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Griever

Griever

By: Arielle Joria
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A new spooky YA serial by Arielle Joria featuring a focus on magical queerplatonic bonds

queerplantasy.substack.comArielle Drama & Plays
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  • Griever: Chapter Six

    Griever: Chapter Six
    Jun 8 2026
    Chapter SixSeph led them through the back corridors of the main hall until they reached the Elandir kitchens. There was no one else inside at the moment, but a huge pot of stew was simmering on the stove. Seph stirred it delicately as he began to speak, while Bain gestured Shaeda to a seat by the fireplace.“You ever heard of Grievers?” Seph asked.Shaeda shook her head.“It’s what they call haunted people,” he explained. “People who manifest ghosts; people like us. It’s not normal; most people don’t have ghosts, even if they’ve lost somebody they love. I mean, everybody dies, so everybody’s lost somebody. Most people just move on. You only end up with a ghost if something really messed up happens … and if you’ve got the natural magic to get yours to stay. Taste this.”He abruptly began ladling stew into a bowl, and then shoved it at Shaeda.She blinked at him, startled, then hesitantly picked up the spoon and took a small bite. It was rich, warm, savory, and phenomenal.“Oh my god,” she managed, hastily shoving another bite in her mouth.“Hey, save some for me.” Bain held his hands out for the bowl, and Shaeda reluctantly surrendered it. “Seph’s no slouch when it comes to his fledgeroot stew.”“Glad you like it,” Seph muttered. “Anyway, it’s no surprise that you’ve got a ghost; you’re from that orphanage, right? I figure you’ve seen some s**t.”He glanced over his shoulder at Shaeda, who found herself nodding.“Right,” he went on. “Well, now that he’s seen it, Sharm’s gonna try to get you to train your ghost to do d*****s tricks.”Bain sucked in another spoonful, then laid his bowl down on the nearby table.“I think we owe her a little more than that,” he sighed. “Listen, Shaeda … Seph and I are only at Elandir because of our ghost. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have wanted us.”Shaeda winced.“Professor Sharm said that’s why I’m here, too,” she admitted. “They knew I was an orphan. They were hoping I would be grieving. They wanted to see if I could summon a ghost.”“Figures,” muttered Seph. “You okay with that?”“It’s … good,” murmured Shaeda. “I can be useful, here.”Bain gave her a long,appraising look.“Yeah,” he admitted quietly. “Yeah, you could.”Seph snorted.“Look at what a little people-pleaser you are,” he sighed, and Shaeda flinched. “You don’t need to ‘help’ those shitheads learn new ways to screw people up for fun and profit. They’re plenty good at doing that on their own.”“Seph,” muttered Bain, and there was a gentleness in his voice when he locked eyes with his friend that Shaeda didn’t think she understood. Seph snarled something under his breath and turned his back on them, returning his attention to his stew.“Okay,” said Shaeda quietly. “Can you two please tell me what’s going on?”“Right.” Bain sighed. “Yeah, of course. So … you know that Seph and I have a ghost together, right?”“Together?” Shaeda frowned. “Sorry, I don’t know what that means.”“It means that we have the same ghost,” Seph shot back. “It’s Bain’s sister, Aggie. We both knew her, and she … she died. So, now she’s haunting both of us.”He turned back around to raise a challenging eyebrow at Shaeda, but she just nodded again.“Okay,” she said. “And the school scouted both of you?”Seph looked almost impressed.“They sure did,” said Bain. “Seph and I grew up together in Devina, on the coast. One day, Petwardan showed up with this nutjob Professor Sparrow to ‘invite’ us to the Academy. Apparently, people had been spreading rumors about the two freaks with the creepy ghost girl until word got all the way to Elandir. Sparrow told us that we were special, and that we could help people.”“Aggie would have wanted us to go,” mumbled Seph.“I didn’t,” countered Bain without rancor, “but Seph was pretty set on it.”Seph stared angrily into the stew pot, and said nothing.“When we got here,” Bain went on, “they started us on special lessons twice a week; taught us how to summon Aggie even when she didn’t feel like coming out.”He paused there, and a frustrated expression passed over his face. Shaeda waited patiently for whatever it was to pass.“Anyway,” he went on, a little lower this time, “once we’d mastered that, Dr. Sparrow started insisting that we drag Aggie out whenever we could, and that we try to teach her to learn the same spells we were learning. When that didn’t work, he’d sit us in these endless ‘therapy’ sessions where he tried to teach us how to focus our grief and make it more ‘productive.’”Seph slammed a spoon down so hard on the table that the rest of the silverware on the rack over the stove rattled in sympathy.“It was killing Bain,” he snapped. “Dragging up the past, forcing Aggie to be where she didn’t want to be and do things she didn’t want to do. It HURT him, like, physically hurt ...
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    18 mins
  • Griever: Chapter Five

    Griever: Chapter Five
    May 17 2026
    Chapter FiveBounding out of bed, Shaeda grabbed the sword, and flung open the bedroom door … then had to stop short.Unexpectedly, Migael was standing right outside, so close that she almost bashed him in the face when she opened the door. She dropped the sword in surprise, and he jumped back, eyes wide. Then his shoulders sagged, his whole face flooding with relief.“Oh man,” he breathed, “you’re up! You’re okay! I mean, uh … are you okay? How you feeling?”Shaeda just blinked at him.“Feeling?” she asked, sounding stupid even to her own ears. It was a very difficult question to answer. She kinda had a lot on her mind.Migael, she then realized, had a large bandage wrapped around his head, and there was something a little shifty and dazed in his eyes.An ugly weight settled in the pit of Shaeda’s stomach as the memories began to trickle back in, and again, she suddenly wasn’t sure where the reality started and the dream ended … or was it the other way around?“What’s happening?” she whispered. “What am I-?”“Whoa, steady, now.” Migael grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Take a breath, man. You, uh, kinda had a traumatic experience. Wait, maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but, uh … anyway, they said you might not remember what happened, so. This is fine, I’ve got this. What DO you remember?”Shaeda wasn’t sure. There were strange, blue-eyed non-humans, and glowing swords, and terrifying mud monsters with tentacles, and a familiar silvery shape that had risen out of pure rage and channeled it into a powerful certainty.She swallowed hard.“Yeah,” muttered Migael. “Yeah, okay, so maybe let’s skip that part. We can catch up later. Right now, Professor Sharm wants to see you.”That, of course, made sense. If she really had accidentally summoned something in the middle of the examination, then of course he’d want to talk to her.“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she managed.That isn’t true, is it?Maybe she hadn’t exactly intended to summon a spirit; she hadn’t even been sure she still could. At the same time, Migael was obviously alive, and presumably Talie was, as well, or he’d have said something about it by now, and so whatever Shaeda had done HAD worked. She couldn’t be sorry about that. She couldn’t wish it hadn’t happened.Something inside her HAD intended every bit of it.“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay, um … I’ll go see the professor.”Migael shook his head.“WE’LL go see him,” he corrected her. “I’m not leaving you alone with that creep.”Shaeda raised an eyebrow.“Do you think he’ll let you stay?” she asked.Migael shrugged.“Not planning to ask for permission,” he said, and then he started off down the hall.***Professor Sharm’s office, which had only recently belonged to Professor Petwardan, was on the first floor to accommodate Professor Petwardan’s wheelchair. Professor Sharm hadn’t changed much about it when he’d taken over; even the tiny painted portrait of Professor Petwardan’s late wife was still in its place on the mahogany desk when Shaeda and Migael walked through the half-open door.Talie was already there, seated in an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair with one slightly shorter leg that kept it off balance. Shaeda had a theory that neither Professor had ever replaced that chair because sitting in it unsettled any students who were brought to them for reproach or punishment.As soon as she saw Shaeda, Talie jumped up and ran to embrace her.“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered. “We were really worried. What WAS that thing?”“Ah, Ms. Clare.” Professor Sharm nodded at Shaeda, then glanced with some resignation at Migael. “And Mr. Hansa. I don’t remember inviting you along.”“Nope.” Migael smiled. “You didn’t.”Shrugging, Professor Sharm let that go.“How are you feeling?” he asked Shaeda. “And, Hansa, is the dizziness clearing up?”Shaeda turned on Migael.“You’re dizzy?” she asked. “How dizzy?”Migael threw up his hands.“I got my head bashed against a rock,” he reminded her. “What did you expect? And thanks, Prof, but I’m fine. I mean, I’ll be fine.”Talie sighed.“He really will be fine,” she murmured, smiling softly. “He’s definitely concussed, though. If you hadn’t done … well, whatever that was, Shaeda, then things might have gotten a lot worse.”“Yeah, no s**t.” Migael shuddered. “Thanks for the save, bestie.”The word “bestie” filled Shaeda with so much sudden warmth and excitement that she had to quickly trace the shekra symbol on her wrist several times to keep the unexpected joy at bay.Forcing herself to refocus, Shaeda carefully looked Talie over for signs of any injury.“I’m okay, too,” insisted Talie. “Everything’s going to be fine, okay? Don’t freak out.”Those words hit Shaeda like a physical blow, and she winced. Talie looked instantly contrite, biting her lip and shaking her ...
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    19 mins
  • Griever: Chapter Four

    Griever: Chapter Four
    May 17 2026
    Chapter FourShaeda could sense something…something soft, inviting, and endless. The quiet was an unnerving relief; she could almost taste the stillness and the gentle solitude … and then, she heard the voice.“Champion,” it whispered. “Champion, wake up. It’s begun … this is no time for lying around!”She opened her eyes and saw that she was back in the dream world, light pouring from all sides and warm breezes ruffling the silk draperies. This time, there was a luxurious lavender divan in the center of the room, and on it were perched two people.The one, a bright-haired woman with familiar, cobalt-blue eyes, got to her feet as soon as she met Shaeda’s gaze. The other, a pale-haired man with an impassive face, simply watched, unmoving.They were both dressed in hooded silken robes, shimmering in shades of lavender and cream. The woman wore large pearls in her ears, and the man had them sewn at the shoulders of his garment. They shone and shimmered with the kind of luxury that Shaeda would have expected from the greatest lords and ladies of Elsenere; people at the same level of wealth and freedom as the Rose family.“Lady Shaeda,” the woman breathed, “I’m so delighted to finally meet you! My name is Junith! Wait, is that too informal? It’s been so long since I’ve talked with one of you … with a human, I mean! Oh, this is SO exciting! What do you think? I mean, how do I look? Did I get the outfit right? I did spend so much time this morning working on creating the most effectively human-like ensemble that I could; Aistus INSISTED.”Junith did a little twirl, letting her skirts billow out around her.“Um,” Shaeda murmured, nonplussed. “Well, you … you certainly look human. I wouldn’t have known you weren’t, if you hadn’t told me.”Junith turned and gave the man a triumphant look.“Aistus,” she called. “Come over here and greet our champion!”He turned, smiled softly at Shaeda, and then walked over to join them.“Welcome,” he murmured, and his voice was a purr just as soft as velvet. “My name is Aistus, and I’m ever so pleased to make your acquaintance.”Junith rolled her eyes.“He’s so stuffy,” she sighed. “Oh, well. Are you ready?”Shaeda simply blinked at her.“I’m not sure,” she said honestly. “I don’t-!”“She couldn’t possibly be ready,” murmured Aistus. “You haven’t yet told her what to be ready for.”Junith shot him a frown“I was GETTING to that,” she hissed. “Ahem. Welcome, Lady Shaeda, to the … oh, Great Shuya, I’m not sure what to call it. I suppose you humans would refer to this as a refuge! That’s that, then; we’ll call it the Refuge. It’s a safe space; as long as you’re here, no one can harm your mind, body, or soul, and no one can find you unless you welcome them in. Aistus and I are here to help you in whatever way we can, although, of course, there are some things we absolutely can’t do. No cheating, you know?”“Cheating?” Shaeda found that not much of this was making sense. “I’m sorry; what exactly is happening?”Aistus clucked his tongue at Junith, and her eyes flashed.“You can’t cheat at the game,” sighed Junith, speaking a bit more sharply than she had at first. “That’s clear, isn’t it? You WILL win, of course, but you have to win FAIRLY. Otherwise, it doesn’t count. You can do that, can’t you? Of course you can. I have ALWAYS believed in you!”Ah, thought Shaeda. Alright, so she was going to play a game. That would be fine; she liked games. So did Migael; when they weren’t studying, or rushing out into the night to practice things they shouldn’t be learning yet, they often played table games in his dorm room. Judging by the looks they got when they separated at strange hours of the morning, several people in the dorm were under the impression that they were playing a VERY different kind of two-person game alone together, but Shaeda didn’t really care. She was getting very good at Siege and Shadow, and now she won more than she lost. Migael was surprisingly good at strategy, considering he really only studied when she cajoled or threatened him into it. Luckily for him, he was, apparently, a natural. If she could beat him fairly in the real world, then of course she’d be able to win a game in a dream.“Okay,” she said, nodding. “I understand. So, what are we playing?”Junith and Aistus looked momentarily stunned.“I’m not sure how to answer that,” murmured Aistus. “The game doesn’t have a name; not as such.”“Of course it does!” Junith’s eyes lit up with something alarming and slightly unfriendly. “It’s called WAR! We’re playing war. If you win, then the human race is saved! Yay! And if He wins … Well, that’ll be some very bad luck, I’m afraid. Very, VERY bad, Lady Shaeda, so that’s not really an option; not this time.”“But with our help,” Aistus assured Shaeda, “you’ll be safe. He’ll have no chance ...
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    11 mins
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