Saithorthepyro

Chapter 19 - Nightmares I

When I decided to visit Glee Street, it wasn’t to the casino I went to.

It tempted me, her pride and joy, an old disused warehouse transformed into a thriving operation. Brightly colored banners and colorful lights illuminated stone walls that resembled some of the older buildings in the city. New construction done when there'd been a Renaissance in initiating old Anglean architecture.

Disruption there would draw attention the quickest, but two problems. First, if she’d alread...

Chapter 18 - Lead V

The temple of Zavan had seen better days.

Not in terms of the structure itself. Dwarf-built and carved stone formed a massive structure, easily stretching the height of town cavern we were in, seventy feet of mosaics depicting scenes from I assume the dwarven scripture, including several likenesses of what must by Zavan, pick in hand, digging through the earth. 

Hardly something I’d call aspirational or inspiring, but when you spend most of your life underground? Perhaps a ...

Chapter 17 - Lead IV

To Samuel’s displeasure, his brother did not want to leave the religious half of our contingent in the dark, resulting in two things. First, the second carriage following shortly behind us, and second the tense atmosphere in the air between the two brothers inside ours.

Despite picking up Samuel, the cramped seating from before had opened up. Melissa had left at my urging, probably on her way back to the Black Flame where maybe information on what was occurring would forestall any pun...

Chapter 16 - Lead III

Starken’s corpse struggled to its feet, the devil wearing it maneuvering bloated flesh with disgusting proficiency. Legs wobbled as it took a step closer, mutated bone and muscle not able to stand if diabolic will didn’t drive it. The strange liquid poured from every pore now, and while her body had given off not a peep of diabolism when prodded with my focus, now the energy being pumped into the slime was so thick I could feel it through the air.

“Ignore the corpse,” I warned, ...

Chapter 15 - Lead II

I stared at the temple, a pensive frown growing on my face as I looked it over.

I’d never seen a temple to Savareth before, as important as the ocean was to Anglea’s trade. I couldn’t be sure how heavily the leaking Diabolism from the murder had altered this place, but I couldn’t imagine it normally looked like this.

A massive grey and red clam sat at the end of the docks, its open shell clamping down on the sides of what was probably a building. A door and windows, embedd...

Chapter 15 Delay

Folks, I was working on chapter 15 rn and unfortunately my power went out. I will try to get it out tomorrow morning but it is the first day at my new job, so there might be a delay in getting it on here. I’m sorry.

Chapter 14 - Lead I

Melissa looked up in bewilderment as I opened the door to the practice chamber again. She glanced between me and the chunk of stone she’d pried loose from the floor, currently frozen mid-scrape against one of the irons I’d left her in.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I expected you to do that anyway. The door would have been something trickier for you to handle. Come on, we’re going on a trip.”

“I..what,” she said flatly, dropping the stone, expression tightening. “Y...

Chapter 13 - Whisper VIII

Breathe in. Breathe out.

This…this wasn’t relevant. Outside of a reason for her not to hear the whisper. Something to be ignored. For now at least. Later, there would be time to think about it.

“You could be lying,” I noted. “About not hearing the whisper. Or even just being another spawn of that thing. There are other reasons you might not have heard it.”

“That thing is our parent,” Melissa said reproachfully. “They gave us life, and they-“

“Aban...

Chapter 12 - Whisper VII

Holmsteader didn’t look too out of the ordinary if you ignored the scar.

She looked younger than I expected, not much older than me, colored pale green, with a long scar running next to her eye down to her jaw, and skin turned white along its surface. As pale as her skin was, a scar shouldn’t leech all the color out. 

Holmsteader wore a fetching dress of teal ending just above her ankles that I looked at through the peephole with jealously. It even had ruffles. When you h...

Chapter 11 - Whisper VI

Humming a little tune, I went down into the darkness of my cellar.

An expansive one had come with the property, and I’d expanded it since then, adding the proper airflow for a lab and dividing it into three parts. Lab, storage, and diabolist practicing chamber. I’d put Gregory and Melissa in the latter.

Bound to cause some worry and confusion when they wake up? Maybe, but the room was designed to contain diabolism, which would help with the one of them I expected to make the m...

Chapter 10 - Whisper V

I numbly watched a pair of corpses being eaten.

The devil was chewing its way through the Watchman’s guts, not caring for their contents as its teeth sliced through intestines. The two other heads continued to shriek in Infernalspeak, blabbering nonsense that felt like a knife in each ear.

It wasn’t even language, just the devil Bersand acting on what it knew. This one was more animal than individual, capable of speech only to trick people into getting close. If it was capable...

Chapter 9 - Whisper IV

Donald Tyler toppled backwards, black fire already fading from his hands as he landed on the wood paneling of his floor with a resounding thud. He lay there, unmoving, expression shocked, the only thing out of place the single hole in his head. The echo of his landing reverberated, and I could hear the fireworks outside.

Those little balls of silence didn’t last that long.

In response, Gregory’s hands begin to glow as his eyes flicked quickly between the now-dead Tyler and me....

Chapter 8 - Whisper III

The house didn’t look like it belonged to a diabolist.

Usually, I’d have some snide thought about how little reality resembled someone’s book with cackling villains. However, between sympathetic magic properties and the corruptive influence of Diabolism, long-practicing Diabolist residents would pick up some traits of the Hells’ magic. 

Also, I couldn’t really judge, I liked reading those books too.

The house of Holmsteader’s liaison with the destitute was a...

Chapter 7 - Whisper II

It was in fact two in the morning when I’d broken free of the straitjacket Alice had left me bound in. 

Another half hour to get ready, collecting various tricks of the trade from my stocks. No Diabolism tonight if I could help it. With a Diabolic murderer on the loose, spreading that magic around would only draw the wrong kind of attention. I already tap-danced with a noose around my neck, no need to do it in the rain as well. 

Holmsteader’s turf was close, a stretc...

Chapter 6 - Whisper I

I didn’t move, despite every instinct telling me to.

The cold metal pressed against the bottom of my chin precluded any attempts to run. The slightest wrong twitch could have the wielder pull the triggers. Magic or not, there was little surviving a full load of buckshot turning my brain into scraps of flesh.

And in the hands of someone I knew to be twitchy enough to be quick on the trigger and interpret any movement as a reason to pull the trigger.

Alice Skall hadn’t cha...

Chapter VI delayed briefly

Hey folks, I'm sorry but I will not have Chapter VI up till probably several hours after the usual upload date at a minimum. RL circumstances that arose very recently constrained my time and left me much less to finish it, and I'd like to get Chapter VI up to the standards of the other chapters I've put out for book 2. This should not be a major delay and shouldn't affect the posting schedule beyond this chapter. Sorry.

Chapter 5 - Profane V

The tunnel was a smooth polished stone carved out of the foundations below. It made sense, not a single crack for anything to wriggle in or out of like you might encounter with bricks. Even the metal door had been perfectly fitted, not a millimeter of space for anything to get past it.

It only added to the eeriness as we descended.

It was a narrow staircase, and there was not enough space for two people to be abreast. No lights for that reason, hanging or suspending any would mean...

Chapter 4 - Profane IV

Father Reginald’s young adept was a half-elven lass a few years younger than me, brown hair cut to a precise bob.

From the other side of the room, watching, she’d been shivering since we’d entered, her fingers wrapped around a small metal lute while her eyes danced all over the room, frantically scanning for any threat. When they passed over me there was a small involuntary flinch every time.

As much as it pained me to admit, I couldn’t blame her for that. Not with what hu...

Chapter 3 - Profane III

The first thing to focus on when the group of priests entered was anything but one specific priest. Anything at all, such as how strange it was for all of them to be forming an united front in forcing their way in here.

Each of the priests, fourteen in total, represented a different deity which was shocking. Most popular deities in the Anglean empire were of the same pantheon of course. The proper one, not those improper ones like the Keltish gods, the elven deities, or worse yet the ar...

Chapter 2 - Profane II

The carriage ride was longer than I expected. I almost didn’t notice because of the horrendous monstrosity Tagashin insisted on wearing.

“I am not getting spotted alongside you with that on your head,” I said, pointing at the pink top hat perched atop her. “Or any of the rest of it, to be completely honest. Some poor carriage driver is going to glance in here as they pass by and crash after seeing what you’re wearing.”

She’d changed into her Rebecca Barnes disguise b...

Chapter 1 Profane I

Four weeks after I let Lady Karsin walk out a probable door, I was considering what would have happened if I’d followed her.

Not that I wanted to die, but as my few current customers were picking their way around my shop, looking at ingredients or the potions on display in locked cabinets, I needed something to occupy my mind.

Life as a shopkeeper wasn’t all bad. A steady flow of income. Plenty of interaction with people! Those who showed up. 

And weren’t here to ...

Skall Part 2

“Troll!” someone screamed from down below, followed by a cacophony as Alice ran towards the stairs, hand going inside her coat for a club. The floor underneath her shuddered as something ripped through the wall below, roaring. 

The window next to the stairs shattered, glass spraying inside as a Watchman leaped inside, revolver in their hands. She veered away, making for a door only for two more windows to shatter, another two Watch bursting inside.

They moved to block off...

Skall Part 1

Five Years Ago

Alice Skall felt the crunch of sand under her boots as she kept her back firmly against the wall. The rough wood wasn’t comfortable, but like hells was she turning her back to anyone. Not on the surface, especially not in Understreet, and definitely not in the headquarters of the Black Flame.

They’d brought her here, told to wait with the others after a long trek through the tunnels down here. 

Alice didn’t have a choice in this. She’d bu...

Book 2 on track

Hey folks, just a little update. Book 2 will start tomorrow, although I’m currently dealing with a bunch of interludes I wrote that I’m figuring out if they’ll be regular chapters and slotted into the normal schedule or if I’ll make them bonus chapters instead. Either way, we are on track for book 2.

Book 2 Update

So, I apparently forgot to mention this when I posted the epilogue to Book 1. Currently we are on track to start releasing Book 2 two weeks from when I posted the Epilogue, so in eight days. If this changes I’ll let you know but for right now I’m confident in having the first chapter up by then.

Book 1-Epilogue

After leaving Lady Karsin to her probable demise, I walked back to the tea party, already sure that Lord Montague would leave without a hair on his head harmed.

Oh, his custodianship of the Imperial Archive would be stripped, and he’d face much higher scrutiny from those who knew. But if Voltar thought he could prove Lord Montague’s alibi was false? He’d have kept Lady Karsin around to break down his Lordship’s allegations of being coerced. But he hadn’t.

I sat back down...

Chapter 103 - Endgame VI

Lady Karsin took another sip of tea, visibly unconcerned even as man-handled Lord Montague back into his chair. He loudly protested, but that halted as soon as my hand squeezed tighter around his throat. 

“Miss Harrow, if you wouldn’t mind checking him for any more weapons?” Voltar said.

“Teach your grandmother to suck eggs,” I said back, already riffling through his pockets. I turned nothing else up except a small knife, the blade smaller than my pinky but coated w...

Chapter 102 - Endgame V

I woke up to a murky, drizzling day.

A thick blanket of grey clouds coated the sky, occasionally sending scattered pockets of rain down on us. There was a chill in the air that threatened to reach into the house, which made it perfect for a hot cup of tea.

Some swore by sunny days and pleasant weather. I preferred grey days when a hot cup was that one source of heat that felt like it reignited your blood. Back when my walls had been wood a few sturdy blows away from collapsing. Wh...

Chapter 101 - Endgame IV

There was less subtlety about the second attempt. If they hadn’t figured out the drakes had been involved in the kidnapping of Edward Montague, they were dumber than I thought.

It was still just Valicent and his harp-playing friend, though, who dove out of the sky, heading right for the tower Lady Karsin called home. No need to let them know there was a third Drake involved. Yet.

Valicent collided first, claws sliding off the stone of the tower to his obvious frustration. Roarin...

Chapter 100 -Endgame III

It was a quiet night in Voltar’s house as I kept my eyes shut and pretended to sleep, waiting for intruders to come bursting in to kill us all in our sleep.

I’d prefer to be waiting on my feet, however circumstances dictated this instead. Shape-changers could shrink both their core and their mass, so they could scout to their heart’s content. If they wanted them to attack the house, they’d have to confirm we were asleep first.

Well, except poor Doctor Dawes stuck reading a...