Ad Astra

116. Splendid Weaponry (VI)

A/N: Bonus Chapter #2. See y'all Sunday. :) 

//

Kaya gasped. “Is that where we’ll be fighting?”

She turned to Dorian, eyes wide. “It’s huge!”

Dorian chuckled. It was the biggest thing in the Oasis: a great sandstone disc which squatted amid the market district, forcing the streets to curve uncomfortably around its girth. In an Oasis of gray girders and glinting steel, it stood out as a hunk of rough, gradient yellows. Centurie...

113. Splendid Weaponry (III)

A/N: Bonus chap again! I don't know how this happened either. I'm in a rhythm! :D

//

When Dorian opened his eyes, he found, to his annoyance, he couldn’t quite let loose. Yet.

First there was the array hemming him in. But more annoying—he appeared to be surrounded. By people.

The crowd had filled out. It’d mostly been workers before. But now its ranks swelled with Heilong robes. There were young acolytes and gray-bearded El...

112. Splendid Weaponry (III)

Streaks of golden sunlight slipped in through the tent flaps. Kaya yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and stretched. Then she stilled.

“Huh.”

She expected to feel sore. But she didn’t—at all. Her head was a clear blue sky. She was positively thrumming. Her body was light as can be, coursing with hearty morning vigor. She stood and inspected her arms, then her legs. The skin there was smoother than she’d ever remembered it.

Weird.

She checked ...

111. Splendid Weaponry (II)

A/N: Bonus chap! 

Morning found the Heilong Estate in shambles. It was as though a giant spoon had scooped a chunk out the middle, leaving nought but charred slumps behind. There were cringing hunks of steel welded together by the cool night air. There were crushed artifacts. There were bookshelves flipped on their heads, their insides crisped brown. Broken pillars studded the land and mounds of crushed glass shored up the mess.

The two towers which made the ...

110. Splendid Weaponry (I)

“You swear to wield this weapon… to vanquish the Ugoc threat!” screeched Bin, eyes shot with blood, angry purple veins bulging out of his neck.

Dorian hesitated. What to do?

There was a fruit in the Upper Realms called the Ul-Kran fruit. It was akin to a big, juicy blueberry which smelled like sweetest honey on softest winds. Its skin glistened in sleet or rain or sun alike; and it tasted divine—its tart skin sealed flesh so delicious no words could do it justice....

Interlude III (II)

The dying day bled out in furious reds and stark yellows. The far edge of the sunset melted to violet as night crept up the horizon.

Assembled on a battlefield was a most curious scene: a Patriarch, eight warriors, and a child. A very peculiar child.

Perhaps a little too peculiar—sobbing, stranded in the desert, kneeling beside a grave. But the Patriarch was touched, and so he reached out. He held out a hand.

“What is your name, child?” he said.

The boy ...

Interlude III (I)

Northern Izod Desert.

The battle was all but won.

The Heilong Patriarch stood with his lieutenants around a hidebound roundtable. One grimy lantern hung above them, swaying gently in the humid air. It threw sickly yellow light on a mess of maps, all littered with flags marking out the battlefield ahead.

Outside, there were three divisions of archers. There were two fleets of Azcan’s most fearsome airships, monstrosities of plates and smoke which dwarfed th...

109. The Highest Bidder (V)

A/N: Why is there a bonus chapter on a Saturday? I’m not sure! I probably should've saved this for tomorrow, but I couldn't help myself. 

Fair warning: This release may push tomorrow’s scheduled chapter to Monday. Depends on if I can crank out a whole 'nother chapter between today and tomorrow. We'll see! 

//

The bidding was heating up.

“A bottle of Dragon’s Tears?” Mala scoffed. “Please. I’ll give you one Scale and three drops ...

108. The Highest Bidder (IV)

A/N: New chapter! Your thoughts are much appreciated :) 

Silence choked the air.

Jaws sagged open. Eyes popped. Cheeks twitched. One Patriarch let out a reedy wheeze which reminded Dorian of a tiny critter being slowly run over.

Hmm. I do believe I’ve gone too far. Which was part of the plan, of course, but it was still unsettling to go through with it. It meant pissing off essentially every powerful faction in the Oasis—at once. Pissing pe...

107. The Highest Bidder (III)

A/N: Bonus chapter! Woo! See y’all again on Sunday!

Dorian stared, speechless, as the ships rolled in. The earliest to arrive was a chunky steamer studded with masts of all sizes. It plunked to a stop mid-air, blotting out the sun and drenching the crowd in shadow.

There was a terse silence.

Then a tiny man with a waxed mustache leapt up on the prow. He cleared his throat, then cleared it again for good measure.

“Announcing the arrival of the vener...

106. The Highest Bidder (II)

A/N: Sorry for the late upload! I hope to get a bonus chap out this week on top of the usual chap! I’ve got a week off this week. Fingers crossed it’s a productive one!

The smoke was thinning, and Dorian could see the impression of a crowd at the crater’s edges—a smattering of damp pastels staining the gray air. There was a warble of shouts and screams.

“I must admit,” said the Oasis Lord, lips pursed, “That your sudden appearance ha...

105. The Highest Bidder (I)

Dorian and the Heilong Elites stood in a crater, a blackened ruin of a once-great chamber, its sizzling grounds sloshed with half-melted gold and iron. Smoke wafted up like incense over heaps of fractured treasures. The last of their qi leaked out in sparking spurts.

“What,” croaked Bin Heilong, “is your name?”

There was a deathly silence.

Dorian wasn’t sure what to say. I suppose there’s no point in lying now. What difference will it make?

“Io R...

Chapter 104. New Horizons (X)

The scale sank within him, down his throat, and nestled into his Spirit Sea. Right in the eye of the storm.

Dorian felt the shockwave of qi from his bones to his skin. His whole body vibrated, top-to-bottom, like a string plucked by the hand of an angry god.

He lost it. His grip slipped. He yielded easily, relieved, and let the storm of qi detonate within him.

It lashed out like the death throes of a writhing beast. It stormed his Spirit Sea, snarling and thrashing against t...

103. New Horizons (IX)

Dorian, of course, had no clue about the hubbub above him. Even if he did, he couldn’t afford to think about it. Fierce gales of qi scythed in and out of him, intent on carving his body from the inside-out. There was so much qi flowing through him that his skin had taken on a translucent, glistening tenor; his hair, drifting upwards, was no longer bound by so puny a force as gravity. This was the critical juncture: success and failure were two ends of a thin tight-rope. And it was time to t...

102. New Horizons (VIII)

Note: I’m so excited for what’s coming, y’all.

Dorian would’ve never dreamed he’d get a Bloodline piece this early.

As he sprinted into the chamber proper, heartbeat thundering in his ears, he thought of his original plan: Get to Profound. Establish a base of strength via Artificery and Alchemy. Win whatever resources the Tournament offered. Then screw off before Nijo and his gang got here—at which point he’d go hunt for Bloodline Relics to ...

101. New Horizons (VII)

Note: I will be trying to publish weekly on Sunday evenings from now on, likely ~6 PM EST 

“THE HEILONG FORGES,” read tall, stern block letters inscribed in the wrought-steel door. The thing looked like a shield built for a Godbeast, a hunk of simple, opaque steel overrun with patterns like metal thistles. Dorian went up to it, squinted for a second, licked his lips, and shoved a finger in the indent.

There was again that horrifying silence. And then ther...

100. New Horizons (VI)

“Sure!” beamed Tan. “This way…” and they were off.

They passed the first great door in the chamber, which was emblazoned with a hulking anvil symbol. “The forges,” said Tan airily. It made sense for a military family. There were always swords to be repaired, speartips to be honed by firelight. Dorian narrowed his eyes. Interesting. A heist plan was already fizzling in his mind—and a forge could play an important role indeed. Forge and forge...