A few words from Paul
Albreda’s origin tale comes from the outlining I did for the short story Fitz and the Witch, which is part of Mercerian Tales: Stories of the Past. The intention was to have Albreda explain her background to the Baron of Bodden, but the more I made notes on it, the longer it became until it got to the point that it was far too long to include.
So began The Call of Magic. I had initially intended it to be much shorter, perhaps only about 10,000 words, but the more I wrote, the more interesting in the tale became. The result is more than a short story, yet less than a full-blown novel, in short, a novella. I considered publishing it with other short stories, but the fact is that Albreda is a powerful and pivotal character in the Heir to the Crown series, deserving of
