Tellak ended up being the only person to join Ana in approaching the Waystone, though with three empty slots Ana also invited Wandak and Kaira into her Party. They were the most likely to put themselves in harm’s way if things got hot.
As a group they’d decided that no more than two should go, so as not to look too threatening, and Kaira had been roundly shouted down when she eagerly volunteered. Tellak, everyone agreed, would make a much better choice. Not only did she give a far m...
2025-11-18 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Progress 3/11 - 16/11:
Draka: 12,899 words
Splinter Angel: 13,196 words
Starmind: 4,056 words
Other: 1,104 words
Currently working on:
Draka: Chapter 287
Splinter Angel: Chapter 137
Starmind: Chapter 49
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Haha! It's two weeks since the last report and I remembered this time!
I said last time that Starmind
2025-11-17 17:58:22 +0000 UTC
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When we woke down in that lightless chamber, my internal clock told me that it was night. The burning pain in my side had reduced somewhat to a miserable gnawing ache, but I desperately wanted my hoard. Grace had seemed to think that Presence would heal with time alone in this magically saturated place, but I knew in my bones that I just wouldn’t be right until I’d had a long, restorative rest in my own lair.
But I couldn’t focus on that. I had more than myself to worry about.
...
2025-11-17 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Waking up was terribly disorientating. Ana was no longer in the street where she’d gone to sleep, and she’d never noticed being moved. Messy now lay to Ana’s side with a foot of space between them, instead of Ana being cuddled up to her; to Ana’s other side was Touanne, who slept soundly.
Ana propped herself up on her elbows. Around them, in every direction, were at least two dozen people, all laying on makeshift bedding. The smell and general ambiance of the place told Ana that...
2025-11-15 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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For a moment I stood, paralyzed by grief and horror at the loss of my wing. Behind me I heard Behold Her coming closer, not using her breath, just using brute strength to tear through the forest, knocking aside any tree she couldn’t easily go around. Soon she’d be on me, and that would be that.
Conscience, I whispered into my mind. Did Avjilan get away?
He’s heading to the palace, the remains of my human side replied, her voice full of honest sympa...
2025-11-14 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! Managed to get another chapter finished just in time. It's pretty raw and has only been lightly proof-read, so I hope there aren't too many mistakes in it. Happy reading!
//AB
The following day everyone rose early, to have as much time as possible to finalize all of our preparations. Tomorrow we’d leave Sophia for the void, beginning our mission to see if there was any sign that its kidnapped crew were even possible to save. It would be scary and dangerous. We were all ...
2025-11-12 17:00:27 +0000 UTC
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“Hey, Petra,” Ana said gently, clasping the dying woman’s hand. It was cold and clammy, and sticky with blood. “Can you hear me? Varinus said you asked for me.”
Petra’s eyelids slowly fluttered open. She started turning her head, but it looked so hard for her that Ana shuffled on her knees until she was in front of the innkeeper instead. When Petra said “Ana?” her voice came out as a wet wheeze.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Saw you… fly in. Amazing.”
...
2025-11-11 20:00:08 +0000 UTC
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I tore through the sky, skimming the treetops of the northern side of the high city. Ahead and to my right was the tallest point, where lay the palace grounds. To my left, the open sea stretched to the horizon. And behind me, closing with terrifying speed, was Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End.
There was no way I could outrun her. She was far faster than I, and she’d already caught me once. But that time I hadn’t been prepared for just how fast she could fly, and I’d be...
2025-11-10 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Ana heard what the man, most likely the Earthbreaker, said. She understood him. But it was incredibly hard to care when she was close, so very close, to ending this bitch who’d promised to murder Messy horribly. The only thing that made her momentarily relax the pressure closing off the flow of blood to the Iron Warrior’s brain was that she believed him when he’d said that he’d kill the downed Bluesky members, which included Messy. Dealing with a present threat had t...
2025-11-08 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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When Conscience alerted me that Behold Her had made her move, I didn’t think. I just acted. It wasn’t for the sake of propriety that I scooped Herald up in my arms to fly. It was simple, practical necessity. I wasn’t leaving Herald for the trolls, but I also wasn’t going to waste two minutes running back to the glade where we’d landed. The trees grew dense near where the Rift had been, so I held Herald close to my chest, protecting her fragile human body with my own far tougher one ...
2025-11-07 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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I got it done in time, so here's the first chapter of book 2! Now, since I'm writing this as a book, there will be some reminders and such here and there. If you read this shortly after chapter 46 they may seem a little bit forced, but I hope not.
Enjoy!
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I usually liked Acting Captain Lucilla Tammeron. She wasn’t my captain — that was Temeri, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But Tammeron was very nice to...
2025-11-05 17:00:18 +0000 UTC
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The Iron Warrior came straight at Ana with a roar of fury, and a wave of fear broke and washed around Ana as she felt the effect of what must be a high-Level Intimidate Skill. Beyond the veil of her Enhancement, Fearless, and despite her Willpower, she felt herself wanting to back away, or to leap into the air and reassess. At the same time her Perception and Keen Hearing picked up t...
2025-11-04 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Progress 13/10 - 2/11:
Draka: 21,427 words
Splinter Angel: 16,742 words
Starmind: 7,019 words
Other: 1,824 words
Currently working on:
Draka: Chapter 282 or 283, depending on how I break this up
Splinter Angel: Chapter 133
Starmind: Chapter 47
---------------------------------------------
So, I was supposed to do one of these last week. And then I almost forgot tonight,...
2025-11-03 22:35:37 +0000 UTC
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The Shrine was almost entirely silent for a long while after we all settled inside. Once Herald got the last few sniffles, sobs, and hiccups out of her system, the loudest sounds were the nervous brays and whimpers of the mules, and the rasp of a small, improvised shovel as Sarina and Marvan cleared out the manure. The poor animals hadn’t handled Embers’ aura of terror well.
Mostly we all just needed comforting and reassurance. Herald and Maglan clung to each other, as did Kira and ...
2025-11-03 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Ten miles. Ana could do ten miles. Twenty miles at a dead run had almost killed her three weeks earlier, but ten? She could do ten and still be fighting fit. At least she hoped so, because she was committed now, her Party far behind her and following at their own best pace. She hated leaving them behind, she really did, but as much as she liked most of the people in that Party, Messy ranked far above all of them put together.
Even if they hadn’t, they’d urged Ana to go. Because it w...
2025-11-01 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Happy Halloween! No monsters in this chapter, I'm afraid, unless you count me for being so cruel to my poor characters.
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“Who are you?”
I couldn’t think of anything that Mother could have possibly said to terrify me more than those three words. And the cold, calculating way that she looked at me gave me no relief. This was no suspicion or misunderstanding; no, she knew that something was off about me, and ...
2025-10-31 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The two Earth-mages accompanying Messy, Rayni, Petra, Marra Falk, and the dozen-odd armed men and women with them Shaped, and the center of the stone barrier keeping them from entering the square withered and crumbled apart with the hiss and tinkle of sand and small stones falling to the cobbles. The scene that greeted them as they peeked around the remains of the wall was one of confusion and destruction.
The Waystone still stood, goddess be praised. The building that was the administr...
2025-10-28 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The Sun Need Not Rise In His Presence wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t wounded, or injured. Such words were nowhere near enough. They were too limited — too easy to understand. Presence was ravaged. He was a ruin of a dragon, to the point where it was a testament to his sheer fortitude — and possibly one or more Advancements — that he was even alive. How he’d managed to make his way into their lair, I’d never know.
There really wasn’t much left of him. His eyes were just ...
2025-10-27 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“They can’t leave,” Messy said. There was a vicious satisfaction in her voice that she hadn’t put there intentionally. “They put in all this effort, caused all this damage as a distraction, and now they’re stuck.”
“Yeah, they’ve figured that out,” Rayni said, hushing Messy so she could listen to what was being said in the square. “Karti’s saying, roughly, ‘When I say I can’t do it, I don’t mean I’m having trouble. It can’t be done. It’s locked down. U...
2025-10-25 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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We waited in the same spot where I’d spoken to The Sun Need Not Rise In His Presence. It was nowhere near as visible as where we’d waited for Indomitable and Sandstorm, so to make sure that we’d be seen we had done a few circles above the area the two males had claimed for themselves. Even so, we waited, and waited, and waited.
Mother had warned me that Grace might not come out to meet us and that Presence was in no state to, and I was almost at the point of suggesting we give up ...
2025-10-24 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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I haven't had much time for anything outside my main series lately, but I've had a draft of this chapter ready for a little while. I needed something to get me started today, and decided to edit it. Enjoy!
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I do not know if you’ve heard of Lady Marixa before, with her being so long dead, but in those days she was quite notorious. Being seated across a table from her for a private conversation, I could see why. My initial startlement may ha...
2025-10-23 16:00:23 +0000 UTC
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The next morning Temeri left again, this time taking Bekeri with her. Bekeri was going to look at a bunch of machines that weren’t working great. I wasn’t sure why Temeri was going, but when I asked her she said that Tammeron had offered to go through the project’s command protocols with her. Temeri must have been really excited about that, because she was much more cheerful than most mornings. She even smiled and laughed a little during breakfast!
Temeri and Bekeri were barely of...
2025-10-22 16:00:22 +0000 UTC
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Messy woke to a sound like the world ending.
Her first instinct was to grab for Ana, but Ana wasn’t there. She was alone, and she almost panicked before the adrenaline hit and reason and memory kicked in with a vengeance. Right. Of course she was alone. Ana had gone to hunt down the escapees. As for Messy herself, Touanne had sent her home that afternoon, declaring her wounds healed enough to not need supervision. The potent combination of Ana’s bonuses, Touanne’s healing and reco...
2025-10-21 16:00:22 +0000 UTC
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Note: I've made some very small edits to chapters 257 and 263 to address that fact that poor, neglected Avjilan is also a magic user, and should have been affected in some way by the magical explosion.
To summarize: Avjilan felt energized the way Kira did, but didn't exhibit the inner glow that Herald, Mak, Tam, and to a lesser degree Kira did. Nobody can say why for sure, but who knows what effect age, experience, and having your soul magically implanted in the body of your severely de...
2025-10-20 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Despite the growing darkness, and with no Ana-deprived Parties to slow them down, Ana and her ten hunters moved fast. She started them off slow to warm up, but soon set the same six-minute mile pace as when she’d taken Deni, Lesirell, Perrion, and Petra to run down the Stolen, and nobody complained. If anything, those of the Party who hadn’t yet experienced the full benefit of the Endurance bonus she gave them along with Indefatigable were...
2025-10-18 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“Wake up, little one!” Mother’s urgent command burrowed into my sleepy brain, forcing me to open one eye to look toward the door. “There is no more time for sleep! The peace of the conclave has been violated!”
“Hmm? What?” I asked, rising as gently as I could so the humans resting against me could settle rather than falling onto the floor. “What’s happened?”
“What has not? There have been two arrivals in the night, an old amber and a young brass, and that wou...
2025-10-17 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hi all! This is just a short notice that, as I've mentioned previously, I have increased the price for new members from $5 to $8. At about 16k words per week, I think it's justified. However, and this is the reason I'm making this post at all, this only applies to new members. If you're a longtime member and anything happens to your billing, please let me know.
//AB
2025-10-16 16:58:31 +0000 UTC
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I got this finished and (sloppily) proofread in time! Hooray! Unfortunately I can't make any promises about next week. I wish I could, but it depends entirely on how the writing goes overall this week.
I really don't want to miss one, though. I've got a streak going!
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At 1710 hours, almost precisely, something wonderful happened. With time to spare before dinner, I finished the Crew Nutrition Development.
New Construction op...
2025-10-15 16:00:30 +0000 UTC
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So I know there's already been two posts mentioning this today, but did you know that Shadows of Gold, Book 3 of Draka, released today? True story! Available on Audible, Kindle, and in print!
Also, a repeat of the notice from the previous chapter, just in case. While listening to Book 1 I realized that Deni's friends are not, as it turns out, supposed to be named Mi...
2025-10-14 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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It's launch day! Shadows of Gold is finally out! Now, I'm dropping this early in the day so it doesn't collide with the regular chapter of Splinter Angel, but I don't suppose anyone's surprised by me releasing a bonus chapter on launch day? It's the fourth time, after all. Practically routine by now.
Thank you all, for reading Draka for 271 chapters and over 850k wo...
2025-10-14 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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