Chapter 109: Farmond Blackstone
Liv realized that she was holding her spoon halfway between her bowl and her mouth, forgotten, so she set it back in the soup. “I have, actually,” she admitted. “I can make a sword. I can fling it forward, if I want to. Honestly,...
2025-02-21 20:24:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 108: Authority
The first few weeks at Coral Bay, with the giddy joy of new friends, evening meals at the Crab and Gull, and the pleasant distraction of Cade Talbot, now seemed to Liv like not only a dream from which she’s woken, but in fact a waste of time that bordered on irrespo...
2025-02-20 20:45:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 107: Spirited Debate
“Where are we headed?” Tephania asked, as the group spilled out of Blackstone Hall into the courtyard at the center of campus.
“The landing of High Hall,” Liv answered. “There’s plenty of room up there, and a table we can use....
2025-02-19 15:24:45 +0000 UTC View Post154 - The Gate
And I say unto you, those who stand against the word of the Angelus, they are forsaken.
The Testament of Isrāfīl
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19th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
The first pair of guards were loit...
2025-02-19 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 106: A Voice in the Dark
The morning after the funeral, Liv rose early and dressed in the winter things stored in her rooms at Kelthelis. The parka with an outer layer of seal fur, the boots, all of it. She didn’t intend to have much waste heat to work with.
She wasn...
2025-02-18 12:35:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 105: May Not Feed the Wicked
It was dark by the time Liv went downstairs to join her friends, and the oil lamps had been lit. Someone - Liv wasn’t certain who - had settled them all in a sitting room, and the girls were nestled under a mass of warm furs, all on a ...
2025-02-17 14:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 104: The Son of Celris
As soon as she was certain the waystone was active, Liv hurried back to Steria. Keri was holding the mare’s reins, and she set her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle.
“Are you certain these people are ready?” Keri asked, leaning...
2025-02-16 15:07:08 +0000 UTC View PostI've done a first pass trying to address some of people's concerns, in terms of adding development to Liv's relationship with Cade. It's a hefty chunk of chapters; while some people may want to reread it to give feedback, others might prefer a change log.
I'm interested in constructive sugg...
2025-02-15 22:34:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 103: Tidings
A pounding on the door spiked through Liv’s head like an iron chisel. Her mouth tasted foul, like a mountain squirrel had crawled inside while she slept, died, and then rotted for a week. She rolled over onto her side, pulling the blankets over her head, t...
2025-02-15 13:59:07 +0000 UTC View Post153 - Maaz the Brave
There is nothing more valuable than knowing the ground on which you will fight; that one thing is worth a thousand men.
The Campaign Journals of General Aurelius, volume I
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19th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
...
2025-02-15 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 102: Skinner
Storm eels.
Liv grimaced, already thinking through all the ways this could very quickly go wrong. Professor Blackwood had described how they could release a shocking pulse into the water around them, strong enough to stun a human. Once you couldn’t m...
2025-02-14 20:50:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 101: King Tide
The sea was still a somewhat surreal place for Liv: after spending nearly her entire life in the mountains that surrounded Whitehill, looking out onto a flat expanse that stretched to the horizon made it difficult for her to judge distance accurately.
The sun ha...
2025-02-13 15:31:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 100: The House of Wyrms
Keri turned away from Calevis to confront the wyrm itself, while all around him people scrambled down over the tiered stone benches into the bowl of the amphitheater. The creature’s head was massive – the size of his bedchamber at Mountain Home, per...
2025-02-12 20:08:44 +0000 UTC View Post152 - Jabal Al Nusur
The officers can do their arithmetic about how many men you want to send at a wall, but what I know is this: I’d rather be the one on top of it, than the one climbing the ladder.
The Life and Times of Legionary Titus Nasica
Chapter 99: The Hall of Ancestors
“Look, Rei,” Keri said. “Do you see all the animals?” He held his son up with his left arm, while using his right to point at the carved tree trunks that surrounded Kelum Kedim. Surrounding them, as far as they eye could see, were giant ...
2025-02-11 20:49:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 98: Permutations
Liv and Rosamund walked over to the ballroom together, parting ways with Arjun. It was an odd reminder that Blackstone Hall, prior to housing the college, had been the manor of a noble family. While the dance floor wasn’t as large as the one at the roy...
2025-02-10 20:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a Sunday surprise for you! This began as rice on paper, migrated in a rough form to Inkarnate so that I could keep track of things, and has been updated and turned into an absolute work of art by 2025-02-09 20:45:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 97: The Storm Eel
“These are the mana beasts you are most likely to encounter during a king tide,” Professor Blackwood explained, as Liv’s class gathered around a series of large sheets that had been laid out near the enchanting workshops.
Spread across the fabric were a...
2025-02-09 14:27:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 96: Time and Tide
By the time Liv had the pie ready to bake, her hands and arms were thoroughly covered in flour. She’d unlaced the left sleeve of her bodice and rolled back the linen shift underneath to her elbow; the bandages on her right arm would need to be changed, beca...
2025-02-08 14:25:43 +0000 UTC View Post151 - Suq Alnakhil
Every oasis is precious; a small, delicate world within a vast wasteland.
The Commentaries of Aram ibn Bashear
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16th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
Suq Alnakhil,...
2025-02-08 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostI have several codes, provided by Tantor, for free downloads of the audiobooks for both Faerie Knight and Graal Knight. If anyone is interested, let me know; I'd love it if people were willing to leave ratings/reviews on Audible after giving them a listen.
Edit: Looks like the codes are th...
Chapter 95: An Assignment
“Observe,” Archmagus Caspian Loredan instructed, and Liv couldn’t help but lean forward in her chair. “Aluthō ais’veh Novis perae Mae,” he incanted, the words clear and forceful, carrying easily across the library.
It was a spell that Liv h...
2025-02-07 14:34:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 94: Classes
After a wonderful dinner at the Crab and Gull, during which Thora and Wren assured Liv that she no longer had to worry about meals at High Hall, she wanted nothing more than to immerse herself in the hot spring beneath Castle Whitehill and clean off the sweat and dirt of...
2025-02-06 15:13:52 +0000 UTC View Post150 - Auberon’s Test
There’s more than one reason the general never tried to rebuild the damned city - who ever decided it was a good idea to build in the swamp, in the first place? Probably a couple of poncy old senators looking at a map.
The Life...
2025-02-05 21:55:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 93: Arianell Seton
It took a bit for Professor Annora to get Celestria off the field; Arjun ended up going to help, at the healer’s request. Liv was only vaguely aware of what was happening. A few moments after the pressure of her opponent’s word had eased, Liv was s...
2025-02-05 21:53:30 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 92: Celestria Ward
Liv’s friends welcomed her back to the stands with congratulations and, in the case of Rosamund and Cade, quick hugs. It didn’t escape her notice that Wren had arrived, at some point during the duel, but Liv had greater priorities at the moment.
...
2025-02-04 20:47:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 91: The Bodyguard and the Professor
Wren made her way down to the training yard while the eastern sky was only just beginning to lighten into a shade of pale, luminescent blue, rather than star-spangled black. She gnawed on a hunk of day old bread, taken from the kitchen of Hi...
2025-02-03 20:51:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 90: A Night’s Rest
By the fourth time she’d iced over her bandages, Liv could no longer deny that it was time for her to call it an evening. Another two bottles of wine had been ordered and then consumed, and a dessert consisting of three kinds of berry tarts had been soun...
2025-02-02 14:55:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 89: The Crab and Gull
Liv looked to the stands, where Thora, Wren, Arjun and Tephania were waiting for her. Despite Professor Annora’s healing magic, her arm still throbbed painfully, and she could feel it swelling all around her elbow. It would be very nice to sit dow...
2025-02-01 15:26:05 +0000 UTC View Post149 - Burning White
It is a mystery to me, to have found a hidden room in the deepest cellars, sealed with the emperor’s own mark. An emperor of many generations gone, no less, when our legions first came to this wild place. I would never have found it at all, if not for h...
2025-02-01 12:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post