Expecting Aunty P to rush out of the castle and into the battle, Leland was surprised when she veered off into a room rather than exiting through the main gate. He supposed it made sense, she was, after all, the regent queen, and couldn’t exactly waltz into battle. Still, he paused, causing Iso...
2023-11-30 20:09:52 +0000 UTC View Post“Brigade one halt! Brigade two fire!” a nameless soldier yelled.
“Brigade one halt! Brigade two fire!” the Palemarrow army repeated.
The wave of attacks were weaker than the first brigade, at least at the start. They ran, all melee forces as w...
2023-11-28 19:22:08 +0000 UTC View PostFires spread from the battlefield, igniting buildings and burning infrastructure. Guards, Inquisitors, adventurers, and even a few mundane shopworkers, laborers, and even retired elders worked in tandem to battle the flames.
Those who could create water, through Legacy or not, pooled their ...
2023-11-27 05:40:21 +0000 UTC View PostIn a twist of fate, the Witch who toyed with fate, died thinking herself invincible. At least, that was how Ashford understood the situation. It was nearly time, and Charlotte had missed the last three check-ins.
She was dead, Ashford was certain. She had always toyed a little too ...
2023-11-25 03:57:21 +0000 UTC View PostYoungest Princess Sybil Palemarrow, now to-be-crowned queen, sat curled up, a gray eggshell cocoon around her. Through the membrane and calcified outer layers, she looked asleep and uninjured, but a slight dulling whine of magic slowly released from her.
If Leland wasn’t a mage, if he had...
2023-11-21 20:58:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Good work!” Spencer said on the other side of the portal. “And to answer your question, no, I do not believe there are any bombs in the city.”
Sitting on Leland’s shoulder, the big crow disappeared into the ether, returning to its home realm. For a first outing using Crow Massacr...
2023-11-20 07:02:03 +0000 UTC View Post“She’s just… standing there… menacingly.”
Isobel sighed, turned to Jude, and said, “She’s watching her surroundings without moving her head.”
Jude scratched his head. “Are you sure? It looks like she is just standing there to me.”
Even Leland rolled his eyes ...
2023-11-17 21:52:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe shadows around families and households deepened and darkened. The surrounding fog silently hid many secrets, most of which were hideous terrors hellbent on the destruction of the city. Out here, far from the castle and the many protectors killing cultists and battling the dark, were ...
2023-11-15 19:08:59 +0000 UTC View PostThere was no time to think, only go.
Pages flipped, palms slammed. Wings sprouted, dark feathers plumed. Four more came, pure white. The rush of the air barreled down on Leland as he took flight, the fog suddenly like the pressure of the deep ocean. A snarl pulled his face taut, an...
2023-11-13 21:16:13 +0000 UTC View PostAcross the city of Ivory Reach, in strategic locations, bells tolled. They boomed with the force of emergency magic, the signal to all to huddle down and prepare to be attacked. What little population that wasn’t heeding the extra guard patrols and cult rumors rushed to their homes, locking the...
2023-11-12 22:45:12 +0000 UTC View PostApprehensive silence flooded the inn at Glenny’s words. None had spoken about it, but everyone had noticed the lack of real battle. Ivory Reach was supposed to be under attack, and yet, besides a small raid on the warehouse district, there was only waiting.
But now? Now the drums...
2023-11-12 04:40:37 +0000 UTC View Post“Stop,” Leland commanded, his eyes faintly glowing with magic. “There.” He pointed to the wall.
Isobel blasted it with a bolt from her parasitic weapon.
They continued, the smell of the sewer and the fog causing the trip to go slow. Leland took the lead, the contract with the ...
2023-11-10 05:56:46 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Rushwin teed off against Leland, a fog began to roll through the warehouse district of Ivory Reach.
Starting slowly and pouring from the sewer system, the fog slowly ballooned until it fully consumed any and all. Buildings, streets, people, none went unmolested especially when hundred...
2023-11-07 19:31:54 +0000 UTC View Post“So, tell me, why should I not kill you where you stand?”
Rushwin’s face was a mask, his emotions hidden under layers of experience. For most of his life, he had been an Inquisitor, even becoming a High Inquisitor in his later years. During all of that, he had killed, fought,...
2023-11-06 19:33:41 +0000 UTC View PostAn hour later, a portal opened upstairs in the communal room. Stepping out and stretching his back, Roy stepped through, wobbling slightly. He took a deep breath in, like he was trying to pick up a scent like a bloodhound, then burped. He quickly went downstairs, joining his wife and Lucia at the...
2023-11-05 06:02:20 +0000 UTC View PostName: Glenny Red
Legacy: Chameleon Archetype:
Apprentice of the Chameleon Lord
Overall Rank: 3
Chameleon's Tongue:
Type: Ability
Rank: 21
Adopt the Chameleon's greatest weapon. Your tongue becomes a new appendage, growing in size and dexterity. Scale with [Ra...
Lucia quietly sat listening to the boys talk about their freshly upgraded abilities and spells. She had been left to chaperone while the other adults called in favors and hopefully readied themselves for the coming battles. And while she did have her own things she could be doing, opting to sit w...
2023-11-03 18:42:56 +0000 UTC View PostCarmon Red hadn’t been to the dark streets of Ivory Reach since Annie died. He’d sworn off the place, opting to completely ignore that side of the city. The Umbra was a cancer, a cancer his wife spent most of her life trying to cut at. And she had failed, and the cancer continued to spread. 2023-11-01 21:35:35 +0000 UTC View Post
In the minutes before Leland reappeared at the campsite, he had enough time to toy with the soul cloak. Shifting through the Void, green mist swelled in his hands. In its activated form, the cloak was entirely made of mangled body parts and crooked emotions. It was warm to the touch, and...
2023-11-01 05:12:24 +0000 UTC View PostBudding from the man’s back, emerald arms clawed themselves from his woven fabric shirt. Like a butterfly spreading its wings for the first time, the arms split, unfolding into wispy swirls before waning into fabric themselves. Fingers, each fidgeting like they were forcing their bones to reali...
2023-10-30 04:25:46 +0000 UTC View PostLeland was the last of the boys to wake up. Jude, Glenny, and all the others were sitting around a ring of smoldering embers, eating from a pot of breakfast sausage and beans. Isobel was the only one who noticed him awake, but she quickly ignored him after a superficial glance.
Taking the m...
2023-10-28 03:10:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I was just thinking I need a gardener,” the Curse Lord said, crouching down and yanking a dead thistle from the gray dirt.
Leland cocked an eyebrow. “Do they have divine gardeners?”
The thistle crumbled in her hand, falling into dust. “No. Not unless you count the Lord of t...
2023-10-25 21:30:49 +0000 UTC View PostAfter another two and a half weeks in the Mirage Fields fighting nearly nonstop, Leland, Glenny, and Jude each hit their goals. Jude was the first, achieving rank twenty with each of his Legacy abilities. While waiting for the others to catch up, he and Jude Two practiced the “Song of Battl...
2023-10-24 05:57:26 +0000 UTC View PostSlick white metal crested out of Leland’s hand, forcing him to drop Lodestar. It vibrated, jolted, and thrashed like prey trapped within a bear’s mouth. Spikes of power shot from the scythe blade, each malnourished with hints of blackened spite. They gleamed softly, despite their sharpness an...
2023-10-23 06:00:52 +0000 UTC View Post“So what did we learn?” Diana asked Jude and Glenny upon their return.
Jude glanced at his three clones. “It’s not about the end result, but the friends we made along the way.”
Diana held off facepalming. “Uh huh. What else?”
“Void is powerful,” Glenny whispere...
2023-10-21 04:33:55 +0000 UTC View PostThere were four Judes.
First, the original and his mirage. Then the Guardian Spirit Beast, Neff’s, incarnation… which had a mirage of its own. All four Judes stood around admiring each other as all the bystanders watched with various levels of fascination or annoyance.
Isobel was ...
2023-10-19 02:10:25 +0000 UTC View Post“So what did we all learn today?” Diana asked, her voice strained.
It was Jude Two that answered first, as Jude one had his mouth full of roast. “Rocks can talk!”
Diana and Roy face palmed.
“You learned rocks can talk?” asked Leland.
“Yeah! They are pets!”<...
2023-10-18 02:37:01 +0000 UTC View PostSitting on an overly stuffed throw pillow in a sandy temple, Jude, and his mirage, both played the guitar. Their fingers danced upon the strings, their callused fingers plucking or strumming in time with another… poorly. For each, the melodies they created were both off key and off tem...
2023-10-16 21:41:48 +0000 UTC View PostGlenny… was… dying…
Not really, of course, but he sure felt like it. Two weeks they had been in this cursed desert and for two weeks he had been coached nonstop by his dad… and other Glenny. The mirage was just the worst. It did everything he did, but better. Perfect, even. Li...
2023-10-16 03:49:10 +0000 UTC View PostDrifting in from a haze, Leland stepped into the shabby shack with a grin on his face. It was time to eat cake, chocolate, his favorite. His friends were there, his parents too. He grinned at each of them, happy as a clam to—
A crow landed on the back of the chair he was about to sit on. ...
2023-10-14 02:24:39 +0000 UTC View Post