“My name is Rakan. That means ‘like a dragon’ in Hallurian, not very fitting right? Oh, so you’re a free candidate as well, right? I think so but those uniforms are hard to read.”
“Yes, I am a free candidate as well. You are Hallurian then? Did you come here recently?”
“Why yes, of course. Well, no, not of course. There are others like me here and some of them are born here! Imagine that. Hallurians born out of Halluria… Oh, yes. I left recently thanks to my sist...
2022-05-27 16:19:01 +0000 UTC
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After silencing Melusine with the promise of unbridled violence, I have the notable displeasure of facing a large group of irate vampires demanding answers. From their perspective, I was gone for half an hour while they were fighting for their freedom and the only witness to my disappearance was Martha. My friends would know that duplicity is not in my blood, quite literally, although deception is. The temporary allies I gained for this project are significantly harder to convince, and I do n...
2022-05-25 16:45:44 +0000 UTC
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Ereska listened patiently, then complained with Viv about dishonest scholars, the worst! They whined together for a good twenty minutes and felt much better with themselves, then it was time to think about solutions. Ereska’s advice was to avoid the ethics committee.
“They will just add more roadblocks, and even if you deal with everything, you still have to go through a trial. The easier and faster way would be to discredit him with his sponsors.”
“Isn’t that the Academ...
2022-05-20 15:59:28 +0000 UTC
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I stand in the shadow cast by my little parasol, a new iteration in a line of objects doomed to fail here in the court of fire and light, in the sphere of righteous war, under the gaze of its sovereign. It provides the little dot of penumbra I need to anchor my power, so that the cold and dark can lurk at the edge as they always do. Without this, I could not face him and stand. A vampire of lesser power would be leaking ash from disintegrating fingers by now, so powerful he is. I can only tha...
2022-05-18 15:59:18 +0000 UTC
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Elunath did not live in a mansion. He lived in a palace. To reach its protected entrance, Viv and Sidjin had walked through a ring of crowded manors hiding from each other behind high walls. Ancient walls topped with neatly trimmed hedges formed an impenetrable enclave around the house proper. Just the value of the real estate would suffice to buy all of current Harrak to the last infant, the last shirt button, if one could find a person rich enough to sign on it. Viv considered an obvious tr...
2022-05-13 11:35:06 +0000 UTC
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The brightest sun of the spheres nourished the rolling hills, where the royal capital spread amidst quiet glades and ripening fields. Countless statues of white marble and gold filigree recounted the exploits of generations of warriors, scholars, millennia of victories. Banners from every court captured in battle hung from the walls of barracks, loaded with the weight of a glorious tradition. A new statue of a raging minotaurs dying on his knees now adorned the main thoroughfare. It had been ...
2022-05-11 15:50:50 +0000 UTC
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Sorry but I'm going crazy here. The quarantine has been tightened even more, I can only go downstairs and that's it. My patience is gone and now my sanity is being used. We've been locked in the compound since the middle of March. I have been... unproductive those past few days. I apologize but I need some more days to calm down and cope.
Apologies but if I produce a chapter now it will be really subpar.
Sorry again, and I hope you won't be too disappointed.
Meca
2022-05-06 17:08:50 +0000 UTC
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“This is not a conversation I’m willing to have standing, or sober for that matter. But I’ll take sitting with a cup of klod.”
The young woman glared, but Viv had been glared at before, and she remained unimpressed. Darla seemed more solid suddenly as she took a step between the two casters. Viv felt in slight danger, which surprised her enough that she pulled mana. The woman’s disarming smile stopped her from raising a shield.
“Ah, I apologize, your files did not ment...
2022-05-03 10:01:38 +0000 UTC
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Slowly, my consciousness returns and I realize the eye is, of course, attached to a massive head taller than I am, triangular with a squarish chin area. Armored plates thicker than any plate cover the creature, shining softly in the red light. I also realize that this head is attached to a body so massive and so long I could line eight Pookies to reach the tail and still have room for another Pookie. The retracted wings, when expanded, could blot the sun from half of Marquette. The dragon res...
2022-04-30 07:31:55 +0000 UTC
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Viv raced down the slope at breakneck speed. She heard a stumble behind her and faltered when she realized it was Sidjin. He was not fine. Not yet. Leaving someone behind was…
“Go, I’ll be fine. Catch up soon. GO!”
She did. Panic placed springboards under her feet. She cast the telekinesis spell just so she could push people aside if needed. There was no need. People took one look at her and moved aside. Even the carriages slowed down to give her way. The guards at the gat...
2022-04-27 13:25:21 +0000 UTC
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“It appears we put up our tents for nothing,” I remark to Sinead.
“Of course not, we need them for our victorious return,” he replies amicably. “Shall we get the horses?”
The dragon flies far above our head, a distant shadow on the background of white fluffy cloud. He is impossible to ignore. The weight of his aura weighs upon my shoulders even when I do not look. He will complete a full circle before picking one of the distant, lone mountains as a lair. The HU...
2022-04-25 15:49:20 +0000 UTC
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Riding a buggy was less a novel experience and more a return to roots, so to speak. There had been a time she had loved being drawn in a carriage. The first time it had been during a warm summer. The fair had smelled of horse and lavender. She had been holding her brother in her arms.
Viv pushed back the feeling of nostalgia and grabbed Sidjin’s hand, lightly this time.
“Sorry about the temple,” she said.
“We’ll get a better chance at the Academy’s medical facult...
2022-04-20 14:12:47 +0000 UTC
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AN: I wanted to break protocol and add a foreword. You will notice that this chapter is a bit on the short side, and perhaps not as exciting as others. I would like to apologize for that. As some of you may know, I have been locked down in my apartment in Shanghai for a month and a week without break and find the experience taxing on both my mood and inspiration. There is still no light on the horizon either. Thank you for your patience so far, and I promise I am still doing my best, ...
2022-04-18 09:24:18 +0000 UTC
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Helock had the cosmopolitan feel of world capitals, back on earth. As they moved up the slope towards the Academy, the two human and one small dragonette had come across blockish, colorful northern houses, the sober lines and peaked roofs of Enoria, and solemn, plastered facades Sidjin said were typical of Baran. There were even, here and there, strange minarets that bore the mark of the distant Vizim from whence Sidjin’s ancestor had sailed, ages ago. The crowd themselves showed just as mu...
2022-04-13 18:34:28 +0000 UTC
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Titanic pillars of blue stone rise up into a strange fog, one I cannot pierce through with my senses. The ambient magic is so strong it saturates the air with its heady presence, overcoming the scent of crisp mountain air. We come across a group of fae knights in shimmering armor the color of sapphire, their eclectic assortments of weapons dark and wicked. They look so insufferably smug, though it could simply be the pride that comes with completing training. Or simply a Blue Court quirk. I w...
2022-04-11 10:48:35 +0000 UTC
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It was day, then it was night. There was no time to leave, no time to plan, not even enough time to look up before a wave of pure world-bending mana drenched her soul under a torrent, numbing her senses.
Once, Viv had gone diving off the coast of Eilat, at the south end of Israel. There was a peculiar feeling to going down when the pressure increased and water seemed to close around her. She imagined a deep diver must feel something similar while the more primal part of their brain scre...
2022-04-07 14:17:33 +0000 UTC
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That means all next chapters delayed by three days.
As for why, well it's easy. I have been confined in Shanghai for three weeks and we are going to be confined at least another two because of asinine rules, even though no one in my compound tested positive. There are no store deliveries. We're getting food like it's the heyday of the cultural revolution and I'm slowly going insane. I have written exactly 400 words of the chapter due tomorrow and my brain is leaking through my dam...
2022-04-03 09:43:14 +0000 UTC
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Bickering in front of the princes would be a shame. Refusing advice from an undisputed master would be foolish. I must show unity with my kin since we are surrounded by strangers. If I repeat all those arguments often enough, it will distract me from Cadiz’ endless litany of observations.
A master must praise publicly, but chide in private. The rule is even more important when dealing with competitive apex predators born with a tendency for remorseless violence. Truly, the old Progeni...
2022-04-03 09:34:27 +0000 UTC
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You know what day it is!
Part 1: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36299/beneath-the-dragoneye-moons/chapter/875405/chapter-the-wish-1
Pah, one of those strange fever dreams again. The man Edmund pokes at everything for treasure, Elaine eats mangoes with frantic despair, the kin yet not kin waves her axe around, and the cat-eared woman with ...
2022-04-01 16:11:46 +0000 UTC
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“You are not using battle magic,” Leit insisted as he worried his hands. “The guild has strict guidelines on hostile negotiations. If there is any sort of problem, we cut our losses and let their recovery division handle it.”
Viv looked up from the polished deck, where she and Sidjin were busying themselves tracing a complex array.
“Sure,” she said. “You do the negotiations.”
“We won’t stop you,” Sidjin added.
“In fact, we’ll cheer for you and...
2022-03-30 07:33:10 +0000 UTC
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Cadiz cries in silence, a virginal marble statue in the midst of old death. The lines of dark blood trailing his cheeks like stigmata give the wan fencer an image of sanctity, one that his underlying power only enhances. Cadiz does not move and neither do we, because our mutual status is yet to be determined, and if we fight Cadiz, we will be crushed. Of this, I have no doubt.
It starts to snow.
When Cadiz finally comes to, I politely request to drink his tears as the lure is simp...
2022-03-29 15:26:49 +0000 UTC
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It only took one afternoon of discussion with Sidjin to convince Viv she had to make headways on arcane magic, starting now and then continuing at the academy.
“Colorless mana is used to bolster almost every spell at high level. For example, the artillery spell, the mainstay of battlemages everywhere when they do not have the time to do something more…”
“Take a deep breath,” Viv suggested.
“Sorry, yes, I tend to use longer sentences when lecturing. My apologies. ...
2022-03-23 17:41:54 +0000 UTC
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The sovereign smiles and then, she is gone. The air shakes with the trace of her passage. I notice that my gladiators have gone with her, and so has Makyas.
One by one, the warriors facing us pick themselves up and split, heading deeper into the forest in clumps. Only one stays behind, a man I have faced and failed to kill. His silvery armor shows signs of damage where Sinead’s rapier hit, while his shield looks flayed, gnawed by Rose’s thorns during a heated exchange. Nevertheless,...
2022-03-21 18:28:51 +0000 UTC
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Viv stood at the prow, letting the breeze coursing over Lake Hydon whip her hair back. The fresh air tasted particularly crisp after the fishy stench of the piers. The sun felt nice on her skin. It reminded her of walks by the sea in Nice when she was young, in April, before too many tourists glutted the sidewalks of the Promenade des Anglais. Even Arthur looked like a fat seagull as she dive-bombed fishes with a victorious screech. If one was generous.
The outlander sighed. A break fel...
2022-03-17 15:31:36 +0000 UTC
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I do not recognize the new Sinead, and yet he is the same person. His aura tastes of ripe fields under the summer sun, with a dangerous note. Even his perfume has not changed, and yet I can barely reconcile the shameless dilettante of before with the tense nobleman now walking by my side.
Perhaps the fault is mine as well.
The persona Sinead picked on earth was a means to an end, the best tool a man without support could use to achieve the impossible. Now, that person is gone, rep...
2022-03-15 14:44:50 +0000 UTC
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The late afternoon sun was setting on the peaceful plains around Losserec. Viv reclined in the somewhat uncomfortable carriage bench, studiously ignored by the other occupants. The family who had agreed to take her to the walls were discussing tomorrow’s tasks in low voice while the young boy in front of her focused on a toy, only raising his eyes to cast shy glances at Arthur. The dragonette coiled lazily around Viv. She had categorically refused to leave her for a single second.
Viv...
2022-03-11 15:09:09 +0000 UTC
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“...under certain conditions,” I amend almost i
2022-03-08 08:20:21 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone,
Due to real life events (nothing bad, just busy), I will take a three day 'break' to finish the next chapters to my satisfaction. I apologize for the delay.
For Bob , the break applies retroactively since the last chapter was one day late.
The current journey chapter is very ambitious and I don't want to mess it up, and I also don't want to split it into two parts, so I believe this decision is for the best.
Also, RR readers will get one week delay, ...
2022-03-05 04:35:49 +0000 UTC
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The shores of Lake Hydon were not sand, but fat stones made round and cozy by eons of placid current. Viv’s boots made sloshing sounds as she moved forward at a sedate pace through the clear waters, avoiding the thickest underbrush. There was no hurry. The sky was blue and pink with no hint of rain. Mana had also returned to the levels she expected from populated lands. The flows and eddies of the wild woods had settled into the tame pulsation she associated with her travel through Enoria. ...
2022-03-02 10:10:47 +0000 UTC
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It takes us the better part of a day to cross the outskirts of Assidina. Although Sinead said the tree was only an hour away, he was referring to the outer shade of its nearest canopy, of which there are countless, and under whose protective shade the Fae of the Court of Spring conduct their business. As far as I can see, it mostly involves fucking.
The Day of Seeds spills like a drunk post-luncheon stroll upon the uneven streets. Fae nobles in human form and other, more exotic creature...
2022-02-26 12:35:15 +0000 UTC
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