Cale
Simantha was very talkative once the shock loosened its grip. Once it did, it took her approximately two minutes to decide that I was one of the good ones.
She was small for ten, all elbows and knees, exhaustion dragging at her in quiet ways she clearly didn’t have words for. She talked anyway—about her shoes, about the lady who’d held her hand, about how loud everything had been before it stopped, and how she was hungry and if we could get food on th...
2026-01-11 20:27:36 +0000 UTC
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Dominion Eight Bell News
The chime rang once.
Then again.
Across the Dominion of Vera—and far beyond it—the World Tree lattice adjusted, threads aligning as priority channels rose to the surface. Private feeds dimmed. Entertainment streams paused mid-beat. Arcane windows shifted, their borders thinning as a single signal took precedence.
Eight bells meant only one thing.
Caelis Morwyn sat perfectly still at the center of the frame.
Sh...
2026-01-11 03:35:58 +0000 UTC
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Cale
I didn’t run or posture. I am pretty sure that alone made them nervous.
Knights spread out the moment I stepped clear of the barrier. Their formation widened on instinct, spacing adjusting without orders, weapons half-raised but never fully committed. Blades angled low. Rifles not quite shouldered. Every stance said ready, not eager.
These weren’t parade knights.
These were the kind you didn’t test unless you had no other option.
I...
2026-01-11 03:35:43 +0000 UTC
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We have ALOT of new people and love to get feed back on some of my other projects so I am going to shamelessly ask you.
Please read this books when you have time: I have made it so you all have access.
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1679017
2026-01-10 21:41:19 +0000 UTC
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Knight Allen Bari
We came in hot.
We absolutely lacked formation in the approach. The sky cracked open and we dropped straight through it, thrusters burning blue-white as the ground rushed up to meet us. The knights and men-at-arms merely jumped when they got close enough. The suits absorbed the impact the way they were built to, force rolling through layered reinforcement, Arcanum taking the hit before bone ever felt it.
I straightened as my boots bit int...
2026-01-10 20:23:07 +0000 UTC
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Knight Allen Bari
The Knight Order of the Silent Decree was akin to the palace guard for Valecis Isle.
Training had concluded for the night, and the men and women under my command were just about to sit down to eat. Armor, swords, and casting aids had been put away as sigils dimmed from combat-ready to rest. Servants were standing ready to serve when the notice came through.
The First Chapter—my unit—was on call for the week. The Order’s home base of...
2026-01-10 15:20:26 +0000 UTC
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Cale
I moved down the hallway as I heard the notises of commotion and people screaming. there was large set of double doors that looked for more ornate than it should. I rammed up Kenita and Reinformaent and simply slammed the door with my weight and full might of my mana. The door gave way under my shoulder.
The wards didn’t scream or flare. They peeled back, layers collapsing inward as if the structure had reached the same conclusion I had—there was no poin...
2026-01-09 22:27:04 +0000 UTC
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Cale
I said, “Restoration.”
The cross in my hand changed instantly.
The weapon that unfolded from it was long and narrow, but not curved for ceremony or tradition. Its edge ran straight for most of its length before tapering subtly near the tip, built for reach and control rather than sweeping cuts. The balance sat forward, intentional, favoring structure and follow-through instead of flourish. This blade was either ceremonial or decorative.
The me...
2026-01-09 16:24:48 +0000 UTC
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Sorry about eariler guys I had to rewrite this.
Cale
I felt it immediately—the way pressure changes before a storm finishes breaking. Chaos snapped back into shape. Scattered mercenaries reformed into units. Command channels reasserted themselves. Someone high up the chain had finally stopped denying what was happening and started issuing orders.
They knew now what was happening. The siege spell had bought minutes of distraction, but that was already runn...
2026-01-09 00:15:21 +0000 UTC
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Sarien
The world went quiet.
Not the normal kind of quiet with subdue lull, or basic pause between commands. No this was the kind that happens when everyone stops talking at once because they’ve just realized they’re standing too close to something big.
I felt it ripple through the Lattice before the sound reached me. Every node on the property flared at the same time, then froze, like a system trying to decide whether it was still allowed to function....
2026-01-08 12:32:29 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
2026-01-08 02:04:31 +0000 UTC
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Cale
“You’ve got people inbound,” Bonnie said. Her voice was tight now, strain threading through every word. “Multiple vectors. I don’t know exactly who all of them are yet, but the garrison is moving. At least one Knight Order is coming in fast.”
I stood still my boots barely whispering against the stone. “That’s good news.”
“It is,” she said, “as long as they don’t collide with each other. Right now, everyone’s blind, confused...
2026-01-07 20:31:40 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The reaction came fast.
Too fast.
Heat surged up my spine, sharp and instinctive, the kind that begged for motion. This was unacceptable. A child. A girl ten years old.
I was half a second away from unleashing hell on the whole building.
Every one of these bastards was going to pay for this. They called me a demon. Fine. I’d show them what a demon did when he stopped caring about the consequences.
Then I looked again.
The blo...
2026-01-06 17:21:04 +0000 UTC
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Cale
“Find me that kid,” I said quietly. “And since we know this guy’s MO, look for any other innocents they might be using. Anyone they could treat as expendable assets. I need locations, and I need them now.”
Bonnie’s reply came strained, her words tight with effort. “I’m pushing as hard as I can. I don’t know how much deeper I can probe their Lattice without them noticing. If they flag me, they’re going to know we’re inside—and they’...
2026-01-06 06:50:00 +0000 UTC
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The Bentley rolled through a gate large enough to serve as the embassy of a small nation. Its red lacquer trim glowed under concealed uplighting. Carved stone lions—symmetrical, polished, intimidating—flanked the entrance like a design choice meant to signal, We can afford this and you can’t.
Inside the property, a courtyard stretched across enough square footage to embarrass several boutique hotels. The gravel had been raked into perfect waves. The precisely manicured pi...
2026-01-05 12:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Cale
I watched him long enough to be certain.
He stood near the edge of the ballroom, slightly removed from the others, listening more than speaking. People came to him in short intervals. When he nodded, they moved. When he didn’t, they waited. No arguments. No urgency.
That told me everything I needed to know.
This wasn’t a politician or an organizer. This was the one who decided how things ended.
I let my focus tighten just enough to fee...
2026-01-05 05:51:15 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The more I marinated on this, the less I liked it; the whole thing just wasn’t sitting right with me.
I let myself breathe and cycle mana through my body while I weighed my options, watching people move in patterns that felt too sharp to be coincidence. If this were just a staging area for an assassination, there wouldn’t be this much activity. There was too much muscle here. The operation was too visible—too many layers stacked on top of each other f...
2026-01-04 13:51:57 +0000 UTC
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I am thinking about recording some of these myself. The problem is I have a terrible voice.
Maybe later---anyway enjoy.
JC
2026-01-03 23:44:37 +0000 UTC
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2026-01-03 20:10:56 +0000 UTC
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Been a while and since we have a bunch of new people. I thought I would run this promotion again.
Use discount code Book_Starter at checkout and get the first book from every series in one bundle:
📚 Included
Cale
I entered the Lodge without incident.
The service door sealed behind me, the latch settling with the same quiet confidence as everything else here. Warm light spread across the stone floor in soft gradients, chosen to calm rather than illuminate. The air carried a faint, curated scent—wood polish, old stone, something herbal woven in so carefully it registered only as cleanliness.
I let the door fade back into the background and stepped forward.
2026-01-03 06:21:32 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The lodge revealed itself gradually.
Not all at once—not as a structure you stumbled upon, but as an idea that resolved into finer detail the closer I moved. The forest thinned in deliberate arcs, trees spaced with care rather than chance, their roots guided away from stone paths that curved just enough to avoid straight lines without becoming inefficient.
Someone had designed this.
I moved along its edge, keeping low where the ground d...
2026-01-03 03:15:16 +0000 UTC
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Cale
I left the city before dawn.
Operators almost always did. It wasn’t a safety issue—though it was generally safer to move at night—but because the city notices patterns. Life there moved in cycles: routes tightened, repetition settled in, and intention sharpened until it could be recognized. The systems that governed places like Lumineth were built to catch the moment when purpose stopped being theoretical and became real.
North of the city, inte...
2026-01-02 23:08:02 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to Valecis Isle
There are places you visit, and places you arrive at.
Valecis Isle is the latter.
Set amid calm seas and constant sky-lanes, Valecis Isle has earned its reputation as one of the Upper Tiers’ most desirable destinations—a place where excellence is not advertised, only assumed. The island balances beauty with order, indulgence with discretion, and opportunity with stability. It is no accident that those who shape the future choose to...
2026-01-01 16:07:00 +0000 UTC
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Sarien
The carriage slid off the main riverway without announcing itself.
From the outside it looked like a municipal service vehicle—long, low, paneled in dull gray crystal and brass, marked with faded transit sigils no one bothered to read anymore. The sort of thing people’s eyes passed over automatically, filed away as boring infrastructure. Inside, the hum of the engine was muted to a steady purr, the motion smoothed by layered Technica dampers and old-school enchantmen...
2026-01-01 15:31:21 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The rumors finally broke sometime between Midcrest and Brightwake.
I noticed it the same way you notice a change in weather—not all at once, but in small shifts. Conversations took on a different tone. Names were repeated too often to be coincidence. Excitement crept into places that had been tense only days before. Arclight had been holding its breath since the courtyard incident, pretending that discipline and silence could keep the outside world from noticing.
It...
2025-12-31 03:23:15 +0000 UTC
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Sarien
The music never quite reached the upper floor.
That was intentional.
Down below, the club was alive in the way places like this always were—heat, motion, bodies pressed too close together under low light and pulsing sound. People danced as if nothing existed beyond the next drink, the next laugh, the next stolen touch. From above, it looked almost peaceful, in a carefully managed chaos sort of way.
I leaned against the railing of my office b...
2025-12-29 20:45:43 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The next twelve hours were an exercise in learning how to exist without leaning on what I’d built my life around.
I didn’t know who had conceived this world. Some story telling illusionist, apparently, with a fascination for mortals stripped down to nothing but muscle, discipline, and decision-making.
Apparently he saw it in a dream.
In this world there was no Aura to smooth mistakes or reinforce your physicality. No Arcanum to bend outcomes or manifest fea...
2025-12-28 20:13:13 +0000 UTC
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I want to try something simple and community-driven.
If you’ve been enjoying Arcane Mercenary: Ghost of the Wastes and want to help it reach more readers, I’m offering the following:
One Free Month of Patreon Membership
in exchange for one social media post sharing the story.
How it works
Share the story on any social platform you use
(Twitter/X, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Discord,...
2025-12-27 05:10:08 +0000 UTC
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Cale
The construct settled around us more slowly than I expected.
There was no flash, no dramatic surge of light. The space simply… resolved. Stone walls grew weight. Shadows thickened. The smell of dust and old oil drifted into my lungs, dry and metallic, and for the first time since stepping into Mana & Mirth, nothing answered me back.
I reached for the familiar sense of pressure that always answered me when I stepped into a space, but nothing responded. There was ...
2025-12-26 23:24:07 +0000 UTC
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