Mirian awoke with that raw scream still on her lips, and stopped.
Someone groaned. Selesia, she thought. She’s wounded, but we can still—but no. It was Lily, saying, “Gods above, Mirian. You’ve got a real set of lungs. That must have been some nightmare.”
M...
2024-02-12 22:13:11 +0000 UTC View PostThey were, Mirian knew, fucked. Even if they did want to rely on ‘we’re innocent, don’t shoot us,’ which the Akanans clearly didn’t give a bog lion’s ass about, they’d just become a major target.
“Tell them to retreat somewhere else!” someone shouted.
I’m going...
2024-02-12 20:56:39 +0000 UTC View Post“So what in the five hells is going on?” Mirian asked. Selesia looked nervous, while Xipuatl looked surprisingly calm.
Lily said, “You were right. I… don’t believe it, but there really is an Akanan army—”
“I know that part,” Mirian said. “I mean, what’s the plan?...
2024-02-12 20:05:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe interrogation room was surprisingly spacious and well decorated. A copy of the letter sat on the table. A man wearing the pauldrons and striped tabard of a captain was reading a copy of another of the identical letters.
“Captain Mandez? Here she is,” one of the guards escorting her ...
2024-02-12 19:40:34 +0000 UTC View PostIn the dream, there was nothing to hold on to. Indescribable colors burst around her, shifting formlessly. They seemed to writhe about, lunging out to snap at her. Eventually, they did become things she could understand. The colors and shapes coalesced into a volcano, the lava slithering down the...
2024-02-12 19:17:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe rest of the day went about the same as it had. Geoarcanology reminded her she needed to go look up those maps she’d found in Bainrose again, and Artifice Physics was the same combination of high philosophy and practical arcane physics it had been the first time.
She kept her eyes open...
2024-02-12 18:52:28 +0000 UTC View PostMirian didn’t have to wait long in the Myrvite Studies building before Valen met her in the hallway.
“Did you go by maintenance?” Mirian asked.
She nodded.
Mirian accepted that as good enough and went to Viridian’s door and knocked. They heard Viridian’s muffled “com...
2024-02-12 18:33:09 +0000 UTC View PostStep one of the plan involved starting rumors. This was something Mirian had, funnily enough, almost no experience doing. Lily was a lot better at it. On Seventh day when they visited the dining hall again for lunch, Lily joined a table with several other sixth year students.
“Hey, do any...
2024-02-12 17:56:42 +0000 UTC View PostLily was still out when Mirian went to sleep, and when she woke, Lily was asleep, and she didn’t have the heart to wake her. She left a note saying she’d gone to the library.
Mirian had something of a plan. With her letters in her bag, she went to the front desk. “Hi,” she said. “...
2024-02-12 17:17:17 +0000 UTC View PostMirian had a plan for finding out where to send the letters. She would visit Bainrose Castle and get the librarians to help her. However, there was a problem: She’d seen the librarian who had chatted with that guard tomorrow (that felt weird to think about that way) was the same one working the...
2024-02-12 16:52:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a bit awkward to walk across campus with two bags, one clanging about, but she felt quite satisfied with how things had turned out. If she could get maintenance, or some guards that weren’t on the cloaked-people payroll to confront the spy, things would go so much better.
She slipp...
2024-02-12 06:09:33 +0000 UTC View PostMirian sat straight up, gasping for air, heart pounding. She looked around, tears falling from her eyes as she remembered. She’d been shot. She’d died. Gods, she’d died horribly!
Then she looked around. She was—in her dorm room?
A drop of water hit her in the face. 2024-02-12 06:08:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Mirian didn’t scream, but plenty of other people did. Instead, she crouched down and got ready to run. For a fraction of a second, a brief memory surfaced. Something like this had happened before. There’d been an explosion, just nearby—
She looked around, ready to fight someone. But t...
2024-02-12 06:07:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe rest of Mirian’s week went smoothly. Each day she went to her classes, each night she studied. Fourthday, she met Xipuatl and Nicolus again who split their time between debate and study, while Nurea loomed in the corner.
That weekend, Mirian went dueling again. During one of the bouts...
2024-02-12 06:06:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe break passed far too quickly, and soon enough, Mirian found herself walking to class with Lily. By now, the weather had finally turned, so a light snowfall had coated Torrviol in a beautiful blanket of white. Lily, who had grown up with snow, found it annoying. Mirian, who had only ever seen ...
2024-02-12 06:04:32 +0000 UTC View PostMirian spent four hours of Sixthday, which was supposed to be a day off, harassing the staff at Housing, then another two hours in Maintenance. She could not begin to fathom why it was so hard to get them to send someone to deal with a broken pipe and a flooded room, but at last she got one of th...
2024-02-12 06:03:49 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a lot to be done after that, but doing it all did little. Housing services was closed, maintenance was closed, and none of the custodians could be found. The sheets needed to be washed to get the clay and plaster out, and not just by a machine, so Mirian set those aside.
The curse...
2024-02-12 06:02:39 +0000 UTC View PostShe awoke to Lily shaking her, saying “wake up! Wake up!”
Mirian clutched her chest, hand trembling.
“Gods above,” Lily said, shaking slightly herself. “I hope the whole dorm didn’t hear that.”
“Huh?” Mirian said intelligently.
“The screaming. You were ...
2024-02-12 05:43:09 +0000 UTC View PostTrue to his word, Nicolus was standing under the gatehouse arch, uniform crisp and clean as it always was, his cloak draped over one arm. The rain was still coming down lightly. There was another figure standing by him, cloak still on. For a moment, Mirian froze. She remembered the two strange pe...
2024-02-12 05:42:35 +0000 UTC View PostProfessor Viridian nodded along as Mirian and Valen reported what they had seen. “How strange,” he agreed. “I’ll look into it.”
When they left, though, Valen said, “He didn’t believe us.”
Mirian was confused. “But he said… I think he did. And why wouldn’t he, any...
2024-02-12 05:37:04 +0000 UTC View PostMirian stood for a moment, trying to decide what to do about the shadowy figure she’d just seen. She spotted one of the Torrviol guards in the plaza. He stood out amid the dark cloaks moving about the courtyard, his black, white, and orange tabard bright even in the overcast day. The nearby lam...
2024-02-12 05:18:52 +0000 UTC View PostMirian woke abruptly, and then lay there, trying to figure out why. She had woken with a start, like she had heard someone scream, or like she’d been experiencing a vivid nightmare. Only, she couldn’t remember the dream, she just had this dreadful sense of loss that took her breath away, and ...
2024-02-12 05:08:06 +0000 UTC View PostHello. I'm publishing the webnovel "The Years of Apocalypse" on Royal Road. This patreon exists because I'd love to be able to write full time. The webnovel is currently free at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/81002/ 2024-02-12 05:03:29 +0000 UTC View Post