The Third Pillar is a dark portal fantasy in which the hero’s journey falls apart.
Annetta Gutiérrez, a nineteen-year-old from San Francisco, is transported to Kelenith, a world embroiled in a centuries-old war. On one side is the benevolent enchantress whose throne Annetta has been chosen to inherit. And on the other is a ruthless but visionary sorcerer who seeks to end the summoning of young women from our world to rule over Kelenith once and for all. Annetta is drawn to his side, but she must decide whether aligning herself with his cruelty is the price she is willing to pay to forge her own path.
Two dystopian sci-fi short stories included in the anthology A Tourist’s Guide to San Francisco at the Singularity, to be published in 2026.
Kayla Mai has been spinning fantasy tales since childhood, when she was inspired to write the female heroine she didn’t see represented in the fantasy adventure books she tore through.
Today, her work remains true to its feminist roots and has expanded to tackle the multifaceted experiences of hyphenated and compound identities and the complexity of human relationships.