eligos

37. Enclave VII (First Draft)

37. Enclave VII

I mentally prepared myself for the fight. It had taken weeks to get rid of the mental baggage, and some of my fear towards the demon still lingered. These battles were never a question of whether I could win, rather, how long it would take me to lose.

Maya looked at Kastramoth seriously, giving a nonverbal warning before she commanded him. “Subdue.”

The beast charged at me, his head lowered.

I ran straight at him. His antlers were by far ...

36. Enclave VI (First Draft)

36. Enclave VI

With Ephira’s help, the vote to grant me a year probation to prove myself worthy of the sanctum was three to two. The fallout was glorious. It appeared to everyone else as if a thirteen-year-old boy had somehow melted the heart of Ephira, a notoriously cold and ruthlessly pragmatic member of the High Council through an impassioned speech. Only Nethtari, Guemon, and I knew the truth.

And Guemon had navigated himself into a corner. He glared at me across the room ...

35. Enclave V (First Draft)

“For the love of all that is low and unholy, can we just kill this motherfucker already?”

To be fair, I had seen far worse examples of opening diplomatic relations. Granted, all those examples came solely from my father, and usually ended in minor genocide.

I stiffened, about to speak up before I remembered Nethtari’s warning and glanced in her direction. It was like a switch had been flicked. Nethtari wasn’t looking at me. She was staring down the three council masters,...

34. Enclave IV (First Draft)

I looked up at the infernal, trying not to gawk. She was tall for a woman, probably at least a half a head taller than I was in my twenties. Her features were similar to Maya’s, though they were pulled into a severe frown.

“You’re my solicitor for the council meeting?”

Nethtari inclined her head, her white eyes unreadable. “Of course. My daughter performed the rite. It is only proper.” Her voice was a perpetual monotone with the slightest hint of sarcasm.

I bowed...

33. Enclave III (First Draft)

I froze up, staring at the brand. It was only the fact that his eyes were on the bag rather than my face that saved me. Silently, I lamented my luck. How improbable was it that I kept running into these assholes?

Then I thought about it. Humans weren’t exactly welcome in the enclave, as my current circumstances spoke to. Barion, while not quite human, was certainly human passing. It made sense that he would have contacts here, and that infernals, given their magical abilities, would t...

Commissioned Art

Hi folks. I commissioned Viki-Vaki on deviant art for a cover for the story and she shared a rough sketch with me recently. It’s not the finished product, but I was excited to see the characters that have previously only been in my head and thought I’d share it. From left to right we have Cephur, Tamara, Cairn, and Maya. You may also spot a certain someone lurking in the background.

32. Enclave II (First Draft)

It had been nearly thirty years since my father decimated the infernals. Hardly ancient history. What it was, however, was enough time for orphaned children to grow up and become guards, citizens, and members of the Council. Maya had not been joking when she told me I’d have no friends here.

I wasn’t expecting them to welcome me with open arms, but truth be told, I also wasn’t expecting to be put into chains. Some part of me had assumed my little display would buy me a vestigial...

31. Enclave I (First Draft)

I gave them each a smaller, more specific assignment. I tasked Cephur with the rather odorous task of finding Alten, with little more to go on than the likelihood a boy by that name would be enlisting in the royal army at a young age—possibly lying during the recruitment process to get in earlier. He rolled his eyes at me.

“You have any idea how many commoner children do that? And Alten ain’t exactly an uncommon name.”

It was a fair observation. I shrugged and asked him ...

30. Crossroads XII (First Draft)

My father laid the scroll before me with the tenderness you might use to handle a kitten. He placed it right on top of the sketch I was mapping of the castle, immediately annoying me. But even at the age of eleven, I knew better than to voice any irritation with him. I placed my pencil down and took the scroll, unrolling it cautiously. It was filled with large words and jargon I didn’t fully understand.

“What is this?” I was almost fearful of the response.

“That, young m...

Chapter Surplus

Hi there. Just a quick heads up. I’m running a little behind on the early chapters, and I’ll be rebuilding my surplus over the next few days. We should be 4-5 chapters ahead by the end of the week.

28. Crossroads X

28. Crossroads X (FIRST DRAFT)

It's funny, how drastically a single digit can alter the whole. The difference between a hundred slivers of gold and a hundred-ten can be what separates a good deal from a great one. The importance of the number increases exponentially depending on the topic at hand. Two thousand soldiers lost, versus three thousand; both numbers, while harrowing, are somehow dwarfed in the raw magnitude of losing one child, or two.

That night was the source of my ...