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20: Stands for Trouble (Part 2)

The three women Mydea had spotted earlier by the fountains joined them at the table, filling up the seats next to Vivyan. Counting the princess, that was half the table accounted for.

“A good evening to you, my ladies,” Mydea began as she introduced herself to the Marcherwomen, and they offered their names in turn. There was the pudgy Sara Shells, and shy Lanna Thorne, and Lady Miryam Bludbolt—thin, toned, and hard as a whip. She looked every bit the lady from a house external wit...

19: Stands for Trouble (Part 1)

Brightened by the Starlight Tower, the garden was a sea of scents and shades. Bees and butterflies flitted from tri-colored petals and clusters of reddish-pink sedums to the marigolds. Great coneflowers of orange petals radiating from dark centers mingled among velvety blue salvias, tall spikes of licorice-smelling lavender flowers, and boldly colored peppers.

For a brief moment, it made Mydea forget winter was at their doorsteps, before a chilly night wind slapped her across the face, ...

18: Tea (Part 4)

The maids—though she would not call them her maids—returned upon the hour, thankfully with the item requested instead of excuses. Troia huffed at them and practically ripped the soundproof curtain from their hands. “I’ll take care of this myself,” she said. Which was just as well; they might have set it up in a way to allow eavesdropping. “How long have you two worked in the Seraglio?”

“I entered the palace a month ago as a lady’s maid,” Ida said in a small voice. 2022-04-02 05:36:46 +0000 UTC View Post

17: Tea... (Part 3)

A pair of maids were waiting inside, and they curtseyed to her, not Lara.

“These maids will be assigned to you while you’re a guest here,” Lara said, sliding her finger across a nearby surface to inspect it for dust. “If you have any further questions, Ida and Khloe can answer them.”

“Thank you for the company, Lady Lara,” Mydea said.

She nodded. “I’ll leave you to settle in then.”

Mydea waited for her to leave, then took a moment to take in the roo...

16: Tea... (Part 2)

Like Tomas predicted, cloud docked upon cloud at the Golden Gateway. They entered Aelisium without any trouble, and the gatekeepers did not even dare to bar their way with Lady Lara leading them. Mydea stayed a whole step behind her the whole time until they reached a waiting horseless carriage.

Mydea stepped inside first, then Lara and Troia, but Tomas did not.

“There’s more than enough room for you to join us,” Lara said.

“I thank you for the offer, Lady Lara, but ...

15: Tea... (Part 1)

Following the light of the sun, they left her old world behind.

A storm of sorcery propelled them across the Deeplands for only a storm could catch the clouds. Aelisium had just become visible to a backdrop of an orange-fingered sky caressing the peaks of the Anarev Range, which cut straight down through the Deeplands ahead of them. Even if a pegasus could fly all day, Snowscorn would have struggled to make it across the stretch of the Deeplands without another mount to share the burden...

14: Marriage Muse (Part 4)

“I’ll go with you,” Aspyr said. “You know, Chalsi will be most wroth when she learns of this.”

Something tugged at the corners of her lips. “I can already hear our sister’s whining,” Mydea said.

Aspyr laughed like their Mother would—loudly and with his thick, dark hair thrown back.

“Keep that up and she’ll hear you all the way from the athenaeum,” Mydea said.

“Fat chance of that. We both know how rough she is at stealing whispers,” Aspyr sai...

13: Marriage Muse (Part 3)

Their grandmother had her back to them, looking out a window slightly ajar from her chair. A gust of wind caressed them. “So my grandson has returned. Who was that woman with you?”

“Lady Lara, a distant cousin to the main line of Lady Eminent Alexa Luxuria,” Aspyr said. “She is also kin to the Empress, and acts as High Stewardess of the Greater Seraglio.”

“More importantly,” Father interjected, “she’s here to take one of your granddaughters away.”

“It...

12: Marriage Muse (Part 2)

In the days following the feast, the assembly of aristocrats slowly, but surely, filtered out of Aigis and back to their homes for winter. Some of their noble kin were left behind, either to speak with her brother upon his return, or to serve as guests over winter due to poor harvests from their fiefs. Mydea allowed them to stay, for every favor accrued only strengthened their hand.

With winter upon them, it was rare to have a day of blue skies with the clouds rolling by. It might have ...

11: Marriage Muse (Part 1)

The Great Hall of Aigis was heady with the scent of high spirits. Their servants had had to crack open yet another oaken barrel as the proud people of the peaks sought to drink each other under the table. Even as the first hour of the feast ended, the kitchens were still hard at work sending them dishes—grilled minced meats and onion slices dripping with fat served on metal skewers; a lamb stew flavored with herbs, sour plums, and white wine; baked salmon, fried sturgeon, and a hot onion so...

10: And Taxes (Part 3)

Over the next few days, the landscape shifted from the flat plains and farmlands near Phaleinas to dense forests of pine and rolling hills closer to the Aigean Range. The side of the mountains had been flattened into a series of rectangular plots, like a staircase for giants, where farmers could grow their crops.

So it jarred Mydea when the terraces disappeared suddenly and the jagged edges of the mountain returned to the fore. There was no surer sign that they neared Perasma than that,...

09: And Taxes (Part 2)

The morning found them sequestered within the town hall. It was a spacious room with carpeted floors and some foreign art hanging from the hardwood walls. A series of empty pews were available to the public, facing two lecterns from which speakers would debate and three rows of chairs seating the city’s leading men. Any city or town would have guilds for the crafts such as leatherworkers, weaver, and dyers, but a trading town such as this would also have a guild for its merchants.

“...

08: And Taxes (Part 1)

The ride to Phaleinas took up the rest of their day. Marshal Perdiccas cursed loudly when the warded, wooden palisades of the town came into view. The charter her mother had granted them did not include the right to ward and wall, and if they were so blatantly flouting such physical limitations, what else were they guilty of?

The local magnates were wise enough, at least, not to bar the gates against her and hers.

“We shall be here for a night and a day at the very least,” Myd...

07: Except Death... (Part 3)

At every village they stopped at, Mydea spent the night speaking with the easily impressed headsmen, while her father threw himself into his work, scribbling furiously in his leather-bound journal. What exactly he’d spent years of his life working on he still refused to say even now, and every torn page he turned to ash so that not a hint of it remained.

They had travelled far enough north and east, Mydea knew, when the farms began to display a heraldic shield featuring a dire otter w...

06: Except Death... (Part 2)

A steady southern breeze began to blow as the iron portcullis was raised, and the vanguard spilled down the hill like a stream. Marshal Perdiccas was riding up and down the column to keep it snaking forward.

Beside her was Tomas the Tall, a fair-skinned blond who was a half a head shorter than her. At the sponsorship of Hystor Theios, he had arrived from the Thalassian Athenaeum some months prior, borrowing the family library for some manner of research. More a scholar than a priest, sh...

05: Except Death... (Part 1)

It would take Marshal Perdiccas some time to muster the knights, squires, and mages-at-arms sworn directly to House Kolchis for the trip north. Some of those already resided in the castle as part of its permanent garrison, but many more were scattered across the countryside, tending to their manors.

The week passed to the shouts and sounds of intensified drill in the waryard, while the rest of the household made preparations of their own. Provisions from the castle’s larders were arra...

04: Nothing is Certain... (Part 3)

“You shouldn’t agitate her so much,” Mydea said.

Father sighed. “That’s unavoidable whenever I’m in her presence,” he said. “Ephyra never liked me, not from the first moment your mother took a liking to me at the athenaeum. It does not help that her sons died in duels against me, even if I did it to save you and your brother.”

They walked in silence the rest of the way to the Great Hall. Portraits of every lord and lady of their house lined the walls starting fro...

03: Nothing is Certain... (Part 2)

Her grandmother sat on her favorite chair, brown skin warmed by the nearby fire and several layers of woolen blankets while a servant fed her spoonfuls of a fragrant, steaming soup.

Chicken, Mydea recognized, though she could not place the mix of herbs. Garlic for sure, thyme, parsley, and a hint of pepper?

Grandmother raised a wrinkled hand and shooed the servant away.

The servant set the bowl on a table, curseyed to Grandmother, to Mydea, and Father, then went to ...

02: Nothing is Certain... (Part 1)

Accompanying her return to the earth below was her handservant Troia and Captain Alexios. Their retinue, resting in a quaint village, was taken by surprise at her early return. Still, none of them gainsaid her when she informed them they would be returning to Kolchis without her brother, not with the sword by her side.

“By your leave, my lady, I shall return to Lord Aspyr,” Captain Alexios said as he finished overseeing preparations for her departure north.

“A moment of your...

01: Castle on a Cloud

The Imperial City came like a storm: winds to herald its approach, shadows to darken the land, and clouds to carry it onward.

On the grassy knoll below rode two dozen servants, soldiers, and scribes in the green and silver of Mydea’s house. We must look like ants to them, if they care to spot us at all that is, she thought.

“We’ve arrived just in time,” her twin brother, Aspyr, said with a grin. “I told you, didn’t I?”

Mydea rolled her eyes, stroking t...

18: The Mark of a Cultivator

The marble hall was heedy with the scent of high spirits. They were already on their third round of oaken barrels by Daphne’s count, and Prince Hadrian only served the finest vintages for his masquerade ball—Ambrosia, Grandgrove Gold, Darkland Red, and even strange concoctions of fruits and spirits. Liveried servants patrolled the room, carrying silver trays of morsel-sized art, ensuring that no one would want for food tonight.

Meanwhile, men and women waltzed to a grand, old melody...

17: Interlude - The Young Master

She’s getting smarter, Blaise thought as mist exploded outwards from Daphne, rolling off the makeshift arena. Dame Marian, a veteran of eight battles and a knight of eighteen years, peered at the fog with fear’s better respected cousin: caution. It was the first time he’d ever seen her worried while practicing with them, as if losing—no matter how slim the chances—was now within the realm of possibility.

There were no fancy attacks this time from Daphne, no r...

16: The Pillars of Power

Cousin Blaise was waiting in her room when she returned, his nose buried in some history textbook about a battle. Was there really so much to write about? All that changed was the when, where, who, why, how, and how many—all trivial details when the outcome was the same!

Ants get squashed. The junior that dares, dies.

“Have you been here this whole time?” Daphne asked, taking her seat across him.

“No,” Blaise said, eyes moving across the page one last time before h...

15: The Duality of Face

Daphne arrived at the gates of the Middle School, where Genevieve’s servant had told her they would be assembling. The midday sun was warm against her fair skin, but not scalding, so she waved away Maid when she brought out a parasol of swan feathers to shade her with. Summer was truly well and over now.

She was riding atop Jade—her pegasus, while Maid had borrowed a horse from one of her knights. It appeared they would be riding out into the woods, which suited Daphne just fine. Li...

14: Trading Pointers

“You can’t seriously be thinking of entering the tournament,” Blaise said in an exasperated tone as they walked out of the arena at the end of class.

Daphne frowned at him. “Of course I’m joining,” she said. Not only had the heavens presented her with another encounter to triumph over, but the prize she’d earn would certainly be of use to her cultivation. Already she had let slip two opportunities—while shopping, and a guest of Broken Nose’s companions—to fa...

13: Killing Intent

The first day of classes found Daphne among the tiered seats, looking down into an open air arena. Their instructor was a man in his forties with a great beard and a cape that kept billowing despite the lack of breeze. Ten paces from him were several straw dummies dressed in farmer hats and tattered clothes more akin to rags.

“This year,” Hystor Gerard began in his soft tone, though his words carried themselves to Daphne’s ears with ease, “we shall be moving on from the theory o...

12: Courtesy?

The ordinary woman is always doing things, yet many more are left to be done. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. This was wei wu wei, the dao of doing non-doing.

There was no need for Daphne to scheme out how to better the foundations of her lessers, it would simply be with time. Everything would fall into place. Not that she expected any gratitude from them. When the best rulers achieve their purpose, and fulfill their aims, their subjects will say: “we d...

11: Arrogance

Daphne’s new serving girl was a natural jade beauty—raw, rough, and unrefined, but brimming with potential.

Maybe with a nicer dress, Daphne thought. Cobalt or emerald would compliment her rich, dark skin and brown eyes nicely. A few hours each morning meditating on the dao of cultivating appearances would not go amiss either. Daphne nodded. Her serving girl could be a black swan, one that many arrogant young masters might not die for, but would certainly kill for.

Se...

10: The Dao of Disappearance

The academy commanded many li of land beyond the walls which surrounded the school proper. It held dominion too over a small forest and many villages and farms which provided for its upkeep. It was easy to tell when they had crossed into these lands as even the simplest villages flew the hexagram sigil of the hystors.

When they arrived at last at the school gates, a hystor in plain wool robes was standing on ceremony for her.

“Greetings, hystor,” Daphne said, stepping out of t...

09: Yet Profound

The world was a kaleidoscope of fractals in D Minor. Here, with the margins of the soul ripped open, time was without form or function. Daphne was without form or function. She simply was, both within her body, observing it from afar, and observing that observer. As if the tripartite soul was now each its own person instead of a unitary thing.

They heard something warm, if slightly burning. A comforting, omnipresent hum that lurked behind them. Was th...