Chapter 3
Grudge
“When I saw the smoke, I had to come back,” Harker said. “It wasn’t even a question.” She sourly eyed the pack of summoned demons trailing me as we trotted down the street looking for any straggling undead or enemy demon...
2025-05-10 21:59:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 2
A Dark Path
My steps were leaden and my face drawn as I followed the lich through the once bright home of the Sun King. The halls and gathering places of the grand building had been transformed into a grim reflection of my curr...
2025-05-10 21:58:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1
The Fight for the Lows
“You stay here and double yourself like there’s a fire under your ass,” I told Yveda. “Whatever comes your way, you stop it, understood? I don’t care if it’s that lich lady riding one of the Twins l...
2025-05-10 21:57:51 +0000 UTC View PostNOTE: Aaaaaand we're back! Thank you all who stuck with me through this lengthy hiatus -- you're the real deal, all of you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience and support. Now we've got a straight shot through book 3. Welcome back! Tell your friends!!
Prologue
Breaking Down
“What are you doing?” Xemris demanded, catching Yveda the Fluid’s wrist ...
2025-05-10 21:56:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 10
Today’s the Day
Basil, Duelist-Scholar
Living Soul
Uncommon
Perfect card memory
By the time I joined my family for an early breakfast I had slept perhaps an hour in total, a few snatches here and there when my eyes could no longer focus on the crabbed script of the Fire card textboo...
2025-03-08 18:21:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 9
Rock and a Card Place
Hull, Street Urchin
Living Soul
Unknown Rarity
Unknown Abilities
My running feet took me back toward the Merchant District, where I could see a smear of greasy smoke rising over the rooftops. Not there. They’ll have the fire brigade and the city watch crawling...
2025-03-08 18:19:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 8
Jokes Should Be Funny
Hull, Street Urchin
Living Soul
Unknown Rarity
Unknown Abilities
My feet started sizzling the second I crossed the threshold. I bit down on my tongue and threw myself forward. I knew right where the card was supposed to be. Every step forward felt like holes being b...
2025-03-08 18:17:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 7
A Bad Idea
Hull, Street Urchin
Living Soul
Unknown Rarity
Unknown Abilities
Life on the streets had not made me good at complex planning. My usual way of solving a problem was to hit it and empty its pockets, but that wouldn’t work here. Barging back into the tailor’s card shop would...
2025-03-08 18:14:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 6
Cards by Candlelight
Basil, Duelist-Scholar
Living Soul
Uncommon
Perfect card memory
After collecting my wayward Headsman – who had ended up in the pantry of all places – I spent the rest of the evening poring over the Water cards my family owned, agonizing over whether I should reco...
2025-03-08 18:11:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 5
Precious
Hull, Street Urchin
Living Soul
Unknown Rarity
Unknown Abilities
Skop kept a tight hand on my elbow all the way to Hook Street. His grip was hard and he wasn’t shy about using it. My fingers were tingling, but any time I tried to jerk away, he pinched even tighter and yanked m...
2025-03-08 18:07:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 4
Reacquaintance
Basil, Duelist-Scholar
Living Soul
Uncommon
Perfect card memory
I sprinted so quickly anyone could have been forgiven for thinking I’d challenged Randel to a race, never mind the fact that he was strolling on at a snail’s pace, oblivious to me as he sank yet another da...
2025-03-08 18:02:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 3
Fighting the Future
Basil, Duelist-Scholar
Living Soul
Uncommon
Perfect card memory
“If you can’t beat me, you have no hope in the Rising Stars Tournament, Basil. It’s a fact, boy, simple as sunshine.”
It wasn’t that I really expected Tipfin to say anything new on our fin...
2025-03-08 17:55:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 2
Big Man
Hull, Street Urchin
Living Soul
Unknown Rarity
Unknown Abilities
It wasn’t until I was sprinting toward them that I caught a good glimpse of their faces, and on any other day what I saw would have stopped me in my tracks. The fat fellow on the right was Skop, and the taller, st...
2025-03-08 17:54:07 +0000 UTC View PostNote: Okay, friends, I'm dropping some of my edited chapters from book 1! I hope you enjoy this new, polished version.
You'll notice immediately that my beautiful, beautiful card images are gone. I hate this as much as you do. The unfortunate truth -- and anybody who has picked up the physical version of Demon Card Enforcer knows it already -- is that Amazon doesn't play nice with lots of images in their books. So here's what I've done: There are textblocks where the...
2025-03-08 17:52:05 +0000 UTC View PostHello, my fellow card junkies! I wanted to check in with everyone and let you know where things stand. I've been hard at work editing book 1, and I'm blown away by both the amount and quality of constructive feedback I've received from comments on here, on Royal Road, and from our Discord community. I've been taking it all to heart and am making the edited version of the book the best it can possibly be.
That process is a heavier lift than I expected, is the thing, and that fact togeth...
2025-02-19 21:06:56 +0000 UTC View PostHey friends and card fiends,
Here we are at the end of book 2. Thanks for sticking with me all this time! I wanted to throw out a couple of announcements in the wake of the book's ending.
I went straight from book 1 into book 2, and boy, do my bones feel it. I started posting Source & Soul 13 months ago, and I haven't missed a Tuesday or Saturday since, if I recall correctly. I love this story so much, and I'm all-in on book 3... but I need a bit of a break before I ...
2024-12-08 00:14:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 60
Remember
The young woman blinked, scanning the room around herself with a furrowed brow. She stood in an entry hall of what might have been a well-to-do merchant home, but the style was one she’d never seen before. The fl...
2024-12-07 23:55:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 59
Closing Doors
It didn’t take long for me to discover that the lich’s deck was designed to slowly grind me into submission, but somehow, I was five turns in and still standing. This was despite the fact that she had used...
2024-12-04 04:20:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 58
Who You Really Are
I stared at the charred husk of my father where it lay, pathetic and powerless in the crater made when the Orc general had laid my brother Gerad low. They were both there now, a stone’s throw away from ...
2024-11-30 23:39:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 57
Impossible Odds
The massive, Twins-made coliseum disintegrated as our King fell, the chairs and low walls turning back into lines of light and then to nothing at all. My seat had been in the upper reaches of the arena, but ...
2024-11-27 03:54:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 56
Apotheosis
Dear old Dad hung there in the sky looking like some god of judgment. Gone was the feckless, self-centered royal I’d seen him pretend to be in front of his nobles and subjects; in this moment Hestorus was a being...
2024-11-24 02:37:39 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 55
Upstream
I ran through the streets of Treledyne, feeling as if it was a place foreign to me. A smoky haze permeated the air, aggravating my eyes and making my chest burn the longer I spent in it, the sun above an angry orange...
2024-11-20 03:19:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 54
The Thick of It
I surged through the chaos in a haze that was somehow both focused and almost free of thought. I was sweating freely inside my armor, the Talisman of Spite blazed on my chest, fully charged, I clutched the V...
2024-11-17 01:07:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 53
Foolish or Wise
The place Azure took me to looked like a regular counting house with a painted sign of stacked coins hanging out front. However, once within and a floor down, I discovered that the belly of...
2024-11-13 02:03:10 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 52
Defender on the Wall
“I won’t do it,” the demon said.
“You will,” I told him, keeping my voice level.
“You can’t make me,” the other one sniffed, folding his arms and turning away. “I can hold ba...
2024-11-10 00:21:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 51
Retreat
Walking the streets of Treledyne again I had thought would give me immeasurable relief, but it turned out that a wall, no matter how high, couldn’t protect me from my thoughts. Over and over I play...
2024-11-06 02:05:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 50
Brothers
We were in deep shit, and I knew it. I ignored the fact and swung my Vampiric Blade through another one of the damned, grinning demons. A single extra point of Nether damage was enough to kill it,...
2024-11-03 03:05:34 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 49
Brothers
Riding on the back of Gale’s Mythic Griffin as it shot through the sky was like nothing I had experienced before. Even sitting behind my brother, the wind tore at my face and clothing, like it wish...
2024-10-30 02:14:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 48
Tricks
The shallow depression of earth was hot and damp beneath the salvaged tent cloth, made only moreso by the thin layer of dirt and leaves Juriss had spread over it before shimmying underneath. She lay t...
2024-10-27 03:56:48 +0000 UTC View Post
2024-11-10 19:09:56 +0000 UTC
