The Shadowsewn Tarot (“The Skeleton Men: The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book 3”)

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The Shadowsewn Tarot Deck
The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book3
Accessory

72 scrying cards of Wraithskeep/Oblivion, built around my third book “The Skeleton Men” and the Shadowsewn characters. Order subject to change, may shift in placement before released next year. Available in 2015.
Court Cards
1.One of Courts (The Warden)
2.Two of Courts (The Paladin)
3.Three of Courts (The Seemstress)
4. Four of Courts (The Priest)
5. Five of Courts (The Vizier)
6. Six of Courts (The First Knight)
7. Seven of Courts (The Prince)
8. Eight of Courts (The Cyng)
Counsel Cards
1. One of Counsels (The Keeper)
2. Two of Counsels (The Chambermaid)
3. Three of Counsels (The Alchemist)
4. Four of Counsels (The Gargoyle)
5. Five of Counsels (The Imagineer)
6. Six of Counsels (The Archer)
7. Seven of Counsels (The Star Architect)
8. Eight of Counsels (The Keymaster)
Cull Cards
1. One of Culls (The Dawn Patrol)
2. Two of Culls (The Dusk Patrol)
3. Three of Culls (The Headsman)
4. Four of Culls (The Leech)
5. Five of Culls (The Oublier)
6. Six of Culls (The Sunken Queen)
7. Seven of Culls (The Lord of the Fall)
8. Eight of Culls (The Caste Away)
Spade Cards
1. One of Spades (The Oubliette of Oblivion)
2. Two of Spades (The Lostlands/The Outer Grounds)
3. Three of Spades (The Armory)
4. Four of Spades (The Drowning Pool)
5. Five of Spades (The Garrote)
6. Six of Spades (The Tower)
7. Seven of Spades (The Sanctuary)
8. Eight of Spades (The Skylight)
9. Nine of Spades (The Dungeon)
10. Ten of Spades (The Trophy Room)
11. Eleven of Spades (The Throne Room)
12. Twelve of Spades (The Graveyard/Boneyard)
Dire Craft Cards
1. One of  Crafts (Soul Orientation/Diagnosis)
2. Two of  Crafts (Recollection/Diagnosis)
3. Three of Crafts (Painscape/Diagnosis)
4 Four of Crafts (Necroflection/Diagnosis)
5. Five of Crafts (Splynt/Treatment)
6. Six of Crafts (Coalescence/Treatment)
7. Seven of Crafts (Reduction/Treatment)
8. Eight of Crafts (Reconstruction/Treatment)
9. Nine of Crafts (Equilibrium/Therapy)
10. Ten of Crafts (Xenomorphosis/Therapy)
11. Eleven of Crafts (Lumenpure/Therapy)
12. Twelve of Crafts (Transcendence/Therapy)
Cell Cards
1. One of Cells (The Leper)
2. Two of Cells (The Gemini)
3. Three of Cells (The Quartermaster)
4. Four of Cells (The Blacksmith)
5. Five of Cells (The Zealot)
6. Six of Cells (The Bound Devil)
7. Seven of Cells (The Lost Angel)
8. Eight of Cells (The Prophet)
9. Nine of Cells (The Innocent)
10. Ten of Cells (The Whore)
11. Eleven of Cells (The Jester/Fool)
12. Twelve of Cells (The Shade, the Watcher, Aleister, originator of the Shadowsewn curse)
Key Cards
1. One of Keys (Humility)
2. Two of Keys (Self-sacrifice)
3. Three of Keys (Empathy)
4. Four of Keys (Sympathy)
5. Five of Keys (Persistence)
6. Six of Keys (Flexibility)
7. Seven of Keys (Trust)
8. Eight of Keys (Hope)
9. Nine of Keys (Courage)
10. Ten of Keys (Perseverance)
11. Eleven of Keys (Patience)
12. Twelve of Keys (Love)
Fate Cards
1. One of Fates (Bloodletter/Purge)
2. Two of Fates (Abandonment)
3. Three of Fates (Isolation)
4. Four of Fates (Retribution)
5. Five of Fates (Vindication)
6. Six of Fates (Damnation)
7. Seven of Fates (Salvation)
8. Eight of Fates (Evolution)
9. Nine of Fates (Despair)
10. Ten of Fates (Exile)
11. Eleven of Fates (Deconstruction)
12. Twelve of Fates (Dismemberment)

The Skeleton Men (“The Skeleton Men: The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book 3”, Epilogue)

The Skeleton Men (Preview)
The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book3
Epilogue


Available 2015.


This is a tale of woe
Of wisdom and of wonder
Of finding the strength to rise again,
Sending despair asunder

I came upon the yard
Amidst a slothy and sinister mist
Settled down away from grave sounds
And drifted into sweet twilight trysts

I dreamt that I fell away
To greet a dawn of darkness
Lost on roads of nomadness
And of obscurious loneliness

Escape became my orientation
The union of storms my guide
Martyr became my shelter
From xenomorphous skies

Away, I wandered
To learn how to heal.
Myself.
This world.
A people in peril.

’til a scrape on stone
Startled me afraid
I rose to my wobbly feet
And dodged a rusted spade

“If you can mend the dead
What you seek shall be yours”
Their cursed keeper said
And exiled me to grim horrors

A bleak black ill-fated mission
To bind the broken living souls
Back together through contrition
To a time when they were whole

Conscripts to a wicked decree
Shadowsewn forgotten beings
Slaves of twenty and three
Puppets of a spineless cyng

There, in the depths of the nightmare
I mastered reanimation of self
Fractured hope fused by fallen hells
And the shadow’s careful help

This is a tale of life
Bending backwards through the end
Of lessons taught by the dead and
The fell telling fate of the
Skeleton men

PROLOGUE: THE SPINE

Step7_The Bitter Asylum
1. The Gravekeeper
2. The Dawn Patrol
3. The Warden
4. The Oublier
5. The Priest
6. The Chambermaid
7. The Headsman
8. The Sunken Queen

Step8_The Skylight Eyes
9. The Paladin
10. The Alchemist
11. The Keymaster
12. The Archer
13. The Star Architect
14. The Imagineer
15. The Gargoyle
16. The Vizier
Step9_The Bloodletting of Heaven
17. The Dusk Patrol
18. The First Knight
19. The Seemstress
20. The Leech
21. The Lord of the Fall
22. The Caste Away
23. The Prince
24. The Cyng

EPILOGUE: THE SKELETON MEN

The Spine (“The Skeleton Men: The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book 3: Prologue)

The Spine (Preview)
The Bonesetter’s Revenge, Book3
Prologue


Available 2015.

I set out for paths unknown, allowing the road to play counselor and educator, xenomorphous compass and dichotomous tutor. Determined to mend the fractures of this people, I hungered for mentors that could train me on the dire craft of healing a broken soul, and the bones that give it structure and stability. I wandered off common ways as days turned into nights, nights stretched into weeks of darkness, and time quickly lost substance. Lessons were twisted by my wrong turns and failed attempts at healing the human creature.
I learned pain well, as patient and doctor, the shattered and the setter. Breaking self for the remaking of others proved a perilous and jagged craft. The days were long and thankless, filled with more failures and fractures than healthy humans and hopeful progress. 
Tutelage through experience offered wisdom, but too few tangible human results. My days felt empty, my attempts at care and cure misconstrued and ill-fated. The alien alone wasn’t strong enough to pull me through the obscurious darkness.
I needed more.
My shadow was ever-present, waiting for full recognition, a silent partner in crime against the tide. A close confidant, it remained at a distance, always observing my misguided choices and failed attempts at bonding, but never criticizing. It stood patient on the periphery, its onyx eyes and caring grin under every streetlight, smirking through every reflection, nodding inside the gloom of the painful curriculum.
It knew I was close to breaking myself again. It always did. It felt the shifting plates, chipping calcium and synovial stress. The lessons of healing the human race, bending over backwards and sidewards and every which way, tested the very dexterity of the humble human it partnered with.
Alone, weary, broken by the caring road and without cardinal course or direction, I wandered into a backroads graveyard to rest for the night, listen to the whispers of the long passed. Willows wept wisely in the cool moonlight, and a thin fog slithered atop wavy farmland. Few souls rested there, much less were added to the low place. The area was abandoned long ago, for more popular parts where money wasn’t rooted in seeds and seasons.
A once-majestic sign, rusted and weathered by nature and neglect, arched above a tall pipe and wire gate and fence. On it, the words “In Saecula Saeculorum” were etched deeply and mystically. The sign and gate were erected in the 1930s, but most of the graves dated hundreds of years older. The air of the fell land felt more ancient than the stones themselves.
Perhaps it was a lucky find, or perhaps I came upon it by his purpose. Either way, my feet and heart needed rest away from the eyes of outlaws and untrue humans. Graveyards became a common place for me to rest while on the road. Few but its keepers and inhabitants cared much about its visitors after the sun went down.
Unless your stone is a famous one, and then you probably deserve the attention.
I propped my pack up against a crumbling gravestone that read “CRAVEN” with a deep, rugged, powerful groove; aligned myself with a view of the silvery moonlight and sweeping willow shadows; pushed my Boy Scout parka over my chilled bones; and drifted away into a deep slumber–a concerto of millions of cricket symphonies and umbral trysts the soundtrack to my ominous escape.

PROLOGUE: THE SPINE

Step7_The Bitter Asylum
1. The Gravekeeper
2. The Dawn Patrol
3. The Warden
4. The Oublier
5. The Priest
6. The Chambermaid
7. The Headsman
8. The Sunken Queen

Step8_The Skylight Eyes
9. The Paladin
10. The Alchemist
11. The Keymaster
12. The Archer
13. The Star Architect
14. The Imagineer
15. The Gargoyle
16. The Vizier
Step9_The Bloodletting of Heaven
17. The Dusk Patrol
18. The First Knight
19. The Seemstress
20. The Leech
21. The Lord of the Fall
22. The Caste Away
23. The Prince
24. The Cyng

EPILOGUE: THE SKELETON MEN