Bongosian Press

§136 Dropping In

Taylor - Dimmik Airspace

The messenger's steed was a gryphon. It was a far cry from Wen-Silvain's huge form, and it couldn't fly near the speed of sound. By mortal standards, it was an impressive creature, strong enough to carry two small-ish people at the same time. The beast sped over the hills and across the Rim before Taylor even realized he had skipped breakfast. The ground fell away into a hundred-mile-wide depression, and warm air lifted the gryphon upward. The climate generall...

§135 Double Dare II

“We’re leaving!” Lindsey grabbed her hand, and they fled. They skirted the edge of the cave, then tried to cut through a gap in the enslaved crowd. Twice, they nearly ran headlong into the arms of more slaves coming from somewhere else, and ran a drunken line to a destination only Linsey could see. There was no way to know if the Dimmik girl was taking her in the right direction or not. Mariella had started the task without any sense of direction to begin with.

They soon lost the ...

§134 Double Dare I

Princess Mariella — Underground

Mariella woke up in complete darkness. She lay on rough, hard stone. The air was thick and warm. She had a pain behind her eyes, like that time her older half-sisters convinced her to drink too much wine. Somewhere, liquid dripped periodically. The suggestion of water nearby her desperately thirsty, moreso than she had ever been since entering the palace.

Her hands swept around wildly in an attempt to cast off whatever blanket she was tangled in...

§133 Iredale III

By noon, he was peripherally aware that most of the battalion was ready to leave, taking a good portion of the healer contingent with it, but hadn't gone yet for some reason. Troops were standing around the coaches, waiting. After nearly an hour of that, the prince barged into the clinic. His hat was too tall for the humble building, and its top scraped the ceiling. 

"Do you intend to take the quest?"

"What quest? Your Imperial Highness?" He remembered the courtesy at the las...

§132 Iredale II

Cadmius arrived in a farmer's wagon, with two more behind him, all equipped with large wheels and high suspensions. Taylor dropped the screen and let themselves be seen as the wagons neared. In the mock battles, basic stealth was a requirement for healers and strong magicians. Otherwise, they could be eliminated at the outset of the engagement. Here, he was using it to stay out of sight and out of mind from the prince.

"Barely saw you folks, even up close."

"That sounds like a hum...

§131 Iredale I

The bulk of the opposition's force was situated well beyond the range of a normal praxis weapon or most magicians' long-range spells. Instead of huddling up in one place or making an organized camp, they scattered themselves on the expanse of empty land between the town and the hills. From high up, Taylor could get a sense of the organization that was difficult to spot from the ground. The monster and human slaves tended to clump together by like types. Humans with humans, a pack of wolves, a...

§130 Green Notice

Taylor stood and turned toward them. "Ah, our Lady of Perpetual Annoyance. I knew the day was too peaceful to last." He was more polite to the partners and engaged them pleasantly about the wine they had brought and when the house might be open. His hands and voice did most of his emoting for him, while his face remained passive. Cecilia had said he had callouses from wearing masks, but Prudence couldn't see them. Then again, he was supposed to be a capable healer, on top of everything else.<...

§129 The Breakup

Prudence — Vawdrey House

Prudence was uneasy at breakfast. Part of the reason was that her entire family had returned to the estate. Breakfast at Vawdrey House was served buffet-style, and the family sat themselves at three tables, like soldiers in a mixed-service barracks. Nearly everyone was in uniform, and most of them were IEF. She had a cousin who was a city warden and took a good deal of ribbing for it, but the uniform shielded him from outright scorn. The only people who were...

§128 Meet-Up

They were directed to a fast carriage for non-IEF personnel who found themselves attached to the expedition. Eterine wasn't content to have them pull over so they could board. She had to make an entrance. She claimed her motive was to enhance Mariella's stature among strangers, but the excitement burned too brightly in her eyes. She just wanted to mount a moving vehicle. And strangely, after her high-speed, high-altitude pegasus ride, Mariella felt like it was not only doable, but easy.

§127 Pegasus

Princess Mariella — Avimore

They had put her in sweltering leathers with too many straps, and a fur-lined helmet that squeezed her head. According to her attendant, it was supposed to feel like that. She was supposed to be preparing for school. Instead, she was trussed up like a bird for roasting. Mariella had seen them in the kitchens, legs and wings and breasts strapped tight and fitted onto a spit.

A pegasus loomed over her, one of the giant specimens bred ...

§126 Sinter

Curator Meltissa Jane — Sinter

"Welcome to the Little Horn. Uh, you two look like you've come a long way."

"Someone," Meltissa glared at Cadmius, "wanted to take a shortcut. Please tell me you have rooms, a stable, and a bath."

"Yes, Mam." The elf receptionist glanced between them. "Two rooms?"

"Definitely. Thank the gods we found someplace civilized. I didn't expect such a nice town this far south."

"We are a bit remote, but the town has bee...

§125 Overland

Curator Meltissa Jane - Estfold/Dimmik Borderlands

They followed the tracks a full thirty hours behind the foreman and his empty train. The tracks cut along the hills, weaving back and forth, on a gradual uphill slope. They couldn't walk directly on the tracks, or they'd be spotted instantly by a patrol or when they neared the mine. They walked along the hills instead, near the tops, where the ground wasn't too steep, but with their heads well below the ridgeline. The g...

§124 Rescue

He couldn't see his assailant, but he knew the shape of her. A long, toothy snout. Talons for fingers and toes. Skin made of jagged scales. Cruelty was written into her every aspect. She had eased up so he would know he was dying.

One mistake: that's all it took to ruin everything. He'd messed it up. The gods would begin again, starting with a series of cursed children. Or they'd do something worse. If it took too long to fix things, the empire would collapse. Millions would die. All be...

§123 The Haunt

Blake, Cook, Kasper, and Chambers unpacked and cleaned while Taylor completed his survey of the grounds. They wouldn't get through the entire house, but they could make a few rooms fit for habitation. Chambers kept a running log of everything the mansion required, including minor repairs. They would call Bona from Mourne to lead the interior decorating, subject to his availability. Until then, they would get by on minimal furniture in the rooms they used, and enjoy the extra space that came f...

§122 House Shopping

Taylor

Every time Taylor went to sleep, Simon appeared and put him to work in the narrow crawlspace between life and death. At first, he only watched while Simon did his job. Taylor followed Death's minion like the intern that he was, watching carefully, asking questions, and learning. Simon was a decent teacher, even if his every word was coated in oozy disdain.

Most souls didn't need any help passing on. People died, C'cora opened the well, and the souls went ...

§121 Side Track

Curator Meltissa Jane – Dimmik Borderlands

They had to camp without fire, but that didn't mean they ate cold food. For a woman far from home, a good portable stove was a necessity if she wanted the comfort of tea or the occasional cup of warm broth to go with her nighttime reading. Meltissa's Personal Librarian skill was a cheekily-renamed Inventory, in which she kept her most important references, her current reading, writing utensils, and other s...

§120 The Other Princess

Princess Mariella — Imperial Palace, Avimore

Summoning Miss Wibbles required a short song and a lot of shiny glitter, produced through non-systematized magic. Miss Wibbles didn't use to require so much ceremony when Mariella first summoned her, but then came a day when the slime delivered shocking news.

"The other spirits make fun of me," she wrote in loopy script. Miss Wibbles had to write because she had no mouth to talk with. That was one of many challenges...

§119 Simon

Taylor - Wokehaad Farms

Maestro Nelis agreed to be Taylor's watcher, along with the farm's dedicated healer. They reviewed Mensa's instructions several times over and then tried to convince him not to go through with it.

"Nobody has ever spent three hundred on one skill. You should wait until you're older," said Nelis. "I wasn't planning on losing my new friend quite so soon."

The comment raised a well of warmth in Taylor's chest. He took the old arc's han...

Erstdwerg, God of Arcs

Erstdwerg was the first of the racial gods, and is said to have created arcs from the best of the human race, and that is why arcs are so small. Arcs are born with an outsized curiosity but their wanderings always bring them home again. It was the Arcs who preserved mortal knowledge through the Fallen Age, that time between the collapse of the great civilizations of Elves and Dwarves, and the first kingdoms of men. They preserved the arcaic tongue, magic spells, and the skill of writing.

§118 Radegonde

Curator Meltissa Jane - Radegonde

Radegonde was a sawmill town. Logs from Rosewood in the north and mountains in the south met there to be cut into rough timber and finished lumber. Half the town was dry-houses, heated warehouses that dried wood until it was stable enough to ship.

The previous winter, Meltissa and Cadmius had uncovered a plot in Radegonde to grow, refine, and distribute divinia. Despite the drug's enticing name, there was nothing divine about it...

§117 Apothecary

 Without a word, they picked their way through the maimed bodies. The amount of blood was very modest, all things considered, and they were able to reach the ground floor without leaving bloody footprints behind them.

"Hold on." Taylor made her wait while he hammered the tiny bell at the reception counter. 

"What are you doing?"

"These people sold us out to slavers. I want a refund."

"Taylor, even if he wasn't in bed with the slavers, do you think he has the ...

§116 Shopping

The day's next appointments were in Moyalwande and Okujuni. Moyalwande reminded Taylor of pictures he'd seen of Venice. Ancient, ornate buildings rose from the water in decrepit white stone, ready to be washed away by one strong wave. From a well-timed entry into a small satellite town, they boarded a fast carriage that took them directly into the city's Arctown, where they met with an tauran woman who looked too young to be a master jeweler.

There was a complicated history surrounding ...

§115 The Other Place

Taylor's group rode toward the mountain in a carriage, along a road he had laid down rather hastily. Ahead of them, the smooth ground switched back and forth a few times, uphill, before entering a large lava tube. His portal to the Other Place was deep inside the mountain, so they didn't need to climb the entire volcano.

"Why was the priest laughing?" Kasper's question was innocent enough, but it made Taylor groan. "What's the big deal about a test? I take tests all the time."

Tay...

§114 Mt. Uroda

Taylor, Mt. Uroda

They stood around a table, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Two elder beastkin were in attendance, members of the council that ran Rossignol province, one of them a bushkin with large eyes and strong legs, the other a graying ratkin. There was a sub-minister of diplomatic affairs from the Dorian Empire, a human in an impressive greatcoat embroidered with the sigil of his imperial rank. Next to him was High Bishop Yaonoch from the Church of the Giv...

§113 Conclusions

Later that night, Taylor and Cecilia rode Tristan through the portals to return her to Vawdrey house in Celosia. The horse rippled like silk under the stars, eating up distance with improbable speed.

"You have an amazing household. You know that, right? Cook is incredible. That was the best party I've been to since Prudence's tenth birthday."

Taylor chuckled but didn't respond. Cook set out a buffet for the house that rivaled the best restaurant in town, with enough to feed the ne...

§112 Cleanup

Taylor — Bostkirk

While Kasper checked in with home through the mirror, Taylor collected his loot: the four statues and everything that spilled out from their inventory, including enough trapped souls to fill a sack. 

The totems weren't exactly tiny, and he wasn't sure how they needed to be stored. That magician had kept them loose in his inventory, apparently without issue, but that guy was a maniac necromancer. Taylor decided to keep the bag with his mo...

Posting Schedule and Volume 5

The final chapters of Alchemist will be posted on Wednesday and Thursday. (Yes, there is an epilogue chapter on Christmas.)

On Friday, we'll begin volume 5. I'm only about 25k words into that book, which is less than I usually want before posting the first chapter. I don't even have a title for the book, nor do I have a cover. But if people are going to show up to read, then I'll show up every day to write.

The best news here is that I have a bunch of days off, and I plan to spen...

§111 Rescue

Taylor recovered his spent gems and his other materials and threw another mana crystal into his inventory, where it would gradually recharge him. He needed to leave quickly, if he could.

"Clean this up the best you can," he told Genova, "make liberal use of the baking soda, and wash with water. Don't let anyone breathe the fumes. When it's not smoking anymore, you can unblock the roads."

"It is too late for that," said the vine spirit. "One of the carriages we blocked belonged to ...

§110 Alchemy

If magic didn't work on something directly, then it was time to try indirect effects. Taylor pulled three projectiles from his inventory, conical slugs of heavy alloy, and shot them at the monster using his modified Rock Shot. Magic propelled the slugs at near supersonic speed, but the ammunition was perfectly mundane. Taylor was greatly encouraged when the torso staggered from hits to the heart and head, but the wounds were shallow and the chimera healed within seconds.

The fr...

§109 Crossroad

We thought ourselves untouchable when he refused our provocations. Then came the day we learned the awful truth: that we had long sheltered in the lee of his contempt.
— The Mines of Shik-Karan

Taylor

It took nearly an hour to get to the portal tree. Along the way, he summoned Hermes with the pen that wrote in silver mana. The writing trailed behind him in a stream, yet Hermes came, floating and speeding with him.

"Th...