeil’Galia, Highland Draw is played with five animal coins. Observation and deception matter. You may tell the truth or lie; being caught lying eliminates you from the game.
The tension comes from the people sharing the table. How much can you afford to reveal? Is someone laughing because your bluff was clever, or because they have already worked you out? When the people watching can influence your future, a harmless game becomes an uncomfortable introduction.
A game also gives friends small choices to make. Do you warn someone? Let them learn the hard way? Enjoy the moment when they finally lose their nerve? Those decisions can reveal more than a speech about loyalty.
Aden, Ronan and Vladimir begin with a shared history and different desires: answers, magic, recognition. Put people like that in the same room with opportunity, and they have different reasons to keep playing.
That is part of what I enjoy about writing dark fantasy: a scene can be funny while the reader is beginning to worry. The jokes and the unease can come from the same person.
What fictional game made you interested in the people around the table?
Highland Draw appears in Book One of the planned trilogy. If dangerous company, alchemy and friendships under pressure sound like your kind of fantasy, the opening is available to read on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJPN883L
captures the character-focused wonder of magical discovery from , plunges it into the cynical and brutal political landscape of , and sets it on a stage with the epic, world-defining stakes of . Thrust into a world of shadow politics and ancient prophecies, must flee the only h...
