Enjoy!
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Gaia had a lot of questions. Serenity was able to answer some of them but there were many others that he simply had to admit he couldn’t answer. Eventually, after he’d told her what seemed like the entire story four times, she said she had an idea. Crystal, once broken, cannot be made whole. However, if you can somehow return it to its prior state and bring it to me, perhaps I can use it to grow? I believe that might be helpful.
Enjoy!
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Well, he was in a ley line nexus, even if it was a very strange one. That meant there was someone he could ask.
Serenity absently set Blaze down on the ground. It was steep and covered in squishy mud, but the mud was thick and gloopy. More importantly, there was only about an inch of it.
“You’re thinking something,” Blaze observed. “Talk to me. That’s why I’m here.”
“I thought you were here so the sailors wouldn’t see you?” ...
2023-07-01 22:17:03 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The next morning, Serenity walked out of his tent and found his mother actively playing with her phone. She’d never really been one for idle games, so it had to be something else.
It was clear she either hadn’t had breakfast yet or had already cleaned up the dishes; since he didn’t see anyone else, he guessed they probably weren’t up yet. There were only two place settings on the table; that was different from last night.
He sat down across t...
2023-07-01 01:10:54 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“Oh, they’ll believe it,” Bethany countered. “They’ve seen it before. They just won’t care; their position will be that we’re whatever helps them the most. I also know our allies aren’t the people who matter here. I’m much more worried about who our people are and how they’re likely to treat us. Do we need to be on guard against attempts to kill us?”
As she spoke, Bethany nodded exaggeratedly at her son. He took that as a ...
2023-06-30 02:25:06 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity wasn’t able to start searching A’Atla’s surface immediately; he didn’t even have a way to get to the surface. What he was able to do was explore more of A’Atla’s interior. The doors that had once been blocked with warnings of death were now easy to open; he could travel through miles of underground tunnels and mysterious rooms if he wanted to.
He expected it to look like the inside of an old half-buried ship, filled with mud and tiny se...
2023-06-29 02:16:25 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Weirdly, the one thing that didn’t change was the local mana level. Serenity still felt like he was in a nexus, but they’d moved far enough that either this was a giant nexus or something else was going on. Serenity’s bet was on the second option. A’Atla had to be affecting the entire area. Serenity’s first thought was that it was like a dungeon, but that couldn’t be right; A’Atla was definitely not a dungeon. He’d know.
“How are we do...
2023-06-27 22:51:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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If this was “gentle, Serenity didn’t want to feel “rough”.
The sad thing was that it probably was gentle. A’Atla rocked like a subway car suddenly slowing to come into a station, from all directions, repeatedly and unexpectedly, but it was never worse than that.
Serenity pulled up the overview screen and filtered out all of the warnings that were older than a year old. There was one left, which worried Serenity until he realized that it was ...
2023-06-26 22:54:47 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity was about to dive back into the information on his display when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Blaze chuckled. “You’ve been a bit lost in your work. We’re getting ready to eat while we talk about what we’ve figured out; why don’t you come join us?”
That was Blaze’s way of politely saying that he needed to eat if he was going to stay healthy, wasn’t it? Serenity didn’t have to eat, as long as he had enough mana. Though p...
2023-06-25 23:56:26 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“That last one is the last entry of them all?” Serenity looked up at his father. “Is there anything else that talks about what the Event was, what caused it?”
Lex shook his head. “They didn’t know. That’s mentioned repeatedly; they know it was a great disaster that did something to the planet’s mana levels and stability and made them plummet, along with causing horrible weather. Some of the descriptions are fairly brutal; there were quite a...
2023-06-24 22:15:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Lex and Bethany traded a long look. It was the sort of look that only two people who’d known each other for years, even decades could have. They were talking without words.
The words followed, but that didn’t mean Serenity understood the context. Some of it made sense, but it was clear his parents were working in a landscape he didn’t know.
“It hasn’t been a year yet.”
Bethany shook her head. “Doesn’t apply. I’m more worried...
2023-06-23 23:22:00 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The spire in the center of the room was about five feet in diameter at the base and rose about fifteen feet into the air; it narrowed to a little under a foot wide at the top, but the narrowing wasn’t smooth. The first foot and a half was cylindrical, then it narrowed for about the same distance, then it was cylindrical again. This repeated all the way to the top of the spire.
It seemed to be made of the same stone as the walls of the room, but where th...
2023-06-22 23:47:24 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“...else to do.”
Serenity realized he’d been sitting there not listening for a while; he had no idea what his mother was telling Blaze. He didn’t think it had been all that long, but it was clearly long enough that the attention was no longer on him. He could have asked Aide, but he decided to just listen for a moment and see if it became obvious.
“You haven’t tried to leave?” Blaze sounded surprised.
Bethany shrugged. “There isn...
2023-06-21 23:06:32 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The feel of being back in his human form was odd after being both the dragon and the Sovereign, but Serenity wasn’t certain he’d actually shifted forms while he was in the Well of Souls. Instead, it was more like the Well had been a weird mindscape, symbolic rather than real. It probably said something that his human form wasn’t one of the two Serenity had used there, but it was nothing Serenity didn’t already know; however comfortable being human was, ...
2023-06-20 22:09:16 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“Out,” Serenity muttered. “Dad was thinking of getting out. And maybe a bit of Alice in Wonderland. What the heck? How does falling down a rabbit hole even connect to the Well of Souls?” He had his eyes closed as he tried to leave his great-grandfather’s library for the third time. Neither of the previous tries had worked; it was difficult to picture something based on a simple, incomplete description. Lex wasn’t able to say what he was concentrating on...
2023-06-19 22:53:38 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity floated in darkness. It was peaceful, but not somewhere he wanted to be. He wanted to be with his parents; that was the point of this trip.
He wished his father had waited for him to return to Earth; it was difficult to protect people who left without you. Serenity hadn’t worried at the time, but the longer it was since his parents disappeared, the more worried he became. They weren’t safe, not when they’d been out of contact for a month. 2023-06-18 23:41:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Enjoy!
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It took well over a day for Serenity to find a weakness in the wind barrier, and it was one that had formed since the barrier was created. Unlike the wards the Viper had, the wind barrier was clearly created by someone who knew what he was doing.
Blaze was happy about how long it took. He actually wanted Serenity to rest before working on the ward but gave up and simply required Serenity to stay inside the ley line. Blaze would do everything that required...
2023-06-17 22:19:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The island was greener than Serenity had expected. He wasn’t certain why he’d expected a desert island; his father hadn’t described it at all. Perhaps that was the reason.
It was closer to a jungle than anything else for about half of the island, maybe two-thirds. A good bit of the rest was beach or rocks, but there were some areas that were open enough for a helicopter to land safely. Beyond its physical characteristics, however, the island had one h...
2023-06-17 00:29:24 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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None of Legion’s reunions went particularly smoothly. Some people weren’t there; others weren’t happy to have an old flame show up when they’d moved on to another relationship. Even when everything worked out, Legion had decided to tell his or her partner or parents or child who Legion was now. Most didn’t really seem to accept what Legion said in one way or another; of the people who did, some seemed far more upset than Legion was.
Legion was very...
2023-06-15 23:07:14 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Becca hurried around the house, picking up after her son. He was - thankfully! - with his grandparents now, but she still had to get the house cleaned up before the realtor arrived with the potential buyers. If the house didn’t sell soon, she was going to have to either drop the price or go with one of the “cash for your house” offers, and those wouldn’t even pay off what was left on the mortgage.
Vultures was what they were, circling aroun...
2023-06-14 22:37:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Another swarm attempted to assault Serenity, followed by a third. No matter how many attacked at once, they just bounced. Whatever attack they were using was probably very dangerous to undead, but Serenity wasn’t undead. It simply didn’t affect him any more than their presence or use of Death-based magic did.
Serenity almost wanted to keep them around for the amusement value, but no matter how much the Death-wisp swarms reminded Serenity of Curio wh...
2023-06-13 23:01:09 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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At first, it wasn’t a surprise when Lex didn’t write to Serenity. He’d mentioned that he might be out of contact for a couple of weeks while he searched for the Well of Souls. Serenity was completely willing to give his father the time he’d asked for, so he wasn’t worried when two weeks passed.
During that time, they packed up and left Asihanya. It would be a long trip to Earth, but they weren’t in any particular hurry. Serenity picked a route t...
2023-06-12 23:58:30 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“There is someone here.”
“There are many of us here.”
“No, you idiot. Someone new. Someone who is still physical. But I cannot reach her.”
“Someone real? Someone who isn’t an echo?”
The voices sounded wrong. There was something missing, but Lex had no idea what it was, other than the fact that they seemed accentless and also held no tone or expression. The words seemed to indicate sur...
2023-06-11 23:17:51 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to Arc 10!
Enjoy!
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The worldwide earthquake was only the first problem to interrupt Lex’s attempts to reach the island he thought should hold the Well of Souls. The second time, it was weather; a hurricane blew up out in the Atlantic, then headed towards Florida. At one point, it was aimed directly at the island that interested Lex. It ended up missing the island and turning north to run along the coast before dissipating nearly harmlessly, but it wa...
2023-06-10 22:53:39 +0000 UTC View PostAs always, if I've missed something or someone (I probably have) please let me know.
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Character List of Hidden Knife
This list includes people mentioned in all Arcs to date.
It does not include people with only a single mention or the “people” from the Story Dungeon; they are specifically for that Story. If I missed anyone more important than that (I often do), please let me know in the comments.
... 2023-06-09 23:39:58 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity would probably never know why Cymryn and his people left a few days after their conversation. He definitely would never know why the army that had been terrorizing the north simply disappeared several days before he talked to Cymryn.
What he did know, on the other hand, was that it was over. He was fairly confident of that on his own, but Quest completion was conclusive. It came when Esme Tillon’s forces finished dealing with the only group ...
2023-06-08 23:13:30 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Cymryn watched the half-dragon leave. He still wasn’t certain the man didn’t remember; his reactions were a little too cautious for someone who thought he was among friends. He wasn’t cautious enough for someone among enemies, however, so the likely explanation was that the tzeka had confused him enough to make him question if what he thought had happened was reality. That was good enough.
There were a number of conclusions that could be reached from ...
2023-06-07 23:00:44 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity only realized he’d never asked the name of the guard after the man had disappeared into “the Lord’s” room, leaving Serenity in the outer waiting room. One of these days he’d get better at remembering to ask.
:Esme Tillon wants to know if she should pull her people off trying to find the invading army. There are some strange reports coming out of that area; no one’s seen them for days. I told her to keep dealing with that situation. We h...
2023-06-06 23:34:54 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Staying “asleep” didn’t get any easier when his captors decided to strip him. He actually had to concentrate and shift a little to allow his armor-self to be removed without being cut, since he normally removed it by shifting it off himself.
He managed it well enough, at least if the fact that they dosed him with still more of the sweet-smelling gas then continued was any indication. He did manage to catch a glimpse of one when he thought they weren...
2023-06-05 22:46:47 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Mana inhibitors sucked. They always had and always would. It was a good thing that they were rare.
Serenity had to wonder just where people on Asihanya had gotten a mana inhibitor. They had to be made by someone roughly ten Tiers over the level of mana they were going to fully inhibit; at-Tier inhibition was more annoying than problematic. This felt severe enough that Serenity figured it had been done by someone of at least Tier Fifteen, and there was no wa...
2023-06-04 22:58:41 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“Dungeon Clan?” Raz knew what his mother was talking about, but it didn’t immediately make sense. “Doesn’t that just mean that we managed a dungeon? What else is there?”
“A few things.” Raz’s mother looked at him with her head level. That could have meant anything, but the kink in the end of her tail and the way it flipped back and forth anxiously said she was nervous. “For this, all that’s important is the torc you’re wearing. I...
2023-06-03 22:17:55 +0000 UTC View Post