James Osiris Baldwin

Old Opening of Kingdom Come

When I quizzed fans on what kind of content they'd like to see between books, one of the most popular responses were cut chapters that didn't make it to the final books for whatever reason.

This is the first one of those. When I was drafting Kingdom Come, I actually started with the dolphin cheese scene as the first chapter, along with some worldbuilding stuff for Vlachia itself - specifically religion in Vlachia, and how the Priests of Khors interact with their lay worshippers. I decid...

Untitled Sci-Fantasy Thriller Opening Chapter

I've been sick as a dog, and mostly cooped up in bed for the last month. I managed to get covid AND flu in Vegas. It has been a real bad time.

Anyway, I've had this sci-fi demon hunter/thriller idea banging around my head for the better part of two months now, and I had to get it out or it was going to eat my brain. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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The golden moon rose high over...

Recovering from Covid, and What's Next

I kind of fell off the face of the planet due to getting covid while in Las Vegas. I'm tripled-vacced, so it was like a bad cold with a lot of fatigue and brainfog rather than anything dangerous. Still, it forced me to take a well-earned rest for a couple weeks. The fatigue was pretty awful.

I'm 80k words into Brute Force 1 and plan to resume writing tomorrow morning after reviewing the manuscript. Archemi #7 is in the planning stages, and Crowned in Black has been handed over to Soundb...

Crowned in Black is live!

Thank you guys so much for both bearing with me through a very difficult few years, and for reading along with Crowned in Black as it developed. I greatly appreciate you all <3

Patrons of all tiers will be sent a link to a free ebook copy of Crowned in Black over the coming days. If you'd like to help other readers find CiB specifically or Archemi in general, here's two ways you can help:

- Leave a review for Crowned in Black here: 2022-11-17 18:15:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Crowned in Black: Epilogue

“Grrhhn... hnnnn...”

Lucien groaned as his awareness swum back in. There was nothing but solid darkness, and a crushing pressure pinning him to the ground like the hand of God himself. Everything hurt, especially his right arm. His HP was a sliver.

“Hrrn... haahhh...” He panted as he tried to struggle upright. Something was trapping him from above. Grimacing, Lucien twisted and fumbled up toward the slab of stone pinning him. Why did his hand hurt so fucking much? He pushe...

Chapter 55

Two Days Later.

I had a weird sense of deja vu as I woke to the bluish dawn light streaming in through the curtains across from my bed. We were back in the guest suite normally given to us in Vulkan Keep: all eleven of us.

Karalti was curled around my back in her human shape, snoozing softly by my ear. Suri was on the other side of the bed: apart from us, but within arm's reach. From the crook of her neck to her feet, she was covered in and surrounded by eight fluffy, puf...

Chapter 54

The cold wreckage of Istvan's old home was gone. In its place was a compass-shaped garden with four broad paths and four narrow ones, all of them leading to a pair of trees: one larger, one smaller. The trees were almost like willows, gracefully asymmetrical with long, sweet-smelling hanging flowers. The bigger tree had pale purple flowers; the smaller one had white. They were planted so that they looked like a mother and child, the smaller tree arching against the bigger one.

Set aroun...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 53

7 Days later

Crowds of people turned out onto the streets, awed and anxious, as the shadows of airships and dragons darkened the streets of Taltos. We let the warhorns blare as the lead ships - the Metternich, the repaired Illuminata, and the Destroyers Gae Bolg and Salamander - cruised in alongside the Silver Wing of the Shey’ru Karalt.

We'd split the F.A.M combined fleet into three, circling the city like a wolf pack fr...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 52

For the first time in a thousand years, Litvy fell under the shadow of dragon’ wings. The newly freed Solonkratsu flew in dizzying patterns above the city, exulting in their newfound freedom as Karalti held court in the parade ground in front of Litvy Castle's Great Hall. My Queen stood tall as the flight leaders of the Eyrie garrison landed ahead of us, each dragon touching down and bowing their heads. Skyr Delmonte, Skyra Tanghe, Skyr Martens and Skyr de Neve all left their s...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 51

We appeared right over the entry to Vastil Pass, barely a quarter of a mile behind the might of Janos' fleet. A hundred and fifty dragons - white, silver, green and blue - with Karalti in the lead swooped down toward the unprotected sterns in a booming, screeching flock.

As we closed on the rear-most artillery ships, cheers went up - until the moment that Karalti's Queensong rolled through the fleet in a shockwave of magically-enhanced sound, pitching men to their hands and knees as her...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 48

Chapter 48

"Got you!" Lucien shrieked with laughter as he twisted the sword, leaning on it. "Got you, got you, got you! Both of you, dead! Now who's the king now, 'Ororgael'? Me! IT’S ME!"

Lucien was struggling to drive the sword through Ororgael's ribs and into my chest. I felt the tip of the Godslayer scrape my armor, and then an awful, cold, humming sensation as the Void-charged blade just ate it away, the point tearing the padding beneath. But it was Ororgael who saved me....

Crowned in Black: Chapter 50

None of the dragons stopped us as we flew for the Eyrie.

Karalti was near the end of her endurance, but flew with a grim determination I had only seen a few times before. The two hundred-or-so dragons stationed at the Eyrie had emerged in a great cloud of wings and scales, roaring, keening, shrieking and wheeling in the sky. They were attacking the top of the Eyrie - their prison - in exultant rage.

My dragon seemed to know where she was going: she winged into a tunnel, then tucke...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 49

Solnetsi's body charged with electricity, and lightning snapped across the ground around her, coiling like whips. Even if Lucien hadn't been a coward, he wasn't getting near her - but he was, in fact, still a goddamned bitch.

"Get away from me!” Lucien screamed and bolted for the other side of the room, holding the sword up the way a priest would hold a vampire with a cross. “Get away!"

I wasn't waiting around. Solnetsi had a very large HP ring, lined in red. She was hostile...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 47

Oh boy, have I been waiting to write this chapter for a LONG time.

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“Nice to see you here, at last. Knew you’d come one day.” Ororgael smirked as he strode through the door—the same one we had entered through—the Godslayer held naked in his hand. The whitecrystal blade crawled and spat with flecks of void energy, like tiny black holes bored in reality. "And just the two of you, too. You've made everything so...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 46

Chapter 46

The queen’s petrified body formed a crescent around an activation plinth: the one that would normally open the door to the reactor core of Solnetsi’s Dragon Gate. From the way she had fallen, it was clear that the Diamond Queen, the second Paragon of the Fifth Age, had died in agony. She lay on her side with one wing crushed under her. The delicate, sharp muzzle was twisted in an expression of terror and pain, the muscles of her neck straining. A ten-foot lance, black a...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 45

I vanished backwards, anticipating a hit—but it didn’t come. Karalti squawked as the whatever-it-was flew overhead and around, then hit the ground with a rumble that shook dust from the roof of the cavern and up from the floor. The dust clouds briefly framed the shape of something that looked almost like a giant cat… or a lizard, I thought, as the monster dropped its head and padded toward us.

Karalti drew back to my side, fists raised, but I held a hand up and narrowed my eyes as...

Name Cutthroat's Chicks!

Now the higher tier folks have had a chance to name Cutthroat's chicks, it's open to all Patreon Patrons!

Names can be Archemi-esque (and therefore reasonably lore compliant) or meme-hilarious, but in either case, it needs to be something that Justin and Lauren can pronounce.

There's 16 of you and 9 hookwing chicks, so I will pick what I believe are the best names for inclusion in the book. Other good names may go to other hookwings in future books.

Basic rules for naming a...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 44

The first time I'd approached Fort Palewing was by land. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with no clue as to the sheer amount of shit I was about to get myself into, I’d ridden Cutthroat all the way from Lyrensgrove into the mountains of Ilia. The terrain and my inexperience had made it a seven-day trek, in which the charred farmlands and Stranged battlefields left over from Ilia’s civil war gave way to the primordial mountain tundra of the High Reaches. It had taken another full day of ridi...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 43

Double post today!

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Flying straight into Fort Palewing - or even teleporting to Cham Garai directly - would pretty much be suicidal. So instead, Karalti and I went to her favorite hot spring so she could hunt and tank up on food while I called Nethres and finally told her our plans. I didn't even have to ask for an assist - she asked me to hang on, went to speak with Prince Illandi somewhere, then called me back and told...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 42

It was only me and Istvan in the War Room today. I sat down while Istvan paced.

“Another hundred ships are joining Janos’s fleet. They’re building a fortress out on the plains. None of the 3rd Fleet defected to us. Because of fear or conviction in Janos’ cause, we don’t know.” Istvan’s voice was calm, but it had the edge of fretting as he walked around the table. “When those ships arrive here, they’ll outnumber us three to one. Even if we completely fortified the pass ...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 41

We were all exhausted by the time we reached Kalla Sahasi. I was having to readjust to remembering to breathe more than once every five minutes or so, and felt light-headed as I climbed the stairs to Ignas' room. The guards in the hallway drew their pikes in and saluted as all of us - the five of us returning from the Dragon Gate, Masha and Istvan - approached the door. I could hear Vash's voice rumbling soothingly from inside, and rapped lightly before unlocking it and stepping inside.

Crowned in Black: Chapter 40

The Spear sunk in and twisted easily, causing the center part of the activation plinth to drop down as the rest of it unfolded into... a control panel. An arcane control panel, with buttons made out of polished black stones gleaming with sigils.

"The first three at the top. Then the largest." Matir sounded oddly tired as he guided me.

I pressed the four buttons sequentially. There was a deep, rumbling 'THUNK' from the floor beneath us, and then an oceanic roar as huge vents opened...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 39

Matir turned and glided towards the sealed door, reaching a hand out toward it. His hologram seemed to merged into it as the whole thing hummed, and then broke into segments that withdrew down into the floor. The tunnel ahead was large enough for a dragon, and sloped gently down into the earth. The walls were smooth and flawless, with lights and piping and rails along the sides that almost made it look like something out of a science fiction game. As I took a few steps toward it, twin rows of...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 38

“Okay. So… that didn’t go as well as we might have hoped for. But at least we all made it out.”

The group of us were back outside of the maze, recovering at our respawn point. None of us who’d died had respawned with full health, and it had taken about a third of our supplies to recover from the catastrophic loss against the Screaming Tree. It was the first boss fight I personally had ever screwed up in this game. By the expressions on the others’ faces, we were all nursing ...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 37

"Eternally...?" I was seriously hoping Matir meant 'because of the Drachan' and not because of 'big bad boss capable of PKing Starborn', but before I had a chance to figure that out, the ceiling cracked apart, showering us and the ground with snow and dirt. The mechanisms sounded ancient, grinding as two halves of a dome - like an observatory dome - split over our heads to let in the moonlight. After so much darkness, Erruku's golden light felt as bright as the sun - and clearly revealed the ...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 36

The first things I heard were the clanging of metal and screams, but it was the pain that brought me back to awareness. My head throbbed with pain so intense that it woke me. My eyes flickered open, revealing nothing but blurry darkness. For a second, I wondered if I'd been shot, downed in the jungle at night. Then I realized that I was in Archemi. I could remember my name. I knew I was in the Gate of Endless Night... and then everything else progressively flooded back into my memory. My head...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 35

I led the way through the portal, Spear at the ready. The lack of mobs thus far surprised me. Most dungeons in Archemi had a few, at least. It was also bothering me, because we needed a fuckton of EXP if we hoped to face whatever boss monster lurked in here - and without anything to kill, we weren't leveling.

The portal seamlessly sucked me through into a small, low-ceilinged room with two open doors. There was a stone wall separating them; there were five torches mounted in a ring, the...

Crowned in Black: Chapter 34

The hallway, big enough to admit a full-sized queen dragon on foot, seemed to stretch into oblivion. There were bizarre black fire torches lining the walls, shimmering and barely visible in the darkness. They cast no light, save for the thin rime of white around the outside of the flames. I'd seen that effect before: first in the tombs of Tuun and dragons under Taltos, and then in Lahati's Tomb. Suri tried to light a torch from one of them, but instead of red flames, the torch sprung a halo o...

Crowned in Black: Ch 33

I went to see Ignas just after sunset, alone, while the others were getting ready for our trip to the Dragon Gate. I arrived to find Masha sitting by his bedside, quietly reading to him from a small, black leather-bound book. The language she spoke was different, but Churrvi was similar enough to Tuun that I recognized the lilting, soft cadence and some of the words. She was reading to His Majesty from the Book of the Dead, prayers and instructional chants intended to soothe and guide the dyi...

Crowned in Black: Ch 32

For the first time since I'd moved into the place, Kalla Sahasi was alive with music, laughter, color and food. We'd had victories before, but not even a single day between crises to properly celebrate shit. But this time, after the first success for the newly formed Free Army of Myszno, we were determined to throw a party - even if I personally was still too worried about Ignas, Janos, Ororgael, the Dragon Gates, and every other thing hanging around my neck to enjoy it.

The feasting ta...