Wandering Agent

Question for patrons

Sooo, RR has decided to throw down a gauntlet with their writeathon.  If I pick it up it would mean one of two things.  I could pick back up on one of my older stories, it I could write something else in Alana's universe, if not time period.  Either of those would mean Melody slowing to one update a week.  What are your opinions?

Chapter 108 Catching Up

I was quickly moved to the headquarters for dad's army.  It was a large governmental building they'd taken over some time ago.  They'd chosen this one because of the nearby prison (For captured soldiers/mages/ect), the thick walls, and the ready made offices.  I of course didn't get to see much of it, due to the fact that I was rushed in, taken to an office, sat down, and given a list of places and names to memorize by Mystien.

His safehouse and contact list wa...

Chapter 107 Reunion

Verren

We had finally finished.  It had been several days to take the city once we got in, ending in the assault on the palace.  That part, at least for me and mine, was almost routine.  The wards were disabled by some internal agent and from there the assault was just the slog of cutting through the knights.  It was vicious, it was hard, and bloody, but it was also something we'd done a hundred times.  This lot had been better trained, but there'd been only so ...

Chapter 106 Palace Showdown

Lief

I looked out over the town. The castle's wards were still holding for now, but even I realized that that wouldn't go for too much longer. It had been just over a week since the city wards had failed and the fighting had started in earnest, and we were losing, badly.

Our enemies had known the city well, and had plenty of contacts within. They knew which noble houses were likely to surrender in hopes of getting a better deal with them, and which they'd have to destro...

Chapter 105 The Vine

Jorus passed the note to the other priests and quickly led me off.

"So, what do you know about the current situation?"  he asked.

"Lots of refugees, ongoing fighting outside the district, anything else specific?"

"That about covers it.  We of The Vine have been given the task of trying to keep the people fed for now while this all settles down.  Something which has been a bit of a task, that little letter from Rosk explained th...

Chapter 104 Quarrels and Helping Out

As we approached the temple district, which now had a gate made of interwoven vines, Kala turned to me. "Alana, a bit of privacy please."

That was a bit concerning, but easy enough. I furrowed my brow as I sang the spell into place, making a bubble around us.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to talk. Alana, there are rules for priests, and rules for those who seek shelter with us. If you enter the temple district I need you to promise to follow them....

Chapter 103 To the Temple District

While the outside of The Sky looked calm and normal, the inside was anything but.  The windows had been blacked with curtains and people huddled in, mostly women and children.  Those men who had avoided the draft were up to a few moments ago waging war on those who hadn't.  I recognized a few, nodding here and there to them as they tried to find somewhere to sit with friends or family, old regulars who'd been here even when I was young.

Jackson was running thin...

Chapter 102 Proclamation

I looked on as the two forces slowly moved towards each other.  For some reason I was expecting a mad rush, but there was none.  Nobody seemed to be running forward screaming madly and swinging.  Probably because everyone who'd done that was already dead.

Both sides here had at least some level of military training, that much was clear.  I supposed that most of the rebels, because I had to believe these were such, were in the previous war.  The kingdo...

Chapter 101 Returning to the Lower City

The walk down the tunnel was good, if a bit boring.  It was wide, quiet, and an easy trek, probably because this was where all the panicked students would be going if things went tits up at the school.  I also had no need to use any mana for it, so got time to charge up what I'd lost.  I briefly considered tossing some things up around us, but it seemed rather unlikely that we'd run into anyone else for the duration, so I held off.

Kala and I silently agreed that talking ...

Chapter 100 Making Tracks

I wanted to bolt from here as soon as was possible.  Unfortunately I had a few problems.  Firstly I was running on fumes of mana, and if I got caught out again in any kind of fight I was done.  Second, Kala was still recovering.  The priestess had gotten the drug out of her, but even without it she was nowhere near fighting shape yet.  There were also the twin issues of needing to let Dras know I was bolting and all the bloody people now hanging around at the emergenc...

Chapter 99 The Storm

I'm not sure if anything good has ever happened after the words "We have our first targets." but for us this was decidedly a bad beginning.  Here in the atrium we were close, painfully so, to one of the emergency exits.  It being nearly below our feet and the entrance easily within view, if closed.

This situation was not viable though.  There was an approximately zero chance of us getting out of this without a fight, and the chances of us winning said fight were not terri...

Chapter 98 The Calm

I looked down from the window of my dorm.  The city was currently in two states.  While the streets were nearly dead to all traffic the walls looked like someone had kicked an ant nest.  Men were running here and there, ostensibly setting up barricades and defenses, or delivering supplies to caches along its length.  With a sigh I took another drink of my tea.

As far as things in the academy went, there had been some changes.  Classes were cut so that...

Chapter 97 Incoming

School continued on. We got a new batch of students, and I was really starting to get a good feel for guessing who was a noble and who wasn't. There was just no denying that during the worst of the previous war food had just been poor for those not in the nobility, and they were therefore short. I thought that the fresh first years displayed this worse than our year, but that might have just been prejudice.

We had had a couple of days off while they were prepping the dorms an...

Chapter 96 Lengthening Shadows

Mystien

I sat in my command tent, going over today's reports.  We were well on in our war, and things were going mostly to plan.  I had command of our best war wizards, unlike the standard battlemage we specialized in large scale artillery type spells, mostly water.  To say that my unit alone was a force to be reckoned with was no exaggeration.

Things had been going well, as we'd expected.  The Kingdom of Bergond was nowhere near our strength.  ...

Chapter 95 Emergency Equipment and Pinea's Scandalous Outfit

I managed to get Dras to join us at The Sky, alone, while our soon to be classmates were proving their worth.  He complained and whined, and asked what in the world I wanted that was so important, but in the end he did trust me enough to just bloody join us.  That was a relief, since I really did want him along.

"Mind if we all head to a back room?" I asked Lucien as we came in.

The old bard quirked an eyebrow at me, but he knew me as well, and knew...

Chapter 94 Teacher Conferences and Future Plans

It was late summer and my first year was slowly coming to it's end. So I had to meet with Professor Magnolia. I hadn't had much to do with him in the past bit other than our General Bard class, something which was, to be quite honest, really boring. He would be the first of my professors who'd be having a talk with me, being that he was in charge of the bards.

"Well Alana, what are your thoughts so far?" He said as he looked up from a sheaf of notes, ostensibly on me.

<...

Chapter 93 Those who show up

It was late in the evening as I made my way back to the lab.  It had taken far longer than thought to work things out but I was now fairly sure that I'd put together the code that I would need for my special project, far, far too long I thought as I looked at the autumn sky.

This one I'd mulled over for some time, happy that it was at least simple.  Well, the function was simple, hiding the code wasn't, nor was the fact that I'd had to check for bugs myself.  N...

Chapter 92 Meetings

On our way out of the exhibition we met Glen. The short knight apprentice was attending as well it seemed and greeted us with a smile. It of course took me a moment to recognize him in what might be considered normal clothes, as opposed to the armor I'd seen him in last time.

"Oi there, long time no see," he said as he came over.

"Certainly has been. How have things been on your end?"

"Busy, what with the war and all training has gone into ov...

Chapter 91 Clarissa

I smiled as Kala held my head, soft light flowing over it from her hands. It felt warm and close and made me want to find somewhere to lay down and sink into. These little sessions were needed, the light healing she was doing was to repair the damage from all the loud noises during my 'therapy'. Once we'd finished both of us sighed and lay down on her bed for a few moments to breathe.

"You ready for tonight?" I asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Of course....

Small change

Previously people were not getting charged when they subbed, only at the 1st of the month, this has now been changed.  It shouldn't effect anyone currently subscribed, if it does, please let me know.

New chapter should drop tomorrow.  See you all there!

Chapter 90 Endel's idea of therapy

I was lead down to the training grounds, where I would surely die. Professor Endel led the way, a long metal rod hanging in the air behind him, some kind of spell to make it easier to transport. We got a few looks, as it wasn't often someone wore war gear just walking around and I probably looked like death.

Once we got there my teacher had the rod slam into the ground opposite us. It stood like a spear pointing upwards towards the sky. He turned to me with a bright smile. 2022-01-28 05:18:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 89 Thunder

Several weeks had passed since our incident at the copse, and slowly things began to return to normal. The dead students were mourned, the survivors finally stopped getting asked to recount what had happened, and life went on. I sat in the back of Rooke's class, as normal, enjoying a lecture that was some weeks behind where I was in my own work on the 'guide' when it began.

A peal of thunder, far off sounded, and from my seat I could see the rain start to fall upon the classr...

Chapter 88 Various arrangements

Pinea was now the obvious choice for helping me find a new maid. We got along, and forming a connection with her would be best. Her family was a big player and that would be good. I also happened to personally kind of like her, she was wild, and a bit pervy sometimes.

Setting up a meeting with her was my first goal the next morning. For that night though, I was glad to find that Emma had smartly gotten herself from my rooms quickly. It took me awhile to make sure everything I owned was ...

Chapter 87 Confrontation

I needed a few moments to think, to organize my attack. In that vein I decided to go for the lowest of hanging fruits.

"The sphere is research that I'm not yet bringing forward. In fact, most of what you're on about is."

Rooke looked at my lamp. "I am inclined to believe that this is research, but my main concern here is if it's dangerous."

"I doubt that."

"I do not, because everyone who so far has looked at it gets the feeling that it is... off. What even is this thin...

Chapter 86 Sky-metal

I watched as my several gram bomb exploded in Professor Hern's mind, figuratively. He was tapping his reference book repeatedly as he waited for my response.

"Okay, what is sky-metal? Why is it important?"

"Excellent question! Do you know why we use leather for making most warmage armors?"

"Well... it's readily available, and you can enchant it."

"No, well, sort-of. It is enchantable and replaceable, but the main reason is it has good strength versus weight ratio. If a...

Chapter 85 Returning and breaking things down

I had an idea. Well, somewhat of a theory I needed to test, but this would work. It would require a little caution too. I was unsure of exactly what I was and would be working with so I would need to do the proper setup, and that in and of itself might take a hot minute.

Metals were, for the most part, impossible to summon, at least in metallic form. So what if I could kind of bypass it, not summon the metal but rather draw it out? If I could, and this alum actually contained aluminum, ...

Short delay

I am currently working on the next chapter, but it's taking me a bit longer than usual, it should be up in the next day or two.

Chapter 84 Hospital of The Shield

When I awoke I found a familiar figure sitting in the chair beside my bed.

"Eleanor?"

"Hello dear, I thought you'd like to see a friendly face when you woke."

I wouldn't exactly call our relationship friendly, but we did have some form of understanding.  We'd also spent a good amount of time together, so of those here she might well know me best.  I looked her over, then gazed around me.  The hospital was still a it busy, but the worst of it had passed.  ...

Side story

Quite a time ago I wrote a side story that I put up a poll for.  At that time people wanted more chapters instead of another one, but I made it available for anyone who hit me on Discord.  I've opted to now put it on RR under a spoiler collapseable, since there isn't one here.

Chapter 83 Pain and insanity

I couldn't see the state that I was in, and Glen was covered by his armor, but the other three were badly burned.  Most of the hits had landed on their backs and limbs, charring skin and muscle and doing who knows what to the internal organs.

Etta was my first target and I needed to work fast.  Glen was right and we needed some kind of cover, add to that that there was no way I could get everyone up quickly on my own and I needed to hurry in a bad way.  As an a...