In the silence, Shanine looked between all four of them, eyes jumping from one to the other. Zed knew she was searching, looking for something. He knew what it was but left it to her to ask the question. When she did, it surprised no one—except Trevor, it seemed.
“Where’s she, by the way?”
“Who?” he asked. “Mean girl?”
“Mean girl?” Trevor asked, confused.
“Your patient,” Zed explained, then turned his attention to one of the beds. A bed they had...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Seth looked at it closely but couldn’t discern any more than its aesthetic appeal. “It is?” he asked.
Jim nodded. “He’s probably being sponsored by one of the houses. He must be talented.”
Seth shrugged as his minds took offense.
Is he trying to say we don’t have talent? That we’re only here because of the seminary?
You know, another joined. We don’t like the way everyone keeps looking down on us simply because we use a pure core...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Shanine sat up on her new bed, easing herself into a comfortable position. From the expression on her face as she did, she would’ve preferred something more comfortable.
Zed watched her go through the process. She adjusted here, twitched there, shivered a bit. It was an amusing process executed in search of a solution. After a while, she settled with a resigned sigh.
Zed chuckled. “Hospitals, right?”
She glared at him for a moment before letting up.
“I’m sure...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Lucas led them from the room, silence his new companion after his outburst. The short exchange in the waiting room had given Seth a broader understanding of how much the world truly disliked the concept of a pure core. He’d thought they’d simply thought it inefficient, now he knew they hated it. Why? Because it brought death to so many, apparently.
He didn’t dwell on it as he followed Lucas and Jim, their silence playing fourth comrade to their party of three.
It wasn’t lo...
2023-12-11 04:06:51 +0000 UTC
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Seth watched the man through hooded eyes. “I thought you just said solo adventures are a quick way to die.”
“So is being what you are,” Jim replied casually. Then he turned to him and added: “Something must kill a soul mage someday.”
Seth didn’t like this. “Tell that to Barons,” he grumbled.
“Barons die, too, Seth. If only you knew.”
Behind him, his twin blades were short enough for him to sit with them in only a mild discomfort. For his katana, h...
2023-12-11 04:03:39 +0000 UTC
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The adventurer’s guild building was a massive conglomeration of roofs and buildings that rivaled the sight of castles ancient even to the world before the first crack. Its compound was larger, large enough to occupy ten more of it. It surprised Seth because he hadn’t known there existed a place within his father’s territory with a much larger space than his father’s compound.
While he walked in with Jim, he did well to keep his awe from his face. The shawl fit him nicely, and de...
2023-12-11 04:02:22 +0000 UTC
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Author's note: This chapter contains sexual content: Age discretion is advised. That said, I will mark where it begins and where it ends.
Ezril was halfway inside his tent when Lenaria pushed passed him. Surprised, he studied her, choosing to remain halfway into the tent as she turned to face him. She watched him with wary eyes, worrying her lower lip between her teeth in nervousness.
Ezril’s brows furrowed in curiosity. “Are you drunk?”
Lenaria sho...
2023-12-11 03:57:54 +0000 UTC
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When night came a few of the adults had a fire burning as they did every night. It was a fire that would burn deep into the night, adding its crackling symphony to the forest’s echoes, a new member of its orchestra surrounded by the adults who would talk and drink and make merry if they saw fit. But though it burned so late and would last the whole night if allowed, the gatherings often came to an end before the darkest of the night. Each adult leaving at spaced intervals. Those new to the ...
2023-12-11 03:51:52 +0000 UTC
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Ezril looked up from his Sunders, shaken from his surprise.
She was old. Very old. Her weathered skin, leathery from age, drooped on both sides of her face where her cheeks hid beneath it all. It fell so low that it dangled with each facial movement. And she walked with a cane. Her hand trembled as she moved the cane, and when she walked towards his bed he was reminded of Cyrinth. He wondered if she was dying, too.
Young Antari, she had called him.
He frowned.
“You k...
2023-12-11 03:48:41 +0000 UTC
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Awakening cocoon. Zed wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that even as the lower left portion of the crimson orb was blasted into oblivion. Unfortunately, while it was no longer as thick there, it remained just as thick in other places.
A spatter of the cocoon splashed against the back wall, staining the blue in its crimson. Then it sort of faded away, as if sucked into the wall somehow. Zed gave it little thought as his eyes caught sight of Shanine’s feet.
“If h...
2023-12-11 03:42:23 +0000 UTC
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No one said anything. They all stood, patient, waiting for what would happen next. Zed’s intrigued smile never left his face.
“I’m just saying,” he said. “It’s kinda odd seeing an Awakened among the Olympians. You guys strike me as badasses.”
Trevor shrugged, unconcerned. He was clearly used to people being surprised by his rank or lack there of if the right people were asked.
“Is it an attribute thing?” Zed asked, pondering on the concept. There was a part...
2023-12-11 03:39:41 +0000 UTC
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Zed sat down with thoughts running through his mind. He would be worried if any of them were actually important. Regardless, they continued to flow, countless and merry as if important in their own right.
Beside him Oliver sat as well.
“You think she’s going to be alright?” he asked Ash.
They were seated in a different room now, taken from the training area as well as the viewing area. Only three of them were in the room, housed quietly and patient. In the room just be...
2023-12-11 03:37:23 +0000 UTC
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Ishtaaq woke up slowly, groggy and on the edge of confusion. He laid with his back against the ground and his eyes to the sky. The view that met him was a canopy of green leafy tree branches. They blotted out the sun so entirely that it felt as if it was evening. His body ached mildly and his muscles felt sore. Rather than address that, he moved his hands, happy to know they remained within his control and patted his pockets.
He let out a relieved sigh when he felt the lumps. He still h...
2023-12-06 05:31:03 +0000 UTC
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This is a Hobby. Please help make corrections where you see fit, suggestions are greatly welcome, and plot holes being pointed out will always be appreciated. Enjoy at your own peril. Also, title suggestions will be amazing as I still have none.
............................................................
“Did you make the list?”
“Nope.”
“What of you, Dave?”
“Nope.”
“Muhammad?”
Muhammad took a swig of his coke. He upturn...
2023-12-05 06:02:09 +0000 UTC
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Lenaria stilled under Ezril’s touch, growing quiet. Her body rigid, as though mounted to the spot where she stood.
Ezril had had encounters with time. Perceptions warped with it seeming to go on forever. During Father Talod training it would seem to go on forever when he’d want only for it to end. Or during Priestess Ellenel’s private sessions, ending in a heartbeat when he would want nothing but for it to go on. Time had proved itself countless times capable of teasing his perspe...
2023-12-04 22:36:03 +0000 UTC
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Lenaria had grown more affectionate over the days, touching him frequently, and easily. Maintaining prolonged physical contact. Once, when they had been talking, her hand had been on his face the entire conversation, her fingers caressing his cheek. When he had drawn her attention to it she’d simply shrugged but not taken it away.
“It still feels like a dream,” she’d said. “Any moment now I’ll wake up and you’d be lying lifeless in my arms. And I’ll be back in the forest...
2023-12-04 22:32:10 +0000 UTC
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On their second night Cyrinth had looked at Ezril’s Sunders strapped to his back as if they were useless before telling him its uselessness in the art he would teach him. That night Cyrinth had had him seek him out in the darkness with closed eyes, telling him how he wasn’t simply capable of seeing in it but capable of much more.
Ezril failed to find him that night.
Cyrinth came by for seven more nights, always teaching the same skill. Always being unable to be found. Still, i...
2023-12-04 22:29:00 +0000 UTC
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Seth nodded to himself after a while and said, “We are.”
When he turned his head to Jim. Jim could see he had made a decision.
“So?” he asked. “What’s it going to be?”
“I’ll be a hunter,” Seth said.
Jim nodded sagely. “Then you’ll need a team. And I already have one in mind. Mind you, they’re all silver magi.”
Seth frowned. “But I’m Iron.”
“I know.” Jim reached into the drawer he’d pulled out the box bearing the black...
2023-12-04 22:24:36 +0000 UTC
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The seminary, as cruel a place as it always proved itself to be, was nothing if not consistent. When a seminarian displays an aptitude in one talent, they honed it. The countless training implemented was only designed for the sake of broadening their horizon. It was expected that every Reverend know a little about a lot of things and a lot about a little. Often times there were seminarians that proved talented in more than one aspect and were groomed to it.
However, Seth was an anomaly,...
2023-12-04 22:22:34 +0000 UTC
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Seth absently adjusted the straps of the sword he had still not yet seen.
“Is it that heavy?”
Seth nodded.
Jim chuckled. “That’s because you’re wearing it wrong. Weapons like that have an under draw.”
“Under draw,” Seth asked, confused.
Jim rose from his chair and stepped around the table. He approached Seth with the comfortable ease of a man in his domain and stopped in front of him.
“Short swords like the one you’re carrying,” he sai...
2023-12-04 22:19:00 +0000 UTC
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Panic filled Daniel’s mind. He’d allowed much happen during the spars because the ship had enough health potions to restore almost any and all injuries. They were high grade alchemical concoctions, created by the finest mages and alchemists in VHF.
But it couldn’t bring a person back to life. It couldn’t raise the dead.
It was his fault. He’d miscalculated, thought a Beta rank mage couldn’t do much damage so quickly. It had bolstered his confidence that a Beta rank mag...
2023-12-04 22:14:22 +0000 UTC
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Oliver’s jaw dropped.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked, practically bolting from his chair. His legs carried him all the way to the glass before he could even think about it.
On the other side, the training room, Chris hit the wall with a force that left Oliver and perhaps everyone who wasn’t an Olympian in the room wondering how the wall had withstood her impact.
“Fire rune,” Eitri said, his tone sounded impressed.
“But that casting speed,” Kid ...
2023-12-04 22:08:14 +0000 UTC
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“What are they doing?” Kid asked. He was standing next to Daniel now, watching the spar that was less a spar and more a fight unfold before them. On his left, Ronda watched with a strong frown.
“I’m not sure,” Daniel said. “Zed is doing something. I cannot say what.”
“He’s fixing himself,” Festus said, unconcerned.
Kid squinted through narrowed lids, as if he could somehow tell what Festus was talking about. He saw nothing, noticed nothing.
“Yeah,...
2023-12-04 21:56:29 +0000 UTC
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Zed had hoped to get Chris with that one. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise attack, not as far as surprise attacks went, but it was sure to take her by surprise. From what he knew about magic, not many people could focus so heavily on one spell just to turn and cast another. Surely Chris had been banking on that. Was it her purpose for casting that specific spell? Had she somehow known that he would refuse to relinquish his shield to it?
Zed refused to accept that notion even as Chris...
2023-11-30 06:04:43 +0000 UTC
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“Bone density,” he muttered, staring at the notification. He would’ve liked to say he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about the attribute but that would’ve been a lie. Bone density was the most passive attribute he could think of. It was like a person having a stronger heart than other people. It was powerful but not necessarily noticeable. The major part it played for him was making sure some of the attacks he took didn’t mutilate him.
Now that he thought about it, it was...
2023-11-30 06:00:55 +0000 UTC
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Ezril’s head turned immediately. Looking over his shoulder he saw Lenaria standing in front of the tent, eyes casting in different directions, searching. He returned his attention to Cyrinth but the man was gone, as though he had never been there in the first place.
Cyrinth had seemed like a dying man the last time they had met. Tonight, he’d seemed like a man cheating death. And he smelled something putrid. Ezril discarded the thoughts. If he could believe the man, then he would se...
2023-11-30 05:53:59 +0000 UTC
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Ezril had been wracking his mind in search of what to expect of his observer. Now, he relaxed in recognition of the voice of an old friend.
By the life of him he would never have thought anyone would find him in a place whose location he didn’t even know. Still, his level of surprise wasn’t much, considering the situation. After all, he had always thought him a weird old man. The ends of his lips curved into a smile. Is there anywhere you cannot enter, Cyrinth?
“It ...
2023-11-30 05:28:03 +0000 UTC
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The houses were quite literally self-explanatory.
When the car dropped Seth off at his destination, he found himself standing in front of a cavalcade of houses lined side by side. Each one was different from the other, numbers boldly written on massive placards handing just above their doors.
At first he assumed there existed some kind of hierarchy amongst them, evident in, perhaps, their numbers. However, by the twenty-eight house he was beginning to believe otherwise. He’d see...
2023-11-30 05:24:13 +0000 UTC
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Seth walked for ten more minutes before he held up a pedestrian. The lady was plainly dressed in a simple pink gown that hugged her features enough to note her minor curves but naught more with perhaps an inch of height on him, not enough for him to tilt his head to meet her eyes. She held her hair back in multiple braids and had puckered lips that made her seem a lady who pouted perhaps too many times.
When she stopped, she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and skepticism.
...
2023-11-30 05:19:51 +0000 UTC
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This was insane.
Staring at the bustling crowd of people selling their wares and going about their day, Seth could not stop the frown that contorted his face. It was not anger. No. Anger was an emotion left for those offended, rightfully or not. What he felt was discomfort. Its mix with a touch of fear did nothing to aid him.
He knew he’d kept secrets in the seminary. Lied about every single facsimile of his history, short as it was. But to think the seminary would punish him by...
2023-11-27 05:44:38 +0000 UTC
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