The dungeon was closed.
The trolls were coming.
Nevertheless, Lexie refused to panic. She suppressed fear with sheer willpower and thought about what she could do right now.
Tapping into her Eldritch mana was inevitable at this point, but she had to be careful with it. She didn’t know what her limit was yet, and she didn’t know what long-term use would cause.
Plus, the dungeon might have other tricks up its sleeve.
The void card would be the simpl...
2025-09-10 22:24:42 +0000 UTC
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The good news was that they weren’t trapped in the dungeon…yet.
A timer had surfaced on their SIs, and the time for the dungeon to resolve was still a few more days.
The bad news was that the timer was glitching, in and out of view, and the time was running down much faster than it should have been.
Not to mention that there were trolls they couldn't see surrounding them.
And there was no exit.
Fear had Lexie stalling, her brain short-circuiting. ...
2025-09-09 23:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Lexie barely slept a wink all night.
Between worrying about Theo, her melancholy about Uncle Max, and her worry about the growing tension between her and her friends, she couldn't relax. Not to mention her fight with her dad.
She tossed and turned for most of the night, and even searched for a spell or potion that would knock her out.
Eventually, she ended up sliding into sleep anyway, but she only got three hours of it before the morning alarm rang. Naem hadn’t appe...
2025-09-08 23:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Lexie wanted to fight someone.
Anger spiked as the images in her head vanished into nothing but darkness.
She jerked up in bed and glared at Xena, who was standing beside it. “What did you do that for?”
Xena frowned. “Don’t cop that attitude with me. It's time for the welcome dinner, which is mandatory, and there are going to be announcements. I didn’t want you to miss it and get punished again because I’m a good friend.”
Lexie blew out a brea...
2025-09-05 23:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Vacek’s head snapped sideways at Aiden’s blow, but he slowly rotated it back into place. His expression was measured rather than confused or angry.
“Well,” he said. “I suppose I deserve that o-“
Aiden didn’t let him finish. He hit him again, this time square in the middle of his face, hard enough for his nose to crunch underneath the force, and a trail of blood to drip down one nostril.
“Dad!” Lexie exclaimed, shocked by the show of violence. “What are yo...
2025-09-04 23:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Aiden rubbed the bridge of his nose, an ache throbbing at his neck.
While he trained his skills, there was so much occupying his mind right now that he didn’t know where to start. Most of his thoughts centered on the Alchemist and how his powers functioned. How did he manage to reach Aiden from the other side of the world and maintain the connection that Aiden could feel subtly if he probed his mind for some time?
He couldn’t imagine someone holding that much power, but if he...
2025-09-03 23:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Lexie blinked fast as she moved into the room, unable to stop her hands from clenching into fists.
The large man felt familiar but also not.
His aura filled the room, his grey eyes settling on her like a judgment. Her nerve escaped her. She felt like he could see right through her, like he was watching the wheels in her brain turn. What was this about? Did he find out that she helped Theo? Maybe they found her card in Jerry's office, but since she’d transferred it to Theo’s in...
2025-09-02 22:37:53 +0000 UTC
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The V’Sala looked disgruntled at being dragged away from whatever it was doing, but as Naem put it down, it still greeted, “Hello, Princess.”
“Do you have a name?” Lexie asked, and both Naem and the V’Sala faced her in surprise.
“What?” Lexie asked. “I’m assuming there’s more than one of you running around. Isn't there?"
She addressed the next question to Naem, who nodded slowly.
"There is."
"Are all of them under your soul line?
"Yes,...
2025-09-01 22:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The more Darina spoke, the clearer it became in Lexie’s mind.
The shadow realm existed as the inverse of the human realm, and the only access point was through its essence reflected here …a shadow. A shadow was also near the end of the string that connected 'something' to 'nothing'. It was near 'nothing' because a shadow lacked all the things that the human had…it lacked life, a voice, expressions. It was the final point before the end, and to access the end, one must strip ...
2025-08-29 23:25:10 +0000 UTC
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Aiden’s heart hiccupped, then went back to racing double-time.
For a tense moment, his mind went blank. This was a rare phenomenon. He was typically a quick thinker, but this was so unprecedented that he was stunned motionless.
He ventured to ask a question, What do you want from me?
<Oh, come now. This is more about what you want from me. After all, you’re the one who initiated this delightful little link in my mind that enabled us ...
2025-08-28 22:51:09 +0000 UTC
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Lexie went back to the forum where she first spoke with Madswick and started with a simple ‘Hello.’
The response came damn near instantaneously as though Madswick had been waiting for the message.
Madswick: Finally, Ms. Sparrowfoot. Have you made your decision?
Lexie: Um, kind of. First of all, I have a few questions.
Madswick: Ask away.
Lexie: How do you always know when I’m online?<...
2025-08-28 00:31:26 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean?”
Theo didn’t respond, but a second after he spoke, Lexie got an alert on her SI.
THEO FIREBRINGER IS GRANTING ACCESS TO HIS SYSTEM SCREEN. DO YOU ACCEPT? [YES] [NO]
Lexie accepted and was now staring at a message from an unknown number that said, “SOS Galaxy.”
“I don’t understand,” Lexie said.
“SOS Galaxy is something Lucy and I used to say to each other,” he said. “It’s a phrase from a stupid TV show she used to watch w...
2025-08-26 23:22:29 +0000 UTC
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As always, the first thing Lexie could sense from Ganor's soul was waves of violence and rage, battering her mercilessly.
It was a different type of rage than she’d felt before with the other creatures she’d soul-touched. Here, the violence wasn’t linked to any feelings of injustice or pleasure, and it wasn’t peripheral to any other emotion or story.
Here, the violence was simply the point.
It was the central emotion with nothing else surrounding it. It was both the ...
2025-08-26 01:40:47 +0000 UTC
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The black eyepatch sat in Lexie's palm, freezing her brain for a hot second.
Torin's intense gaze scorched the side of her face, but she didn't look at him. Not yet. She had to process this first, understand the implications of what she held in her hand. Her brain was slow on the uptake, bogged down by everything else she'd already been dealing with.
It had been a long day.
A snort flew out of her mouth as she stroked a finger over the leather.
She fin...
2025-08-22 22:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Aiden walked into the room, and Tate visibly tensed. He tried to sit up once more, but Aiden held out his hand.
“Please. Just rest,” he said. “I’m not here to interrogate you, I promise. I just want to ask you a few questions.”
Aiden’s eyes flitted from Lexie to Aiden, suspicion clouding his gaze.
“About what?”
“I already told him about the Chosen stuff and also about where we come from,” Lexie admitted asTate’s eyes swept back to her,...
2025-08-21 22:42:44 +0000 UTC
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Lexie didn’t quite know how to react to that announcement.
She blinked twice and said, “Oh.”
“Oh?” Tate rotated his head to eye her. “Is that all you’re going to say? ‘Oh’?”
She didn’t know what else to say. Somehow, she wasn’t shocked.
It made sense for Torin to be the main character. He was extremely powerful, from a powerful family, and he was also hardworking with a deep-seated code of honor. He had 'main character' written all over hi...
2025-08-20 23:28:31 +0000 UTC
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Luckily, no more attacks came on their way home.
Lexie called her dad while they were in the van to let him know what happened and also to let him know that she was okay.
He seemed to have a hard time believing that last part.
“Dad, I’m fine,” Lexie said for what felt like the umpteenth time.
“How can you be fine?" His voice was tense, angry. "You almost got kidnapped and got shot at!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get hurt. Mide and Nathan took g...
2025-08-19 22:55:52 +0000 UTC
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Nathan gingerly swept Tate into his arms with little to no effort and straightened. Tate let out a groan, but he didn’t wake up, and Lexie w
Nathan gingerly swept Tate into his arms with little to no effort and straightened. Tate let out a groan, but he didn’t wake up, and Lexie was getting even more worried. She shot Nathan anxious looks as they walked, one of which Nathan caught.
“Don’t worry," he told her. "I’m being as careful as I can.” He nudged his chin toward t...
2025-08-19 00:07:41 +0000 UTC
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AN: Okay something weird happened. I scheduled this to post last night, and I thought it posted because a comment came through but then I checked and it's gone! Weird. Anyway, here is the chapter which I did post last night but then Patreon deleted for whatever reason.
When Lexie returned to her booth, Xena said, “It’s about time.”
“Sorry.” Lexie slid between Xena and Dewie, who were watching the next match about to start. “I had to help Urmas with his card....
2025-08-16 11:38:41 +0000 UTC
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“Lexie?” Urmas spoke up, “You were saying something?” "Oh yeah, sorry.” Lexie exited out of her system screen to address Urmas. “Where was I
“Lexie?” Urmas spoke up, “You were saying something?”
"Oh yeah, sorry.” Lexie exited out of her system screen to address Urmas. “Where was I? Oh yeah. Like I said, I think I can enhance the card I gave you and add a feature that might ease activation, or make it such that you don't have to activate it every time you wa...
2025-08-14 23:03:21 +0000 UTC
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“You seem deep in thought,” Naem told Lexie when they returned to the Orcish caves that evening.
“Yeah," Lexie responded. “I’m wondering how to befriend someone who loathes me. And who I also loathe in part.”
“In that case, why do you want to befriend them?”
“For selfish reasons. They have something I want." A glint from the rocks skipped over their path. “You know the Shadowbanes?”
“Yes. Elementals descended from a line of necromancers, who for...
2025-08-13 23:38:18 +0000 UTC
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“What?” Lexie wasn’t sure she understood what Theo was asking for. What did he want her to show exactly?
“The cards,” Theo answered. “The ones you were going to use to help me. I want to see them.”
“Oh. Well, it kind of depends on what you want to use them for,” Lexie explained. “When I made the offer, I meant that I could make cards that would help you, not that I automatically just had the cards.”
He raised an eyebrow. "So you make cards regularly?”...
2025-08-12 23:03:56 +0000 UTC
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“So,” Lexie asked Naem before they left the dream realm. “Who are we seeing today?”
“A new type of creature. We’re skipping a few to get to them. I thought we might fast-forward your progress. The sooner we find your place in the soul line, the better."
“But I don’t understand. I thought I had to meet every creature in the soul line first to be included.”
“That would be ideal, as it would gradually build your base of understanding. However, I think consid...
2025-08-11 22:23:32 +0000 UTC
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Lexie was elated as she watched the small flickering flame encased in a transparent ball at the tip of her finger. She’d made fire. How exciting!
Okay, now to try to grow the fire.
She turned up the switch on her second card, and as the fire grew in her hands, she immediately began to feel the mana drain. And truth was, the fire hadn’t even grown by that much. It was just a little bigger than her palm, and while it was encased in the forcefield, she didn’t feel its heat, onl...
2025-08-08 22:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Unlike with the last two intents Lexie had perceived, this time she thought she knew exactly what she had to do.
First off, logically, the intent assumed that she couldn’t create the flames, which was true. She could only feed it. So in order to do that, she would have to create a base, a Firestarter, but with card magic.
Or could she just get a Firestarter from the Firebringers and use card magic to feed those flames? She eyed Luther out of the corner of her vision, her g...
2025-08-07 22:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Lexie hugged her dad for as long as humanly possible. She felt like she hadn’t seen him in ages, even though in truth it had been just under a week since they last met. His familiar cinnamon scent soothed her, as did his chuckle and the gentle hand he rubbed on her head.
“I’m guessing you missed me a lot, honeybee.”
“Uh-huh,” she said into his stomach. As she held him, she noticed how slight he’d gotten. “You’ve lost weight.”
“Emma said the s...
2025-08-07 00:50:35 +0000 UTC
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“So what do we do now?” Lexie asked Naem, tension leaking through her pores. Now that he’d explained it like that to her, she was terrified of the possibility of starting her own soul line and being stuck as an Eldritch forever. “How do we stop it from happening?”
“I do not know,” Naem said. “That’s the problem.”
Those were the most terrifying words he’d ever said to her.
“There has to be something we can do,” Lexie said. “We can tell my dad...
2025-08-05 23:28:45 +0000 UTC
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“I can’t believe you’re not coming home with us,” Xena said, pouting.
Lexie was sitting beside her on the trolley with Dewie, Jace, and a few other students they didn’t know, heading to the station to be picked up by their parents. “Hovelton is going to be so weird without you.”
“I know.” Lexie sighed. “I’ll try to visit as much as I can." Or at least, as much as she could convince her father was safe. He was pretty adamant that she be under twenty-four...
2025-08-05 00:20:09 +0000 UTC
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The Alchemist’s world was made of silver.
He lived in an isolated fortress, on an isolated island rich in magic-neutralizing silver ores that were buried deep into the Earth. The Island itself was protected by a few layers of force fields and was exclusively accessible through one channel, which was a fixed portal in a guarded room at the Hero’s Association Headquarters.
The fortress itself was a refurbished lighthouse that sat at the end of the earth, amidst turbulent s...
2025-08-01 23:12:54 +0000 UTC
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Lexie was full-on gaping at Professor Madswick for what felt like an entire minute.
She was waiting for the shock to finish sinking in, but it was taking its sweet time. She just couldn’t believe that Professor Madswick was the weirdo from the Undernet.
Although it made sense.
They were both kind of kooky and obsessed with speaking to her; Madswick constantly wanted to talk about her soul, and the Undernet guy wanted to talk to her about Eldritch stuff.
He’d ...
2025-08-01 01:02:55 +0000 UTC
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