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Iztacoatl’s crypt reeked of blood and songs.
The former was expected from all places associated with the Nightlords, but the latter took me by surprise. A haunting melody of windpipes and exotic instruments resonated from my palace's depths. I quickly identified a few tunes from my visits to Ingrid's quarters.
Someone was playing a Winla...
2024-02-03 09:29:18 +0000 UTC View Post
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I looked upon Archfrost’s capital with a heavy gaze.
When Koshro the Conqueror first unified the lands that would eventually become Archfrost through violence, he decided to raise a grand palace between the barren plains and cold rivers that used to be his tribe’s home. When his advisors suggested that he set up his capital i...
2024-01-30 09:09:09 +0000 UTC View Post
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I concluded my day by having Tlazohtzin’s wife over for dinner.
Zyanya Quiabelagayo was indeed quite the beauty, with smooth skin and a warm earthlike complexion, dark and penetrating black eyes, and braided raven hair cascading down her shoulder. Glittering gold earrings and an elegant gemstone necklace framed her fair ...
2024-01-27 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
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A/N: this chapter is a 'semi-interlude' I guess? While written in Alaire's POV, it takes place in the present and advances the main story instead of focusing on past events. Hope you'll like it.
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A few weeks ago, the night Belgorth arose in Walbourg…
The council room was c...
2024-01-23 08:16:26 +0000 UTC View Post
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A/N: there's a short NSFW passage at one point; as usual, I put brackets to indicate it.
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My cheeks still hurt by the time I was forcefully returned to my private quarters.
“For now, my dear songbird, I must ensure that your cage is secure,” Iztacoatl said when she had me escorted out of the throne r...
2024-01-20 09:14:50 +0000 UTC View Post
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“We use a cannon to launch him into the sun,” Marika suggested.
I took a look at the Abbey’s records just long enough to exchange a glance with Selestine. The Priest appeared about as puzzled as I was.
“A cannon?” she asked. “I am not certain I understand your intent, Lady Marika.”
“We know from the account...
2024-01-16 09:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
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A fresh human corpse lay naked on the dinner table, its pallid breasts cold as ice, its manhood turned blue by the snowstorm outside. Its shaved head stared at me with empty eyes and a ghastly smile.
I had no idea why this cadaver showcased parts belonging to both males and females. I suspected it was the result of the same kind of witchcra...
2024-01-13 08:46:07 +0000 UTC View PostHi guys!
I've got a slew of exciting news to report! Commerce Emperor's KU date has been set, and as the video above demonstrates, The Perfect Run's video game development is in good progress. I thought it would be good to make a general post about those.
- Commerce Emperor hitting KU on March 6th (takedown on February 21st)
The first and arguably most important news: as promised in the New Year adress, Commerce Emperor will make i...
2024-01-09 15:58:40 +0000 UTC View Post
A/N: Hi guys, for information,
2024-01-09 08:43:26 +0000 UTC View Post
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I had cursed the land and unleashed its fury.
Smoke Mountain’s anger rippled across the empire in a roar of fire. Its breath of smoke obscured the sky for leagues upon leagues, obscuring the dawn itself. Gray ashes rained down upon the world’s forests and set the grasslands ablaze. The blazing blood of the earth spilled from the mountain, burning ...
2024-01-06 08:07:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Happy New Year, my dear patrons!
As I write these lines, 2023 is coming to an end and we're now moving into a brand new year. I hope all of you will get to enjoy a happy moment with your friends and families. Though we might move out around a lot in the current era, it's good to gather with our loved ones once in a while. Cliché as it sounds, there's no place like home.
And well, you're part of my home too. I once again want to thank you all for supporting me in 2023, whether as ...
2024-01-01 02:05:24 +0000 UTC View Post
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The sacred fires died on the last day of the year. All but one.
For the first time since the Night of the Scarlet Moon, I was allowed to exit the palace under heavy escort. I spent it walking from one city temple to another and extinguishing the flames burning in their hearths with silver bowls of blood and blessed water. By the time the su...
2023-12-23 09:03:28 +0000 UTC View Post
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I spent the better part of the night after the battle assisting Mr. Fronan in the rescue efforts.
Walbourg’s packed and wooden suburbs had proven a fertile ground for Belgoroth’s flames to spread through. Thankfully, we managed to contain the inferno within an hour or so. Duchess Griselda’s witchcrafters proved as adept at putting o...
2023-12-19 08:16:51 +0000 UTC View Post
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A/N Warning: there's a NSFW scene at the start of the chapter which, as you can guess from the participants, was written to be rather unhealthy and unpleasant. I left marks indicating its start and end for those who would rather skip it.
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I left the temple with a heart filled with frustration.
My greatest fear was powerlessness,...
2023-12-16 09:25:21 +0000 UTC View Post
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Belgoroth surged forward in a flash of speed.
The bigger an object, the slower it moved. Inertia was one of the inviolable laws of the world. Weight reduced movement. When we last fought golems, a man on foot could easily outrun them.
Belgoroth hit the western barricade quicker than a rampaging horse.
He wasn’t so fast tha...
2023-12-12 09:31:53 +0000 UTC View Post
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The door to Ingrid’s apartment seemed taller than before. It loomed over me like the black gates of the House of Gloom, dark and silent.
I knew it was only a trick of my mind, an echo of my guilt. It still caused me to hesitate for a brief instant. A thousand conversations crossed my mind in the span of a second. I remembered the advice of my predecessors...
2023-12-09 08:56:37 +0000 UTC View Post
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“No,” Selestine said.
I shifted in my seat and exchanged a glance with Duchess Griselda.
“No?” I repeated, slightly annoyed.
“I will not sign these accords as the representative of the Reformists, because our movement has no head,” Selestine explained. “Reformist churches are interdependent, Lord Merchant. They share donations ...
2023-12-05 09:11:50 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
I hope you are all well in this month of December.
I am informing you that with the incoming Christmas/New Year celebrations, where I'll return to friends and family, I'll be unable to post during that period. Henceforth, there won't be an update from December 24th to January 6th; the last update of the month will be on Saturday 23rd and updates will resume on the 6th.
I admit I kinda need a break. I feel I'm running on fumes lately, es...
2023-12-05 09:11:42 +0000 UTC View Post
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The Lords of Terror did not believe in wasting time.
They started by hanging me, since I could not walk and would need my hands to cast the Tomb spell. A dozen intestines coiled around my chest and arms before they lifted me above the stomach-filled lake like ropes. White maggots wormed their way into my wounds and bound them. Even my burning, sun-power...
2023-12-02 08:53:28 +0000 UTC View Post
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As promised, Aiglemont presented himself at the manor at dawn.
By then, Marika and Mr. Fronan had collaborated to transform the metal fence surrounding the property into better-defended stone walls. It must have been surprising for the neighbors to wake up and find that fortifications had been magically raised overnight. If word of our true identities ha...
2023-11-28 08:52:32 +0000 UTC View Post
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All was dark.
All was black.
All was silence.
I awoke enshrouded in lightless shadows, a pitch-black expanse thicker than a starless night. I couldn’t see anything; not even my own hand. The darkness consumed all.
My body shivered in the cold. I was lying on a stone floor, or at least it felt that way to my numb fingers and rattling ...
2023-11-25 08:49:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi guys!
As forewarned some time ago, Never Die Twice has now been relaunched on Kindle Unlimited in partnership with Mango Media! Too late for Halloween, too early for Christmas, just in time for the Black Friday!
I'm sure most of you have already taken a peek by now, but if any of you have access to KU, I would love for you to leave a review or comment,...
2023-11-25 08:49:24 +0000 UTC View Post
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I usually sought out crowded places when in a conflicted mood.
I believed all humans were on a spectrum as far as social interactions were concerned. Some people loved to be alone. Colmar struck me as the kind of person who would be happy working weeks in his laboratory with no one to disturb him; and while she wasn’t adverse to group activities, Sor...
2023-11-21 08:01:32 +0000 UTC View Post
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Hiding Curses came easy to me.
I should have expected that. I’d grown used to disguising my malice from the Nightlords with a placid face and pretty words. A Curse was no little than hateful intentions made manifest, so all I had to do was wrap it up in a Veil of insincere words and empty reassurances. Both spells used my Tonalli and thus could work in ta...
2023-11-18 08:46:51 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
No extra chapter today, but I still have many, many big news to announce on some very exciting developments: new patreon features, new game adaptation, new ebooks...
Long-term patrons will know that my patreon has known its ups and downs since implementation; some of my stories are more popular than other, I've changed my update schedule now and then... when we moved from Apoca...
2023-11-16 17:41:13 +0000 UTC View Post
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I walked out of my meeting with three different concessions: a letter of safe conduct signed by the Duchess herself, which granted our delegation free passage through all of Walbourg’s territories; Griselda’s promise to hold an Estates-General assembly in three weeks’ time; and a renewed hope in the future.
“The Estates-General?” Marika asked ...
2023-11-14 07:54:21 +0000 UTC View Post
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The night ended like it began: in blood and tears.
The Jaguar Woman remained true to her word. To punish my hesitation, a hundred concubines were picked at random, brought to the temple, and fed to the sulfur flame. Old and young, foreign captives or locals, weak and strong, it mattered not. Some screamed, some begged, some praye...
2023-11-11 07:32:41 +0000 UTC View Post
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Walbourg’s border was but a stone's throw away.
Of all the south-west’s fortress cities, few inspired as much respect as Riverstone. Watching its curtain walls rising beside the river under the rising sun was a humbling experience; each of its soaring towers were as large as Snowdrift’s Black Keep. The scorpions and ballistas atop th...
2023-11-07 08:09:58 +0000 UTC View Post
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Time behaved so strangely. There were moments in my life where months blurred into weeks, and where seconds seemed as if they had lasted centuries.
Tonight belonged to the latter case.
The march of time had come to a crashing halt. A thousand thoughts crossed my mind in the blink of an eye. The temple had fallen into a terrible silence...
2023-11-04 08:25:29 +0000 UTC View Post
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The tree gracefully lowered its branch and poured steaming water into my teacup.
I watched the scene in silent fascination. The oak was remarkably young and petite enough to fit inside the lodge where Mr. Fronan hosted us. Its roots danced on the floor as it graciously proceeded to serve Marika next. My friend studied the tree with a puzzled expression. No doubt the sam...
2023-10-31 08:00:57 +0000 UTC View Post