thundamoo

115. Filia Mortis

"…So then she claimed she killed Inquisitor Paris because he discovered a working method to extract the souls from her body, and heavily implied she did so via spellcasting, despite the collar."

I finish my verbal report to Warden Manus, a full four days after I penned and submitted a written report on exactly the same subject. His stern and withering glare is completely ineffective with my attention captured by the tapping and skittering at the back of his office cupboard. An oily, d...

114. Lost and Found

"Yo, Jelisa! Wake up!"

My mind sputters and screams as I'm jolted awake by yelling voices and pounding on my door, the cacophony mixing with a brutal assault of sights, smells, feelings and sensations. I'm vaguely aware of the stiff immobility of my body, seized up and ignoring the quiet remains of rationality in my mind trying to keep together the rapidly-shattering structure of my sanity, rebuilding it in the midst of a hurricane. Chilled sweat clings to my skin as I feel every micros...

26. Immortal Terror

So Sthrenslians don't have chairs, but it turns out they do have tables. Rather than being independent pieces of furniture, however, they are just kind of carved directly into the room. Sthrenslians aren't big on interior redecorating, I guess, because all of their furniture is incredibly permanent. They don't seem to build much when they can get away with carving it instead.

I have seen rope, I have seen baskets, I have seen satchels and I have seen sleds. I have not seen pottery, meta...

25. Peace Talks

"Um... hey, mom," Hsthressis mutters awkwardly, shifting her weight back and forth under the pressure of her mother's silence.

"Hsthressis," the chieftain intones, a complicated mix of doubt and hope dripping from the name. "Come here."

It's difficult to not think of the chieftain's audience room as a throne room, despite how Sthrenslian aesthetics almost completely invert that idea. In a throne room, the king and queen sit on a big fancy chair, usually at the top of a bunch of st...

113. Crime Against Nature

I grin smugly at the slack-jawed vrothizo sitting on my operating table, rapidly flexing my internal spellcasting muscles to sterilize her severed finger before it finishes dropping into my stomach. While I certainly admit to some personal satisfaction at eliciting this response from young Lark, there is some practical purpose to my sudden carnivorous display: in my experience, nothing helps a lesson stick inside one's mind more than a little bit of drama. The same is true even for a girl wit...

112. Parallels

"Welcome to your first day of combat class, trainees. Each and every one of you knows how to fight, but here you will learn how to fight like a Templar."

As planned I ended my torpor this morning an hour before first light, waking my grumbling roommate despite her displeasure and ensuring the both of us get to the courtyard well before the designated meeting time. Gina was frustrated with me for waking her, but our instructor was already present when we arrived and I think showing up fi...

111. Meet and Greet

A/N: I'm going on a two-week break. After completing volume 2 I need some time to recharge. The next chapter will be released October 6th.



My new roommate and I stare at each other. She pops another fried meatball into her mouth, chewing loudly without breaking eye contact until eventually, she swallows.

"Want one?" she asks, holding out one of the morsels to me.

"Oh, um, no thank you," I tell her.

She nods and pops it into her mouth, continu...

110. Invasive Examinations

Full plate armor is really, really uncomfortable. I do have to admit that it's a much better disguise than a robe and a mask, though.

Apparently, there's a uniform for Templar trainees, which High Templar Galdra described as 'just like a normal Templar uniform, but significantly worse.' Except that, um, instead of 'significantly worse' she actually said a bad word. Still, I can see how the description is accurate. It's exactly the same style as normal Templar armor, except made out of s...

24. Culture Barrier

"So… this is the surface, huh?" Hsthressis asks, scuttling around. "I have to admit, I imagined the home turf of the demons to be a little less… blurry."

"Yeah, your echolocation didn't really evolve to comprehend open-ended spaces," I tell her. "It makes sense for your culture to demonize the area of the world in which you are extra vulnerable to attack."

Hsthressis twists her body uncomfortably.

"…What?" she asks. "What's 'eeth-olthe' mean?"

Oh, oops. I spoke t...

109. Epsilon-One

Even the outside of the Epsilon-Class prisoner's cell is different enough from every other to set me even further on edge. All the way at the bottom floor of the facility, where I know I will probably be killed by my own allies if I try to walk too far down the hallway, I follow Vicki to a heavy-duty door set in the wall. Two Templars flank either side of it, positioned to be able to see through the tiny glass windows into the cell as well as watch any of the entryways to the hall. Vicki show...

108. Site 4

Pounding footsteps. Voices. Ragged breaths. Heartbeats. The instant I return to consciousness I am assaulted by the all-too-familiar cacophony of nonsense garbage forcing its way into my ears and to the forefront of my attention. I keep my eyes firmly shut, my breathing quiet and even, as I set about the process of consciously sorting through the overwhelming intake of information. I slowly let it pass over me, returning my panicked brain to a semblance of working order. It doesn't have to be...

107. Goes Unpunished

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day that I ate my father. It’s an inauspicious day to finally find myself at the island’s edge.

The forest doesn't grow near the edge, for reasons I don't know. When I finally found it, I was hesitant to leave the relative safety of the trees. A road runs between the forest's edge and the island's, and roads mean humans. Even if I don't hurt one by accident, they will certainly be inclined to hurt me. I don't want that, no matter how much I d...

23. Social Skills

"I hear if the teacher doesn't show up in fifteen minutes, we can just leave," Samantha eventually says.

I've been back to school for a few weeks now, having classes during the day and hanging out with Tara all evening. I hardly interact with anyone else anymore, at least outside of classes, but that's more than okay. I was never much of a 'hanger' anyway. I caught up on the schoolwork I missed fairly quickly, and I do all of my new homework at home (like it says on the tin...