Beneath Ceaseless Skies #456, April 30, 2026

“The Sparrow Tree” by Alma Alexander

“Song, Skin, Sea” by Tamara Vardomskaya

Reviewed by Mina

This issue contains two very different tales but both ask important questions about how we live our lives.

“The Sparrow Tree” by Alma Alexander is in the form of a parable. The old Padishah Emperor treasures and fosters nature, but he is not able to pass on his wisdom to the Young Emperor. When the son seeks perfection, the father tells him that he must accept that “sometimes life is broken… sometimes you cannot fix what is broken and expect it to be the same as it was… That which lives also dies. That is the cycle.” The Young Emperor is unable to understand the joy his father and his subjects find in a tree covered in sparrows at the heart of the empire.

When the Young Emperor becomes Emperor, he neglects the nature his father loved and respected, becoming obsessed with perfect reproductions of it in art. When he covers the sparrow tree in gilded and jewelled mechanical birds, the real sparrows desert the tree. It takes the decline and fall of his empire for the Emperor to finally understand his fathers words. This is not an action-packed tale, more a reflection on life.

“Song, Skin, Sea” by Tamara Vardomskaya is a haunting tale. A young selkie is stolen from her mother by a count, who makes her his wife and a famous opera singer but owns her and her hidden skin. It is the fraudster and harpist Bellis who gives Margalita back her stolen skin. He helps her become an independent woman, setting up a bank account in her name alone, whilst loving, understanding and respecting her, above all sharing her passion for music. So when they are shipwrecked and Bellis is wounded, Margalita stays with him, even as he lays dying. When her mother comes to reclaim her, Margalita must choose between the sea and her music.

In the end, this is very much a tale about female empowerment for freedom means the freedom to choose. A joy to read.