For the next week I may not be as active as normal. A relative of mine has recently died and early next week I will begin travelling to deal with business related to that. It will be a significant trip. I'm also not in the best of headspaces at the moment, and I apologize for that.
Thank you for your time and continued support,
-WA
While most people of Earth would have worried to call their wife an 'elder' I didn't. It was one of the odd quirks of our people, that age had basically no negative associations beyond a bit of hideboundness to it. Well, that and the fact that older elves tended to be a bit less kind, but that was also powerful people, so...
Upon seeing the new, singular white hair we began to prepare for Isha's big debut. That too was a bit of a classic thing, where the new elder would present themselv...
2025-09-19 05:39:18 +0000 UTC View PostFive years had passed since the deaths of the Ancients and most of the elders, and they'd not been good.
“Another one?” I asked as Chien brought me a familiar looking page, a form we'd made after so many reports.
“Yeah, from further south this time,” he said.
“How many does that make this year?” I asked.
“Fifteen, that we know of.”
Fifteen villages, of the ones we knew about, gone. They'd lost the strongest elders, with our race already flounderin...
2025-09-16 06:56:00 +0000 UTC View PostI spent far too long sitting in that field, trying to get us home, but for the life of me I couldn't make it work. Isha was getting more and more displeased with me as we waited, quite unhappy I'd taken us away from the city without setting up something at least for our daughter first. It wasn't like I'd actually planned this trip, but she wasn't consoled by that at all.
She did try not to pester me while we were sitting there, but it was a bit of a lost cause. She was too unhappy, I wa...
2025-09-13 21:36:59 +0000 UTC View PostPeople gave me looks as I entered the military building, but I had a letter, a notice that I was to come, to meet with the Commander at a very well specified hour. It was clear that I was supposed to be here, invited, called, whatever you wanted to call it. So I was let in, brought to a waiting area while people came and went all about me.
“Ah, good to see you, please come in,” Commander Loran said as he opened his door, the smile on his face wide. “Sit, sit, would you like some t...
2025-09-09 19:59:48 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the delay on this one. I've been having a bit of horrid writers block, which I only got past when I put my thoughts on getting past it into words. I don't know if that makes any sense in the slightest, but I ended up enjoying this chapter and i hope you do too.
My wife was amazing, which I already knew, but she was apparently even more amazing that even I'd suspected. She'd put together something I'd struggled with for ages, a working, functioning, magical compu...
2025-09-07 19:01:25 +0000 UTC View PostTwo weeks of keeping my head down, of listening to people talk, of attending various exhibitions and shows and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere. This place was something better for me, a party the likes of which I'd not been to before.
It wasn't quite the same as what I was used to, much larger, much more open but it was a party and I'd trained for those. So I mingled, mostly keeping quiet and hearing what people were saying. Honestly the majority of it was pretty bland, it w...
2025-09-03 17:46:49 +0000 UTC View PostEventually my work began to abate, given off to others who could handle things for a bit and I got a chance to finally return home. That was great, since I had plenty there to do too. I'd barely seen my family after being away and I hated to have to wait for any time, but I'd also needed to set things up so they would be safe later.
“Finally done?” Isha asked as I came through the door into our rooms, Adia asleep beside her.
“No, not nearly, but I can step back for a bit. A ...
2025-09-01 14:19:08 +0000 UTC View Post“They're all dead?” I asked.
“Yes,” the little man squeaked while looking around as others backed off from him.
“All of them?”
“Yes!”
“And somewhere, in that empty sphere you call your head you thought it would be wise to irritate my wife?” I asked, letting my voice slip into a low growl.
“We needed resources, and she had them, she was the best chance to get them quickly, and...”
“And what!?” I roared.
“And I was hoping s...
2025-08-30 22:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhile I'd thought my first meeting hadn't been ideal apparently the school's people had felt very differently. My willingness to ask questions and 'be corrected' was seen positively. The fact that I'd immediately gone to go buy the book of sayings from a man they were all fangirling over when it was suggested to me had gone over even better. I didn't know they'd actually looked at that, but they had.
It was a casual level of inspection I hadn't suspected, but that I really should have. ...
2025-08-26 15:53:42 +0000 UTC View PostAs Isha went on with her story I was apoplectic. It seemed I was going to have to knock some heads. I go to try and stop monsters from ravaging basically the known world and they have the sheer gall to give her trouble? No, that was going to change.
“And what happened after the attack dear?” I asked her, my voice cool and smooth as silk. “Did they come to personally bother you?”
“No, they sent guards to 'seize resources to help with the rebuilding effort' or some nonsen...
2025-08-25 06:51:17 +0000 UTC View PostIsha
“Are they gone?” I asked the assistant as she returned.
“Yes ma'am, what did they want?”
“Materials and items, immediately and at a discount due to the crisis.”
“Why didn't they speak to your husband before he left then?” she asked, both irritated and slightly surprised.
“Because he would have told them to go away and shut up,” I informed her with a snort, he would have been far less polite than those words would imply.
“As he sho...
2025-08-23 00:10:37 +0000 UTC View PostI attended to my task, aiming for one of the closer places on the list Kitia had given me. This was a college of sorts, a technical one that focused on machines. I had some letters introducing me, and managed to arrange a tour of the public facilities without too much trouble. Elves loved to show off their stuff, but honestly, I wasn't terribly impressed.
“This is one of our newest pieces, a bit coming out of one of the labs,” the guide explained to me.
What he was showing me ...
2025-08-20 07:29:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe ground was much as I had expected as I sped along over it. I knew that my rush was impotent, that no matter what had happened it had to have happened weeks ago, but that didn't change it for me. No, I pushed just as fast as I could to the wall, and what I saw did not please me in the slightest.
It looked like the monster had rushed it, sensing the fleeing elves or being fought near it. It should never, ever have gotten this close, and once I checked on everyone we needed to look int...
2025-08-16 03:23:28 +0000 UTC View PostWe skipped Rolan's people intentionally, skirting their boarders as we made our way home. Frankly with the number of elders lost and the fact that Chien and I were both pretty skilled keeping away from them wasn't that hard at all. It wasn't anything much, just not lighting fires, not going into areas where people clearly were, and generally keeping to ourselves. Someone would have to tell them about the death of their leader eventually, but it wasn't going to be me.
As we hugged the mo...
2025-08-13 13:35:19 +0000 UTC View PostIt was almost immediately that the woman sat beside me and reached towards a small ball to one side of the table, between the salt and pepper shakers. I'd personally thought it was just a decoration, but was quickly proven wrong as there was a fuzzy feeling for a moment and a light curtain covered the booth.
“Privacy ward,” she told me with a smile. “Not foolproof, but something that is would be obvious wouldn't it, this will keep others from hearing us or seeing us.” She must h...
2025-08-11 13:42:09 +0000 UTC View PostIt took days for people to figure out what they wanted to do, days that I really didn't want to stay here. I did, no matter how much arguing and huffing crusty, grumpy elves were involved in. This was mostly because the elders did agree on one thing, that I wasn't getting the supplies I wanted just yet, not while they were still figuring out what they needed for whatever they decided, because of course they did. I really couldn't stand people most of the time, even if I had promised to help t...
2025-08-07 21:05:04 +0000 UTC View PostEverything was all in a tizzy, and every person who had any power at all wanted to know exactly what was going on, with whom, how, and right now. The leader of the small group that had brought us back had tried to keep it quiet, but the fact that we came in bearing a crystal near identical to the one that kept their whole city warm was cause enough for rumors to spread like wildfire. The people who lived here had never seen one of those, but the comparison still struck true.
The attempt...
2025-08-06 01:58:47 +0000 UTC View PostDeep blue water lapped at the sides of the ship like a happy puppy as we slowly sailed into the port. The water was blue, the sun was shining high in the sky, a near perfect day, perhaps a bit bright, but nothing too bad. As our ship cut through the water towards the dock I saw a number of people around, all here and there, looking at the various boats as each was loaded and unloaded. There weren't people just observing, at least not mostly, but workers, sailors, and other deck hands, busy ab...
2025-08-05 03:12:08 +0000 UTC View PostNeera was, well, it wasn't pretty. Her head had been halfway ruined, boiled or baked would be the best word, or maybe flash fried. I wasn't quite sure how to describe the exact effect, but it was gruesome. I wasn't sure it had even effected her head when it came down tot it, or just super-heated the air around it to such a degree that she'd had no chance, but it didn't really matter. If I wasn't mistaken the crystal she'd taken from the monster had even reacted, burning her thoroughly.
...
2025-08-03 00:54:53 +0000 UTC View PostPlans began to form in my mind. I needed a weapon, silent, impossibly fast, and now. Poisons had worked in the past, but not now, too slow, detecting one she'd crush us out of spite if nothing else. There were compounds that would kill even an Ancient, but none that could do so fast enough. Pure power was out too, since we were weaker, and with her experience probably slower, large concentrations would be seen.
So I needed something small too, small but deadly enough. There were a few c...
2025-07-31 23:11:19 +0000 UTC View PostShip switchovers eventually had to happen, with nobody sane wanting a warship, even one from ostensibly an ally, landing in their ports. I could wax about the elven port cities that I moved through as we did this, about the skylines, about the many things I saw, but well, there really wasn't much to tell.
Most of the places that I ended up stopping were deep ports from mid, to small cities, not the large capitals along the way, and there I saw little, docks were docks, busy, congested, ...
2025-07-29 20:13:44 +0000 UTC View Post“You're alive!?” Chien said, clearly not quite having expected this. “How?”
The question was valid, missing multiple limbs and clearly still very heavily injured she hovered there, supported by her magic. It took me a few moments to process, during which I just stared wide eyed.
“Matriarch,” I said, looking at the heavily injured woman in both surprise and alarm and trying to keep them both from my voice. “You need a healer urgently.”
“I will soon yes, but ...
2025-07-28 17:53:16 +0000 UTC View PostChien and I were taking the smart route, and getting as far from the ongoing battle between the beasts as we could, but I couldn't help but look back at them every now and then.
The bird amalgam was soundly winning, furiously ripping at it's hated foe as it sent up a terrible racket. Had the dino been at full strength, or even half strength thing might have been very different, but it wasn't. That monster had been going for far too long with serious injuries that hadn't healed in an unf...
2025-07-25 16:53:30 +0000 UTC View PostAll things must end, as so did my time with Greta and the island. I moved onto another, slightly less populated boat, and we set sail. My former companions had left me, unable to go where I needed to, or unwilling, though I surely wasn't alone.
First were the tutors, multiple, who were trying to drill into my thick head the last bits of grammar and vocabulary. They... made me miss my former teacher, and were neither as skilled at instruction, nor as interesting as I'd found him to be. N...
2025-07-24 09:25:08 +0000 UTC View PostThings are a bit crazy at the moment where I'm at, lots of flooding in the city, massive shutdowns. I'm okay, but things are a bit out of order here. Things should be going back to normal soon, as everything gets sorted.
On another note, Elevation Book 3 Released! Woohoo!
2025-07-23 15:24:15 +0000 UTC View PostAs I watched the ground getting closer and closer it was Chien who pulled me from my attempts to slow our descent.
“Boss, we should bail.”
I wanted to smack myself, I was stupid, stuck in the thoughts of someone who couldn't fly.
“Grab the bedding and we go!” I shouted as soon as I processed it properly. We'd seriously need those blankets.
The two of us leapt from the stuttering airship, icy wind screaming in our ears as we fell towards the earth like a stone. ...
2025-07-21 00:15:19 +0000 UTC View Post“This bastard is persistent boss,” Chien complained, not for the first time.
“Indeed he is, are we ready?” I asked.
“Ready as we can be. Think they'll bite?”
“If they don't I don't know what we do. I was hoping the cold or injuries would at least slow it down, but we can't really head to Icehome if it's following us. I won't do them wrong like that.”
“Pretty sure they'd do you wrong like that if they needed to, but I see your point.”
Our unwan...
2025-07-18 09:46:41 +0000 UTC View PostI'd seen both Neera and the fire approaching from below as I tried to get the hell away from this disaster. There was precious little I could do for those on the ground, like it or not, and dying wasn't on my to-do list. If I'd been closer I could have perhaps thrown up a shield, or pulled a few people away, but I'd probably also have been cooked by that monster.
The creature had been fast, deadly fast, and after killing most or all of the physicals in the opening salvo had rampaged. Ma...
2025-07-16 14:59:28 +0000 UTC View Post“Found another one,” I announced to the small group who'd come with us, pointing at a tiny plant trying to survive in the barren soil.
We were taking a week, and only one, to stop and do reclamation on the island. I was a bit surprised that the elves were so invested in such a thing, being that they seemed more industrial than your standard fantasy elves, but they saw the value in trying to preserve the local ecosystem, or at least what was left of it. To that end we were scouring t...
2025-07-14 15:20:00 +0000 UTC View Post