Seersucker

Penitent Book 4 Ch 6: When it Tains

Penitent Book 4 Ch 5: Plotting

Penitent Book 4 Ch 4: Who They Say They Are

Penitent Book 4 Ch 3: Shipping Out

Penitent Book 4 Ch 2: Favors

Penitent Book 4 Ch 1: Fool

Penitent Book 3 Ch 63: Family

Penitent Book 3 Ch 62: Paladin

Michael balanced carefully on the white stallion he’d been given. The steed was beautiful, but far less even tempered than what he was used to. He still lacked skills as a rider, a deficiency he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to make up for. Ollie sat on a black stallion next to him, much more confidently balancing in the saddle, smirking as he watched Michael adjust for the tenth time.

“Gods can’t help you with that?” he asked.

“No. Horses are apparently at the edge ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 61: Champions of the Gods

Everyone was brought onto the palace grounds a few minutes later once the guards finished validating their identity. They were escorted to a private dining hall where food was being made available as rooms were being prepared. As soon as Ollie and Michael had greeted them they were honored as royal guests by King Marlo. They were surprised, but grateful.

Before he could get updates on what everyone had been doing he decided to tackle the most awkward reunion first and approached Finn an...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 60: Heraldry

Michael and Ollie sat in a room lined with old tomes and dozens of different heraldic banners. An old man with small spectacles and a hunched back had laid out dozens of different papers showing different shields, colors, animals, plants and even phrases. Michael assumed that the man would use some variation of ink transfer in order to layer each part and create something new. They needed to come up with heraldry for themselves now that they were going to be Counts.

“It's been some ti...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 59: Short Rest

After a verbal agreement was reached, they agreed to go over details later and Bayle was escorted by two royal guards out of the room.

King Marlo smiled at them. “I can honestly say this has been one of the most productive meetings of my life. I’ve established a new nation, been healed of my ills, and now I have two of my most powerful Knights devoted to a kingslaying.” He laughed, a bit more heartily than he was able to before. “My father would have me attend meetings when I wa...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 58: Old Friend

Michael carefully placed his hand on his mace’s handle. Bayle didn’t look armed, but that didn’t mean anything. The man was a spymaster, and a very capable one. They stood their sizing one another up for some time. The impasse was finally broken when there were two brief knocks from a servant and Lance was let in. He had a smile on his face that went ear to ear, and the moment he saw Bayle that smile vanished and his hand went toward the hilt of his sword.

“What the fuc...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 57: Healing and Old Wounds

After a lot of back and forth, the king performed some ink transfers of different documents and Michael read them for the Prince to make sure that they accurately represented the deal they’d already agreed to verbally.  Once they were done the Prince made another attempt at a smile and King Marlo returned it and stood again to hold out his hand. The King and Prince shook hands.

Aza turned to Michael and bowed, surprising him. “I owe this to you.”

Michael shook his head....

Penitent Book 3 Ch 56: King Marlo

Michael was scrubbed clean by servants and dressed before being shuffled through the halls alongside Ollie and Aza. While he’d been expecting something overwrought, they actually dressed him in a simple white shirt and dark blue pants with a red pattern sewn down the leg.  It was fine clothing, made well, but he wouldn’t consider it ‘fancy’. Ollie was wearing a simple outfit, but with a black shirt and dark red pants that better matched his titled beast jacket and hat. Aza was in...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 55: The Capital

Michael had asked a number of questions about the capital on the ride there. It was called Itallassia and had been the only city still standing after the first rift break. It was a port city, and Michael could already taste a bit of salt in the air as they approached. They passed by a number of large estates on the outskirts that seemed to be producing some type of vine grown fruit he didn’t recognize. The estates were made up primarily of the older building techniques Michael had seen. Whi...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 54: Caravan

Michael, Ollie, and Lance stood at the edge of the lizardfolk encampment. It was a tent city at the moment, with a small stone wall raised by magic and guards posted behind it. There was food cooking at several fires. Michael had visited several times over the last day to make sure that they were doing okay, but it seemed that once word had spread that Michael supported them and they’d helped dramatically in the battle they were mostly left alone or even welcomed. Michael had heard of a few...

Book 3 Ch 53: Restored Armor

Michael walked out of the infirmary just as the sun was coming up. He’d managed to get a few more hours of sleep before waking up and finding some water to give himself a quick whore bath. After that he changed his clothes and shaved. He checked his head and the rest of his face, but aside from the small patch of hair on his chin, and a few strands of hair there wasn’t any white anywhere else. He saw no other signs of aging on himself. No wrinkles aside from some smile lines and the begin...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 52: Godly Rewards

Michael healed people until he collapsed. Then when he awoke he healed people until he collapsed again. There were protestations from a few, but Ollie and Lance simply made sure he ate something and drank something when he could. They knew there was no convincing him to stop. As he was healing he explained what had happened when he was on the other side of the rifts.

“He’s royalty in exile,” said Michael as he placed a hand on a young man’s leg and began to mend the deep gouge t...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 51: The Battle of Lataxia

Michael and the men around him hit the enemy in the city like a hammer hitting an anvil. All of those rift monsters that had fled, hoping that their allies had already broken through the walls and made it deep into the city, were the first to be cut down. Ollie, the lizardfolk, and all the other remaining mages sent salvos of devastating spells to land in their midst, scattering and breaking their lines even more than they had been already. Militia and Hume army soldiers peppered them with ar...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 50: Rallying Cry

Michael charged forward, aiming himself like a missile at the scorpion monster that still had Ollie’s blood on the tip of its tail. He dodged a desperate lash of its tail and caught a claw on his shield that immediately began to bubble and burn from the heat of the holy fire that was all across him. He stabbed Rend deep into the creature's stomach, causing it to let out an unholy scream as it flushed the air from its lungs.

Michael didn’t stop there, he launched himself toward the n...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 49: Return

Michael didn’t have time to hesitate when he saw the rift close, he pivoted to charge at the horned men’s reinforcements that were coming toward him and the Prince. He smashed his mace into the knees of one and then the other to incapacitate them as he located the next closest rift. Someone on the other side must’ve closed the first rift. It was an effort he would’ve praised had he been on the other side of it, but in this case he wanted to throttle whoever had done it.

As he fo...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 48: Damning Success

Ollie bolted awake, a new lifetime of living on or training for battlefields forcing him into focus. He was drawing on his titled beast coat and fixing his hat as he ran out of his tent, his staff in hand. He was beginning to spin up his magicka channels even as he moved, feeling the cold energy spiral up inside him, filling him up with raw power. Blake had already left his tent in the night and he quickly began making his way toward the position he, Laird, Blake, and Lance had been told to t...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 47: The Night Before

It was dark as Ollie flew over the enemy army. It was a heavy risk, even in the dark, so he had a barrier beneath himself just in case he was seen and they decided to take potshots at him. It was a sea of horned men, lizardfolk, and even a few of those hideous scorpion-like creatures. They were lit by numerous fires, as well as the light of several small rifts out of which two or three of them would occasionally appear. He reached Lataxia and hovered for a moment. While direct trade with them...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 46: Tomorrow

Michael was crouched down as he and Prince Aza peered over a hill at the gathering force of Horned men. There were hundreds of them there with lizardmen support, a few of the massive scorpion like insect monsters, and more than a dozen of the horned men in chitin armor. The sight of them made Aza’s scales flare.

“I had not seen those monstrosities before. They use us as fuel for their strength and protection. It is sickening.”

Michael nodded in agreement as he stared at the ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 45: Divine Whispers

King Marlo woke up sitting in his chair in the study. He’d been dreaming of…something. He wasn’t exactly sure what. He just had the impression of golden light and a warm hand on his shoulder. He rubbed his eyes with pale hands and realized that someone had placed a blanket over him in his sleep. It couldn’t have been the servants, they were told not to disturb him, so that meant it was either Vauna or Bren. He sighed as he pushed it off of himself. They knew he would’ve wanted to be...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 44: The Knight and the Wizard

Michael was keeping watch in the dark, looking up occasionally at yet another unfamiliar sky. Fighting out of the castle and escaping had been hard. I was non-stop fighting out of the dungeon followed by miles of running, having to keep himself from moving too quickly and leaving the party of now nearly eighty of the lizardfolk. Luckily, they’d seemed to be planning to do something for a long time. They had their plan of attack figured out, the routes of escape, and even hideouts mapped. Th...

New Book!

Hey everybody, I just started posting a new story on RR!

It's called Otherworld Therapy and here's the rub:

Avalon has more than five hundred enchanters,  one thousand fortune-tellers, three thousand adventurers, eight hundred rickshaw drivers, six hundred and sixty six crossroad devils, and one therapist.

Harem counseling, dragon hoarding, extraplanar angst, John handles it all. Rain, shine, dumped by his former secretary, sudden blizzard in the middle of a sunny day, ...

Otherworld Therapy

The complete book for Otherworld Therapy available in PDF and EPUB format. If you're on IOS it's more expensive, not my rule, patreons. You can access the cheaper price from a desktop.

Otherworld Therapy follows John, a man who was transported to the fantastic city of Avalon and decided to become its first and only therapist. You can find a number of early chapters available on Royal Road.

This had one editing pass from me, but I will be uploading a new version once a we...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 43: Dreams and Negotiations

Trina was dreaming. Of that she was certain. The last thing she remembered was healing Marcus. He had pushed himself to the front with a bayonet on his rifle and torn through half a dozen Burndans but he’d taken a spear to the kidney in the process. She must’ve passed out while she healed him. She needed to wake up. There were more people that would need healing. She may not have healed Marcus enough that he’d survive. He was too valuable, too strong. They’d lost too many already.

Penitent Book 3 Ch 42: Enemy's Enemy

Michael approached Azalaceus. He had never really looked at any of the lizardfolk closely before, at least not any that were still alive. They were short, reaching just a bit past his waist, and they had thick scales in varying shades, sharp teeth, and small rending claws. Their faces were long and angular, and they had tails that seemed to vary wildly in length from individual to individual. On top of never really looking at any of them, he’d never tried to heal one either. He’d been too...