The Essence series
This is the story of Cimon a simple Greek shepherd who has the misfortune to come across a mythical creature known as a Rabisu. I based these on the seizer daemons mentioned in Sumerian myth, who are known known as the dweller at the door who steal the life force of unwary people.
Poor Cimon is transformed into one such creature by the morally ambiguous Shelpa. He has no idea what’s happened to him, so goes home but the new hunger inside takes over and he attacks his wife, Callie. Somehow he manages to regain control and takes her to their local wise woman who realises what’s happened, but is unable to help him or Callie.
This leaves Cimon with no choice but to go with Shelpa who he hopes will teach him to control these new urges. But before he leaves, the wise woman links him and Callie together in the hope that if he survives long enough for Callie to be reborn she will forgive him and kill him with love thereby freeing him from the life of a Rabisu. His death by a loving hand will allow him to be reborn as a human once more. But there’s the ever-present danger that Wielders who know about and hunt the Rabisu and other such supernatural creatures will kill him before then and he’ll be trapped for ever in the Desert of Anguish.
I chose to call my hero Cimon after a fifth Athenian general who did much to prevent war between Athens and Sparta and who was also the main commander of the Delian League when it managed to remove Persian influence from the Aegean after the Greco-Persian wars.
