New chapter tomorrow! Sneak peek to tide you over!

Art AND text sneak peek! Who could want more!

WIP above is one of two alt covers I'm putting together for some special Stormweaver merch/special editions we're gonna be doing to fund a comic/manga adaptation! Bout time certain characters get a bit more love than they have been ;)

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SNEAK PEEK:

Rei felt his face warm, his mind suddenly scrambling to clear itself of his jumbled astonishment and emotions. Meeting Carmen Laurent—Aria’s father—had been bad enough, but at least he’d had a minute to gather himself for that particular encounter. This, somehow, was worse—way worse—not the least because he happened to know that Aria was still close to her brother and sister in a way she wasn’t with her parents.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt more awkward than in that moment, standing before this particular gathering of Users while his top worries were hovering between regretting how long it had been since he’d gotten a haircut and hoping he was standing straight enough to make a good impression.

His trepidation clearly wasn’t missed, either, because he went stiff as Kalus Laurent’s attention flicked briefly to him, lingering just long enough to feel—if only in Rei’s own head—like an appraisal.

Luckily, that was the moment, Aria managed to find her tongue again, have been standing for a good several seconds staring in disbelief at her brother.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, taking a tentative step forward, like she wasn’t sure whether to approach the man or not.

“That—” Kalus told her, not moving from his place as he glanced sidelong at the two women next to him “—is a story. Maybe one for another time. But as you can see—” he gestured down at his combat suit, pale green vysetrium in the dark red band of his CAD gleaming “—I’m here to help.” His sheepish grin grew a bit more roguish, and his eyes flicked to Rei again. “That and obviously I was keen on meeting a certain guy someone can’t seem to shut up about every time we chat.”

Rei’s cheeks only burned hotter, and Aria’s one hear that he could see turned almost the color of her hair.

That was the moment, mercifully, that the last of the strangers decided to interrupt them with a cackle of laughter,

“Holy hell, look at their faces.” The woman—probably in her late 20s with green-streaked grey hair and matching eyes—guffawed in a carrying voice that was in total opposition to her slender frame. “Kalus, you couldn’t ease into it? You’re gonna put the poor kids in therapy!”

In answer Kalus Laurent scowled at the woman. He was of a height with her, maybe 6’3” or so, but with wider shoulders and more muscle on his arms. Shaken a little out of his shock, Rei was also able to see that—while the man’s eyes matched his sisters pretty much to a T—his long hair—straight and reaching almost to his shoulders—was darker than Aria’s, more of a burgundy, like the accent Rei recalled their father sported in his own.

This recognition—and reminder—of the familia tie did nothing to help his heart rate.

“And what was I supposed to do, Jay?” Laurent was grumbling even as Rei worked to find his voice. “Make a sign? ‘Hello, boyfriend! I come in peace!’?? Just how much of a weirdo do you think I am?”

“No comment,” ‘Jay’—who’s name clicked recognition into place in time to send Rei into another tailspin—answer with her hands on her hips, sticking her tongue out at Aria’s brother. “I’m just saying maybe a heads up would have been nice.”

Laurent grit his teeth, clearly frustrated. “I couldn’t do that and you damn well know it. Or were you not under the same gag order as—?”

“That’s quite enough.”

The interruption was smooth and polite, but as unyielding as steel. Aria’s brother stopped talking immediately, and Jay—Jay ‘Jetway’ Wainwright, Rei knew now—snapped up straight and at ease. The instantaneous response was completely understandable, of course.

What else were you supposed to do when someone who could probably sneeze you through a steel wall told you to get it together?

There was a second of silence as the gaze of the speaker slid first from Laurent to Wainwright, then back again, the warning clear. The woman might have been tall once, maybe nearly as tall of either of the Users on either side of her in fact, but time appeared to have taken its toll on her in the way it came for all eventually. She stooped slightly, both hands firm atop the plain wooden cane she was leaning into. Her hair—braided into a flat plate behind her head—seemed to have been allowed to got naturally grey, and her face was worn with age, her wrinkles matching the lines and pocked skin of her bare limbs. By all rights the woman should have looked out of place in her black combat suit, old as she appeared.

On the contrary, Rei wasn’t sure he’d ever come face to face with anyone with more imposing a presence.

Not even Carmen Laurent.