The Drowned Orchard
MatureYou return to a flooded grove where the trees bear fruit from the dead—and the only way to save your family is to face the ghost you left behind.
After a decade at sea, you return to your family's drowned orchard to find it still bearing fruit—fruit that grows from the souls of your ancestors, trapped in the flooded roots. To lift the curse and save your surviving kin, you must descend into the dark water and reconcile with the ghost you abandoned. This is a story of survival, dark magic, and a love that refuses to stay buried.
The story begins
The skiff groaned against the pilings as you tied off, the salt-caked rope burning your palms. Fog rolled off the drowned orchard like breath from a corpse. Ten years at sea, and the one sound you'd never escaped—water lapping at wood—now wrapped around you like a shroud.
Maren stood on the shore, a lantern swinging in their grip. They hadn't aged so much as weathered, sharp edges where softness used to live.
"You came." Flat. Not a question.
"Your letter said—"
"Elara's ghost walks the roots now. Not just whispers. Walks." They thrust the lantern toward you, and in its spill you saw the trees: bloated, half-drowned, their branches strung with fruit that glowed a sickly amber. Each one pulsed, faintly, like a heartbeat.
You'd seen men die at sea. You'd held them while they drowned. But nothing had ever made your blood run cold like that light—because one of the fruits bore the shape of a face, and it was your grandmother's.
"She's been waiting for you," Maren said. "They all have."
The wind shifted, and from beneath the water came a voice—distorted, humming a song you'd heard once, in a different life.
What happens next is up to you.
Or read in the app
More like this
The Ward's Lament
You're the royal cartographer sent to correct a star-chart—but the stars are campfires, and the army behind them has been waiting for you.
The Last Reefcaller
Your voice can calm the storm—if you survive the elder's game.
The Gilded Courier
MatureThe contract is your death warrant — and your only hope.
The Relic Hunter's Gambit
You've been hired to steal a relic from a sunken tower—but your patron's real plan could end the world.
The Gauntlet of Thirst
You've been banished for failing your village—now win the race that can save it, or die of thirst trying.
The Last Wind-Knitter
You are the last wind-knitter, and the tyrant who owns the sky demands a storm that will end your city.