tobiasbegley

The Third Portal: Not a Chapter

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty-Five

As we approached the third orb, the houses around us began to change, growing larger, more intact, and with much more overgrown rosebush everywhere. I didn’t know if rose had been especially popular among the wealthy people of the ruined city, or if it had just adapted especially well to the environment, but there was a lot of it, basically anywhere we looked. 

There were a lot fewer ghosts lingering in this part of the city, presumably since the wealthy elites had more space to ...

Oops

While scheduling chapters this week, I aparently swapped chapter 33 and 34. Totally my bad. I'll go fix that ASAP. But I just wanted to put this out there for those confused by the chapter.

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty-Four

“I don’t get it,” Liz said, glancing at the tower’s ruins. “There’s hardly anything here. It’s a standard guard outpost.” 

The spell had led us here, and was insistent that I was right in front of the array piece, but I agreed with Liz’s statement. The ruined tower had a handful of broken and rotting dressers, tables, chairs, and cabinets. I thought I could sense a couple of weak, almost fizzled enchantments somewhere in the rubble, but nothing that would indicate...

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty-Three

I nodded my agreement to Hannah’s statement as I stretched out my limbs, shaking myself off. Throwing that much power into a spell had left me feeling wrung out in both body and spirit. It was unusual for my life energy to get so depleted these days, but powering something that far above me had been more than enough. Magister’s Body was already churning to restore me, but with my mana so low, it was working on dregs. 

Dusk let out a huff and shook herself, conjuring her cloud, ...

The Restored: Chapter Eleven

“Veriotix, second son of Aliliyt, I summon you.” 

The Contractor's voice was as smooth as velvet as he spoke, the words bouncing off the walls of the ritual room, and bright red light danced through the runes of the spell with every word. Jin, standing in the center of the pentacle, shifted uncomfortably. 

“Veriotix, the first son of Lythilie, I summon you.” 

Power was building, and the red light began to creep up Jin’s legs, like briars from some so...

The Restored: Chapter Ten

Demonic Thrones, the demon equivalent to mortal archmages, fairy queens, archangels, and other such powers, were strange. They were called Thrones for a reason – they had literal, physical artifacts that represented their power, a complex weave of soulstuff that the person who possessed the throne could draw upon for power. 

I had seen the Throne of the Gambler through the illusions that Alyphize could project a handful of times, and I’d seen paintings of them during some of th...

The Restored: Chapter Nine

“So, let me get this straight,” Devi asked, leaning forward and taking a long slurp of her noodles. I shifted uncomfortably, my knees banging into the table, which got me a glare from both Devi and Jin. 

“Sorry,” I muttered. These booths were not made for someone my size. 

Getting a meeting with Devi had been surprisingly easy for me. I’d phoned up one of the contact lines Nexus had given me for status reports, told them that I had a lead that required breaking...

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty-Two

As we approached the power that was dominating this area of the city, I got my first good look at a slaughter spirit. Being a spirit of physical mana, the unnatural inversion that slaughter spirits underwent had indeed left it as a shifting mass of semi corporeal light. One moment it was a dog with crab legs, then the next it was a blazing furnace, then it was a copy of Ed with no head, then it was a slender shadow figure with a hat, then…

Even as its form shifted, it phased in a way ...

Bit of an unusual vote this time...

Like the title says, this vote is going to be a bit less diegetic than I usually aim for, but hey, it is what it is. Basically, I have two ways that this upcoming search and assembly for the remaining bits and powers of the soul strengthening array can go, and I want you to vote for the one you think would be most interesting / most beneficial for Malachi.

Option One: Malachi and co search through the ruins of the city, using their mana senses, psychometry, and Orykson's spell to ident...

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty-One

“Frostbristle succulent,” Kene said, tracing their finger along the edge of the aloe-looking plant. “Well, color me impressed. And it was growing with yincaps, too.” 

“What’s it do?” 

“It generates ice spikes that seek out heat,” Kene said. “It’s a self defense mechanism to drive off predators that try to eat it. With a bit of practice, you can probably do the same. It’s not as consistent as blademoss, lightningbranch hazel, or a sun lotus, but it...

The Third Portal: Chapter Thirty

It did take a while to finish the litigation over the guild duel, to get the guild leader’s niece signed up with Liz’s grandfather’s guild, and to then sell both fields to the Earthwright guild, and throughout the process, Gakodi repeated the same question.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything you want?” she asked. “I know I’m pulling a few strings to get you some one on one training, but still…” 

“I don’t want to take from people who need it more than I...

The Restored: Chapter Eight

I didn’t sleep especially well that night, having needed to share the main bedroom with Rhys. 

I felt like I should be well past the emotions that welled up from having to share a bed with someone I found attractive, but it had been a long time, and I’d annoyingly found that emotions didn’t vanish with age, at least for me. 

As a result, I was up early, in the kitchen, staring at the enchanted icebox that Rhys kept slices of meat in, and then at the eggs on the cou...

The Restored: Chapter Seven

“I think I want to be called Jin,” the young woman walking beside me said. 

“Jin,” I said, nodding. “I’ve met a few people from the south with a similar name. What, Pareiti, Rejnep?” 

“Something like that, I think,” Jin said, nodding her head rapidly. “I don’t really remember much from before the Arenamaster adopted me. I was… young. Two or three I think? But I remember someone named Jin?” 

“Your mother?” I asked. “Or father? I ...

The Restored: Chapter Six

Content Warning for Body Horror!

Also, the keen eyed among you, or the ones who follow my discord server, will note that I messed up the name of the book. It's not 'The Remembered', it's 'The Restored'.

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Hadiya hunched over the vat of crystal solution, watching it build slow layers around the clockwork heart, and let out a slow sigh, before standing and turning to her new assistant, Hamza. 

Having one of those h...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Guess I’m up,” I said, stretching and thrashing my tail. I gave Kene a quick peck on the cheek, then stepped into the ring.

Across from me, the peak third gate life and time mage stepped into the ring, and I got my first actual look at her. She was tall, slender, and very pretty, but there were bags at the corners of her eyes. As the adjudicator’s spells fell over us, I started to cycle Mantle Dragonfyre. I hadn’t been sure I could use it in the fight, but the adjudicator was...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kene and I spent three days together, before I had to return to Crysite, and as I was preparing to force open the portal to Dusk’s realm so I could step out, Kene caught my hand. I turned and tilted my head. 

“Hm?” 

“Could you take me with you?” he asked. “I’ve got plenty of supplies for the village, even if I’m gone for two weeks or so, and in the worst case, I can always ask you to portal me back to your dad’s place. And I want to make a few donations...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Seven

While the healer’s heart was something that I’d taken for granted, Orykson’s tacit acknowledgement that it was worth bowing out of his team for the Elysian Mastery Tournament had brought my attention back to the small, silver leafed plant. Talking to Gadoki about its nature did a lot to explain why. 

Dusk was sustaining the plant in its own unique ecosystem, feeding it power without allowing it to drain the surroundings. 

If you didn’t have a worldspirit on your ...

The Restored: Chapter Five

The Arenamaster’s body exploded into a shower of light and sparks, and Alyphize vanished. Her magic lifted off of me, and I sucked in a deep breath. That was a mistake, as even with the wet shirt over my mouth, it set off a round of coughing.

Behind where the Arenamaster – or I guess, the illusion of the Arenamaster? Projection? Simulacra? Some sort of strange demonic copying spell? Whatever she had been. 

Behind where it had been stood Mist, her sword held aloft, her sli...

The Restored: Chapter Four

I glared at the girl in the Zone mask, crossing my arms. 

“Alright, are you going to come quietly, or are you going to be a pain to capture? I’ve got more people to save, and I’m not against detaining you.” 

“Oh, look at you, the hero of the hour,” Zone said, and I could feel her eye-roll behind the mask. “I’m going to come quietly, yes. I’m not an idiot.” 

“Good.”

Then I cast a spell to bind her hands in metal, so that she couldn...

The Restored: Chapter Three

As I turned to look in the direction of the nightclub, I felt a slight shift on the roof next to me, and in my peripheral vision, I saw Calder struggling with himself. 

All of his instincts, born of being raised to be a killer since he was a child, doubtless made to kill innocents and not-so-innocents of all kinds, the words of the woman who had raised him, and the mission he had been entrusted, told him to kill me. 

At the same time, the part of him that was a free thin...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Six

On the walk to the guild, I called Dusk out from where she had been playing with Dawn and some of the small folk in her realm, and I discussed the plan I was thinking about putting into action. Dusk’s world, now reinforced with a dominion, was in an odd spot when compared to the powers that were here on the island. She was strong enough to stop even powerful Spellbinders within her, but if an Arcanist decided to wreak havoc in her, she couldn’t stop them without taking serious damage.&nbs...

Poll McPollson

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Five

Convincing the attendant to tell me who was providing the pearl-light pumpkins for sale had been surprisingly easy. The man was one of the leaders of a small guild called the Glowing Soil Guild, with only about a half a dozen members, and was immensely unpopular – which frankly made sense. 

Figuring out an exact conversion ratio for points to silver was difficult. Things like land were going for a lot less than they would have in Mossford proper, at least when buying small and me...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Four

I frowned, tossing the numbers back and forth in my brain until it made my head want to explode, before Hannah laid them out with a somewhat more serious tone than she usually had. 

“I think it’s going to come down to if you can be completely certain and dedicated to working with the guild for the ten month period. If you can, then I think you’ll edge out slightly ahead in the long run. But if you can’t commit to it, then…”

I nodded and huffed out a breath, puffin...

The Restored: Chapter Two

The spell I cast wasn’t anything fancy. All things considered, it was actually one of the less impressive tricks that I’d been able to pull. 

But while the figure had been smart enough to realize not to wear metal, they hadn’t been smart enough to pick where to fight me. Elderglass was the city of metal. Everything here was metal, from the beams used to construct buildings, to the airships hanging in the sky, to the lining of the walls. 

To the very metal plates th...

The Restored: Chapter One

I'm going to aim for three chapters of The Remembered a week, but fair warning, I may have to do two, especially while I get my feet back from under me. Writing this with everything going on IRL is difficult at times, but I don't want to keep a break up much longer.

With all that said... I hope you enjoy!

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I swept down the streets of the Undercity, and with my tall frame, heavy coat, and gun in each of my hands, most peopl...

The Third Portal: Chapter Twenty-Three

“You have already found an Elysian Mastery Tournament orb, correct?” he asked, continuing at my nod. “Good. The upcoming tournament is set in Daocheng, specifically at the Silent River Sect in the Kingdom of Zhuanzhe. Now, if you were still my apprentice, I would have been training you intensely. But in the advisory role that I have taken, and without suggesting you as Mossford’s second competitor… I am much more limited.”

“I know,” I said. “I still think the healer’...

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Update Post!

Hello everyone! Hope that you are doing well, and that you're surviving in this chaotic time. I have two simple announcements today.

The Journals of Evan Tailor's final audiobook is out now: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Archmage-Audiobook/B0DV83GLTZ?

The Effaced, Book One of the Secret Records of Axel Font is available for pre-order: 2025-02-04 15:30:11 +0000 UTC View Post