CHAPTER 77 – Unrequited
“…Our hand is numb. We cannot move it.”
Behold what Saphienne beheld in her mind as she and Hyacinth drew apart: vines writhing across the library and all upon the steps, their blossoms twinkling with motes of gold within an oppressive darkness. Lightning cracked the sky – the sun smothered by thundersnow – and revealed the endless field was buried beneath bleakest winter.
Saphienne was eerily calm within the embrace of the spirit. “...
2025-09-02 12:00:22 +0000 UTC
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And I looked, and behold
2025-08-28 18:40:56 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 76 – Oaths of Bone and Wind
When Saphienne had been healed of her injuries by Hyacinth the transformation had been dramatic, restoring her to near-perfect health in an instant. She would later understand it was because her wounds had been fresh, the magic of the bloomkith well-suited to mending the injuries she had sustained.
Gaelyn’s spell was not so immediate.
She moaned as she resurfaced from her seizure, violently shaking where she lay held...
2025-08-28 12:00:12 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 75 – Peaces
Tranquil, she lay beneath the weeping willow upon a bed of summer grass, content where she dozed in the daylight. All stood still, even the sun, and nothing could add to or detract from the wholeness of her much-needed rest.
Beyond where the long leaves hung and the fence encircled the tree, she knew there were people and places, feelings and meanings that would demand of her and contend with her until she was sickened. Her name was out the...
2025-08-26 12:00:11 +0000 UTC
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INTERLUDE
Have you felt the hour growing early? Here we must pause for the night.
I do not sleep; I seldom eat. But you are more mortal than I, and I would not deny you the rest and sustenance that your always-aging body demands.
The story of Saphienne is told day or night, depending only on when each traveller crosses the vale to arrive at this grotto. I turn no one away. Should no new listener come within the hour, I am willing to con...
2025-08-21 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 74 – The Crown of Summer
You see her other side, now.
Not all of her: much of Saphienne had not yet come to be as she stood amid that crowd in the festival grounds, watching Tolduin depart as Faylar drew near. She had not yet learned to master her impulses, nor gained the wisdom to know what was achievable and what was madness. Her intellect was profound, yes, but although she had learned much about elves and spirits and mortals, she knew very little about the Great Ar...
2025-08-21 12:00:16 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 73 – Revelations
Summer crept slowly into the Eastern Vale, announced by changing flowers and the dryness that came with the heat. What mild rains fell were refreshing to the grasses as they turned from verdant to golden green, and the trees flourished and grew splendid in their leafy gowns. So too the elves transitioned from pallid to sun-kissed, though Saphienne was among the last to turn blonde, too close to the solstice festival for her to experim...
2025-08-19 12:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
Good news! I forgot to update the goals for the Patreon after I changed the prices, and having now checked where we're at, I see that the first milestone has been reached.
The original plan was to give all tiers another chapter of read-ahead when we hit >$250 a month. However, after discussing with fellow authors, and life permitting, we're aiming for better.
The Elf member tier (which had zero members) has been unpublished for now.
On the we...
2025-08-17 23:13:53 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 72 – Making Space for the Sunshine
Journeying home to the Eastern Vale was uneventful for Saphienne, who furtively put on the ring from time to time, never with any regularity, and never while she was standing more than five feet away from Filaurel and Faylar. She hoped that the Wardens of the Wilds were following them westward — and that the goblins remained far from the shrine. Whether or not her plan was working, after three days hiking in the wildernes...
2025-08-14 12:00:17 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 71 – Spare the Rod
Why had the goblins returned the ring? As she waited for the Warden of the Wilds, Saphienne struggled with that — along with what she should do with it. Anyone who found it would reasonably believe that she’d lied about the goblins carrying it off, and then they’d look more closely at everything else she had lied about.
She palmed the band while polishing the scales, feeling the silvery ferns around its outer edge wher...
2025-08-12 12:00:14 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 70 – Into the Light
Before Saphienne and Hyacinth hid the tracks left by the goblins, they took their time meticulously studying the scene. Any mistake that made the Wardens of the Wilds suspicious could have dire consequences, and Saphienne refused to be caught through another careless oversight — never again.
Fortunately, though goblins were denser than elves, they weighed so little that they only left footprints when rushing. While there were coun...
2025-08-08 05:23:56 +0000 UTC
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Hello Wizards and Dragons,
It's finally happened: today's chapter will be late.
I've been sick on antibiotics for the past week, and it's really made my work suffer. You might have noticed that I re-edited the last chapter today — I wasn't happy with its overall quality, so I gave it another thorough polish.
Today's chapter is important to the story in a couple of ways, and I really don't want to kick it out to you until it's the best I can make it. So, I'm sorry, but I'm ...
2025-08-07 07:57:42 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 69 – Barely Concealed
While the librarian and the merchant sat at the folding table and skimmed through the books they had each been brought, the elven children talked with the human child and wiled away the warm morning.
Saphienne and Faylar eventually ran out of questions to ask Felipe, at least about being human. He in turn exhausted the questions about elven nature and society that they felt they were permitted to answer, which were far fewer, thou...
2025-08-05 12:00:27 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 68 – Maturity
“I present to you Felipe of Tenerosa, my only heir, and son!”
Saphienne blinked. Standing in the curtained doorway to the cart was the most extraordinary boy she had ever seen.
Whereas his father carried himself with confidence and verve that made him seem larger than his frailties, Felipe was unsure, pausing with one hand on the curtain and another placed awkwardly against his hip. Despite this, he was better dressed than Cosme...
2025-07-31 12:00:19 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 67 – The Valleys of Youth
At last came the morning when Saphienne and Faylar were to leave the Eastern Vale with Filaurel. Despite the early hour, the sun having barely risen, Celaena and Laewyn and Iolas and even Thessa came out to see them off, and the whole group walked together as far as the lake to the north of the village.
Filaurel had requested more practical clothes for the journey itself, and so all three travellers were dressed in warm and wa...
2025-07-29 12:00:16 +0000 UTC
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We're deep enough into The Elf Who Would Become A Dragon now that I can confess part of what I'm doing to everyone.
One of the goals of this story is to welcome in readers who've not been served well by our education systems — readers who don't have much confidence, and who've been turned off from 'literature' because of how fucking terribly it's taught. But I'm not trying to make them like so-called 'better' writing. That's not what I'm about.
I do...
2025-07-26 02:23:21 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 66 – Low Esteem
Having completed his introduction to practical spellcraft in elven society, Almon would finish the second week by at last addressing the spectre that had haunted the feast throughout. He’d unfold maps that showed the full extent of the woodlands — and then also the known world, pointing out to his students the far more extensive territories that lay beyond their homeland.
Saphienne would note that all across the foreign maps were wr...
2025-07-24 12:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
I wasn't happy with the pacing toward the end of Chapter 65. I realised yesterday that I need one more chapter in this section than I'd initially planned, but unfortunately I didn't get to write yesterday due to having to move quickly to set up the new cover before we hit the front page of Royal Road.
Which we did! And then got a rating bomb pushing us back off of it.
I've lightly polished 65 up to the end of the teahouse scene, and then the final two scenes ...
2025-07-23 22:52:29 +0000 UTC
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Art by Wheatfarm.
Hello everyone,
The new cover is here! And just in time, too: we're very close to hitting the front page of Best Rated on Royal Road. Currently sitting at rank #24 at time of writing, while the front page is #20 or above.
If you'd told me when I started writing this that it'd be so well received, I would have been deeply sceptical. I honestly thought we're run out of gas somewhere between #500 and #250 — but here we are.
My deepest thanks ...
2025-07-22 22:29:42 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 65 – High Expectations
Once Almon had finished his overview of the ways in which their living conditions were improved by elven magic, he would lead Saphienne, Celaena, and Iolas further, showing them how the Great Art benefitted their culture.
He’d start by stressing that there were significant overlaps between the material and the cultural — including areas where the division between the two didn’t meaningfully exist. Amusingly to Saphienne, he...
2025-07-22 12:00:13 +0000 UTC
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And there appeared another wonder in heaven;
2025-07-20 15:40:54 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 64 – High Demand
True to his word, Almon would spend much of the next two weeks summarising the practical applications of spellcraft within elven society.
He would begin with a brief review of the Luminary Vale’s role in overseeing how magic was taught and practised, and from there he’d expand to cover the provision of education for every elf. To her surprise, Saphienne would soon learn that all libraries were ultimately accountable to the head lib...
2025-07-17 12:00:14 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 63 – Golden Days
Once Almon had accepted the essays of his unproven apprentices, the remainder of the morning was spent finishing their incomplete lesson in Invocation. Saphienne and Iolas summarised what Celaena had shared with them during their subsequent study sessions, and then all three students took notes while the wizard recounted the history of the discipline and its key contributors.
So elated was Saphienne by success – the faint ringing fro...
2025-07-15 12:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
I've been putting off writing this, but I owe you fair warning: I might be a little late with the TEWWBAD chapters this week.
You may remember that my cat took unwell a couple of months ago, so unwell that it seemed like she was going to pass. With antibiotics and changes to her diet, I managed to get her back into a good place... but she was still slowly dying of kidney disease.
Last week, she went blind due to high blood pressure. Medication brought her blo...
2025-07-14 20:17:57 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 62 – Covered in Full
On the night before her next lesson with Almon, Saphienne set about reasoning through what she would say in her essay.
She was not in a rush: she never had any difficulty putting what she understood into words – assuming she did understand – and so she knew that whatever needed saying could be written out quickly. Were it just as simple as writing what she believed, she was confident she could produce her essay within the hour.
B...
2025-07-10 12:00:16 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 61 – What Immortal Hand or Eye
In the lesser warmth of that sunroom within the greater warmth of that loving home, Saphienne experienced a revelation as she beheld the ancient poem held by Iolas’ father, all her surroundings falling away as she read and reread the concluding verses.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight;
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endles...
2025-07-08 12:00:14 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 60 – Auguries of Innocence
The two apprentices walked back toward the village together, Saphienne abandoning her plan to hunt for wildflowers as she outlined her boundaries for Taerelle. “If we’re to be friends, then we have to be able to trust each other. I don’t consent for you – or whoever was helping you – to augur my future, and I don’t want you scrying on me.”
Taerelle smirked at her demand. “And how would you tell if someone did?...
2025-07-03 12:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
Don't panic: the cost of your subscription is not increasing.
I've been chatting to some successful authors who use Patreon, and literally all of them have told me that I'm hurting the growth of this Patreon by undercharging. Apparently this sends the signal that my content isn't worth as much as the content in comparable Patreons, which makes people less likely to subscribe, and less likely to keep their subscri...
2025-07-02 23:16:32 +0000 UTC
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Back in 2024 I wrote a guest blog for the NSFW website girlonthenet.com; you can consider this a minor manifesto about the role of sex in storytelling.
Once upon a time, a fledgling novelist sat down to learn how they should be writing. There were many books available, some very highly regarded, and so this ought to have been easy. How better to learn, than to read what the masters had to say?
2025-07-01 19:05:21 +0000 UTC
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CHAPTER 59 – Innocence and Experience
Across the week that followed Saphienne gave very little thought to the practicalities of magic, throwing herself into what she had learned from Faylar by seeking other activities that would clear and sharpen her mind. Apart from a conversation with Gaeleath – to be recounted another time – she merely spent half an afternoon compiling her notes and then putting them away, though where she could safely leave them gave her pause. She ...
2025-07-01 12:00:17 +0000 UTC
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