Karalti and I swooped in high over the fleet as Janos' ships encircled the troop carriers. They descended and dropped ramps to the ground, a black pour of hookwing cavalry surging free. As they took formation, infantry streamed out behind them. The clouds of dirt and the crush of airships obscured a lot, but I watched as the cavalry split into a reverse V-shape, letting the riflemen advance right toward the fake minefield.
"Ground troops down. Looks like Janos is testing the fortress fr...
2022-10-13 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Vastil Pass: 3 Days later
Karalti and I crouched on a jutting spine of black stone beside Zlaslo and his quazi, looking out across the plains to the west of Vastil Pass. We were twelve thousand feet up, equipped with the best binoculars the brand new Free Army Engineers could make, watching as Janos's fleet darkened the prairies with a mile-long convoy of battleships.
"I do not know about this," Zlaslo said uneasily. The Yanik Ranger was dressed for the cold: leather and ...
2022-10-12 22:27:48 +0000 UTC
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Suri found me still at my desk later in the night, mocking up strategic movements on a holomap of north-western Myszno. My head jerked up as the sound of her armor clanking broke through the trance of unit positioning, terrain advantages, and hero deployment options. She was carrying two plates, and looked tired.
“Hey lover. Figured you’d forgotten chow.” She set the plate on my lap without asking. I was leaning back in my chair, waving my hands around in the air like a maestro as...
2022-09-30 16:00:13 +0000 UTC
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"To breach Myszno, Janos has to achieve two objectives. He has to destroy or seize Temeri Fortress, ten miles into the mouth of Vastil Pass, and he has to control all sixty miles of the pass itself." I paced in front of a large terrain map mounted on the cork wall of the War Room, marking the different points of interest. "Krivan to the north is shorter, but it would require him to add an extra three days of flight time around the Northern Tashkarns, and as far as we can tell, there's no stra...
2022-09-29 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Karalti read my mind: she burst out into the thin, frigid air of the mountains near Lahati's Tomb, cutting a day's travel off our journey to Boros. I brought the map up as my dragon wheeled above the ragged volcanic peaks, already covered in snow, and triangulated our route to the city. It was a fast thirty-minute flight direct from our position, a descent of about five thousand feet.
"So the Boros watchtower isn't actually in Boros," I thought to Karalti, leaning with her as t...
2022-09-28 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The Royal charter tore toward Kalla Sahasi from the north, easily visible from our gatehouse survey platforms. Karalti teleported back from her hunt without so much as a murmur of protest, watching warily as the Hóleány - Ignas's personal ship - streaked around the castle toward the skydock.
"Well, they're requesting a formal landing permission. That's a good sign." I uncrossed my arms as Suri set her binoculars down. "Hopefully it's Janos accepting the fact that Ignas is her...
2022-09-27 16:07:13 +0000 UTC
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It took Nemeth a good twenty minutes, but he eventually emerged with a freshly scribed scroll. Karalti, Gar, and Mehkhet stopped sorting through the scrolls they'd been handling and left them aside. I put away my armor repair kit, and straightened up.
"I understand now why this chamber was sealed in the manner it is," Nemeth said, pushing his glasses up along his nose. "The burial chamber itself is functionally the history and instruction manual of Withering Rose, the last Warsinger. I ...
2022-09-12 11:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The only known entry to the Tomb of the Mastersmith was through the Fol Alugut, the city's primary sewer line. Access to the sewer was through a pair of heavy iron doors at the city's treatment plant, where steam and mana-powered machines processed waste into tanning fluid and fertilizer for Racsa's crops. Last time I'd been here, the plant had been switched off. Now it was bustling with workers, many of whom paid us no mind as we headed for the maintenance tunnel to the sewers themselves. Th...
2022-09-11 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Next post will be tomorrow morning MDT (US Mountain Time).
Karalti burst out over the Royal College of Engineers with a roar of warning and challenge, spiraling down to land in front of Withering Rose's hangar. The huge building had a weird dark nimbus around it, as if it were slightly displaced out of reality. As always, a crowd gathered to gawk as the huge queen dove toward the ground, scattering only when she roared a second time.
"Keep anyone else from entering th...
2022-09-10 18:39:43 +0000 UTC
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There will be a pause in chapters after this one, sorry to say! I have to complete the next chunk of writing and editing before I can continue uploading. If you're enjoying the story (or not), please leave me your thoughts in the comments.
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I got back to the hospital to find everyone still working the busy ward. Some of the deathly ill people were looking better, sleeping off their fevers. A couple of the beds were e...
2022-08-28 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The Ekaterina Mill, named for the woman who ran it, was clean, new, and bustling with people - but somehow, it had the feeling of a haunted house.
A haggard looking woman opened the door when I knocked. Her eyes were sunken, and her expression wary as she looked from armor to spear to my weird blue-on-grey eyes. "Hello?"
"Voivode Dragozin Hector," I said, introducing my name in the order that was correct for both the Tuun and Vlachia. "I'm paying a visit to have a look into the or...
2022-08-27 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The whining started before we'd even hauled Jacob out of his cell.
"Urrgh, what are you doing here? It's too early!" He moaned and cringed, shielding his face from the lanterns.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey." I set down the tray of food I was carrying, then reached back and made a grabby-grabby motion toward Suri. She passed over Jacob's new accessory: creatively entitled the Anklet of Finding. "We got a new shiny for you, too."
"Is that... " he squinted at the blue...
2022-08-26 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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My throat was so tight now that I wasn't sure speaking was possible. Me... a Prince? Vlachia was one of the largest, richest, and most complex countries in all of Archemi. Ignas had two weeks, meaning that I would have two weeks to... to what? What the fuck was I supposed to do if Ignas died, and suddenly I was the fucking Volod?
As the acceptance screen hung, I felt out along the Bond for Karalti. She was asleep, dozing somewhere warm and humid. There was a hot spring in the mountains ...
2022-08-25 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The four of us rushed back to the hospital to find Masha waiting for us in the ward. She was seated, a cup of tea cradled in her hands. Ebisa stood nearby, her arms crossed over her chest, head turned away.
"Ahh, Lord Tuun. The man we needed." Masha sighed. "Captain Vilmos, Countess, His Majesty has asked that you also stay."
"Ignas is awake?" I took a step forward. "What's happening? Did he have a bad reaction to one of the medicines, or...?"
"Or your blood," Masha replied ...
2022-08-24 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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I was just about sick of kings, countesses, armies and all the other shit I’d had to deal with over the last few days, but it was up to me, Suri and Istvan to get the structure of our soon-to-be army roughed out and priced up. Suri was just as experienced with military matters as I was: her memories of the life she’d had before her data had been ‘cleaned’ were indistinct, but her instincts and wisdom were on point. Three hours, several pitchers of good dark beer and a lot of snacks la...
2022-08-24 03:00:02 +0000 UTC
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It was customary in Vlachia to throw a big party and provide a lot of food whenever you were entertaining nobility, but I wasn't a clown and this wasn't a circus. All fourteen of us took seats around the table in the War Room with our choice of beverage, and that was it. The only testament to my authority over the council was my throne, which Istvan had ordered sent up to the head of the oval table. It wasn’t nearly as fancy as it sounded: just a somewhat larger wooden chair than the others...
2022-08-22 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Before Istvan left, I ordered the lords and ladies of Myszno to assemble in the War Room in three hours’ time. That was long enough to get another drink, and put some serious thought into my proposal for the army.
Before I’d been conscripted, I knew dick about the military. I’d watched documentaries now and then, and stayed vaguely in the loop about the Total Wars, but the wars had been going on since before I was born, and they were mostly an exhausting background drone through t...
2022-08-21 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Suri was already waiting for me in her quarters. She'd taken her armor and shirt off, sitting bare-breasted on the edge of the bed with her knees pressed together. Her fierce golden eyes met mine steadily, calmly, and I felt a surge of love for this woman even as my gaze was magnetically drawn to her throat.
"This sucks," I croaked. My mouth was dry. "I didn't want you to come back to me like-"
"It's alright lover. Come here." She opened her arms to me.
I grippe...
2022-08-20 05:01:27 +0000 UTC
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Double post today!
The door swung out into a massacre. The remains of the clergy of Liric were sprayed across the floor, which itself had been churned up by the Sangehti'tak that had pasted them. The hall of the church had been trashed. Outside, heavy metal feet could be heard crunching against flagstones.
"Fuck... they figured something was up." I adjusted Ignas' weight in my arms, adrenaline thrumming through my body. "Or they coincidentally started the purge of known r...
2022-08-20 05:00:41 +0000 UTC
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The proud, patrician king of Vlachia was nearly unrecognizable. He'd only been in Lucien's clutches for twenty-four in-game hours, but he was... he'd been brutalized. Stripped, beaten, forced into a pair of low stocks that kept him on his knees, Ignas had been beaten to a shuddering violet pulp. His head was sunken, blood drooling from his mouth to the floor.
For a second, I was speechless. Then my training kicked in, and my mind blanked to a calm white hum as I pushed forward ...
2022-08-17 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Beyond the door was a short corridor with a double portcullis. The end of that fed right into Lovi Palace's torture expo. Tension built in my jaws as I stepped inside, searching for Ignas's tall, wiry frame on the racks and hooks... but the room was empty. Well-used, but empty. There was a wooden slab with gutters that was still filthy with blood and tools, stocks, pretty much every type of cage known to man. But no Volod.
I drew a deep breath to speak, and immediately wished I hadn't, ...
2022-08-16 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Man, Lucien is a real catch.
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The servant's passage ended in a staging area that connected the banquet hall to the kitchens - a staging area that was currently a cross between a circus and a prison. Shaking, terrified wait staff and cooks were putting the finishing touches on the food that was being sent out for Lucien's masturbatory feast. Or, well... they were trying to, because the servants had almost as many armed soldiers breath...
2022-08-15 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The tunnel grew larger once it began winding upwards toward the palace, widening out almost to the size of mineshafts. After the draugr, it was uneventful - except for the fork.
I sent Mehkhet to scout the shorter tunnel, and Ebisa to scout the longer. Vash, Karalti and I waited in tense silence for them to return, sharing pieces of jerky and venting our tension by chewing. Mehkhet returned first, his shadowy face as calm as the surface of a black lake.
"Mehkhet: What did your gho...
2022-08-14 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The doors boomed closed, leaving the five of us alone with the dead.
"There's walking corpses down here. I can feel it like a bad itch between the legs," Vash muttered.
"Calm your tits, Dorha. Those are still sealed." Ebisa pointed to the massive stone sarcophagi that lined the chambers to either side. Each unopened tomb was sculpted with rough humanoid figures rendered in spirals and whorls. They were just realistic enough to be unsettling.
"My tits are as well trained at t...
2022-08-13 11:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Some people drowned their sorrows in liquor. Some with drugs. My drugs of choice were flying with Karalti, motorcycles, and crafting healing potions, in that order. Once we finished studying and marking maps, planning different entry and exit routes, and otherwise getting ready for the horrors of Lovi, I found myself feeling restless. Karalti was sleeping and motorcycles sadly didn’t exist in Archemi - yet - so I took over an empty room in the fort and went on a brewing spree.
[You ha...
2022-08-12 11:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Karalti burst out of the air into a howling blizzard. Winter had already set its teeth into Revala, and the miles of private evergreen woodland that surrounded Lord Torquist's safehouse were thick with snow.
None of us really felt the cold. Ebisa was inorganic. Mehkhet was dead. Karalti burned so hot that the snow hissed on contact with her scales. Vash was hardened against the icy mountain weather through decades of training and sheer badassery, and I was hardened via my mutations and ...
2022-08-11 11:01:01 +0000 UTC
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I woke up to a ringing Party Chat notification in pretty much the same position I'd fallen asleep: flat on my back, Karalti sprawled over me in a tangle of limbs. Blearily, I opened my HUD and checked to see who was calling. It was Nethres.
"Got news for you," she said. "Good and bad."
"Go ahead." I made sure my camera was off. Karalti and I were both stark naked and covered in sand. Not really the kind of impression I wanted to make on any rebel princes who might be looking over ...
2022-08-10 11:01:03 +0000 UTC
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When renovations had started on the castle, the Ducal Suite of Kalla Sahasi had been one of the first apartments to get cleaned up. There were no more faded green-and-silver brontosauruses or lace doilies. Now everything was done up in the sky blue and black colors of House Dragozin: polished blue and black marble, black tile floors, dark glossy wood. The dreary old portraits of dead nobles were gone, replaced by landscapes salvaged from the ruins of the old gatehouse. The sofa and chairs wer...
2022-08-09 11:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Karalti appeared high above Kalla Sahasi, groaning under our collective weight as a cold crosswind blasted her from the north. I could see and feel the tension in the other passengers as she see-sawed toward the triangular courtyard below. As she came in, she intentionally let the wind blow her sidelong until she was anchored in the current, then dipped a wing and slid through the shear to reverse her direction, hover, and touch down in a perfect cross-winds landing.
“Beautiful fl...
2022-08-08 11:01:06 +0000 UTC
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Great. There WAS a fucking spy in the ranks. But they weren’t quite good enough.
”So, correction number one.” As I stepped out into the aisle, my voice was picked up and magnified just like Janos’ as I strode forward into range of the microphone spell. “My ‘Fireblooded Shallatu whore’, aka Suri Ba’hadir, the Lady of Myszno, is not warring with your navy. Correction number two is that I am right here, in the flesh, listening to you lie your ass off with my actual goddamne...
2022-08-07 11:00:10 +0000 UTC
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