tobiasbegley

Please, allow me to

pontificate upon the number

The Third Gate: Chapter Twenty

“Are you ready to learn some new spells?” Meadow asked. Dusk said that she didn’t think she was, but I nodded. 

Meadow tipped her head to Dusk. 

“That’s reasonable. Most of what I’m showing is more for Malachi anyhow, but you’re welcome to listen in.” 

As she spoke, she flexed her mana, and I felt life rush out from her and weave through grass all across the park. 

“Mass Enhance Plant Life?” I asked, tilting my head. 

...

The Third Gate: Chapter Nineteen

The combination of Beast Mage Soul and Magister’s Body had become the foundation for my role as a beast mage, which I was embracing with gusto. More than that, it acted as a powerful support for all of my magic – every single spell in my mana-garden intersected with them, in some way or another. 

Their existence had paved the way for the beastmark to evolve into an actual, real, new gate, and since my mana and energy were intertwined, provided a way for me to build up basically...

The Effaced: Chapter Eighteen

Hadiya pulled the automobile into a garage – a real garage, intended for nothing but holding automobiles, as luxurious of a waste of space as I could imagine – and rune covered plates of thick, banded steel lowered themselves over the entryway. She shut the automobile off, then we all clambered out. Kelly stretched and shook out his limbs, muttering to himself about not liking the cramped space inside the cabin.

I could sympathize. When I’d first left the Undercity, it had taken m...

The Cursed Legacy

The early story of the Countermage is seen as a tragedy. 

Born in the southern parts of the Elohi continent during the Sun and Moon Queen’s crusade to root out the petty tyrants of the continent, Andreas was not even born with a proper last name, let alone with greatness. 

He grew up living a simple enough life with his mother in one of the parts of the continent that the Atsila and Ama, with their newly manifested titles and fresh advancement, were thousands of miles ...

What If: Part One

Asked By Doug Driggs: What if Evan and Osheen switched places, and Evan was born a Roark and Osheen was an orphan adopted by Aldvarri?

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Evander Roark – never Evan, always Evander – is born with the silver spoon in his mouth, and due to his dislike of people, and is rarely seen as a child when brought to social events. Franklin accepts this, due to the fact that the Roark family prefers financial control over the more over, public displays.&nb...

The Effaced: Chapter Seventeen

With one stream of my consciousness, I was walking with Kelly, slowly making our way through the city, keeping on the move so the constables didn’t suspect us, and so anyone tracking us would have more trouble following. 

With the other, I was turning the mystery over in my head. 

The false version of me that the Arenamaster was running around with now had been tasked with killing me. 

Someone else, possibly related to the Arenamaster, possibly unrelated, wa...

The Effaced: Chapter Sixteen

Kelly was screaming behind me, but I didn’t have the time or energy to care. I spun out a series of spells, one using my experimental rune bond, focused on myself, and the other a metal spell, altering the threads of metal woven into my shirt. 

At the same time, I was building a metal sensory spell and pouring power into it. Between my third arch-star and my metal recharge, it was rare for me to have to worry about running low on aura unless I was blowing through power quickly, l...

The Third Gate: Chapter Eighteen

For those of you who got this notification twice: There was the small but important matter of his ascension treasures that I accidentally skipped. Sorry!

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I flexed my spirit and Foxstepped onto the bench behind Kene and Meadow, then back to the point I’d been standing before. 

Even without opening my third gate for space and time, the teleport was easier and smoother than I’d ever experienced before, and far less draining.  2024-09-04 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post

BMSMBC, aka the Beast Mage Soul and Magister's Body Connection?

Malachi really needs to come up with a snappy two-word name for his full-gate spells...

Also, I'll note that since there are two yes options, a vote for either one counts as a vote for yes. To give an example, let's pretend it ends voting like this:

Yes (Space): 7 Votes
Yes (Time): 6 Votes
No: 9 Votes

Since the majority still prefers the bond, it would go to Yes, with a bond to Space, since Space is beating out time.

If it was:

Yes (Space): 4 Vot...

The Third Gate: Chapter Seventeen

The last month of recovery before I could use my magic passed quietly but contentedly, Last-Breath turning to Final-Ice without any fanfare. 

I wound up splurging and spending some of my money – which was starting to stack up, given how I was working at the sanctuary six days a week – a few times for food and fun in the city with Kene, but the biggest purchase I made was in a communication mirror.

It didn’t work inside of Dusk unless we opened a portal to the outside wo...

What If?

This was inspired by John Bierce's (https://www.patreon.com/johnbierce/posts ) what if!

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No real rules or restrictions, ask whatever questions you'd like, for either series!

I'll collect the questions that most intrigue me and write up answers to them, no promises to get to any/all of them, but I think it's fun.

For readability, please use bulleted lists if you have multiple q...

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixteen

The following week was surprisingly busy for us. Olive completed her checks on Dusk and me, and after allowing our spirits to be scanned and copied into the wards as – still painful for me, but no longer to the point of sending my body into a total collapse – we were finally able to pass through the thick warding into the back rooms of the sanctuary. 

It was rather different than the upper, touristy levels. There were endless, long hallways that ran underneath the habitats, and...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifteen

“Of course I’ll be there,” I said. “If it turns out that I’m supposed to have a magma estragon as a familiar, then I’ll take one. If I’m not fated to, I won’t.” 

Dusk and I had carried the eggs for a long time, and had risked a prison sentence for them. I couldn’t just skive off from being at the hatching.Thea met my eyes and nodded, then she slipped her hand into Kater’s and leaned against the spirit-woman’s shoulder. 

“I think it would be a go...

The Effaced: Chapter Fifteen

I found myself riding in an automobile for the second time in as many days, and contemplated just how strange my life had become.

“This an alright point for you sirs?” the man driving the automobile asked, and I glanced around. We were near the mountains that ringed the city of Elderglass, where even the buildings were rarely more than five to ten stories tall. 

The middle of suburban nowhere, in essence. 

I considered for a moment, but eventually decided that ...

The Effaced: Chapter Fourteen

The Contractor and I sat across from one another at a small, but lavish, wooden dining table as a servant who I thought was probably a demon, but wasn’t entirely sure, poured us drinks. I held up my hand. 

“Non-alcoholic for me, thank you. I need my wits about me after I leave.” 

Of course, I also needed them for this talk, but I wasn’t going to openly insult the Contractor by insinuating he would cheat me. He probably wouldn’t, but there was always a chance…...

The Effaced: Chapter Thirteen

I paused for a second, as I expected that a lone figure would probably be on my side. It didn’t stop me from preparing my defensive spells, of course, but I didn’t attack. 

“That’s a stranger,” Odril said, and I raised both of my guns as I took a good look at him.

At the time, I’d thought of him as old, even though he was only about forty or so. One of his eyes was glowing a bright white with threads of pink light twisting through it, but the other was completely ...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fourteen

Octavian waved us through the gates, and we passed by some vendors selling assorted snacks, even though it was early in the morning. There were the classics, like pretzels and iced drinks and popcorn, but there were other things too, like a man who was selling flatbreads that could be baked into something almost like a pizza, or served unbaked with loads of vegetable toppings. That stall almost distracted me – almost. 

Seeing a bunch of cute draconic creatures was ultimately more...

Vote!

This is going to be a big vote!

The Third Gate: Chapter Thirteen

We bartered back and forth for a bit, before Kene and I finally accepted that we would each take a suitable item for ourselves if there was one, as well as an eighth of whatever was there.

After that, it really just came down to cracking open the ring and getting its contents evaluated. Andrew called in a cousin who did professional ring-cracking and item analysis, though he seemed a bit awkward about the whole thing, like they felt ashamed to not be using a neutral party. 

T...

The Third Gate: Chapter Twelve

Kene and I spent the following week wandering through Delitone, doing all of the fun, tourist stuff that I didn’t think I’d have had the opportunity to before. We looked at the massive ward wall that surrounded the city, and watched it repel a massive alligator-elephant-oxen thing, one that was easily the size of an entire building. 

We visited the fresh fish market, which had several species caught from the ocean, but also some oysters that had been grown in specialized water ...

The Effaced: Chapter Twelve

Eighteen years ago, I stood in a training room, Aniseed standing across from me. My mentor was spinning a staff in one hand, while she kept an eye on me. Water was condensing out of the air along the edge of her staff, and I circled her, waiting for her attack. 

In my mind I was building a series of five different spells, keeping three of them in the top layer of my focus, with the other two crammed into my split-mind. At the same time, I ran my aura through the enchantments on my ...

The Terrible Date

This is a continuation / follow up of The Serpent and the Siren

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Emery studied Ian as the other man slurped up a spaghetti noodle into his mouth. Ian had asked him something a moment ago, but he could barely remember what it was. 

Was this a date? 

Ian had said that this was his treat, but he’d also implied that it was because they’d been hanging out for a while. Was this just more hanging out? Spending time together as friends? Or was it more?

The...

The Effaced: Chapter Eleven

I could feel it the moment the Undercity and the Fallen Void began to intersect. It was… strange. A faint tingling along my spine, and something in the primal part of my brain that shouted that I was prey, not predator. 

The ley lines, intersections between the human world and other planes, are all over the place, but that’s not to say they’re all the same strength. 

A weak ley line might suck up weak creatures or plants and spit them out on the other side, serve a...

The Effaced: Chapter Ten

While I charged up Zone’s aura crystals, I considered what, exactly, my next move would be. 

Those private military people had shown up ready for a fight, and armed to the teeth. Given that they’d tracked me here, they would probably be guarding my apartment, watching for my return. That made me regret my choice to only have on the undershirt and take the knife. 

The Arenamaster was back, supposedly, unless that was an illusion being portrayed by someone to re-establ...

The Third Gate: Chapter Eleven

No vote this week, I'm afraid. Hopefully, it should be back to normal soon, but right now, there's a lot of groundwork being laid.
_

Without much to do in Delitone until I passed the sanctuary’s security clearance, I tracked Meadow down. She was in one of the city’s parks, sitting in front of a shallow pond, tossing some cracked corn and oats out for the ducks to eat. I took a seat next to her on the bench, and she passed the bag to sit in between us, so that I ...

The Third Gate: Chapter Ten

The following morning, I emerged from Dusk’s realm to see Ikki sitting on a park bench, reading a book. The moment I stepped out, he shut the book and nodded. 

“Before we begin with your gift, I should transfer the simulacra.” 

I nodded my agreement, and Ikki headed to our house, pulling at threads of temporal magic and energy. He used Capture Moment over himself and then began casting spells I didn’t recognize at all. As he worked, he spoke. 

“You c...

The Third Gate: Chapter Nine

While Meadow and Ikki went to make a reservation for dinner, Kene, Dusk, and I made our way towards the dragon sanctuary, which was… Disappointing. 

Not that the sanctuary was disappointing. 

It was disappointing that we didn’t actually get to see any of the draconic beings they were taking care of. 

The sanctuary straddled the warded walls of Delitone, then stretched out for over three hundred acres. Just from looking around near the entrance, I could see...

The Effaced: Chapter Nine

A moment after the door shut, lights blazed across the wall as layer after layer of wards engaged, wrapping the entire room in a cocoon of protective magic. The attention diverting ward that surrounded me faded, and I rubbed my arms to get some of the tingling sensation out, then looked at Zone. 

“What was that?” we both said in exact unison. 

“Those weren’t the constables,” we said, again speaking at the same time. 

We both took a moment to breathe ...