Kessa sighted up at him. The air shimmered with heat from the molten ground, and the orange light glimmered on her strange glass visor. For some reason Harald thought she was grinning behind that crimson glass.
Then she raised her gauntlet and unleashed a gout of alchemical fire at him. He caught a fragmentary glimpse of her fist turning into a canon mouth, and then the torrent flooded up at him, a plume of flame so hot it was hued white and blue.
The Aetherlight Circlet activated...
2025-06-21 22:08:44 +0000 UTC
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Harald remained crouched, one hand planted in the torn up grass, the other holding the Scourge over one shoulder. His body was still brutalized, leaking blood from countless barely healed holes. He knew he should collect his fallen enemy’s scale pouches, their Artifacts, to keep moving as an even stronger opponent had now been loosed into the garden.
But he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the hanging text.
The abyss approves of your glorious defiance.
2025-06-21 14:27:06 +0000 UTC
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(I'm aiming to finish this book this weekend. I'll post the chapters as I write them till we're done.)
Harald stalked the night.
Veil of Shadows made him part of the darkness, clothed in him the void. He felt light, lethal, perilous. The Celestara estate was large, consuming the entire city block, divided into groves and orchards, ornamental gardens and expanses of lawn. A carefully controlled stream chuckled over perfectly placed rocks into a large pool that spr...
2025-06-20 21:11:56 +0000 UTC
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“Of course it’s become a public event,” groaned Vic.
The crew had finally been invited by Lord Josse to take advantage of a guest suite in a lodge located at the back of the property. Word had spread via couriers and countless spies to the other four major Houses about the impending duel and the discovery of the Twilight Crown, and Flutic was in uproar.
Sam finished stirring some honey into the teapot and set it on a tray. The lodge came complete with an extensive kitchen in...
2025-06-20 12:33:27 +0000 UTC
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House Emberfell had turned out in force. The broad avenue before the House Celestara manor was filled with Emberfell guards, raiders, and more incredibly, scale golems. Scale lanterns atop high poles illuminated the block so brightly it looked as if a false day had dawned, and the fore of this formidable army stood Lord Doran Blaze, resplendent in massive plate armor that looked to have been fashioned from gems and smoky gray marble.
House Celestara guards opened the main gate so that H...
2025-06-19 16:53:48 +0000 UTC
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“The angels wept.” Sam shook her head in disgust as she stared at Vic. “What do we do now?”
Harald had summoned their friends from the entrance hall as Josse convened the highest ranking members of his House for a private Celestara meeting. The Throne Hunters had gathered in the same council chamber as before, though nobody had the poise to actually sit. Instead, they ringed the table, expressions troubled, gazes resting on Vic.
Who threw up his hands. “Am I to be the vi...
2025-06-18 13:44:16 +0000 UTC
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Not too long ago, Harald had been unable to run a city block without breaking into a copious sweat and wanting to vomit out a lung. The memory of his first dawn runs with Sam were still sharp in his mind; the stabbing pain in his side, the pain in his joints, the way his body had felt like a heaving mass of mewling lard.
Now he ran like the wind, and felt like he need never stop. For a split second after quitting the auction house he’d debated hailing a phaeton, paying the driver a Go...
2025-06-17 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone!
Book 2 has dropped, and is available for either reading or listening, depending on your flavor of choice. Remember back when Harald still resided in Darrowdel...
2025-06-17 12:51:20 +0000 UTC
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We're closing in fast upon the end of Throne Hunters Book 4. I think we've another half dozen or so chapters left till we finish this arc.
Then? I'm not 100% sure, but I'm probably going to return to Immortal Great Souls #4. I've got some 90k already written from earlier this year, and will probably take the rest of summer to finish it up.
Would you be interested in reading advance chapters of IGS #4? They'd come with the strong caveat of not being the final copies by any means, ...
2025-06-16 12:30:27 +0000 UTC
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“Vic.” Anna’s voice was leaden with shock. “What have you done?”
“Would you believe me if I told you that was an accident?” He winced. “No? Fair enough.”
Anna’s eyes were wide as she stared at Melisende’s corpse. “You just killed the most powerful woman in Flutic.” She said this as if exploring the truth of the words. “The only person who could call off her Gold-rankers. Who could end the fight our friends are in outside.”
“Meh.” Vic shrugge...
2025-06-16 12:24:29 +0000 UTC
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“A carefully prepared team had an immense advantage over passive guards, even—even if those guards are Silver-ranked, or possibly even Gold.”
Sam put a hand on Nessa’s shoulder. “You doing all right?”
Nessa smiled a bright, brittle smile. She was definitely looking peaky, Vic thought. Somewhere between hung over and heart broken. A real pity they’d no Artifacts to gift her with an Ego boost.
“No? I don’t know. Perhaps. It’ll be better once we’re moving....
2025-06-13 18:04:44 +0000 UTC
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The door was yanked open to reveal Yseult Khan in all her armored glory. As much as Harald had been steeling himself to see her, the sight of her peerless armor and brutal presence still caused his breath to lock up in his chest.
Her plates of golden armor were worn over a bodysuit of midnight blue, while a cape of the purest cerulean flowed from her shoulders. But as always it was the alien nature of her helm that caught the eye, its blank faceplate pocked with diamond shaped holes, sp...
2025-06-12 13:49:49 +0000 UTC
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“Master Darrowdelve!” Master Ling swept into the private lounge, his expression delighted, his hands raised as if in a surfeit of joy. “It has been too long since I saw you last, but I am overjoyed to see you in good health.”
“Master Ling.” Harald rose to his feet. “Thank you as always for your kind hospitality.”
“This?” Master Ling gestured scornfully to the exquisitely decorated room, the low lacquered table, the wall scrolls, the objects of art on their plin...
2025-06-11 17:20:05 +0000 UTC
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The octagonal meeting chamber was carved from living rock, its walls alternating House Emberfell banners from different eras past with shelving on which exemplary work was on display. The table itself was of brown stone, polished to a high gloss so that its golden flecks glimmered bewitchingly in the scale-lantern light. Upholstered high backed chairs, an empty fireplace in one wall, and a great domed ceiling on which a fresco depicting the House Emberfell founder laboring at the forge was be...
2025-06-10 13:55:58 +0000 UTC
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Vic sat in the window of their rented room, the shutters open just wide enough that he could watch the street outside. It was mostly quiet. An occasional shadowy figure strode by. This was a mostly commercial district; at this hour, the machinery of trade had rumbled to a near halt, and all was still.
Plenty of City watch patrols, though. Every five or ten minutes one would pass by, a couple of men in the regalia of authority, shoulders squared, down the center of the street as if they ...
2025-06-09 14:03:42 +0000 UTC
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“Whoa, whoa!” Harald raised his hands, eyes going wide. “Anita—wait!”
“Intruder!” she yelled, and the Artifact hammer did something to her voice, causing it to hollow out and grow resonant, inhuman, to fill the hallway like the crash of thunder even as the leaping worms of electricity ran down the haft of her hammer to begin crackling over her body.
Damn it! For the briefest moment Harald considered trying to incapacitate her with Abyssal Grasp, to push into...
2025-06-06 15:52:07 +0000 UTC
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Of their party, only Anna had ever visited Emberfell Hall before, and her description of the great complex defied belief.
“It’s located outside Flutic,” she recounted. They were all shouldering their packs, putting on clean clothing, stealing a final bite to eat, and preparing to depart the Dungeon. “About a quarter mile outside the walls. My father had business there on occasion. They were a good customer for his Marheim imports.”
“Why outside the wall?” asked Sam.<...
2025-06-05 13:39:13 +0000 UTC
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Harald paced.
They’d opted to remain in the same chamber. The odds of Sam finding them more easily was thus increased, and to be honest, none of them felt up for pressing deeper into the Eternal Tower.
To Harald’s surprise, Vic had sat with Anna when the countess had awoken and engaged her in serious conversation. Harald had joined them briefly, concerned for the countess’s health, but seeing that she was fine and that Vic was intent on taking a deep dive into the mechanisms...
2025-06-04 14:36:12 +0000 UTC
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The angel’s abode was sprawling, a domain of azure ponds that cascaded into ever larger pools until at last they flowed into a great lake that extended into the distance of the cavern, passing under archways into the gloom. Raw stone was buttressed by dressed blocks of pale ivory, all of it elegantly carved, masterfully assembled, all of it radiating out from the central alter or focal point.
The highest point in the chamber, a great arch set against the wall in which a riot of golden...
2025-06-03 13:48:50 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 23
“Wait,” said Sam, stepping forward even as Seraphina clasped her arm and arrested her progress. “I—don’t harm him!”
The huge angel ignored Sam’s plea. Though its visage was blank and gray and inhuman, Harald could sense its focus, the pressure of its regard as it clamped him down once more in place.
Deep breath. It took all his presence of mind to not quail, to not fall forward on his knees and bend his brow to the obsidian flagst...
2025-06-02 15:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Hope. Despair.
Which emotion warred most strongly in his breast? Harald gazed upon the angel-kin and couldn’t tell.
If she recognized him her face betrayed no awareness; her stare was direct and challenging as she glared at where the inquisitor stood.
Who in turn was openly gaping, the seams that bound his withered eyelids shut stretching the scarred skin. He flared his fingers on the hilt of his golden scepter, indecisive, then extended his arm off to one side and made a ...
2025-05-30 16:11:09 +0000 UTC
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Art by MidJourney.
No chapter today as I'm on the road. Good news is, I'm heading to a writer's retreat with some author buddies, so I should be able to bank a handful of chapters to ensure posting is smooth from hereon out.
Thanks as always for reading and your support. Next chapter coming tomorrow!
2025-05-29 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The moment the tendril of smoke touched Vic’s head it turned soot black and the air filled with a shuddering roar. A huge amount of energy, of power, was processed in a second, causing the buckled flagstones to tremble, the knights to stagger, and for Harald and Vic to clutch at each other.
The tendril’s tail recoiled rapidly into itself, as if it were inhaling the vast length it had left behind, all of it pouring with such violence into the last few yards that the smoke blurred, th...
2025-05-28 18:16:50 +0000 UTC
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The stairwell opened three revolutions below onto a pocket balcony that overlooked a cramped hall below. Stone steps descended from the balcony’s side to a tiny landing, ninety degree turn, then broader steps descended the rest of the way to the flagstones, these smooth, a thick heavy patterned red rug, no furniture. Torches burned brightly in wall sconces on the ground floor below, while vertical windows filled with stained glass depicting the Fallen Angel were inserted into the thick wall...
2025-05-27 17:31:43 +0000 UTC
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A sinking feeling filled Harald’s gut at the sight of the snapped disc, and he turned in a slow circle as if expecting some nefarious force to emerge right then and there to assault them.
“But how?” Sam’s distress was clear. “Artifacts are supposed to be indestructible?”
“Unless another’s used to break it,” said Nessa, tone tight. “The stronger will win.”
Anna took a broken half. “Which means someone’s using sufficiently powerful divination magic to...
2025-05-26 19:06:02 +0000 UTC
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As the crew starts to go up in levels, their Passives, Actives, and Artifacts are adding up, and I can imagine it might become hard to keep track of. As such, I thought it might (maybe?) be useful to share my doc where I keep track of who can do what. This is current as of Book 4, Chapter 18.
Let me know if providing resources like these helps, or if you're happy to just ride the tide of the s...
2025-05-23 16:49:00 +0000 UTC
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Chaos.
Where Thracos had been a singular locus of frenetic activity, the whole chamber now exploded into violence.
There were—what—over twenty Level 27 foes attacking them simultaneously now?
The first slew of mental blasts poured over Harald’s mind as the scarecrows converged their attacks. But though the edges of his vision rippled as if the periphery of the chamber had been revealed to be curtained backdrop to a cheap play, he shrugged off the assaults with his form...
2025-05-23 16:40:51 +0000 UTC
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Vic spent an hour with Nessa in the back of the corridor. Harald found himself restless, curious as to what they discussed, jealous that he wasn’t part of the conversation, and irritated by his own uneasy emotions. It had to be the lingering effects of Nessa’s ridiculously high Presence. Didn’t help that Anna settled herself cross-legged in an alcove to ostensibly meditate, but kept sneaking troubled glances at him every few moments when she thought he wasn’t looking.
The small...
2025-05-22 16:26:13 +0000 UTC
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Art by the amazing Mansik Yang (YAM).
Alas, no chapter today. I’ve been under the weather, and the only backlog chapter I managed to bank was posted yesterday while I was truly knocked out. I came to the office this morning in hopes of hammering out a new one, but the brain fog is just too intense. Apologies for the delay, but we should get back on track soon..
2025-05-21 15:07:26 +0000 UTC
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The chamber was small, square, and though the deep alcoves gave the occasional extra room to step back or maneuver, their practice space was to all effects greatly constrained. This would be a standing duel, both tightly circling or simply holding their ground.
The murmur of Sam and Nessa’s voices came from the depths of the corridor that led to the exit. Kársek had moved to the very rear of an alcove and lay on his side facing the back wall. The bedrolls and gear had been packed up ...
2025-05-20 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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