Queer stories about rising from darkness, striving for the light.

The stories that take place in Avern started long ago, perhaps before any other stories or ideas I've had. This was one of the first series I ever conceived, and it has a special place for me. It's a place where I can work on my world-building and get into fantasy-based stories, which is one of my all-time favorites.

Avern

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Avern

Elegant gold serif text reading Reading Order on a black background with a decorative horizontal divider line.

999 AY

The world of Avern begins with the Legacy of the Phoenix. These seven books set the stage for the following series. Legacy of the Phoenix takes place in the Abandoned Years, almost 1000 years after the gods disappeared.

Legacy of the Phoenix

Fantasy novel cover for Dark and the Sword: Legacy of the Phoenix by Beverly L. Anderson featuring a female silhouette.

The world of Avern has moved on. It’s been nearly a millennium since the day when the whole pantheon vanished, a day no one will ever forget. Since the Abandonment, the mortals have learned to live without gods and goddesses. The world became mundane, with little magic and even less hope. Tyrants have emerged, while those possessing magic hold immense power. Forces surge in the darkness, threatening to topple the already fragile world. However, Avern’s world's plight is not unknown, and distant watchers will intervene. The mortals are sleeping, however, unknowing that two great powers will soon vie for control.

Then something happens that changes things. A young princess makes a bid for power by murdering her father. She then attempts to murder her sister, the crown princess of Lineria, Keiara. Despite a true strike aided by dark powers, Keiara doesn’t die. Instead, the strike pierces the barrier between her human soul and the soul sleeping within her, the soul of the Dark Phoenix. More than a goddess, the Dark Phoenix is the legendary mother of the gods. She is a part of the Eternal Phoenix that brought life to their world eons ago, one of the primal forces of the cosmos.

Dark and the Sword

Legacy of the Phoenix Book One

Book cover for Air and the Crown by Beverly L. Anderson featuring an elf warrior with glowing wings in a forest.

Almost a thousand years after the gods vanished from Avern, the Eternal Phoenix has begun to stir, and with it, the ancient powers long sealed away. Keiara, the Dark Phoenix, has set two adventuring parties on a single mission: to find the imprisoned Keepers whose return could reshape the world.

Sanna leads the northern expedition, joined by Jovan, Miira, Syera, and Elmlock. Their goal is clear but perilous. They are to recover the Crown of Life, the only artifact said to free the Keeper of Life from captivity. To reach it, they must cross the frozen wastes of Phomean, survive the treacherous Pass of Solace, and seek aid from the elusive water‑kin elves of Zeri T’ves. And these elves may greet them with arrows rather than open arms.

Between moral pirates, shifting alliances, and a world awakening to powers it has long forgotten, Sanna’s group must decide who to trust and how far they’re willing to go. Because the Crown of Life is more than a key to a prison. It is a test, and the wrong choice could doom them or the Keeper they seek to save.