David Niemitz

268 - 287 Epub package

Here is our second 20 chapter pack, including various edits based on reader feedback!

Guild Mage 292

I actually went back and forth on the timing here, whether to do this chapter first, or a Wren chapter; and I decided, finally, that it's halloween, and this is more fitting :)

Chapter 292: The God-Eating Queen

Liv was not permitted to enter the Kaulris encampment until after the sun had gone down.  She had considered forcing the issue, while the afternoon wore down, but at the core of things she wanted – needed – their support.  And that meant she was going to be fo...

Guild Mage 291

Chapter 291: Arithmetic 

It took every ounce of Liv’s self control not to raise her hand to her forehead, and rub at her temples.

The headache truly hadn’t been so bad, when she’d see Keri off after the morning meal.  Several hours of going in circles with an elder each from Houses Esteri and Isakki had, however, managed to do what days away from the mana of a rift could not.

“As I have said, Livara, we will be more than happy to aid in your construction ef...

Guild Mage 290

Chapter 290: The Price of All Alliances

Keri ate a morning meal with the group from Whitehill.  He had considered leaving earlier, and walking over to the Mountain Home encampment to eat with his father and the rest of his family, instead.  

The food would likely be better – Whitehill, despite all they had done to support Liv, was still not as good at providing an Elden diet as they could be.  But he found himself hesitating.  Part of it was the natural ...

Guild Mage 289

Chapter 289: Before the Council

“You know, back when we first met in Freeport,” Liv said, “I don’t think I ever even asked what House you were a member of.  You were only the second –” she glanced to Keri, at her side – and third of the Vakansa I’d met.” 

She stepped right up to the ambassador, who’d risen from his seat on one log, and looked into his eyes.  “They aren’t as bright green as Calevis or Aatu,” Liv said, after a moment.  �...

Guild Mage 288

Chapter 288: In the Halls of the Ancient Ones

In the weeks since Liv had last visited the ring, Matthew and Triss - particularly Triss, Liv decided - had settled into the ancient structure like a new home.  The control room, with its great window and view of the spinning world below, had become something like their sitting room or solar.

While they hadn’t removed anything - the glass panes which constantly scrolled Vædic sigils in a rainbow of colors remained unobstructed ...

Guild Mage 287

Chapter 287: Prisoners and Orphans

Liv pushed her plate of venison pie, now covered with only a few remaining crumbs and a smear of brown gravy, across the table to give herself a little bit of room.  She leaned back in her chair, feeling pleasantly over-stuffed, and sighed.

“I’ve missed your cooking, Mama,” she admitted.

Margaret Brodbeck grinned, from across the table where she sat next to Gretta in the afternoon sunlight.  “There’s less mana-rich stag ...

Guild Mage 286

Chapter 286: A Sign of Respect

Before she left in the morning, Wren went to visit her father.

It was not a visit in the normal sense, of course, in that Nighthawk Wind Dancer could not speak to her, or even hear a word that she said.  He remained frozen in a block of ice, just as he’d been since Eila tär Väinis had cast her spell.  Rather than transported as a prisoner, he’d been hauled in a wagon, across the high desert and to the waystone at Feic Seria, arriving ...

Guild Mage 285

Chapter 285: Scars

It was only hours later, after the feasting in the great hall had proceeded to a sufficient level of riotous noise that no one would mind Liv leaving, that she was able to sit down with her friends in private.

They used Baron Henry and Duchess Julianne’s solar, which Liv had still not gotten used to thinking of as belonging to Matthew and Triss, and which had begun to shift, in reality, away from the mental image she’d retained.  Weeks of use by Keri, S...

Guild Mage 284

Chapter 284: Marzipan 

Liv brought as many of her Whitehill people back from Feic Seria as she could: Bryn Grenfell, of course, but also Emma and Kale Forester, the knights who were fit enough to travel, and even the mountain men from Gold Creek.

Half her personal guard went first, to secure the waystone at Bald Peak.  There was no reason to suspect any trouble in their own territory, but Kaija insisted, and at this point Liv couldn’t very well blame her.  There w...

Guild Mage 283

I'm thinking about 4 chapters left in volume seven, give or take.

Chapter 283: Summons

By the afternoon after the battle, all of the survivors had been brought back down to the encampment at the plateau, where Arjun and the other healers worked to save as many lives as they could.  It was fortunate that the allied troops had already been in full retreat from the blood orbs that Ractia had summoned, and that they’d had Kaija’s wall of ice between them and Liv’s archmage ...

Guild Mage Volume 2 Release Day!

Volume 2: Eld is currently available for order on Amazon, in both paperback and ebook formats! If you want to check it out on Audio, that will go live tomorrow :)

As always, ratings, reviews, and word of mouth make or break a release. If you're able to head over to Amazon or Goodreads to support the book, that would be wonderful!

Volume 3 Ebook preorder live, stubbing 2!

Big day today - though Monday will be bigger! I'm about to go through and stub volume two, and the preorder for the ebook of volume three is now live on Amazon!

https://a.co/d/cTuJyD8

Guild Mage 282

Chapter 282: The Battle of Nightfall Peak VI: Skyfall

Despite being taken by surprise, the alliance troops had been hardened by, at this point, months or even years of conflict.  The vicious, grinding fight up the mountain the the summit; the battle at the pass between Whitehill and Courland; the long expedition on foot and by boat across the continent of Varuna, and even the eruptions throughout the north had long ago whittled away any soldiers who weren’t disciplined, capable, ...

Guild Mage 281

Chapter 281: The Battle of Nightfall Peak V: The Lady of Blood

Liv and the elders had just made it to the knot of fighters at the center of the battlefield when the doors into the mountain began to swing open.  Just ahead of them, she could see that Wren and Ghveris were holding Nighthawk Wind Dancer down, while Liv’s father was pushing Aariv up the slope, ice and fire meeting in great clouds of steam.  Seija, Ractia’s Iravatan commander, was gasping in a pool of her own b...

Guild Mage 280

This one's a little chunky - about 500 words more than our usual chapters. I considered splitting it into two, but I don't think there's quite enough to stretch like that, so I went with an oversized chapter, instead.

Chapter 280: The Saddle

Keri received Bardolf and Blaise Crosbie, along with the score of guards who’d accompanied them from the waystone at Bald Peak, in the great hall of Castle Whitehill, rather than in the Summerset family’s solar.  He would have prefer...

Guild Mage 279

Chapter 279: The Battle of Nightfall Peak IV: Two Predators

Wren followed Liv up to where her father, in the shape of some horrible monster halfway between a man and a bat, fought against Valtteri ka Auris.  She could see that, though Liv’s father possessed magic that was honestly terrifying in scale, he was at a disadvantage in terms of mobility.  A column of ice might keep Valtteri above the mass of fighting soldiers below, but it also exposed him to archers.  Nor wou...

Guild Mage 278

Chapter 278: The Battle of Nightfall Peak III: To Dust

Liv clicked the heels of her enchanted boots together, and time seemed to slow around her.

Manfred, bloodshot eyes wide, was caught mid-lunge, his war-knife raised high in one hand.  The sun glinted bright along the edge of his blade, and Liv suppressed a shudder at the idea of what the weapon could do to her body if it got past her guard.  She stepped to one side, letting the wounded man fly by her.  A glance a...

Guild Mage 277

Chapter 277: The Battle of Nightfall Peak II: The Charge

Three ranks of massed infantry, two hundred and fifty men and women in a mixture of Elden enchanted steel and Lucanian jack of plate, charged forward at Liv’s command, and she followed with the mounted knights and elders.

To Liv’s surprise – she’d never been part of a charge, before – the movement was really a march, just the same as when they’d been coming up the mountain.  A part of her had expected that t...

Book 6 cover sketch for feedback

What do you all thing? Discussion here and on Discord!

Guild Mage 276

Chapter 276: The Battle of Nightfall Peak I: The Vanguard

The main alliance force caught up to the van at the seventh ward.

Liv had Ghveris call a halt to their march about two hundred yards back from the fighting: close enough that she could send a charge in if it was needed, but far enough that they weren’t immediately engaged with the enemy forces.  There, the Antrian set about arranging their front line so that nearly two-hundred and fifty Elden infantry stood at the ...

Guild Mage 275

Chapter 275: Impact

Day after day of fighting up the mountain slopes had turned the game trails between the plateau and the early wards into well-beaten paths, stomped flat by hundreds of boots.  Where the path crossed water, Baron Arnold Crosbie’s engineers had felled trees, cut timber, and built wide bridges.  When the track ran along the edge of a dropped off, and the soldiers could look down on the highest tips of aspen trees, the Valegard men had worked with Kerian troo...

Guild Mage 274

Chapter 274: Serpents on the Heights

With a final swipe of oiled cloth over the enchanted blade of her dagger, Wren had run out of things to occupy herself.  She slid the weapon back into the sheath at her hip, packed away the oil and cloth both, and rolled to her feet.  She hadn’t paced across the length of the tent twice before Miina said something.

“What’s got you all twisted up?” the blue-haired Elden woman asked.  She had a small pot of ointment in her ...

Guild Mage 273

Chapter 273: Broken Men

Keri leaned to his right side, elbow resting on the armrest of his wheeled-chair, fingers pressed against his forehead.  Vivek Sharma sat on his right, and Sidonie on his left.  Across from the three of them, with a tray of tea and cups on the table in between, was the banker.

“They fought for a risen goddess who’s thrown nearly two entire continents into war,” Keri argued, not feeling much obligation to keep the heat from his voice.  A...

Guild Mage 272

Chapter 272: Næv’bel

“There’s got to be a better way of doing this,” Kaija complained, the morning after they’d taken the third ward.  “We should be taking the entire guard, and we should be sending half through ahead of you, to make sure there’s no ambush waiting.”

“We might be able to enchant something that would hold a tether to one waystone,” Liv mused.  Her boots were wet, soaked by walking out of the alliance encampment, across grass and scrub ...

Guild Mage 271

Chapter 271: Aariv

Arjun reached out and put his hand on Liv’s shoulder, and though the boiled leather of her pauldron prevented her from feeling the warmth of his skin, the gesture felt like an anchor, like something firm to hold onto.

“She doesn’t need you,” Arjun said.  “She has friends who will help her.  Friends who care a lot more than Ractia ever would.”

Aariv shrugged.  “Friends who don’t know half of what the Great Mother could offer h...

Guild Mage 270

Chapter 270: The Third Ward  

Liv’s headache was waiting for her when she woke, and only built over the course of the morning as she climbed the mountain slope toward the third ward and barricade.  Loosening the enchantment which restrained the mana inside the stormwand helped to ease the pain, but Liv knew she was already pushing the limit of how long she could spend away from a rift.  Once she’d taken the ward down, a trip back to Feic Steria would be necessary...

Guild Mage 269

Chapter 269: Epiphany 

“Are you saying that mana is alive?” Liv asked.  

“Mana is –” Aira paused.  “It’s been a very, very long time, Livara, since my mother explained this to me.  I was a little girl.  I’d like to think that I remember things clearly, but I can’t be certain.  And her explanation to me was an adult making something simple for a child.  You understand?”

“We simplify things for children all the time...

Guild Mage 268

Magic theory and progression chapter!

Chapter 268: The Bone of Sivis

Liv sat at the base of the waterfall, on a great slab of granite that jutted out over the dark water.  She could see the shadows of the boulders beneath the cataract, all jumbled together beneath and surrounding the place where the cascade from above descended, creating a constant haze of mist.

She wore her armor, because it would be foolish not to so close to the front lines, and even though she would...

Book 7 First 20 Chapters Epub

It was suggested that collecting the epubs every 20 chapters would be more convenient for some readers, so here's the first half (ish) of book seven as a single epub!