It was the Spring Dominion’s final days. The golden Summer Queen was dead, her kingdom left in ruin, her daughter who bore the word Flame on her heart in chains beneath Mount Pyre. A sole surviving solar knight remained, clad in burnished plate too melted to remove. He neither ate nor slept, but death never came—for death could not bear to look upon him. He quested, not for liege or land but to set the world aright. He was the Lion of Summer, Last-Loved of the Sun. His eyes burned with the final sunset. His Queen’s fingerprints scarred tender spirals on his cheeks.

His name was Steady As It Goes, and he was on a mission.

“Steady and the Mountain” was first published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #389. It can be read in full on the BCS website.