Reminding me of another little girl centuries before, one who had grown up to claim her youth-name, her adult-name, and finally her elder-name, yet who had never been quite content with any of those names, nor what they represented. Not until her hands turned to stone-care.

On any other day, Varthin and I would not have met. His was a world of fire and iron and light everlasting; mine of the cool depths and a dark that was no dark at all, mapped by the subtle changes in taste and temperature and pressure of the saltwater that was my element. But it chanced I passed the tideline on midsummer’s day when Varthin stepped beyond his door into much light and little darkness, and so we met within the marram. His life was twined from its golden light; its black iron gave him his strength. These gifts he offered with his ring, and freely.

In conjunction with the release of BCS author R.B. Lemberg's new novel The Unbalancing, Jaymee Goh of Tachyon Publications, the publisher of R.B.'s novella The Four Profound Weaves (2021) and The Unbalancing (2022), interviews R.B. about queer norms and sexualities in their Birdverse fantasy world, which is also the setting for R.B.'s five stories, novelettes, and novella that appeared in BCS.