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Blaze hated “underground” fighting arenas. It was a well-founded hatred with a lot of reasons behind it.
Despite that, he had to admit that this one was actually pretty nice. It wasn’t the architecture; the actual fighting arena was little more than a workout or training arena with reinforced but transparent walls. It didn’t even have the sort of protection enchantments that many better arenas would have, and it had the thoroughly uninspiring nickna...
2022-12-10 00:12:16 +0000 UTC
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Rourke watched the odd group through one of the Scrying Eyes he’d planted in their common area. This one had a Listening Ear, as well, so he could hear the conversation, but he wasn’t listening right now.
They were oddly trusting. A little standoffish at first, but surprisingly cooperative and easy to get along with. It was something he’d tried to avoid, but he thought he actually liked them.
Rourke couldn’t decide if he wanted them as one of...
2022-12-08 23:56:57 +0000 UTC
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“Dragon,” Lykandeon stated. “Possessive, tends to hoard. Hoarding people? Or simply everything that is his? Could be both. Also a very human trait. That’s good; the more links to humanity, the better.”
Lykandeon either didn’t remember that Serenity was still in the room or he didn’t care. Serenity was leaning towards the second option, since he was staring at Serenity.
Serenity frowned. Why did Lykandeon talk about humanity that way?...
2022-12-08 00:13:49 +0000 UTC
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Serenity already knew that his “question” wouldn’t get the response he was looking for, or at least it wouldn’t get the response he should be looking for. He wasn’t sure what he could have said that would be better; he probably should have simply kept his mouth shut in the first place.
Lykandeon started laughing. Strangely, it wasn’t the sort of laughter Serenity expected, the joy in another misfortune where someone laughed at someone who screwed...
2022-12-07 00:20:54 +0000 UTC
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Looks like I oopsed and released today's post for Pathed early (it's actually marked as Public).
Since it's the between-arc stuff, all I can really say is "oops". Patreon defaults to 3 days instead of 50 and ... sometimes I miss it.
If anyone cares, I can stick it back behind the paywall, but if you don't care, I don't care.
For anyone who missed it or wants another look, here's the link: 2022-12-05 23:26:44 +0000 UTC
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“Rocks?” Rourke sounded confused. “The glowing ones? What do they have to do with the World Core or that underground facility?”
Serenity was surprised Rourke didn’t know. Weren’t the internal police supposed to eventually find everything out as they watched people? “The underground facility is around the World Core. They’re mining it for green stones; do you remember the ones Ekari recovered from the Infirmary?”
Rourke shook his ...
2022-12-05 23:17:59 +0000 UTC
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An extra-thick page followed Princess Karin’s note in the Book of Karit. Serenity frowned as he turned it; it looked like it ought to be a bunch of pages stuck together, but he couldn’t open it. He could think of four possible reasons for that off the top of his head; the least likely was that it was simply a really, really thick page.
The next was that it was somehow unlocked by being someone who “should” be able to write in the Book. The fact ...
2022-12-04 23:55:42 +0000 UTC
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My apologies for the late chapter; today's the last day my visiting family will be in town and I lost track of time.
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It took five days to pull the pieces together to catch Acolyte Varandaeon in a way that he wouldn’t be missed.
The best way to do that, of course, was to have it seem like everything was normal. Pick him out of his daily life, get the information, then return him. It was a plan that Serenity would never have tried on his own, but wit...
2022-12-04 00:05:36 +0000 UTC
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“Can you tell me about Karit?” Serenity tried to relax, but too much was riding on the question for him to actually feel easy, even in a comfortable recliner.
High Priestess Karin frowned at Serenity. “I take it you enjoyed your visit to the Tower of Broken Swords? I thought you might find it interesting and educational.” She sat down heavily on one of the couches, then leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “As for the Book found in the Tower, ...
2022-12-03 00:02:10 +0000 UTC
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Half an hour later, Serenity knew he’d found it. There were two hinge points for the center of the spell, the signed surrender in the back of the Book of Karit and the pedestal the Book rested on; it wasn’t innately magical but it had the appropriate symbology of support such that over the time the spell was running it had taken on much of the spells’ weight. Between the Book and the pedestal, they supported the weight of the spell and balanced it to maintai...
2022-12-02 00:08:57 +0000 UTC
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Serenity shook his head. “I’d rather you described it.”
Acolyte Tinar sounded disappointed. “Fine. The Tower of Broken Swords holds the Book of Karit. It sits on a simple pedestal under a glass dome to protect it. The Book was once the symbol of the royalty of Karit; it was said to contain the name of every person who owed loyalty to Karit. It is also the paper that was used for the Surrender of Karit, of course; turning the symbol of resistance in...
2022-11-30 23:50:03 +0000 UTC
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“The four-sided pyramid is used on Aeon as a symbol of Man’s reach for greatness and eternity.” Acolyte Tinar pointed at the pyramid in front of them. “A smooth-sided pyramid symbolizes elegance and that power can smooth away difficulties. A step pyramid, on the other hand,” Tinar pointed at the pyramid next to the one he’d originally pointed at, “symbolizes that eternity only comes through effort; indeed, it is possible to show that any pyramid, ...
2022-11-29 23:59:50 +0000 UTC
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Traveling to Aeon was as simple as traveling to Abiding Six; they simply went to the same portal, then passed through it. Acolytes Tinar and Deek led them there as they walked; there were too many of them to be comfortable in the flyer and none of them were afraid of the half-mile of walking. They kept their weapons ready in case of passing monsters.
Whatever dungeon the giant bluejay was from hadn’t protected it against magic. The sparrows they saw a f...
2022-11-28 23:54:20 +0000 UTC
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There are some minor edits to Rissa's story so that a particular plot point is a little more obvious. It's still not supposed to be blatant, but it was a little too obscured.
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“Well, what do you remember?” Serenity hoped Rissa would come up with something useful. He didn’t really want to fight Lykandeon, even with a plan. He wasn’t certain what the plan was; obviously it depended on Ita, but he hadn’t thought about what she’d be doing while he w...
2022-11-27 23:51:17 +0000 UTC
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The results of the first trunk’s visions bothered Serenity. Part of that was knowing that the Church of Aeons was stealing from Lyka’s World Core, but that wasn’t the real reason. He was past his initial revulsion and could see several reasons for it.
They were all terribly shortsighted but they existed. Humans had a tendency to be shortsighted; it was something you had to learn to accept if you were going to deal with them.
Serenity didn’t...
2022-11-26 23:51:08 +0000 UTC
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Rissa shrugged. “It probably means there’s something I don’t know about what’s going on. Maybe the Mercenaries’ Guild is actually working for someone else and that’s why it looks like something bigger? Or maybe we can find something out that way that leads us in a different direction and I picked the wrong trunk. That can happen, too; It’s not fixed until-”
Rissa stopped and shook her head, a giant grin crossing her face. “I was about to ...
2022-11-25 23:45:40 +0000 UTC
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The options today were several hours early or at least an hour late. I figured people would prefer early.
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If it was a real lightning bolt, he might be a bit singed but he’d be fine; his Shock resistance was high enough.
If it wasn’t a real lightning bolt, she was manipulating the environment and he could do the real thing. Serenity reached out as though he were casting a spell and told the world that the “lightning bolt” was simply a visual ef...
2022-11-24 21:20:01 +0000 UTC
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It made Serenity feel somewhat satisfied that neither of the acolytes objected to anything after what was found in the basement; in fact, they were nearly completely silent. It still wasn’t anywhere near enough.
The good news, more or less, was that he’d spent less than a day dealing with the church in Abiding Six. The bad news was that nothing else had changed in that time. He’d expected to need to hurry, but he’d also expected to spend at least ...
2022-11-24 00:02:56 +0000 UTC
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The church where Serenity found Helen was almost unchanged from his previous visit.
It would have been completely unchanged if there were acolyte-guards stationed at the entrances and doors on the main entrance. Admittedly, glass in the nearby windows would have helped, too.
Serenity had to admit that unchanged really wasn’t the right word at all. Not for the physical structure, at least. The magical presence of the church, however, was extremely...
2022-11-23 00:10:14 +0000 UTC
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Serenity sent the invitation to High Priestess Karin, then finished his cocoa. Sitting and waiting didn’t suit him well; he wanted to be out doing something. From what Sillon had seen and the fact that the Church was clearly retreating, there was a disaster happening out there even if it hadn’t yet affected the Visitors’ Palace.
Other than the lack of food delivery, anyway. Guards, as well, though Serenity considered the lack of guards to be a net po...
2022-11-22 00:09:10 +0000 UTC
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Serenity finished mixing up the hot cocoa with multicolored marshmallows and handed the hot drink to Ekari. He found it somewhat amusing how many of the people he’d invited to Earth had fallen in love with the mass-produced drink mix. He had several cases in his Rift storage, along with multiple canisters of the no-marshmallow mix for the people who weren’t quite as fond of color.
Serenity grinned to himself as he handed Rissa hers, then finished his ow...
2022-11-20 23:37:08 +0000 UTC
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Sillon couldn’t decide if he was pleased or terrified to know that the Mercenaries’ Guild had decided that Lyka needed regime change. The Mercenaries’ Guild was supposed to be neutral, taking contracts that it was offered; it wasn’t supposed to meddle in politics.
Was it?
To some extent, the reasoning made sense. Lyka was dangerous to low-Tier people and not worth it to high-Tier people; only Tiers three through five really could find worthwh...
2022-11-20 00:05:34 +0000 UTC
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Blaze pulled back to consider his options. He wanted to heal Priest-Healer Tirina, but that wasn’t actually the reason he came. He’d found out what was affecting her and presumably what was affecting High Priestess Karin.
Tirina, at least, had been deliberately warped physically and mentally by an outside force until she conformed to what that outside force wanted. She was probably then pushed into taking a Path that aligned with the warping. The Path m...
2022-11-18 23:59:57 +0000 UTC
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Blaze picked the lock, then stopped. Did he really want to go in there without any mana? He ran out so rarely that he hadn’t really thought about it, but he was already close to entering harad, even if he hadn’t yet felt any of the warning signs. All it would take was a little danger and he’d be gone. Being low on mana only made it more risky.
Perhaps it wasn’t quite that bad; like all diehar, he was trained to deal with harad<...
2022-11-17 23:54:49 +0000 UTC
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Over the years, Ekari had heard all sorts of speculation about what existed behind the locked doors at a Church. Some of it was lurid, rich and lavish. While that did exist on Aeon, it wasn’t the standard for a small Church like this one; few Churches on Lyka had anything of note in the private areas.
Sometimes Ekari thought that part of the reason they were kept locked was to hide just how simple the quarters were compared to the public areas. This chu...
2022-11-17 00:07:44 +0000 UTC
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The day after Serenity returned with Helen, no food was delivered to the Visitors’ Palace.
It surprised Serenity; he’d assumed that meals were cooked onsite, but apparently the Visitors’ Palace didn’t have a cook.
Strangely, the only people in the Palace seemed to be the two acolytes, Tinar and Deek. It seemed like everyone else had another place they lived, but Tinar and Deek were assigned to the group and actually stayed at the Palace.
...
2022-11-16 00:05:45 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the delay; Wednesdays suck.
Specifically, I have an additional *hour commute home* on Wednesdays. We won't even talk about the lack of sleep from having to get up earlier ...
....so chapters may be late on Wednesdays for the foreseeable future. (But probably not the rest of December due to use-or-lose)
I'm debating shifting to a six-day-a-week schedule to make Wed less sucky but I haven't made the call yet.
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His ...
2022-11-15 00:00:39 +0000 UTC
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Serenity stepped out of the bedroom he shared with Rissa and found an empty room. A little searching took him to one of the rooms set up as a gathering area; he could faintly hear voices leaking out around the door.
“...first?” Blaze sounded annoyed.
"...wasn't..." Most of the words were blocked by the door.
Serenity shrugged to himself and opened the door. There was really no reason to listen from outside.
The room was yet another se...
2022-11-14 00:11:08 +0000 UTC
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There wasn’t time to argue; the glass rhinoceros was already charging towards them. Serenity took a few steps off to the side and confirmed that the rhino’s attention didn’t waver; it wasn’t on him. “Move! It’s headed right for you!”
Serenity didn’t take the time to see if the flyer actually moved; the moving sculpture was finally in range, so he threw a Death Manabolt at it. It sank into the rhino without a visible effect, but Serenity could...
2022-11-12 23:55:42 +0000 UTC
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They were about halfway through the trip back to the Visitors’ Palace when the world shook - not physically, but magically. A sleet of raw mana washed across Serenity; he doubted any of the others noticed it, but that told him one of those things had likely happened: a ley line had shifted or a dungeon had collapsed. In either case, it had to be close or it wouldn’t have been that obvious.
“What was that?” Acolyte Tinar looked around, startled. He...
2022-11-12 00:03:04 +0000 UTC
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