Podcast on Episode 896 for Tuesday the 17th of June 2025.

Defy the Grey Kings by Jason Fisher, read by Wilson Fowley and produced by Priya Wood and Eric Valdez.

Rated R, with content notes for frequent and bloody violence, physical dismemberment and torture.

Good morning, good day, good afternoon and good evening.

And welcome to Pocatl, the flying castle of fantasy fiction.

I'm your host, Matt Dovey, and it is my pleasure to present a tale from the vault for your enjoyment.

Defy the Grey Kings by Jason Fisher,

narrated by Wilson Fowley. This story was first run by us as episode 438 in October 2016.

It was originally published in Beneath Seaseless Sky's issue number 180, won the inaugural

Orioles Award 2016 for Best Fantasy Novella,

and I've pulled it down to the vaults for you today for no reason other than I love it.

I remember being late to work the first time I heard it because the original episode ran 10 minutes longer than my morning commute,

so I had to sit in my car to finish it out because there was no way I could wait till the end of the day to know how it ended.

So now I give you the same gift, though the content note up top is, look, we always mean them.

We never deploy them lightly, but we really mean this one.

This story is not shy with the brutality, so if you're not in the frame of mind for that right now, or the company, then there's no shame in that, so that is the whole point of content notes

to let you know what's coming so you can be in the right place to hear it.

Content notes. They're just honest trailers that get to the point.

First though, some very exciting and happy news.

The Ignite Awards publicly announced their finalistsists and we are thrilled to be shortlisted

in the best fiction podcast category once again.

This is the sixth year the Ignite have run and the sixth year we've been a finalist.

...