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Matabar. Chapter 78 - Sea Breeze

FROM THE AUTHOR:
BONUS CHAPTER RELEASE

Behind them, the wailing of the guard sirens began in earnest. Arkar took a sharp turn and climbed a spiral staircase attached to two houses stacked atop one another. Ardi followed him, staying close. He didn’t know how much longer he could hide in the shadows — they were eager to break free and dart into the nearest dark nook, or the impenetrable gloom of a storm drain.

While trying to hold on to the twiligh...

Matabar. Chapter 77 - Firstborn District

Clearing his throat, Arkar steered the car out of the yard, and they rolled along the Markov Canal. But this time, they did not head down, toward the Martyrs’ Bridge — the main crossing over the Crookedwater Canal that divided Old Town and the New City. No, they kept on climbing, higher and higher, until they turned off toward Niewsky Avenue.

The city’s main thoroughfare was gradually transforming. More and more automobiles of all shapes and sizes were appearing on the road, and a...

Matabar. Chapter 76 - Ice Cream

Ardan nearly choked on his ice cream. Oh, he’d been called all sorts of names behind his back: beast, subhuman, non-human, half-man, half-blood, spawn of the Dark Lord, and so on. But that was always behind his back. And it had only really happened at the very start of his time at the Grand University, back when his presence had still rubbed some students the wrong way.

Yes, they’d whispered and sometimes even pointed at him, never imagining that a Matabar half-blood�...

Matabar. Chapter 75 - Hearts and Healers

Ardan, who’d barely slept a few hours, finally reached the Black House. It was only his second time coming here alone, without any escort from the Second Chancery, and once again, he felt ill at ease.

The massive, black edifice, with its silvery window frames, seemed to press down on his shoulders. Its exterior looked more like a defensive fortress from the War of the Empire’s Founding rather than a building of the sixth century after the Fall of Ectassus. It appeared rather inhospi...

Matabar. Chapter 74 - Corporal

The few automobiles that were driving alongside the black hulks of the Second Chancery swerved sharply aside, like frightened sheep wandering too close to a shepherd’s dogs prowling along the meadow’s edge — unnoticed at first glance, yet ready to sink their teeth into any throat that threatened the flock’s peace.

Even the clunky trams, their steel wheels sparking along the rails embedded in the cobblestones of Niewa Avenue, seemed determined to flee the glow of those yellow hea...

Matabar. Chapter 73 - Bounty

Ardan struck the floor with his staff, and the ice needle that formed in an instant shot out from its tip. Trailing a faint, blurry shimmer behind it, the needle slammed into the dummy dressed in a jester outfit. At last, the mocking puppet had failed to raise its shield in time.

Exhaling in relief, the young man dropped his staff and sank to the floor. Spreading his arms wide and breathing heavily, he stared up at the ceiling. It was nearing midnight, and he had finally managed to comp...

Matabar. Chapter 72 - Birthday and a Blue Mage

Beneath the cloak of night, which was as thick as a coat of spilled oil paint, the old detective and the young mage trudged through the snowdrifts, drawing ever closer to the mansion. It loomed over them like some fairy-tale monster torn from the pages of a horror story. Pilasters bared their fangs at them; broad panels of rusticated stone gleamed like armor at the corners, set with river rocks; and white balustrades shaped like knights raising their swords clawed at the snowy shroud. The key...

Matabar. Chapter 71 - An old acquaintance

Ardan blinked, and in the nerve-racking dimness — lit only by a meager oil lamp, which was barely enough to chase away the prideful darkness — he suddenly made out features he recognized.

A revolver being held in an outstretched hand was aimed directly at the bridge of the young man’s nose. The gun was held by none other than Peter Oglanov. He wore a warm fur coat, which somewhat hid his unhealthy paunch, and a fine, heavy hat pulled low over hair slicked to one side, thin and lif...

Matabar. Chapter 70 - The Dandy

Ardan and Milar stepped inside a place that, presumably, was meant to fulfill every lofty requirement Mart believed the proud title of “restaurant” came with.

An expensive parquet floor lay hidden beneath plush carpets edged with golden thread. The walls were adorned with an intricate mosaic, though it offered no particular story — merely scattered scenes from an ancient era, back when human civilization had not yet stolen the secrets of working iron and forging steel from the Fir...

Matabar. Chapter 69 - What if...

“Thus, determining the depth, length, and width of even the most trivial cut by relying solely on one’s own eyes or makeshift tools is hardly convenient,” Professor Lea said as she pushed her wheelchair, rolling in front of the blackboard until she stopped near the edge. With some effort (which she tried to hide), she lifted her pointer and tapped it against a rather intricate seal design. “For that purpose, about twenty-five years ago, this seal was developed… Incidentally,” Lea ...

Matabar. Chapter 68 - Darkness

Ardan looked around frantically, but all he saw was a blinding darkness that seemed to be coiling around them. It was so dense that you could barely see past your own nose, let alone the length of your outstretched arm.

Sounds — lost and hollow, like a scream muffled by a pillow shoved against a wide-eyed face — teased him at the very edges of his hearing. Sometimes, there were gunshots that blossomed into fiery, powder-laced clouds deep in the murk, only to vanish an instant later ...

Matabar. Chapter 67 - Vows and Promises

A crushing silence descended upon the room for an instant, broken only by the steady drip of Ordargar’s blood as it seeped through the wrappings on his mangled leg.

“Honored guests,” Arkar said in a hoarse voice, loud enough for everyone to hear, “our bar would like to offer its sincerest apologies for your ruined evening. Please, make your way to the exit. Your meals are on the house. Once again — my deepest regrets.”

People cast frightened glances at the massive orc,...

Matabar. Chapter 66 - Two Hearts

Ardi pressed his forehead against the blisteringly cold, ice-covered steel handrail — it was so frigid that its frostiness bit through his woolen hat — and mulled over everything that had transpired.

In the worst possible scenario, if Kerimov died… would they expel him from the Grand? Who could say? On the one hand, he had taken part in an official, preapproved bloody duel. On the other…

“Damn,” Ardan muttered, closing his eyes.

And then there was Kshtovsky… Ar...

Launch post

Hello there.

Here we go.

10 chapters ahead of RR. And for the next 10 weeks, Patreon will get two chapters a week (Tuesday and Friday [CET]), and when the gap with RR reaches 20 chapters, then RR will also get two chapters a week, and the 20 chapter gap will remain until the end.

There may be some activities and milestones that will result in additional chapters for both RR and Patreon.

About the support levels.

As ...

Matabar. Chapter 65 - Duel

After setting aside his staff, putting down his grimoire, removing his boots, leaving his patched crimson cloak on a makeshift hanger, and unbuttoning his coat, which was too light for Metropolis’ still biting winter, Ardi, now dressed simply in a jacket and pants, collapsed onto his bed.

Spending almost six hours endlessly practicing his spellcasting under Aversky’s guidance was perhaps only comparable to…

Ardan pondered.

To be honest, he didn’t even know what to co...

Matabar. Chapter 64 - Autopsy

Ardan sat there, twirling a pencil between his fingers — an annoying habit he’d picked up from Kelly, who often spent his evenings in the kitchen, working on documents and reports — and stared at the half-finished design of a seal. His mind was elsewhere entirely.

A Tazidahian chimera, a weird, shadowy Order, demonologists… His head was spinning. The tangled threads he’d been trying to unravel over the past few months now seemed more like a twisted web with a spider — or per...

Matabar. Chapter 63 - Beast and a Pawn

Ardan stepped over the makeshift threshold and found himself in a cramped, narrow, and rather short tunnel. Hewn skillfully through the foundation and hard ground, it ended in a spiral staircase that descended straight down to a makeshift hatch welded onto the pipe of an enormous storm drain.

During the rainy season, such drains would fill nearly to the brim, and in fairer weather, they’d end up being mostly dry.

Treading carefully on the corroded, sometimes cracked steps, Ardan...

Matabar. Chapter 62 - Again, Baliero

They drove toward Baliero in complete silence. With each new, desolate turn; with each new traffic officer trembling from the cold they left behind; driving past quiet streets hiding from the barely-perceptible tread of the moonless darkness; along sidewalks where people hurried to return to the deceptively safe eaves of their own homes, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm — they drew closer to their destination.

And the city around them… Like a lurking cat, it waited. It didn�...

Matabar. Chapter 61 - Grudge

Ardi’s instincts, drilled into him by Guta, reacted faster than he could even comprehend. Ignoring the blinding pain, he let go of his staff, hunched over to avoid the large, hairy fist swinging past above his head, then dove at his opponent’s legs.

Slamming his shoulder into the man’s stomach and pressing his neck against his torso, Ardan grasped the back of his foe’s knees and yanked them toward himself while simultaneously shoving his own body forward.

Feeling his prey ...

Matabar. Chapter 60 - Dark Names

Ardi breathed in the fragrance of grass just barely waking from its slumber. The blades of grass swayed, yawning toward the slow-moving, fluffy clouds that meandered lazily across the swiftly-brightening, blue expanse of a sky that suddenly seemed so much higher than before. The little hunter raised a hand over his head, shading his face from the piercing rays of the Eye of the Spirit of the Day.

A hand...

The little hunter still wasn’t accustomed to this strange, faintly famili...

Matabar. Chapter 59 - Just keep breathing

Ardan sat in silence, staring at the fogged-up window of the car. Beyond the gray glass, massive red trucks with eight wheels had already halted in the street, and men in blue jackets were unrolling hoses and connecting them to the pumps that drew water from the tanks of the trucks. The firefighters were shouting at the onlookers, urging them to clear the sidewalks and road, but the crowd was reluctant to move, entranced by the blaze that roared defiantly.

The sharp whistles of the guar...

Matabar. Chapter 58 - Neighbours and Blood

Ardan retrieved his clothes from the temporary wardrobe, where the polite staff, with barely-noticeable weariness etched onto their faces, were consistently greeting and bidding farewell to visitors with routine and slightly dim smiles.

After throwing on his coat, putting on his hat, and wrapping a scarf around his neck, Ardan slipped out the doors and into Star Square. As usual, it was practically deserted. Only occasionally, accompanied by the discordant screech of tram wheels grindin...

Matabar. Chapter 57 - Barking Dog

With his sleeves rolled up, wearing a slightly-worn shirt and a loosely-knotted tie, Ardan sat on the cold floor of Aversky’s testing ground, glowering at the absurd dummy. The life-sized mannequin dressed in a jester’s outfit mockingly smirked at him with its crudely-painted crimson smile and sneering blue eyes that decorated the wooden sphere that served as its head.

The Grand Magister himself, who was clad in his characteristic ink-stained, long-unwashed clothes, stood nearby. Wh...

Matabar. Chapter 56 - Warehouse

Soon, the low-rise buildings were left behind. The modest brick structures that had lined the streets gave way to towering, two-meter-high fences. Crowned with spirals of barbed wire, these fences, like the buildings themselves, were an unwelcoming shade of red brick. The few streetlights that could be seen cast a feeble glow, and were powered not by Ley energy, but by dim, flickering oil flames.

The road was buried under mounds of snow, leaving a deep, slushy track carved out by trucks...

Matabar. Chapter 55 - Crimson Lady

Ardan just stood there silently for a few seconds, trying to process what he had just heard. Boris? Kidnapped? Who? Where? How?

Questions swarmed his mind like a hive’s worth of disturbed bees, battering against the walls of his skull. He nearly let them escape, but right now, a girl who seemed to have shrunk and curled into herself, her face streaked with tears, was standing before him. A girl he could perhaps call, if not a close friend, then at least someone familiar enough for her...

Teaser

Tonight 

Matabar. Chapter 54 - Choice and Consequences

The days stretched into a series of unhurried copies of each other. In the morning, Ardan would wake up, wash himself, then exercise by lifting a block of ice made from snow taken off the roof instead of a stone. Afterward, he would dress, exchange greetings with Tess, who was usually hurrying off to work (after the Festival of Light, she had returned home alone, and, what’s more, at only ten in the evening. For some reason, this made Ardi feel happy), and trade a few words with Ar...

Matabar. Chapter 53 - New job or...?

In the first days after the holidays, the Metropolis looked... just like it usually did. Except for one thing: cars were still scarce. Lone trams, creaking slightly along the icy rails, moved in a leisurely manner through the snow-covered streets. Only a few sleek, low-slung new cars kept them company.

Pedestrians, bundled up in their fur coats and winter overcoats, hurried about their business as usual.

The sun was shining. Or trying to shine, anyway... It would sometimes emerge ...

Matabar. Chapter 52 - Staff of Demons

“Bandits?” Ardan repeated, disbelief flashing across his face.

For a moment, he thought it might have been a lingering dream and he’d misheard, but the conductor’s jerky nod dispelled any such delusions. Or had it? What would bandits be doing out here in the steppes, and during the New Month no less? Here, with temperatures dropping below ten degrees, the ground had frozen several centimeters deep, turning as hard as stone. The winds blew so fiercely that even seasoned marshals ...

Matabar. Chapter 51 - Old or new journey?

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

“Yes, tonight.”

Ardi lay beside his brother in the snow, watching the sky. The snowy clouds clashed like rival armies, merging into vast sheets and then splitting apart like sullen, puffed-up kittens.

“Because you have to?” Erti asked.

Ardan’s younger brother, his cheeks flushed, was breathing heavily and coughing every now and then. Ardi, on the other hand, was breathing deeply, savoring the winter air and the closeness ...