The Conciege

August Intruder- Chapter 115- Reach For The Heavens

Once upon a time, Uncle Dorthna had told a lovingly beautiful tale of a simple world. At least he had called the world simple. According to his story, it was a world filled with one people. They were religious, their actions and decisions guided by the words of the two false gods they worshipped. Yes. They themselves called both gods false gods. As for whether the gods were truly false, Uncle Dorthna had given no clarification.

The inhabitants of the world were a race of pale, yellow sk...

ROTLE- Chapter 92- Time Magic

Damis went by a great many names. To the vertit tribes of the north known by a great many few—oxymoronic as it was—he was called Nanuman which was known as man-eater. In direct translation, it was interpreted as man eating man as he ate man in human form. In old archives hidden from the sights of simple men he was called Feretae, which interpreted as son of Tae, lord of the demon cavalry. Personally, he hated Tae.

There were more, however. Damis, deceiver of men. Janta, the king’s...

ROTLE- Chapter 91- A Rookie Mistake

The subliminal taste of too many potions downed at once trailed a path of discomfort down Aiden’s throat. If you’d ever tasted a proper mana potion you would always think of them with a frown and a smile. The frown was on account of the taste and the smile on account of the sensation.

A well-made mana potion, one not customized to the user, tasted almost like Hennessy diluted heavily with water, perhaps three parts water to one part Henessey—for those who had tasted the drink—th...

ROTLE- Chapter 90- [Knight of the Crown]

Silence had always been the purview of the intelligent. In Bandiv, there was a saying; it was better to remain silent and allow people sow the seed of doubt towards your intelligence than it was to speak and grow the tree of confirmation towards your stupidity.

Valdan had often liked the saying. Even the unintelligent could display some level of intelligence in silence. After all the ability to identify your own stupidity and mask it with silence was, in itself, a form of intelligence.<...

August Intruder- Chapter 114- Unreasonable

Negotiations were on the way. Inevitability tossed and turned words, doing his best to ensure the continued life of his longtime friend, Shield.

Obedient as ever, or simply inspired by the desire to not die, Shield proved very capable of listening and obeying.

The main purpose of the meeting—the one that brought the Oaths together—was over. Life had been all but accepted into the ranks of the Oaths, which was not as difficult and grand as it sounded. Despite all the posturing ...

August Intruder- Chapter 113- Tar'arkna

It had been a few minutes since Uncle Dorthna had left the room for one reason or the other. Actually, according to the man himself, he had left the room to go get himself a cup of hot water.

For a man who sometimes complained about the heat and sometimes about the cold, he loved his hot water when he could have it.

His departure left Ark in the room alone with Mel. Once in a while, he found his eyes moving to his brother. It was always so sudden. It was always so annoying. His si...

August Intruder- Chapter 112- The Lockwoods

Fighting Madness was a tricky thing. It was like having a stablemaster catch fish with his bare hand. It wasn’t just slippery, it was annoying, difficult to navigate. And then there were the rules. The rules for raising horses did not apply in any way to catching fish.

In the same way, the rules for fighting a normal person did not apply to Madness.

Pain held his hand out, stalling an approaching Inevitability. With his Oath skill [Relief From Pain] in effect, no one around him ...

August Intruder- Chapter 111- Between Dying And Being Killed

Waiting could be fun depending on how imaginative your mind could be.

Ark used to love waiting. He would dream up the most interesting worlds. With stories from Uncle Dorthna that sent him to bed of conquests and wars and rulers and chaos, he could wait for hours without losing his spunk. He would dream up worlds and wishes. In them, he would be a great conqueror, or a small-time soldier rising to the top only to be betrayed by the woman he loved. Poisoned with a kiss.

Or his favo...

August Intruder- Chapter 110- Pain

Callum hated his Oath.

In truth, ‘hate’ was probably too strong a word. For the sake of more precision, Callum didn’t like his Oath. Left with the choice of another Oath, he would take it in a heartbeat. But no such choice had ever been offered to him. No other choice would ever be offered to him.

Also, as much as he would rather have another Oath than Pain, there was no denying that his Oath had helped him. It had come to him in a time when he had been nothing but a broken ...

August Intruder- Chapter 109- Heaven's Gate

The other Oaths trooped into the room slowly. Each Oath took their time. They did not come in side by side or in some kind of chaotic line. They came in one after the other with almost a thirty-minute delay between each Oath’s arrival.

Inevitability and Shield entered together, walking side by side, held in some conversation Desolation couldn’t hear. Not that he was trying to.

They took their seats, dressed casually, like people in their living room. Then again, so was almost ...

ROTLE- Chapter 89- Like A Dog

Demons were, as everyone already knew, the monsters that heralded the arrival of the [Demon King]. Or more precisely, the war that would come with the [Demon King]. In the holy books of Nastild they were very much like the demons Christians spoke greatly of and priests saw in visions and in the eyes of those who did things no normal person should.

They were a race that identified themselves as superior. Existing only to conquer kill and destroy, they were to the people of Nastild what t...

ROTLE- Chapter 88- Prey

A blast of black spikes rained down from the air above, erupting from the ceiling. Aiden ducked to the side. [Enchantment of Lesser Speed] made him quick as a whip in a vengeful punisher’s hand. He rolled along the ground, a sprawled corpse almost disrupting his escape.

When he came up, it was with swords swinging. One missed its target by an inch. The other tore a clean line along a woman’s neck.

[You have dealt Fariva a Fatal Blow!]

[C...

ROTLE- Chapter 87- Basket Maker

The hollow thud of his feet against the wooden steps were a reminder of reality as Aiden ascended.

Those he had just killed had been nothing but normal people. They were killers, but that was all there had been to them. The only thing that had made them stand out was in their crime of cannibalism. As for their combat prowess, they had none.

The people he was about to meet now, they were different. They were the protectors. Men and women who fought when it was time to fight.

...

August Intruder- Chapter 108- The Gift of Possibility

A thrown fist. A straight punch, right from the boxing handbook. A right hook, designed to take a person’s head off, or at least crack a jaw. A spinning backhanded blow. A flying knee straight from the beauties of muay Thai.

Even with his faculties waning, Melmarc knew to stick to the basis.

Every blow was powerful, threatening to send shockwaves through the house. The fight had moved him and Dorthna into the living room. The television had fallen casualty to their battle, if it...

August Intruder- Chapter 107- The First [Namer]

“This thing that you’ve done.” The Oath of Life shook his head in dismay. “It was a wrong thing. A terrible thing. You do not stand between a parent and their child. Ever.”

Chetam, the Oath of Life, and Ruth were seating in Chetam’s room in a separate wing of the massive building that hosted the meeting of the Oaths. It was built out of the way, winged to the far east for Chetam’s privacy.

But it wasn’t just for his privacy. Every Oath had their own wing, built wit...

August Intruder- Chapter 106- Dorthna Paled

“You’ve got to give me something to work with.” Detective Alfa’s tired face was serious as she paced in front of the cell’s bars.

Naymond sat at the end of his cell, back against the cold black wall. Detective Alfa came to a stop, grabbing the cell bars in both hands as she chattered on. “I still don’t get it. Just a few days ago you were making bargains, drawing up contracts in your head and dictating them to me. Precise, without mistake, decisive. But now you clam up. I ...

August Intruder- Chapter 105- How Strong?

Yesterday had been a busy day. Not busy in the way people say busy when they went out or had chores that took up their entire time. Busy in the way you have one specific repetitive thing to do.

Today Melmarc woke up on the floor again. It was becoming a habit now, a worrisome one at that. He would consciously crawl into bed every night, receive a bump against the leg of his bedframe from Spitfire, then fall asleep. He liked to think of the bump as the demon’s way of saying goodnight.<...

August Intruder- Chapter 104- The Strongest Oath

This conversation was going nowhere. Annoyingly enough, Chetam could not say that he was surprised. These meetings happened very rarely. When they happened, this was always the case. Half the time was spent rambling on. One trail of thought was never followed. Lines of conversations were abandoned halfway before being skipped to another.

Sometimes lines of conversations were forgotten entirely.

The arrival of the Oath of Life was definitely an unplanned disturbance to the meeting,...

August Intruder- Chapter 103- Of Salem

Desolation is a strange concept by the very standard of its existence. Some people attributed it to the simple concept of violence, wanton destruction with no sense. Chaos that was always unbecoming.

Elijah had never understood why people were always of the opinion. Desolation, after all, was more than that. It was a grander thing than people in their simple opinions could understand. Desolation was often the thing found at the end of all of humanity.

It wasn’t just wanton destr...

ROTLE- Chapter 86- If It Is Made Poetic Enough

The door to the office swung open without preamble. Not a knock or a call of any kind preceding it. The bastard of an uneducated swine just opened it.

Norlam had half a mind to pin the man to the wall with a knife, but he didn’t.

“We’ve got a new problem.”

Norlam shifted his attention to his new guest. Joina was the youngest member of the town by arrival. Only six months in the town, he was a devout member of the cause. His only problem was his inability to keep hims...

ROTLE- Chapter 85- Kill The Right Person

The night air was a very sharp contrast to the dusty murk that was the air inside the building. Stepping out into it, Aiden inhaled deeply, like a man just leaving prison.

“That’s good air,” he muttered under his breath.

Behind him, Valdan and Elaswit stepped out, appreciating the air in their own ways. Valdan was more reserved about it. He inhaled quietly but Aiden heard it.

Elaswit was a bit more vocal about hers. “Is there a reason you’ve chosen to sleep in that...

ROTLE- Chapter 84- A Cryptic Question

The roads of the town of cannibals were nothing but dirt. There were no tarred roads or interlocking tiles. No bricks or cobblestones. Just dirt. Years of having people and jepats and passing caravans move across them had packed the grounds so tight that it had hardened. It took a lot to raise any dust from them.

The town itself reminded Aiden of towns from those old western movies his mother had loved and his father had simply tolerated due to his love for her. The buildings were tall ...

ROTLE- Chapter 83- Unsure Odds

Fjord had half a mind to curse the young lord Lacheart. Sadly, the man was his only legal source of income at the moment, and Fjord found that he liked having a legal source of income. Even if it was an errand runner. With the young lord, the role paid well.

“If I don’t get killed first,” Fjord muttered, scratching his head.

He was seated on a stool at the counter of a very busy tavern. The air was rend with the sweet smell of alcohol and the sour taste of vomit not yet thro...

ROTLE- Chapter 82- Watcher's Intent

Valdan stared at Aiden as if he was mad.

“What is going on?” he asked. The confusion that colored his face seemed unsure, as if it doubted itself as the correct emotion.

“You’re good with a knife, right?” Aiden asked, knowing very well that Valdan was. The dagger was not his choice of weapon, but he had seen Valdan with a knife enough times to know that the knight knew how to use it.

Valdan nodded very slowly, like someone suspecting they had just been caught in a ...

ROTLE- Chapter 81- Useless

Drax was looking through a parchment when the door opened and Letto backed into the room.

“Have you seen Anita today.” Letto bumped into the table just next to the door and frowned down at it with exaggerated annoyance. “Who the hell keeps a table next to their door.”

He shot Drax an annoyed glare before suddenly deflating. It seemed the day was getting to him. An accumulation of different varieties of annoying happenings could lead to an explosion from something insignifi...

ROTLE- Chapter 80- Not His Fault

Wyverns were the worst things to happen on Nastild. They were the gods’ personal abomination. A failed attempt at dragons. At least there were people who thought that way.

Torat hated them for entirely different reasons. For one, he knew that wyverns were not the creation of the gods. Like every other thing that walked the face of the world, they were not created. They simply were.

They were, at best, very distant cousins of dragons. Useless in their very existence. They were ab...

ROTLE- Chapter 79- Road to Elstrire

The sound of the jepat’s feet against the ground was soothing to Aiden’s ears as he nudged the animal along. He sat equestrian upon the saddle, eyes scanning the castle grounds as he moved. He took it all in. The apothecaries with their vast array of potions sold at exorbitant prices. The enchantment stores with far more enchantments than any [Enchanter] could keep in their minds.

Aiden smiled as he watched his surroundings. His jepat pushed forward at a steady trudge and he kept hi...

ROTLE- Chapter 78- Not Just A Number

The sound of his beating heart was terribly loud in Aiden’s ear, and he blamed it on his enhanced perception. Arms folded over his chest, he flexed his red fingers, closing and opening his fist.

He met Rue Brandis’ gaze and didn’t flinch. Instead, he let his eyes narrow very slowly, suspiciously. Then his lips tightened, and his jaw clenched in false annoyance.

“The Order?” he asked slowly.

Rue Brandis nodded. “What do you know of it?”

Aiden searched her ...

ROTLE- Chapter 77- An Important Question

Did it get darker?

The light of the room seemed to glisten off the blackness of Aiden’s arm. He watched, turning it one way then the other.

It is darker.

Aiden frowned at his arm. Not only had it grown darker but his skin was beginning to seem scaly. There were no scales yet, none that he could see, but there was just something. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like new things, and this was a step above the realm of new.

By his calculations, it was ...

ROTLE- Chapter 76- On Sight

Aiden ran with the urgency that he felt was necessary. The [Sage] had gotten in his way, stopped him from going to Valdan as quickly as he’d wanted. While it annoyed him, he knew very well that the [Sage] had not truly tried to stop him from going to Valdan. The old man had merely been interested in testing him.

It was the way with the powerful. They had no interest in the weak, only in themselves. Aiden had been stopped simply because the [Sage] wanted answers and had been too self-c...