Love in Dark Settings

New online fiction.

The torturer was naive, inexperienced, and lacking in knowledge of the world. The prisoner was tough, worldly-wise, and had an infallible plan that would give him escape from this place. So why did the prisoner feel as though the torturer had the edge?

I could see before me a ceiling-high slate tablet covered with prisoners' names, and a goodly number of those names were crossed out. I knew what that meant.

Index to series links:

Darkling Plain at the Main Bookshelf.

The Eternal Dungeon at the High Bookshelf.

Comments, queries, discussions, and calls for lynching me are welcome. (Okay, not the last, but I'm expecting a few calls after the previous installment.) Main Bookshelf readers should be aware that High Bookshelf stories may be mentioned in the comments below.

This is (I'm sure you High Bookshelf readers have noticed) the final part of the first volume of The Eternal Dungeon. The second volume of the series is coming soon.

It had seemed for a while that the plan would work: a bold conspiracy by a group of idealistic prisoners and sympathetic guards to stop abuse at Mercy Prison. Then betrayal occurs, and Tyrrell finds himself in a new life prison, with new rules to be learned. No longer is he in a position of leadership; now he is surrounded by men who question his most fundamental values.

He has new allies as well: fellow prisoners who like what they see in him, a healer who refuses to accept current conditions, and guards who may or may not provide the help that the prisoners desperately need. But Hell's messenger, Death, visits Compassion Prison, keeping his face hidden until it is almost too late for Tyrrell to recognize his touch.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"'Sentenced to sixty lashes of the leaded whip. Sentence commuted to a transfer to Compassion Life Prison.'" Keeper raised his eyebrows. "That's the first time I've ever heard a transfer to this prison described as a commutation. We'll assume that that particular phrasing was meant as a joke."

Born into a society with a strictly ranked system of masters and servants, Carr has sought to tred his way delicately between the clashing values of the parents who raised him and the uncle whose household Carr will one day live in. Yet when he and other students at his boarding school become the latest participants in an ongoing battle between the oystermen of their bay, Carr finds that his position of power may bring danger, not only to himself, but also to a schoolfellow he is drawn toward.

Master and Servant is the first volume in Prison City, a retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, homoeroticism in British public schools in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Rudd, who had watched Meredith through narrowed eyes for the first week or two, gradually lost interest in scrutinizing the activities of his fag.

Michael is an ex-prostitute, which means that nobody in polite society wants anything to do with him. He believes that the only way to help other male prostitutes is to make their working conditions bearable. His friend Janus is an upper-class gentleman who believes that his duty to the gods requires him to fight against sexual immorality. Now Michael wants Janus to help him run a house of prostitution.

Male friendship and gay love intertwine in this multicultural historical fantasy series based on the Edwardian Era, a time when society seemed as stable as ever, though it was about to be turned topsy-turvy.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

He could not recognize most of the items before him, which he instinctively knew was a bad sign.

No one would pay his debt price to gain him release from prison. So he sought to pay it himself by offering the only thing he could, his body. But one man would require more.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

He kept his gaze cast below the belt; in the chill cell, sweat was beginning to form now on his neck, running down his back and between his bound wrists. "Lord," he said softly, "I would be glad to pay to you my debt in any way I can."

[Note: This same story is announced below, as part of the High Bookshelf novel Rebirth. Main Stream is my site for Main Bookshelf readers who may wish to read suitable portions of the content of High Bookshelf novels. "The Breaking" is suitable for both Main Bookshelf audiences and High Bookshelf audiences.]

The prisoner knew that the Eternal Dungeon was a place where suspected criminals were broken by torture, and he was prepared to hold out against any methods used against him – except the method he could not anticipate.

"Do you have any questions?" the Seeker asked. "About the routine of the dungeon? The times you will be fed? The questions you will be asked? The instruments of torture I use?"

In the queendom of Yclau lies an underground royal prison that embraces the worst of the past and the best of the future. The Eternal Dungeon is old-fashioned in its equipment and ahead of its time in its treatment of prisoners, seeking to put their best welfare above all else. Torture is part of the process of assisting the prisoners.

The High Seeker, Layle Smith, embodies this contradictory institution: a man of deadly impulses, the head torturer binds himself strictly by the dungeon's code of conduct. His efforts to maintain this delicate balance are altered, though, by the introduction into his life of Elsdon Taylor, a vulnerable prisoner who is coming to terms with his own darkness.

This historical fantasy series explores dark aspects of erotic life and includes themes of gay love. But the series goes far beyond that by considering the deeper issues faced by all those who find that their friendships and desires are in conflict with their duties.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"Do you have any questions?" the Seeker asked. "About the routine of the dungeon? The times you will be fed? The questions you will be asked? The instruments of torture I use?"

A cold-hearted murderer. A vicious abuser. A young man hiding a shameful secret. A bewildered foreigner. A pure-minded spy.

All of these men have found their appointed places at Mercy Life Prison, where it is easy to tell who your enemies are. But a new visitor to Mercy is about to challenge decades-old customs. Now these men's worst enemies may be hiding behind masks . . . and so may their closest allies.

Friendship, erotic desire between men, and the costs of corruption and integrity are examined in this multicultural historical fantasy series, which is based on late Victorian prison life.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

On the tenth anniversary of my arrival at Mercy Prison, I lay beneath my guard, trying to make my mind dwell on thoughts other than what he was doing to me.

An Arthurian tale. A simple Greek lesson reaches deep when a tutor seeks to teach a prince what can happen when love and duty clash.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

It is a great privilege that the gods have granted me: to serve as tutor and guide of the one who someday will serve as High King of this isle, uniting our people and thrusting back the darkness that has already overwhelmed so much of the world.

If you fall in love with one of the damned, should you join him in his damnation?

As a child hearing the song of his beloved mother is woken from deep sleep, so I felt myself drawn back from my darkness by the stern sound of my master's voice.

A cycle of historical fantasy novels about disreputable men on the margins of society, and the men and women who love them. The novels are set in a world based on the late Victorian and Edwardian Eras.

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