Carina Bissett is excited to announce the Japanese translation of her story “An Embrace of Poisonous Intent.” This piece was originally published by Egaeus Press in Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales (2020). The theme of Night Land Quarterly vol. 25 is “Memento Mori.” Bissett is joined by TF Powys, Johannes Ilmari Auerbach, Jan Gerhard Tondell, Alan Baxter, Mora McHugh, Chikashi Yoshida, Eiri Takahara, and Takayuki Ino. This is her second appearance in Night Land Quarterly.
Unicorns might be living antidotes to any known poison in the world, but I was not bound to the rules of this realm. Nor was I willing to accept defeat. If my bride could not help herself when it came to the purity of wild magic in a unicorn horn, then I would surround her with them until she became immune. I killed them all and, when I knew without doubt that the last unicorn had been exterminated from this world, I built her a throne from their horns—the skull of that first betrayal set at the apex of the chair’s high back.
When she saw my wedding gift, she did not weep or tear at her hair. Instead, she calmly took a seat on that hideous construction of horns—a queen in her own right.
“You should not tempt me so,” Saēna said.
“An Embrace of Poisonous Intent” by Carina Bissett
The Nearby Universe 