BCS #221 is out today, featuring stories with young protagonists facing the consequences of their decisions and a podcast that uses the audio mastering to help tell the story.

Rodello Santos (“To Slay with a Thousand Kisses” in BCS #36 and podcast BCS 032) returns to BCS with “In the Shade of the Pixie Tree,” a similarly pastoral tale that focuses on a young apprentice facing the consequences of her past (or future?) actions and deciding whether to change them.

J.S. Veter offers “Crescendo,” a story of children exploring ruins in a town ruled by colonial overlords and the tales of the past that these ruins whisper.

The BCS Audio Fiction Podcast episode is BCS 192: In the Shade of the Pixie Tree, the Rodello Santos story of a young apprentice deciding whether to change her past actions. Like several other past episodes of the BCS Audio fiction podcast, such as BCS 150: The Punctuality Machine, Or, A Steampunk Libretto by Bill Powell and BCS 050: The Suffering Gallery by Matthew Kressel, it uses the audio mastering to help tell the story.

The From the Archives story with BCS #221 is “Over a Narrow Sea” by Camille Alexa, from BCS #60, a tale of young protagonists fleeing overlords and events, not unlike “Crescendo” or “In the Shade of the Pixie Tree.”

All behind a new crop of our cover art for early spring in the Northern Hemisphere: “Pillars of the Gods” by Ward Lindhout.