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Demesne 196 - Smarter, Not Harder

The storm continued into the next day. Lori could feel her demesne getting buried in more and more water, solidified as it was. She had thought she could need to be the one to clear the entryway of snow so that they'd continue to get air into the Dungeon, and was pleasantly surprised that wasn't the case. With literally nothing else for them to do, Rian had organized people into a clearing detail, keeping the entryway open with ladders, newly made snow shovels that bore some resemblance to he...

Demesne 195 - Application Complications

Some applicants were rejected, which annoyed Lori, because it took more time to establish they were being coerced by their parents because one had gotten the other pregnant.

"Your application is denied," Lori said. "Come back when you actually want to do this and not just because your parents say you should. You—" this to the nervous-looking young woman, "—are required to apprentice yourself in preparation for the birth of your child. Next!"

Not everyone took her decisions wel...

Demesne 194 - Lori Officiates Marriages

"Rian, tell everyone we're doing the marriages after breakfast," Lori told him as she sat down for breakfast.

Outside, the snowstorm still howled, burying her demesne even more. From what she could discern from the wisps outside her Dungeon, the surface of the river had frozen, trapping the Coldhold, and the snow had gotten even deeper. Fortunately, the entryway into her Dungeon had been kept clear in the night, no doubt from Rian assigning people to the job, so air continued t...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #47

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 5

"Hey, Tammy!"

Tammy managed not to start as she realized that someone was talking to her, nudging her little drone. "Huh?" she said eruditely, trying to juggle controlling her main body, which was in the middle of building a pair of massive, solid wood floodwalls that were rooted into the banks of the river, and listening to the input of the drone. She stopped growing the walls on opposite banks...

5/6/22 Update

The latest chapter of Nightmaerangers is experiencing technical difficulties and will likely be delayed by several hours, possibly even until tomorrow. We apologize for the delay, but it has become unavoidable. 

Demesne will post on time on Monday. Hopefully, Nightmaerangers will by posted within 12 hours of the usual time. 

Once more, we apologize for the delay.

EDIT: The new chapter has been posted! Once again, we apologize for the delay.

Weekly Digest 60 - (#191 - #193)

Seasonal Hazards

The day started normally enough for Lori. Get up, wash her face to wake herself all the way, sit down on her bed and go down her list of reminders to imbue everything there—there was a mark on the water wheel in River's Fork since it didn't need to be run at the moment—go through the list again to make sure she didn't miss anything, take a bath, contemplate whether her clothes were good for another day or whether she should change—they we...

Demesne 193 - Taking A Rest

After the very late breakfast that some people kept mistakenly referring to as lunch—and the wonderfully warm, chewy, hot, succulent bread that annoyingly had to be rationed and didn't have any honey on it because was emergency rations that they were for energy instead of a celebratory sweet treat—Lori went to build something people could dump snow in to melt for water. She put it in the passageway, near the opening of the tunnel into the snow and right under where snow blew in through th...

Demesne 192 - Fortunately, No One Asphyxiated

Rian was far too useful. Lori hoped other demesnes only had lords less than a tenth as useful as Rian, because if they were even half as useful, killing their binders would be far too difficult when she finally had to.

Once he had finally managed to get warm in the dungeon—after she'd agreed to raise the heat some more—and put on his winter robe and fur wraps properly, Rian got to work, sending people down to the third level to get firewood.

"All the shovels are in the tool sh...

Demesne 191 - Seasonal Hazards

The day started normally enough for Lori. Get up, wash her face to wake herself all the way, sit down on her bed and go down her list of reminders to imbue everything there—there was a mark on the water wheel in River's Fork since it didn't need to be run at the moment—go through the list again to make sure she didn't miss anything, take a bath, contemplate whether her clothes were good for another day or whether she should change—they were still good—and then head down for breakfast....

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #46

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 4

It was really tempting to go rifling through these rich people's semi-abandoned houses for spare change, but Sanny grudgingly reminded himself that even though it was more accurate to call him a violent vigilante, he should probably at least be trying to act like a superhero in the Sentaiger vein. Even the actual pirates didn't just loot people's spare change left lying around. Don't be the g...

Weekly Digest 59 - (#188 - #190)

And Bloody War Followed

After her experiment, Lori didn't feel any worse off than she usually did after expanding her demesne, which… wasn't bad, but neither was it good. Purely from the perspective of efficiency, it meant altering the concentration didn't affect the difficulty of the expansion process, but that wouldn't matter if there wasn't any sort of substantial positive effect on the rate of her demesne's expansion.

To her, the demesne was a massi...

27/5/22 Update

I would like to inform my readers that I will be taking the last week of June off, as a burnout-prevention measure, and so I can do some errands. There will be no updates starting on the 26th of that month onwards. Updates will resume on the first Monday of July. This shouldn't affect the monthly Patron exclusive chapter.

This month, we did Mentalists. Who do you want to focus on, Deadspeakers or Horotracts? Poll ends on June 13th.

Demesne 190 - Theatricality In The Presentation

Making an oven was relatively simple. The stone used needed to have bubbles squeezed out of it so that no sections suddenly exploded due to trapped gasses expanding, but her awareness of wisps made that simpler for her than it would have been for an ordinary Whisperer. Really, the greatest difficulty was not getting in anyone's way—or having anyone get in her way—in the kitchen, since she had to build it while people were in the middle of cleaning up and preparing the food for lunch. She ...

Demesne Patron EX SS 14 - Open Hand Demesne Mentalism Skills Tournament

The Open Hand Inter-Sect Mentalism Skills Tournament was a yearly joint venture between the Political Sciences Sect and the Tourism, Hospitality and Business Management Sect. No one was actually required to attend, but top winners of the various categories—physical only, no contact magic only, and mixed, all divided by weight class—received work credits that would let them not have to stop doing research, a month's worth of priority reservation privileges in the library, and a pr...

Demesne 189 - Matters of Marriage

When Rian got back from the edge of the demesne at about midmorning, he informed her that her demesne had grown by 44 yustri.

"That's barely anything!" he said, glaring at his plank as if it had insulted him as he walked next to her at the third level while she checked the bindings of lightwisps, waterwisps and firewisps that controlled her Dungeon farm's light, temperature and humidity. It was something she had to do once in a while, to make sure it wasn't too hot, too cold, too moist ...

Demesne 188 - And Bloody War Followed

After her experiment, Lori didn't feel any worse off than she usually did after expanding her demesne, which… wasn't bad, but neither was it good. Purely from the perspective of efficiency, it meant altering the concentration didn't affect the difficulty of the expansion process, but that wouldn't matter if there wasn't any sort of substantial positive effect on the rate of her demesne's expansion.

To her, the demesne was a massive half sphere of earthwisps at the bottom, another half...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #45

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 3

Sanny woke up suddenly as pain lanced through him, coming from what felt like several gaping wounds all over his body, and from the back of his head there was an immediate explosive tangle of urges and emotions.

—determination consume devour surprise confusion rage frustration exasperation resignation—

That was a bit more than what he usually...

Weekly Digest 58 - (#185 - #187)

Schedule Optimization

After her carefully considered and needful afternoon's mental recuperation session—she most definitely didn’t fall asleep!—Lori was feeling refreshed enough to go down to dinner and eat instead of just trying to force food down her throat in defiance of her lethargy so that she wouldn't be weak from hunger and become even MORE lethargic. Down that way was a vicious cycle after all.

"You're looking better," Rian commented, sniff...

Demesne 187 - Experimenting With Expansion Variables

"Rian, what is this?"

'This' was a plank on her table, held up at an angle by smooth river rocks like some kind of signboard. Numbers were written on it in char.

"This is a little something I had made up to help you keep track of your progress and encourage you," Rian said brightly as he prepared the water clocks.

"My progress?" Lori said warily. There was something very motherly about how he was saying it…

Rian stepped away from the water clocks after stoppering the...

Demesne 186 - Lori and Rian Wake Up Together

When Dungeon Binder Lolilyuri woke up from restless dreams, she found that in her sleep she had not become a monstrous, verminous bug. This meant that a dragon hadn't descended upon her demesne in the night, which was always to be hoped for.

She did wonder why she had woken slumped upright, as if she had fallen asleep sitting up. Her neck ached from the position, familiar from years of sleeping in crowded dragon shelters where the only space to rest had been up against a wall. ...

Demesne 185 - Schedule Optimization

After her carefully considered and needful afternoon's mental recuperation session—she most definitely didn’t fall asleep!—Lori was feeling refreshed enough to go down to dinner and eat instead of just trying to force food down her throat in defiance of her lethargy so that she wouldn't be weak from hunger and become even MORE lethargic. Down that way was a vicious cycle after all.

"You're looking better," Rian commented, sniffling. Lori hoped he didn't come down with anything. Re...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #44

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 2

It was a short hop away from the house so that Magenta's family weren't outed as being related to a superhero. Or at the very least, related to an infamous public vigilante. While they had some positive regard from their actions against the Thorn Thicket, already the talking heads were speculating wildly, being alarmist, dealing in absolutes, and, in some cases, actually had a point, but those were ra...

14/5/22 Update

The next chapter of Nightmærangers is experiencing some technical difficulties and will probably be slightly delayed, possibly as late as Monday or Tuesday. We apologize for this delay. 

Weekly Digest 57 - (#182 - #184)

Expansion

For a long time, Lori just lay there, half on and half off her bedroll, the stone cool on her face. Her head… she'd had headaches before. Studying too long, staying up too late, not drinking enough water, trying to keep her patience with her mothers as they kept lecturing her about nonsense…

What she felt was similar to studying, throbbing in part along her neck and in a band above her eyes. She kept her eyes closed, feeling utterly exhauste...

Demense 184 - When It Rians It Floods

Her second time expanding her demesne went much like her first. In fact, it went as exactly like her first as she could manage it. After all, if she was going to experiment with ways to improve on the methods of expanding her demesne, then she had to be sure that consistent methods yielded consistent results.

Yes, that was absolutely why she did it that way, pushing herself for who-knows-how-long until she was mentally exhausted and collapsed on her bedroll. Perfectly planned to confirm...

Demesne 183 - The Rest Of Her Life

Rian stared at her. "Uh, forgive me if I sound stupid, but didn't we already go to the edge of the demesne yesterday?"

"Yes," Lori said. "Now I'm saying we're doing it again. I need to see the results of my test."

"What, already? Why didn't you tell me yesterday, then?" Rian said, then sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll have your boat—"

"Lori's Boat."

"That's what I said. Your boat," Rian said, voice and face flat. "I don't see why you have to talk in the third perso...

10/5/22 Update

So, I've decided that this month our special is going to be a Mentalist fight scene.  Mainly because this lets me go back to Open Hand Demesne and visit the Life Sciences Sect, and... all right, it's basically an excuse to make some more Xianxia jokes. =D

Also considering making more than one Patron Exclusive a month, but that will depend on my free time. Or perhaps make some specials that aren't patron exclusives, simply as a reason to write non-Lori POVs. I might need to come up ...

Demesne 182 - Expansion

For a long time, Lori just lay there, half on and half off her bedroll, the stone cool on her face. Her head… she'd had headaches before. Studying too long, staying up too late, not drinking enough water, trying to keep her patience with her mothers as they kept lecturing her about nonsense…

What she felt was similar to studying, throbbing in part along her neck and in a band above her eyes. She kept her eyes closed, feeling utterly exhausted despite not having moved. It was a famil...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #43

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 1

As Tammy stripped off the clothes that Kuya Kim's sister Loretta had lent her, she was fairly certain they were all in over their heads.

In one day, the entire city had gone to hell in a way that… well, would probably be forgotten about in six months because they weren't a First World or Old-World European country anyone cared about, but one that was certainly unprecedented in at least the cou...

Weekly Digest 56 - (#179 - #181)

Time To Sit Down

"I'm never leaving my demesne again," Lori said tiredly.

She sat in her room on the Coldhold, curled up in the bed with her feet folded under her as the boat swayed, finally making its way up the river back to her demesne, its storage spaces full of the ingots of copper she had smelted. After having slept in it for the past seven days, the room felt thick and muggy, with an odor that seemed to hide from her most of the time but s...