Tishla’s Journey follows the Tishla, a young Gelt concubine from a servant background, as she escapes the fallout of her lover-husband Kai‘s failed colonization efforts and rises to become a revolutionary leader of a new interspecies colony.
After Kai’s death, Tishla discovers she is pregnant with his child. Realizing she is being used as a political pawn by Marq (Marcus Leitman), she lashes out and flees Metis with the help of a Laputan official, Delda Rallis, an old friend of Kai’s. Rallis smuggles her to Armaneya, an orbital city on the edge of Compact space, where she reunites with her brother-in-law, Lattus Brac.
Brac, a politically savvy slacker, arranges for Tishla to legally challenge the Laral family‘s claim to Gilead. With the Sovereign’s invitation secured, Tishla invokes ancient Gelt traditions, staking her unborn child’s claim to the planet and demanding a formal hearing. When the Sovereign offers her recognition—and even flirtation—she uses the opportunity to press for a peaceful, joint rebuilding of the shattered colony.
With the Sovereign’s blessing, she persuades Gelt settlers and surviving humans to rebuild together, offering to die publicly if they refuse. Her dramatic gesture wins them over, and the colony is rechristened Hanar, signaling a new beginning.
However, Tishla’s rule is not uncontested. A human separatist faction rejects the new order and forms an enclave apart from the reconstructed capital. The story ends with Hanar’s government still fragile, but its foundation laid—politically, culturally, and symbolically—by one of the Realm’s most unlikely revolutionaries.
Excerpt
Preceded by Broken Skies
Followed by Chasing Eternity