Ma’s main room sat in tense silence as Zalan’s eyes darted across the scene. Oshrad rotated to Ma, looking for instruction. Ma’s fury ebbed away slowly, and her lips gradually turned upward. Glancing down at Captain Buttonwillow, she waved her hand at him dismissively and he was released by the four guards pinning him down. The darkness surrounding the room dissipated, Ma stopping her use of Elemental Shadow Power.
“Rep! Zalan! What a wonderful surprise! Come in, make your...
2025-02-21 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Zalan stared up at the clouds as they walked through Oriton. Scanning every entity floating in the sky, Zalan scrutinized to see if anything resembled a city. He knew it was a silly plan to search on his own. If it was easy enough to find, the people of the realm would have pointed it out years ago. Two books in Madam Hikma’s library showed the puddle of available information. Even then, the information was just enough that they had to go talk with Ma at the port in the hopes of a morsel mo...
2025-02-19 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Zalan quickly ran to catch up with Rep who was moving to the guild with his head down. His eyes were glued to the ground, and he was nibbling away at his lower lip anxiously. Zalan tried to think of supportive words to say, but wasn’t sure if he would accidentally offend Rep. He had grown more socially conscious in his time in the realm, and could tell when his words might strike into hearts more than he wanted.
“I got you a new sword,” Zalan said casually, handing out both ...
2025-02-17 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Rep and Zalan strode back to the Journey House guild, carrying two small books between them. Zalan looked around Oriton with completely new eyes. The wooden buildings looked more vibrant, and the smell of the sea was a fragrant aroma, like constant perfume. The sun shined brightly down on him and he couldn’t help but look up with glee. He didn’t think he would ever feel happy just to simply be alive. Opening his arms, he basked in the warmth of the sun’s glow.
“Do you have...
2025-02-14 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Another book, another afterword. 4 books down, one to go! Hey, thanks for being here and reading this far. Really, I appreciate you.
Thanks for reading The Homeseeker Book 4: The Depths of Despair. If I were to describe the feeling surrounding this book, I would call it “cathartic.” Both for me reaching plot points I wanted to get to from day one and for Zalan finally overcoming it all.
Four books with no delays! Looking like we’re gonna finis...
2025-02-07 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Rep and Zalan took their seats across from Madam Hikma. Rep breathed deeply, seeming nervous to Zalan. Zalan was mostly at ease. He could accept whatever kinds of answers he would get. He just hoped that Rep would be equally amicable to whatever Madam Hikma could have to share. Madam Hikma held back a yawn. Zalan wanted to get out before he made her any more tired. He already knew the line behind them would be hours’ worth of questions for her to answer.
“How are you feeling, Madam ...
2025-02-05 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Zalan watched closely as the Homeseeker deteriorated away in his hand, its fleeting life finally having ended. Rep jumped up from his cot and rushed over to Zalan.
“What do we do?” Rep asked, hovering his hands over what was now mostly ash.
“I don’t know, what are we supposed to do?” Zalan shrugged. “It’s fine. I don’t even know if this was supposed to get me out of here.”
“But Madam Hikma said it would!” Rep said urgently.
“She...
2025-02-03 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Zalan stretched himself out luxuriously on the bed. He felt well-rested and alive for the first time in what felt like ages. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. He half expected to be in complete darkness, but saw cracks of sunlight sneaking in through a window that had one of the wooden panes removed. Light was such a wonderful experience, and the warmth of the sun was like a blanket on his soul. Content, he rolled out of bed without considering resting any longer.
He ...
2025-01-31 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Finnegan dragged Zalan with all his might, pulling him to the entrance of the Depths of Despair. Rep was able to limp once helped to his feet, and followed close behind. With a wave of his hand, Rep illuminated the area outside the Depths of Despair with Elemental Flame. The space beyond the mines allowed the light to beam freely. Zalan let out a triumphant cry, finally able to stop emitting his Elemental Light just to be able to see. He let his head hang back as Finnegan pulled him to the li...
2025-01-29 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Zalan nibbled pensively at his cooked eye-monster tentacle. It tasted like canned tuna that had been warmed up in a microwave. Rep tore at his share of the food ravenously. Whether it was because he enjoyed it or he was that hungry, Zalan couldn’t tell. Finnegan had yet to eat yet, holding his food at arm’s length.
“Are you sure this is safe?” Finnegan asked for the third time.
“Yeah, we’ve had plenty of monster meat before,” Zalan said.
“It is so...
2025-01-27 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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“And then, Zalan told me to throw rocks at the monster spiders!” Finnegan said to Rep, gesticulating wildly. “I thought he had gone mad, but then again I always thought he was somewhat off. So, I followed his instructions while he took on the full force of the Mind of Madness. I hit the closest Arachulas, and feared that by the time I ran out of rocks, Zalan would be dead.”
“It is a miracle he still lives,” Rep said. “We should be grateful.”
“More like dumb luck,...
2025-01-24 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Zalan ran his arm under his cheek, wiping away a final tear from his face. Rep helped him to his feet and watched him closely. Finnegan approached, finally feeling like it was appropriate to join the two. Finnegan raised a hand to pat Zalan on the back, then hesitated and put his arm behind himself. He instead cleared his throat.
“I had no idea the Gloomstalker was playing with your heart by bringing an image of your mother that was gone,” Finnegan said. “You are truly stronger th...
2025-01-22 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Finnegan fell to the ground and immediately scrambled away from the Mind of Madness on hands and feet. Whimpering as he escaped, he moved to Zalan as fast as possible. For the first time, the Mind of Madness did not remain floating ominously in the air. It wobbled like a top running out of spin. After a second of wavering, it crashed down to the floor and rolled slightly to one side.
Finnegan pulled Zalan up to a seated position, trying to get him back to full consciousness with l...
2025-01-20 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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“Rep!” Zalan screamed, reaching his arm out for his friend.
On the floor, Rep’s eyes drifted with a glazed-over look. Everything twitching at unexpected intervals, his limbs were wrought with agony, each movement looking more painful than the last. But Rep’s face registered none of it; totally incapacitated.
The Arachulas in the room seemed to sense the immobile prey, finally regaining their collective consciousness and hunger for flesh. Some spun from the wall...
2025-01-17 16:59:02 +0000 UTC
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Zalan rolled backward and crashed into a rock formation behind him, grunting in pain. The flame-web explosion’s resulting blast damaged Zalan in ways he wasn’t lucid enough to understand. Zalan’s senses were in a delirium, refusing to either give him sight or sound while his mind raced. He felt they had just lost their one shot at killing the Mind of Madness in a massive explosion. He had already gathered all the webs he could from the floor of the room in the mines.
Last he...
2025-01-15 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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The Mind of Madness filled the immediate area with a foreboding sensation of death, dread, and despair. The monster’s form was uncanny enough on its own to send shivers down Zalan’s spine. Floating, gray, a head without a mouth, eyes sunken and wide in its skull. Zalan felt at a total disadvantage against the creature who made its home in the Depths of Despair, his mind already feeling like mush in the aftermath of the explosion. The creature’s very existence might have been the reason ...
2025-01-13 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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“We are going to die here,” Finnegan whispered, looking upon the growing number of Arachulas before them.
“Definitely not,” Zalan said firmly. “I have to get home.”
Without much time to think, he grabbed Rep and Finnegan and pulled them into a run. The spiders chased after them with wads of webbing landing all around. Zalan kept a beam of light pointed their way to burn apart webs that had the trajectory to hit them. The Arachulas clambered over one another in pu...
2025-01-10 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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“Dear Lord,” Rep said, staring upward in shock and horror.
“Get me down! Get me down!” Finnegan panicked, kicking frantically as he slid upward toward the hungry monster.
The Giant Arachula was smooth like the others and had eight red eyes that looked in several directions, as though constantly searching for more meals. Its eight legs were lean but powerful, and ended in dull points like hammers. Its fangs were the size of human arms and the sounds it emitted were so...
2025-01-08 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Rep, Zalan, and Finnegan ran until they could no longer see the Obsidian Earthenbeast in the light that emitted from Zalan’s hands. They took a short break, catching their breath for a moment. A thud echoed in the distance, and Zalan assumed that the obsidian creature managed to escape. They looked over their shoulder in apprehension and ran even further into the mines. After minutes of escape, they leaned against the musty walls, catching their breath.
“That… was… the mos...
2025-01-06 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Rep, Finnegan, and Zalan all searched the immediate area for signs of an Emerald Earthenbeast. Zalan watched for green gashes in the rock, or anything that looked like an Earthenbeast sleeping within the walls. Finnegan suddenly rushed over, holding a sword overhead. Zalan blinked, once again having forgotten that a blade was missing.
“You two do a very poor job at keeping your swords on hand,” he said as he held it out to Rep.
“Indeed. May you be better than we ...
2025-01-03 17:03:30 +0000 UTC
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With a deep inhale, Zalan decreased the brightness of his Elemental Light until it was just the power of a flashlight in the darkness. He had used a lot of energy in the attack against the Gloomstalker and didn’t want to exhaust himself when he still had the chance to find the Homeseeker and escape the Depths of Despair.
Finnegan and Zalan looked over the smoldering remains of the deflating Gloomstalker. Most of its features had burned away in Zalan’s bright energy, and Zalan ...
2025-01-01 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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“No,” Zalan whispered, looking at the disfigured form of his own mother.
“It took you so long to visit, I decided to come myself, Zalan,” the Gloomstalker spoke.
The monster looked like an anemic approximation of Zalan’s mom. It had deep bags under her eyes and an uncharacteristic frown curved at her lips. She had wrinkles strewn about her face and thin limbs sticking out from a pair of gray scrubs she was wearing. Zalan hated looking at her like this, like s...
2024-12-30 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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The giant spiders backed away in shock and fear as the Bright Elemental filled the mines with its light. The Depths of Despair’s darkness had no effect on the light like it did with Rep’s flames, and the shine lit up the entire corridor in the cavern. The Bright Elemental had raised its shining limb, pointing it toward Zalan.
“Run!” Finnegan shrieked in absolute terror of the creature.
“No! Wait!” Zalan said.
“The challenge is complete,”&...
2024-12-27 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Zalan listened intently as he tried to get a grip over his rapid breath. He was almost certain he heard a voice. But he believed it was too implausible to hear something familiar like a human this deep into the Depths of Despair. He had truly lost his mind. He must have been hearing voices. Or it was one of the regret monsters that accosted them when they entered the mines, but he didn’t think it would be so quiet while he thought about it. Whatever the voice was, it was the most clear thin...
2024-12-25 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Zalan ran for his life, but was constantly obstructed by the mine’s terrain or walls appearing seemingly out of nowhere in front of him. He was completely sightless, hardly able to tell one direction from another. He came to a halt, catching his breath and leaning against something rocklike. He suddenly flinched away from it and stabbed at the rockwall with his sword. He hoped, with a sinking sensation, that the wall wouldn’t start moving on him. He wouldn’t know how to avoid an Earthen...
2024-12-23 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Rep and Zalan spun in place, Rep’s dim flame illuminating the ghastly monsters looming over them. The light danced to a terrifying tune as each Earthenbeast closed in. Rep began rummaging in his pocket as Zalan waved his sword ahead of them to try and intimidate the creatures. They didn’t react to the weapon. Each step made Zalan’s bones tremble.
Rep spun around in place and blasted all four monsters with fire, trying to kill them the same way that he defeated the last run-i...
2024-12-20 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Rep and Zalan’s feet were heavy as they walked. The floor was scattered with more globs of webbing, increasing the deeper they went within. They had a putrid smell, often being entangled with the remains of creatures of various shapes and sizes. Zalan grimaced as he stepped over grotesque shapes.
“Do you think we’re going toward a giant spider nest?” Zalan asked.
“I like to hope that we killed the only monster in the mines. But I hear them in the shadows beyond. My...
2024-12-18 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Rep held a small flame in front of him as they proceeded further into the mines. No matter what size Rep increased the flame to, the amount of light and warmth always remained the same. The Depths of Despair wouldn’t allow anything more than a few feet of light, barely enough to see where their next few steps would land. Rep had also cast a circle of protective flame around them, but it did little to help the light or temperature. Zalan always felt like it was just cold enough to shiver.&nb...
2024-12-16 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Gray Zalan sprinted forward, charging at Rep. Zalan ran in to protect his friend. He slashed his sword horizontal, trying to cut his darker version in half. Gray read his moves like they were his own and deftly bent to one side. Rep blasted fire around him, but Gray dove to the side, easily avoiding the defensive wall of flame. He ran around Rep and stopped at the mouth of the mines. Zalan helped Rep to his feet.
“He has cut off our exit,” Rep pointed out.
“We wo...
2024-12-13 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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The further away from Nightfall Rep and Zalan walked, the more Zalan felt like he was being watched. It was an eerie, but somehow familiar feeling. Like a nightmare he was experiencing déjà vu over. He kept looking over his shoulder, trying to find the source of the sensation. It only grew the more he entered the darkness. The hair-raising sensation reminded him of when he was trapped under the Island of Remains.
“Do you feel that?” Zalan asked.
“I feel nothing but apprehe...
2024-12-11 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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