Ian and Eury were like statues, their heads bowed as they both viewed the unrolling weave of the future. Three times already Achemiss had almost asked a question that would lead to mentions of Maria, requiring intervention–Clara changing the subject or saying something of her own volition.
The most nerve-wracking part had been the transfer of rift information–but that, too, had succeeded. Maria’s deft oath manipulation had worked. She’d destroyed the oath when Cla...
2024-01-06 05:24:47 +0000 UTC
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Hours later, the duo had fought against more swarms of tier two monsters, but never anything as powerful as the serpent. They were exhausted but undeterred.
Ros saw the end of the featureless water first. Fifteen minutes later, Isen could finally see the dark smudge that parted the glowing fathoms and disappeared into the cavernous ceiling.
Isen had no idea what it was, even as they drew closer and more of the dark mass came into focus.
“It reminds me of a temple,...
2024-01-03 03:54:03 +0000 UTC
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Ros thrashed and the serpent’s body twisted, the water churning with white and gray blood, a furious cyclone of monsters carried by chaotic currents.
Isen crashed against Ros’s hips, the last of the air knocked from his lungs. But he sensed it. An opportunity. The serpent’s lower length coiled around Ros, nearly crushing Isen in the process.
Isen threw the dagger into the serpent’s scales. Isen had never thrown the knife before—it wasn’t specifically balanced for such ...
2024-01-01 23:03:26 +0000 UTC
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[ happy 2024! ]
Isen lay on his stomach between Ros’s shoulders as the beast swam through the radiant waters, the golden light reflected in its pearlescent scales. Its tail propelled them over the surface far faster than Isen could manage on his own.
Soon, they were further out than Isen had ever been. The cavern’s ceiling gradually grew closer to the water, revealing a surface that glimmered like a cloudless night sky.
Isen looked over Ros’s side. A dark dorsal fin ju...
2024-01-01 09:00:32 +0000 UTC
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Isen honed himself against the monsters in the radiant fathoms, cycling the ambient energy between forays. Ros stood sentinel on the rock, prepared to descend if necessary. While Isen returned with injuries every time, Ros’s intervention was never required.
After the third day, Ros seemed confident in Isen’s ability to keep himself alive and went off on its own, venturing far deeper into the lake. Isen was unconcerned for his guardian. Even with the terrain disadvantage, Ros was at ...
2023-12-30 22:07:55 +0000 UTC
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Isen fastened the bundle of books around Ros’s neck, using a crude thong made from divine bear sinew to secure it to a few strategic scales so it wouldn’t jostle as the beast moved. He’d picked at least one book from each language, as far as he could tell. He hadn’t grabbed more than he could carry on his own after leaving the depths—seven thick tomes.
He’d picked these specific books because they all contained illustrations that, while infrequent, seemed cultivation related...
2023-12-30 04:07:06 +0000 UTC
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Ros didn’t think much of Isen commencing his advancement in the bathroom. The boy had done his other minor tempering breakthroughs in there as well. Ros was too large to fit inside the door, but it knew there was a tub with running water inside. Sometimes, Isen brought water out for the beast to drink or wash with.
The mist in the sanctum was agitated, erratic like a storm and overwhelming like a flood. In a more monster-heavy part of the depths, the mist couldn’t be so easily affec...
2023-12-28 06:26:51 +0000 UTC
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Isen crouched in the darkness, a bone spear clutched firmly in his hands. Both eyes could see in the mist now, a side effect of tempering with the blood of the bear monster. Free of impurities, his right eye still looked normal, though Isen thought his ability to perceive the mist with it was slightly worse.
Both eyes saw far better than a year ago, when he’d first entered the depths. He could see as well as if the chasms and tunnels were lit, though as he’d come to learn, the mist ...
2023-12-23 20:29:43 +0000 UTC
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The first time Isen tried to drink the blood, he threw up. His mind rebelled against the idea, even if his tongue said the blood tasted fine. But eventually, he forced several swallows down.
“Do you feel it in your core?” Ros asked.
“It’s in my stomach, like where I gather the ambient energy.”
“That’s your core—it’s hollow now, but it will one day become a proper sphere. To draw the blood into your body, you’ll need to refine it. ...
2023-12-23 00:04:23 +0000 UTC
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It had been a long, long time since Rosophilus had seen the surface. Ros had never seen human children up close, but had excellent hearing and had learned many things by living in proximity to their settlements.
It had been easy to forget that the boy was, indeed, a boy. He didn’t often act like one. He didn’t chatter and was comfortable with long stretches of silence. He wasn’t annoying. Ros called him a boy, a child, but that was because of the boy’s appearance—not because o...
2023-12-19 22:47:41 +0000 UTC
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Achemiss hated this wretched world.
It was literally the only thing in existence holding him back. His only vulnerability.
And his present circumstances? They had confirmed his every fear. He’d never expected the one to send him here was Ancient Black, also, impossibly, known as Ignatius Julian Dunai.
A new ascendant. Practically a baby. And yet, he’d somehow developed two additional affinities since ascending. Achemiss didn’t care how Ian had networked to his...
2023-12-19 05:31:39 +0000 UTC
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[ the last of the chapter dump. from now on i'll only post a chapter when i write one :) but i'm writing quite fast ]
Isen woke up in sticky darkness and retched at the smell of sickly sweet blood.
He was still inside the bear.
Every part of him hurt. Gritting his teeth, he crawled his way out of the bear’s torn throat, the knife still held in his right hand. He shivered from the cooling blood.
How long was I out? he wondered, alarmed. If the scaled beast ha...
2023-12-17 21:56:29 +0000 UTC
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^ The scaled vulpine beast in the glow of the golden water. Isen only comes up to its ankle.
------------
Over the past few days, Isen had grown increasingly adept at perceiving the world with his left eye. Now he could see fifteen or so feet ahead before the mist became too indistinct. It was enough to make him realize how fortunate he was to ride on the scaled beast. The number of monst...
2023-12-17 18:37:27 +0000 UTC
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Isen still couldn’t see anything but gold in his left eye, and his right was as useless as ever in the absolute dark.
It was hard to keep track of time when all he heard were the rhythmic footfalls of the scaled beast. Now that he was no longer so exhausted, he thought more critically about his benefactor. What did it want from him? Why had it taken him to the golden lake and then refrained from giving him any instructions? He considered what questions to ask it about this mysterious ...
2023-12-17 00:29:05 +0000 UTC
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Isen curled up in the gap between two boulders, exhausted. He was no stranger to sleeping on hard earth, but the rock was hard even for his standards. His body didn’t care, falling asleep in seconds.
He awoke in the same darkness.
That would have been a beautiful dream, he thought, sighing. Instead, it’s my cruel reality. The flood of monsters had stopped while he’d been asleep. He could no longer hear the thunder.
And in this treacherous place, he wa...
2023-12-16 22:06:42 +0000 UTC
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[ thanks all for giving this a chance! early feedback is extremely welcome. this chapter has already been workshopped and edited (thanks sontag), but i'm always open to making it better. if the issue is premise, you can let me know but i probably won't be able to make revisions to the entire book's premise lol. ]
The Twining was a delicate part of reality that demanded respect. Practically anything could disrupt the thin sliver of space that glued the planes of Eboncall and Dawnblade to...
2023-12-16 20:46:12 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys!
Finishing a series is hard! I've been writing very slowly. It's literally just hard to write the mind games I've necessitated in Menocht's plot. Everyone is playing 4D chess.
I will still continue to write it, obviously, but I decided that I need to start working on something else as well to reinvigorate my enjoyment of writing.
I want to stress that writing an additional project is not going to negatively impact my progress on Menocht. If anything, I'm ho...
2023-12-16 20:40:24 +0000 UTC
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Clara’s hatred for the plan only increased the deeper she fell into it. It was simple: the Eldemari would infiltrate and use her End to save Clara from her life-death oath. Supposedly, all the lich needed to do was touch Clara.
Clara had heard the rough plan before today, but the full horror of it hadn’t hit her until now, alone in the room with Maria. Given everything she knew about End affinity, what the Eldemari intended to do simply wasn’t possible. She knew, intellectually, t...
2023-12-09 04:09:13 +0000 UTC
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Ian kneaded his forehead, his eyes shut tightly. Next to him, Euryphel lay on the table, his jaw clenched.
He cracked open his eyes and met the former prince’s gaze. No words were needed between them.
Twenty minutes into Maria’s infiltration and they were already in a world of mental pain. Ian practically wanted to throw the transmission artifact away. Thousands of button presses, thousands of overlapping memories stitched together.
“This…” Euryphel sighed. He’d ...
2023-11-14 07:50:05 +0000 UTC
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The water had a peculiar buoyancy, like a mix between water and air. Maria fell faster than she’d anticipated, cutting through the false liquid like a missile. Soon the bottom of the lake, dark and covered in plants that shone whitish gray in her vital vision, was only a few feet away.
She passed right through it, slamming into a dry chamber. She glanced up at the ceiling. The lake. It was as though there was a pane of glass keeping the lake away–a bizarre one that permitte...
2023-10-28 06:27:40 +0000 UTC
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From high above the surface, End arrows between people became almost completely indistinct, though masses of them in one place–such as cities–were visible. The arrows between herself and people below–such as Ian–extended beyond sight, though they served as a rough compass, allowing her to instinctively orient herself to fly deeper into Sere.
She had a ruggedized glossY outfitted with a map and compass, and it even tracked her rough location and showed it on the map. Still, she...
2023-10-21 07:00:42 +0000 UTC
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Zilverna was alone in his room, sprawled on a chair, his arms wide and draping toward the ground. A thick blanket lay over him. He was in his own room, his original room.
Maria frowned. He should have taken my chambers once I was gone, she thought. It’s where I stayed, and before me, my mother.
His room was tasteful but sumptuous, full of soft fabrics and plush furniture. The bed was an oversized monstrosity that was so soft Zilverna practically disappeared int...
2023-10-14 06:01:52 +0000 UTC
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[ hey guys, really sorry for the lack of updates last month -- it wasn't planned, otherwise I would've paused patreon for september. i really appreciate your patience and understanding.
it was a very busy month for me -- i traveled to over 7 states, most of that for work, between my day job as an engineer (pennsylvania, new jersey, virginia, colorado) and as a publisher/author (georgia for dragoncon, which is essentially the main convention for fantasy authors to go to). lots of fires t...
2023-10-01 05:23:06 +0000 UTC
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After the assembly’s conclusion, Ian waited until Clara was back home, scoping out her activities through Euryphel’s Regret scenarios. Then, he summoned her with the transmission artifact. Knowing that she’d appear behind him–the artifact always manifested the projected person directly behind their quarry–Ian turned around.
Sure enough, Clara’s lifelike form stood before him. She jumped reflexively, her eyes snapping wide in surprise. She nearly fell over herself, probably f...
2023-08-26 07:50:53 +0000 UTC
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[ longer than usual chapter. enjoy! ]
So, the Sere Consortium ultimately refused the request of an ascendant.
Interesting.
Euryphel took all the time he needed to think within scenarios, his brow furrowed in contemplation. He wasn’t shocked by the Sere Consortium assembly’s refusal of Achemiss’s demands–it had always been a possible outcome, albeit an unlikely one.
What did it mean for Sere to refuse Achemiss, known to them as the recently ascended...
2023-08-12 22:35:48 +0000 UTC
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“It’s starting in a minute,” Euryphel said. He reclined in one of the chairs situated around the table, his legs perched on an adjacent seat.
Ian stretched an arm across his chest and curved his neck. “Should’ve brought popcorn.”
Euryphel snorted and gestured to a lovely spread of finger sandwiches laid out on the table. “Really, Ian?”
He grinned. “Fine, I take it back. Thank you, August Crowned Executor, for bringing these from the kitchen.”
Eury r...
2023-08-07 21:08:14 +0000 UTC
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After Euryphel left, Ian focused his gaze on Clara. He felt the new bond between them, raw, unidirectional. It was distinct from the two-way connection he had with Maria that shared their emotions and allowed them to freely communicate.
When he’d turned Maria into a lich… his mind had been electric, his body on fire. He’d reached a breaking point and committed a most taboo miracle. After years of considering the matter of Maria’s resurrection, he’d concluded that making liches...
2023-08-05 23:04:52 +0000 UTC
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Euryphel watched silently as Ian told Clara Belvaire what he planned to do at a high level. He made impossibility sound so simple. Ultimately, he persuaded Clara to accept the procedure–depending on one’s definition of persuade.
Euryphel recognized that the power dynamics in the room were grossly imbalanced. Ian was an ascendant–an elevated lifeform nobody would ever expect to meet one-on-one, especially not a regular like Clara. Returned ascendants were all reclusive and...
2023-07-29 00:42:53 +0000 UTC
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Clara Belvaire’s terror was overwhelming. Ian sensed it with his decemancy and Remorse. Her body locked up, her heart raced, and her mind was frantic. He sensed her frustrating feelings of helplessness.
She had reason to fear him–Ian didn’t exactly come with peaceful intentions–but it would be best for her to calm down.
He forced her body into a meditative state, keeping her heart and lungs pumping in an unhurried rhythm. He forced her into stillness.
At this point, ...
2023-07-14 22:26:44 +0000 UTC
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Clara Belvaire knew something was off when she returned home. Outwardly, nothing was wrong. The lights were all out, aside from the lamp she always kept on in the living room. Her husband was away in the Adrilli Isles on business, so it was to be expected. Her entire residence was layered in complex arrays unbreakable to all but the most powerful End practitioners in the world, and none of them had been tripped.
For most, the defenses would be overkill, but the Belvaire family was influ...
2023-07-09 14:42:07 +0000 UTC
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