From the Ship of Fools to the Count of Noon Harbor

Set against a Western 1990s–2000s alternate-history backdrop, with elements of Kabbalistic mysticism, Lovecraftian horror, and occult lore, this is the tale of a man who would become the most whispered-about noble in Noon Harbor—known to bankers, officials, agents, and aristocrats alike. Only he and his enemies, dead or dying, know the truth: the Count of Noon Harbor was once st￭ into a sack and thrown into the sea as a living sacrifice. Edmund Lockman, a changeling and a displaced soul who survived death by virtue of the “Song of Pearls,” defied a covenant older than the current alignment of stars. When the celestial configuration shifts, the Song shall rise from the sunken city, granting listeners strange powers—at a price: bodily mutation, enforced devotion to the Master of the Deep, and the tainting of the dead, who are drawn down to the abyss. Edmund, however, has been exempted from both the pull and the compulsion. Thus the deceased rises from the Ship of Fools, seizes his enemies’ wealth, inherits their secrets, clips their wings one by one, and finally ascends to supremacy over the very deities they worshipped. “My name is Edmund Lockman. I am quite satisfied with your title and your lands. But I do not care for the name Dusk Harbor—henceforth, it shall be Noon Harbor. From this day forward, I am the Count of Noon Harbor.”