Here's the chapters that came out this week! These chapters have taken longer than usual to write, but I should be able to manage another bonus chapter next week. I'm hoping as we get to the close of book 2, I'll hit my stride and my writing speed will increase (since I've been excited to write that part).
Edit: Forgot to change the date. Whoops!
Many Chapters Tier
Chapte...
Mirian started off the cycle with her usual tasks, then broke the spellward barrier around town in several places. After that, she sent out more disruptive letters through the Royal Post to various people she knew, or knew of.
Then, she brought Nicolus down with her to Cairnmouth. Sire Nurea came along, because of course she did. Serious attachment issues, Mirian had decided. He’s a grown adult.
As they took the train down, Mirian reviewed the next step of...
2024-12-01 18:00:55 +0000 UTC View PostProfessor Endresen had taught Mirian all matter of lensing spells, mostly to look at the intricacies of glyph formation. However, the same principles worked to bend light to view distant objects.
From the newspapers she’d seen, she knew Ibrahim usually started the siege with an attack early on the morning of the 8th, so she layered a lens spell with a night-vision spell, and was surprised to find it actually worked. She just had to make sure she avoided looking at the nearby glyphlamp...
2024-11-27 20:21:52 +0000 UTC View PostAnother week, another roundup. Here's the chapters that got released this week:
Astounding Augurs
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Fantastic F...
2024-11-24 19:29:09 +0000 UTC View PostMirian readied herself for a fight. She only had a single repository with her, but she always had combat spells prepared in her spellbook and the levitation wand up her sleeve. Behind her was a glass window, so if she needed to, she could escape. Or, she could summon Eclipse. She started to reach for her spellbook, but then froze.
Troytin didn’t have a wand or spellbook ready. Instead, he was just glaring at her.
“Micael Nezzar?” he asked.
“Yes? What are you doing in...
2024-11-24 19:07:31 +0000 UTC View PostMirian needed to talk to both Jei and Viridian extensively, so she made sure to create new initial conditions to throw Troytin off. First, though, she continued her surveillance of Specter. Even after discovering her real name, she couldn’t think of the horrible woman as human. Her code name was far more apt; she was an evil spirit, utterly devoid of life, and possessing the body of another.
The switch between Specter acting like Adria and acting like herself was as quick as a glyph-s...
2024-11-23 00:22:18 +0000 UTC View PostWith her hidden remote spy spell, Mirian quickly determined that, once past the walls, Fort Aegrimere didn’t have too much divination to watch for. There were, however, state-of-the-art glyphkey locks on almost every door, even the barracks. The supply depots had two doors and a security checkpoint.
Specter’s notes in hand, Mirian began to look for the names of people Adria knew.
At first, she had little luck. The fort was full of strange faces, or people she vag...
2024-11-20 18:50:05 +0000 UTC View PostHere are easy links to the chapters that were published this week:
Powerful Prophets
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Ordinary Oracles
As soon as the beast emerged, Mirian sent up the flare. To her dismay, Apophagorga didn’t react like it had the first time.
After a roar of annoyance, it charged the first team. No amount of rifle fire or spells could get it to turn around, even after she launched flares ordering an advance of the other teams. Instead, the beast kept going, pushing through the barrier rocks and ripping up the trees. This time, the team scattered in all directions before it reached them, but the titan ...
2024-11-17 17:43:44 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, the myrvite hunters seemed frozen. Even with the orange flare flickering bright above the myrvite titan, no one was taking action.
“Aim for the head. Fire!” Mirian snapped, and at last, the riflemen seemed to break from their daze. Their rifles cracked out, first in a volley, then in a chaotic chorus as the hillside echoed with gunfire and the music of sliding bolts and brass cartridges.
Patches of black ichor erupted on Apophagorga’s head as the high caliber...
2024-11-16 01:24:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe next cycle, Mirian planted several incendiary devices in the rooms where Troytin sometimes stayed, then talked to Torres about sabotaging the spell engines he’d be bringing so they’d blow up in his face specifically. She sketched out what a divination-proximity trigger would look like for her. Torres was deeply uncomfortable with the idea, but reluctantly agreed. Next, she got Calisto interested in her project, then set a date for them to meet in Second Cairn with her father.
Th...
2024-11-13 19:20:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Edit 7/3/25: Updated! I'm pretty sure there's no spoilers here if you're caught up on the normal time traveler tier, and certainly there's no spoilers if you're on the extra-cool tier. If somehow you found yourself here and aren't done with, say, chapter 195, though, there's some spoilers.
Celestial Bodies
Divir - The small moon, the one that keeps falling down (skill issue).
Enteria - The planet.
Luamin - The big moon
Whoops, forgot to do this last week, so last week's chapters are also linked. I also expect the Glossary of Way Too Many Characters And Places to go up sometime today when I finish it, but I'm not going to have it use notifications because I don't think anyone is dying to read it. I'll tag it with "glossary" "characters" "places" and "reference." Some newer characters won't be on there because I'm crossposting it on RR, but I'll add to it as everyone gets farther along. Remember there's also ...
2024-11-10 18:29:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe second airship may not have been sure what just happened to the first one, but the pilot on board had been watching. The skiff accelerated, then started doing evasive maneuvers as it approached, randomly weaving through the sky as it passed the manor again, sending out another bombardment of fireballs. The return fire from the manor was meager; a few beams and bolts either missed entirely or just fizzled on the ship’s shield. The estate guards and armed servants were in no way prepared ...
2024-11-10 18:13:24 +0000 UTC View PostMirian woke up, already feeling annoyed. “I hate having to deal with stinky bog lion hair.”
“What?” said Lily groggily.
Then, she was annoyed at Lily, even though it wasn’t her fault.
As she left her dorm, she muttered, “Alright, Troytin, you asked for this cycle to be extra annoying.” She got to work.
***
Mirian decided the next easiest way to make money would be to use one of the noble houses. It seemed the simplest way forwa...
2024-11-09 02:52:38 +0000 UTC View PostMirian was sure of one thing: she couldn’t outrun an airship. For one, she hadn’t modified the conduits on her wand this cycle, so she could only levitate so fast. And, from what she knew from her research, a skiff could stay in the air for around four or five hours, depending on what they’d loaded it with.
The other was that, even with her mythril amulet, she was outgunned. There’d be at least two combat mages, maybe four, someone with a rifle, and the spell engine that kept it...
2024-11-06 19:10:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe next loop, Mirian stopped by Cairnmouth, saved Arenthia, then introduced herself to Lecne again.
After a brief introduction, Lecne said, “So… you need us to teach you some more secrets of the priesthood?”
“No,” Mirian said. “I need your help in stealing a great deal of gold.”
There was a pause, and then Arenthia let out a howling cackle, slapping her knee several times.
Mirian thought she should clarify. “So, I need the gold to bribe the Ennecus Gui...
2024-11-03 19:15:45 +0000 UTC View PostCalisto talked nearly nonstop on the train to Cairnmouth, then somehow had more to say on the train to Second Cairn.
“…the real gold-printing machine would let you control Labyrinth econode releases, but barring that, what’s preventing us from constructing our own econodes on the surface? Again, there’s basic economic principles these old fools refuse to put into practice. It’s so simple. Reduce the cost of maintaining the myvites, and increase the number of myrv...
2024-10-30 19:50:27 +0000 UTC View PostSorry about no bonus chapter on Friday. Been sick for about two weeks now, which has absolutely cratered my productivity and chewed through my backlog. If you're reading this and were planning to go out and get sick, my advice is: just don't. (I think I'm finally on the mend, but it's been a frustratingly slow recovery).
I'm also working on a world glossary with the various names and places, and will post that when it's ready.
Thanks for all the great comments on the polls. They'r...
2024-10-27 18:12:12 +0000 UTC View PostWith her amulet now bound to her, Mirian spent the last two days of the cycle learning about the other artifacts they’d recovered. As the eruptions intensified, none of the delvers could bring themselves to hold to their original exclusivity agreement. There just was no point.
It turned out, her divination devices were fairly useful for discerning glyphs they couldn’t see in the tri-bonded glyph constructions. This let them figure out how the triplicate bonds worked, though it didn...
2024-10-27 17:49:52 +0000 UTC View PostThey all hesitated at the threshold of the final door.
“Does it… is it going to reactivate?” Beatrice asked, peering out into the forest.
“I don’t know. Levitation wands at the ready, though,” Mirian said. The weight of the relicarium in her pack reassured her. Tentatively, she took a step out the door, ready to start incinerating any branch or leaf that so much as twitched funny.
The forest was still.
“Maybe we get a reprieve,” Aelius said cautiously. ...
2024-10-23 13:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostHere are easy links to the chapters published this week:
[Clever wordplay about the $10 tier]
[Equally clever wordplay abou...
2024-10-20 18:00:57 +0000 UTC View PostFor a moment, there was silence. Then, Mirian heard Beatrice behind her asking, “Did she just…?”
Briefly, there was some shouting, but she didn’t care what they said. They’d follow. The only way out was through.
For a moment, the forest was silent too. Then it came to life, vines and branches writhing and twisting into the strange, soulless creatures.
Mirian went with the ‘burn it all down’ strategy.
As the abominations came leaping toward her, she embrac...
2024-10-20 17:21:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was clear, when they came back down the next day, that Scrappy had been hard at work. Five of the rooms near the front had been reset. Thankfully, the strange golem was nowhere to be found, and it hadn’t made it to the back rooms. The two greater labyrinthine horror corpses were missing, which was creepy, but the door was still open. Mirian cautiously checked the antimagic room, but they weren’t lurking in the corners. Which was good; they’d left the soldiers behind this time.
...
2024-10-18 18:18:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe two greater labyrinthine horrors waited in the antimagic room. The three heavies leaned their war hammers near the door’s threshold, and the soldiers stood ready with their spears. Grimald led the charge, quickly establishing the front of the shield wall, followed by the two other heavies. Mirian used The Dance of the Dusk Waves to quickly cut apart the tendrils as the soldiers came in, adding another two spears to hold the horrors at bay.
Mirian switched to the Spear That Cuts Wa...
2024-10-16 16:23:15 +0000 UTC View PostHere are easy links to the chapters that were published this week:
Complex Committed Time Travelers
Aelius’s first reaction to Mirian’s proposal was disbelief. However, when she started outlining what she knew of the Vault—which was how to open almost all of the early room doors—he had to lean back in his chair and clench his jaw for a bit.
“How are we dividing it up?” he finally asked.
I’m surprised he’s not more skeptical, Mirian thought. She’d claimed to have discovered information about the Vault in a forgotten archive in Palendurio. She’d d...
2024-10-13 18:51:20 +0000 UTC View PostCalisto, when she wasn’t arguing with or attempting to manipulate Nicolus, was a surprisingly pleasant person to be around. She also found Bainrose an intolerable place to study.
“That musty old castle is fifty percent dust and twenty percent spiders by weight. No thank you! This is much nicer,” she said when they sat down at the place she’d chosen. There was a little cafe north of the old theater, but south of the restaurant Torres liked to eat at. Mirian had probably walked by...
2024-10-13 03:17:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe colossal myrvite let out another roar as it thundered forward. Mirian covered her ears again.
It moved like a turtle, slowly but inexorably, but it was large enough that each stride covered a surprising distance. Mirian shifted to the Lone Pine form as it let out another roar. She still felt a wave of power stripping her aura, but the earth dervish method helped her weather it with less loss.
As it approached, her arcane sense felt like it was on fire. The beast radiated arcan...
2024-10-11 16:12:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe next cycle, Mirian saluted Rostal and they began their bout.
Rostal liked to tell her to go all-out, but Mirian knew he didn’t really mean it. Otherwise, she would just fly up and hit him with lightning until he gave up. Instead, she started with The Spear That Cuts Water, turning back Rostal’s initial attack. As soon as he relented, she switched to The Dance of Dusk Waves and came in with several rapid cuts that demanded answers. That pushed him back across the courtyard and le...
2024-10-09 21:42:17 +0000 UTC View Post