The public comment segment of the meeting passed by relatively quickly, at least compared with what Mina had expected. James’s committee heads all introduced themselves and what they were responsible for, and then the body took questions and comments—almost entirely questions.
“Um, sir, what can you tell us about the strange dreams so many of us have been having?” the first speaker asked, staring straight at James.
Hearing that out loud feels surreal. I never expected ...
2024-05-14 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Adon turned his head and saw dozens of Red Slayer Spider Wasps falling from the sky all around him.
The ones closest to him seemed to be the worst affected. Those that had gripped his limbs released their holds, and their bodies began to tumble limply through the air, lifeless. Adon did not know precisely how he knew those wasps were dead, but he knew.
Perhaps he had simply seen enough death, done so much killing, that he knew it at a first glance.
He managed to turn his hea...
2024-05-14 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Rosslyn and Carolien entered the embassy and immediately made a beeline for Lord Baranack’s receiving chamber, the largest room in the embassy.
They needed to get ahold of him and either restrain or kill the treacherous ambassador before they proceeded with their escape plan.
But the receiving chamber was empty.
The two proceeded together to each room in the building that Lord Baranack was likely to frequent, before they finally gave up. For better or worse, he was not in ...
2024-05-13 15:16:22 +0000 UTC
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Rotter and Luntz each took a knob in hand, and they pulled the heavy doors of the Community Center open.
Apparently quite a few people had been waiting for the meeting to be opened to the public. Members of the community began to stream in, moving in a slow, orderly fashion and filing carefully into the gallery seats.
Mina was impressed by how patiently they had waited. There were a surprising number of them, though Mina realized there were a few faces she hadn’t seen around yet...
2024-05-12 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Mina waited for James to go into his plan, curious to know what he was thinking.
He had been so reticent about his encounter with the dream-attacking creature last night that she had no sense of what his ideas for dealing with the enemy might be. Clearly, he thought the monster was formidable, or rather than calling a meeting, he would have simply gathered a crew of fighters and invaded her territory in return.
Complete silence fell over the room as James cleared his throat.
2024-05-11 06:05:25 +0000 UTC
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“Lord Baranack is a traitor,” Rosslyn finished.
She continued to speak in a low whisper. She hoped the sound of the river would drown her words out for anyone who might happen to pass by, though the street was nearly empty as she spoke.
Carolien’s eyes were teary. “I trusted him so completely,” she said.
“I know, but you have to believe me—”
“Of course I believe you!” Carolien said, almost indignant. “I know you would not deceive me about somethin...
2024-05-10 13:05:24 +0000 UTC
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Adon remained silent for a few seconds while he processed everything the Queen had said and tried to come up with the best strategy possible to talk his way out of this situation.
Do I actually try to give her advice on how she could make friends with the Princess? No, that’s probably out. I don’t even know why Rosslyn took an interest in me, other than the fact that she likes butterflies and likes the garden. Kind of random, honestly. And what would I even tell Regina based on ...
2024-05-08 20:41:43 +0000 UTC
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“Every few nights, the Count emerges from the catacombs beneath the castle and wanders the countryside. He chooses a victim and drinks from their throat.” Cassia—who Count Aleph thought of as the tour guide to his castle—paused dramatically, and one of the party of intruders asked a question.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but if the Vampire Count comes out at night and drinks from people, uh, why don’t you just leave?”
“Cristian!” One of the other intruders elbowed the fi...
2024-05-08 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Adon felt every nerve in his body stand on end as the unfamiliar voice rang through his mind.
Who are you? he thought.
There was silence for a moment. Then the strangely melodic female voice continued, as though Adon had said nothing.
Adon, do you know how long I’ve waited for this meeting?
Maybe a week, Adon thought. Less than two weeks for sure! Are you going to answer my question?
Silence reigned once more. It took Ad...
2024-05-08 15:27:26 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: This follows from the rewritten chapter 65, "The Red Slayers Part 1"
Adon danced backward and tried to pull out of reach of the wasps as they hurled themselves at him.
He didn’t get far. His back slammed into the back end of the tunnel, and he found himself pressed on all sides by wasps trying to stab him with their stingers.
Adon knew he was nowhere near having fully charged his Mana ball, and he suspected if he tried to unleash the attack ...
2024-05-08 02:31:29 +0000 UTC
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Adon was still staring at the sunlit sky, almost paralyzed as he waited for the creature to poke its head back in, when he heard movement from his other side.
He turned his head, and he saw that the two adult voles had risen from where they stood guarding their children. They approached Adon now, hissing and moving with menacing postures.
Adon didn’t need Telepathy to know what they were thinking: Get out of here, asshole! Go deal with your problems alone. Don’t drag us in...
2024-05-08 02:30:13 +0000 UTC
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Mina ran a gentle hand over his hair as she waited for him to tell her more.
“I need more information,” he said, his body shaking slightly as he spoke. “I don’t know how much I can say reliably. I—”
“That’s all right,” she said soothingly. “You don’t have to talk about it now if you’re not ready.”
What could do this to him? Mina wondered. It was scary to see James rattled. She could count the number of times he had seemed out of contro...
2024-05-07 04:09:02 +0000 UTC
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Lord Baranack shook his head.
“Please, Your—I mean, my lady, please try to enjoy the city a bit. I could show you another side of it. Some places you may not have seen with your, ah, colleague.”
The Queen frowned. “I appreciate your effort, but I cannot imagine a side of the capital that could erase the first impression so thoroughly as to render the city enjoyable,” she said.
“I think—” Baranack began.
A man quietly cleared his throat from the corner o...
2024-05-05 20:12:25 +0000 UTC
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Soon James’s desperate prayer gave way to an ugly reality.
A mass of people entered the city from several directions, all brandishing weapons and moving with a sense of urgency. Heading toward Mina and the little girl she had with her.
The interlopers’ faces were covered in a gray haze, but James could see that there were people of all human racial backgrounds. Men and women. And they all seemed violently angry with Mina. It seemed unlikely that she was the real object of thei...
2024-05-03 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
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On their second day, Rosslyn and Carolien attempted to get out and explore a bit once more. They at least wanted to find a souvenir for Rosslyn’s father. But their hearts were not invested in sightseeing, and they soon found themselves trudging back to the embassy.
Lord Baranack tried to cheer them up.
“Dear ladies,” he said, “I hope you are enjoying the cultural offerings…”
But there was little he could do or say to affect the spirits of the royals he was saddle...
2024-05-03 10:31:15 +0000 UTC
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James watched with grim stoicism as the severed head reattached itself to the monster’s body.
“I guess that wasn’t the right method to destroy you with,” James said evenly. He began gathering Soul Mana, but then he immediately stopped. He could feel the Mana was concentrating in his physical body, the one leaning up against the wall of the apartment, not the astral form he presented here.
So I can’t use magic here? He had shown Mina some magic in her dream ...
2024-05-02 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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James bolted upright in bed.
The sound of screaming echoed in his ears, and he knew in an instant that this wasn’t something he had simply dreamed up. He half-turned from lying on his stomach to lie on his side. He was in that half-wakeful state when one wonders if it might be possible to go back to sleep instead of continuing along the path toward full consciousness.
Then he heard a fresh noise of renewed cries in the night. There was no going back. James rose from the bed wher...
2024-05-02 04:41:33 +0000 UTC
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Adon was still staring at the sunlit sky, almost paralyzed as he waited for the creature to poke its head back in, when he heard movement from his other side.
He turned his head, and he saw that the two adult voles had risen from where they stood guarding their children. They approached Adon now, hissing and moving with menacing postures.
Adon didn’t need Telepathy to know what they were thinking: Get out of here, asshole! Go deal with your problems alone. Don’t drag us in...
2024-05-01 16:24:54 +0000 UTC
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Adon managed to recover his presence of mind even as the situation intensified.
The snake’s coils were wrapped around him so tightly now that he couldn’t even see sunlight. But as his mind raced through options, he realized the tight positioning of the coils gave him his best chance to escape. He was so thoroughly wrapped up that any attack he attempted could not fail to land.
Acting quickly, he poured Mana into his mandibles and chomped down on the nearest bit of scaly flesh....
2024-04-29 15:42:43 +0000 UTC
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After James’s arm had fully regenerated, he returned to the Fisher Kingdom.
It’s nice to be back, he thought, though this time he’d only been gone a matter of hours.
He saw his apartment and sighed. Before he continued home, he had another task to accomplish. He went around finding key members of the committees that reported to him.
He was particularly concerned with speaking to people whose committees had been lined up outside his door that morning. With secu...
2024-04-26 16:58:23 +0000 UTC
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“You’ll heal from that eventually, won’t you?” Samuel asked, breathing heavily. There was an unmistakable air of triumph about him, though he was clearly tiring while James maintained a high level of both Stamina and Mana.
If the struggle continued, it was clear James’s aura would overtake Samuel’s to dominate the space in which they fought.
“Naturally,” James said through gritted teeth. Even with high level Pain Resistance, it was hard to endure having a limb torn...
2024-04-25 20:18:34 +0000 UTC
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Carolien moved first.
She stepped to the left side, walking like a crab, trying to get the horseman at an angle. But he circled with her in response, putting his side to the carriages and keeping Carolien at his front. Whatever his attitude might have been before the spar, he at least seemed to be treating it seriously. Maybe he simply wanted to avoid being embarrassed.
Carolien stepped a little closer, and the horseman responded by lunging at her. Perhaps he was thinking he did n...
2024-04-23 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Rosslyn’s eyes took in every detail of the Deformed Forest as they entered that blighted and unnatural place.
The trees were even more grotesque than they had been from a distance. They grew in tangled and twisted structures, more so than any plant she had ever seen before. One plant growing half-sprawled over another, so that it was impossible that any of them could be getting enough sunlight.
Yet they also grew thick and strong. The thousands and thousands of branches were suc...
2024-04-22 18:41:23 +0000 UTC
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A snake is the perfect final enemy for my time as a caterpillar, Adon thought. I remember when I was still in the egg, and I wondered if I might be a worm or a snake or something. No one’s likely to miss a snake—though he supposed that wasn’t really true.
Considering that he and Goldie would certainly miss each other if something happened to either of them, but back in Adon’s last world, most people had been afraid of spiders.
Maybe the snake had loved on...
2024-04-22 16:14:24 +0000 UTC
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James and the giant alligator arrived at the edge of the woods where James had gone hunting with the others days ago. The area that remained unclaimed by any Ruler’s aura.
Once they had crossed over into that no man’s land, they and their respective entourages spent a quarter of an hour clearing a large ring for their fight. Flattening the ground with magic and pulling trees up by the roots. The humans did most of the reshaping of the earth, while the alligators used their strong bo...
2024-04-20 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Cara Dahlhaus twisted her cold, hard lips into a vicious smile as she set eyes upon the frosty track.
The bitter winds that beat down on the frozen plains left her gray-blue skin unharmed, but the increasing chill did not go unnoticed. It was one of the signs that Cara was following.
And now she had another.
She bent down to more closely examine the bits of frost sticking out of the ground. Atop the snow-covered ground, sticking up like a ring of stalagmites, a circle of ici...
2024-04-20 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
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After James was gone, Mina wiped away her tears and waited for Yulia to return.
She planned for her next steps. Soon, the baby would wake again, hungry, and she would be there to feed him. Then Yulia would be back.
After that, Mina thought she could go train. She knew where.
She simmered slightly with impatience. There would only be a small window of time when she could get away for a little while. It would only work if Yulia was there.
We really need electricity
2024-04-19 15:41:33 +0000 UTC
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Adon spent several hours after his failure with Red on another journey into the darkness of the void.
He still wanted to acquire the elusive power of illusion magic, and then to proceed to more potentially offensive forms of mystical power.
In his state of frustration, he moved far more aggressively than usual, approaching each statue in the vicinity of the incredibly frightening one. Adon examined them closely and tried to deduce the nature of each figure as best he could with hi...
2024-04-18 16:47:33 +0000 UTC
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Days passed, and the trio remained stationary in and around the web.
Adon was unwilling to leave for any reason while Goldie and her eggs remained vulnerable.
They continued to eat well, surviving easily on the crow Adon had killed.
Goldie’s body slowly recovered and filled in, moving closer and closer to its proper shape.
She never missed an opportunity to praise Adon for his amazing hunting performance. Many female spiders die caring for their eggs. Because the...
2024-04-15 16:44:42 +0000 UTC
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Rosslyn and her party set out in the new day, using a large hill as their heading.
Beyond that hill is the last settlement in our country. Beyond that, only the Deformed Forest separates us from Stalenton. The settlement was more of a fortified base than a city, and its main purpose was a visual indicator that the Kingdom of Claustria had not abandoned this land or ceded its claim to it.
Lord Baranack had agreed to stop there at mid-morning so that Rosslyn could insp...
2024-04-15 16:29:36 +0000 UTC
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