Debt

by Katika Schneider

There were only two ways to escape the assassins guild. Debt understood them both.

Born to buy his mother's freedom from the wicked life of murder-for-hire and meticulously forged into the guild's sharpest weapon, Debt knew no other path than the one he followed. When his masters assigned him the termination of a problematic wash-out called Succubus, it was just another tally for his log book.

Until he tracked his target to Fairmont — and witnessed for himself why his employers wanted her executed. Failure was not an option for one of Debt's caliber, but he hadn't bargained for the growing list of complications which accompanied what should have been a simple assignment.

There were only two ways to escape the assassins guild. Debt was about to learn them both.

60 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 2, 2023

About the author

Fueled by bedtime stories of The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn and afternoons adventuring in the woods behind her rural Missouri home, the jump from epic fantasy reader to epic fantasy author was a natural transition for Katika. She discovered her love of writing in fourth grade writing workshop, and embraced this art from that point forward. Spending junior high learning the ups and downs of style development via DragonLance fan fiction, she began crafting her own stories in high school, winning local writing competitions. Happiest when wordsmithing, she enrolled in creative writing courses in college and was told fantasy "wasn't creative fiction." This led her to seek alternative writing wisdom and heavily shaped her indie author ideals.

Kat accidentally discovered her world of Abaeloth in 2003 when creating a character for an RPG. This character shared her life story from birth to death and everything in between. With nothing left to game with, the only logical option was to begin writing so Nessix could live outside of Kat's mind. Devotion, the first book of Tale of the Fallen, was published in 2016 and three more series within the encompassing Afflicted Saga are currently drafted.

Today, Katika still considers rural Missouri home and lives on a farm with her supportive husband and their assortment of special needs animals. She forewent veterinary school due to unplanned life circumstances, and now spends her non-writing time playing with her dog, riding her horses, and drowning in garden gnomes.

Katika strives to draw on the brilliance of the fantasy classics to craft and deliver epic tales reminiscent to those told in the genre's golden age. It is among her most sincere hopes that you fall in love with Abaeloth and those who call it home as deeply as she has.