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Fate's Attendant 1.18

Rather than carry the storage chest with them, Kang Lian collected the few pieces of good clothing left and wrapped them in a bundle, which she then tied to her back. The knots looked well-practiced to Hong Fei, and he wondered if Little Ruyun’s idea to flee to the south hadn’t been entirely discounted by her mother.

Once the knife was wrapped in a shawl and placed within easy reach on her belt, Kang Lian nodded to let him know she was ready to depart. Hong Fei had looked for reluct...

Fate's Attendant 1.17

Author's Note: Surprise! This bonus chapter is offered in gratitude for your support of this story. It's a thank you from me to everyone reading. :D

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The alley ended at the southern wall leading up to the middle city. Underneath it sat a four-story inn meant for temporary laborers. A few men and women gathered at a small courtyard out front; they were the ones not selected earlier in the morning for work in the quarries and the workshops. They watched Hong Fei pas...

Fate's Attendant 1.16

The lower city rang with the sounds of chisels and hammers striking stone. The early morning air was already hazy from the dust swept up by the wind which blew constantly at the gorge’s base. The sun’s light had yet to reach the tops of the buildings. Hong Fei noted how it crawled down the rocky walls at a sedate pace.

A pair of men came hurrying from the street’s far end, yelling. They warned of an approaching wagon, and everyone on the street rushed to the edges to clear the way...

Fate's Attendant 1.15

The punishment of the gambling ring cast a pall over the house. Everyone knew a person affected by it. A noble house was like a small war camp—from maids to gardeners to guards, one couldn’t help getting into the other’s business.

When Hong Fei stopped by the main kitchen for lunch, the bowl was the same size, but the amount of meat in it had been halved. The young girl serving him looked down as if embarrassed. She started to reach for the ladle again, but stopped herself.

...

Fate's Attendant 1.14

Auntie Ling lost patience when Hong Fei was on his fourth cup of tea. She summoned herself to the courtyard and appeared under the cherry tree, one of the petals landing by happenstance on her nose. Shaking it away, she found a comfortable spot in the shade. Moments later, the qi in the air flowed toward her.

Seeing her diligence, Hong Fei decided that he’d done enough thinking. He set down the tea and walked to the weapons rack to pick up a training sword.

The Hong family tende...

Fate's Attendant 1.13

And so it went; the days rode past.

The physical training that Hong Fei had originally intended for the youths never came to pass. Instead, he held a series of lectures for the young people who showed up at his door every morning.

They were vibrantly physical in everything did, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their formal lessons with Chen Wenbin. Where they were lacking was the necessary strategies for when encountering the enemy—both at the troop level and the personal...

Fate's Attendant 1.12

The next morning, Yu Yong showed up at Hong Fei’s door with a righteous expression on his face. The boy also had his sister and both their companions in tow.

All of them had been speaking excitedly, and Hong Fei had heard them coming well before their arrival. He’d had more than enough time to stow the bowls of empty rice porridge in his courtyard’s kitchen.

“Chen Wenbin said yes,” Yu Yong proudly proclaimed from the doorway.

“We’ve all gotten permission,” Ch...

Fate's Attendant 1.11

The roof drummed as a sudden rain fell, filling the awkward silence left in the aftermath of Yu Yong’s command.

Hong Fei noted the boy’s jutting chin and the way his weight shifted forward. The embarrassment from the previous day had transformed overnight into an aggressive posture. Perhaps it was a desire to prove himself to the newest retainer. If so, was it the boy’s own nature at work, or had someone whispered in his ear?

Yu Yong strode closer. “Well?” he demanded, r...

Fate's Attendant 1.10

Mei Hua and Yu Ning took it upon themselves to drag Hong Fei through the entire household to introduce him to the maids, the cooks, the gardeners, and all the other people who made a noble house run. He memorized each name and face; it was the same honor he’d give any soldier under him or any enemy he knew he must fight.

Mei Hua grew bored when it became clear there’d be no further conflicts. The hope in her eyes died when Hong Fei actually knelt to sniff the dirt at the behest of o...

Fate's Attendant 1.9

It being a beautiful spring day, lunch was to be served outside under a pavilion nestled between the training hall and primary kitchens. Flowering vines wove through the gaps above, wafting their fragrance below. Nearby, a stream pleasantly warbled.

The table was set for nine, but only two sat at it currently—one at his leisure, Zhang Dehua, and the other uncomfortably, Hong Fei.

The steward was meant to be perusing a stack of papers, but from the way he continued to gaze unseei...

Important Update: Some Seriously Big News

Hey y'all,

I wanted to share some news about what's happening in my personal life and how it affects this journey we're taking together.

I was recently laid off from my job, and while this wasn't exactly how I planned to make the transition, I've been thinking about writing full-time for a while now.

So, here's the plan: I'm going to embrace this as an opportunity to test what writing full-time looks like while simultaneously looking for my next job. I've been incredibly for...

Eight 5.40: Perspective - Athkala

The café was busier than usual, with orders piling up one after the other. Athkala glanced past the espresso machine refusing to work and saw the number of customers increasing. A crowd had even started to form outside.

So far, no one was angry. Most were paying attention to their phones, listening to the latest government report. There’d apparently been an overall decline in darklight levels over the past year by .008 percent. And more importantly…

“The Dread Terror Meroha...

Eight 5.39: The Journey Home

The next morning, we found some small game that we butchered and cooked up—a squirrel and a couple of rabbits—and talked through our plans for the light we’d collected from the Maltrans.

Before leaving the fortress, we’d stored all the darklight in the Hoarder’s Pocket. We hadn’t even weighed it; there’d simply been too much to deal with. I had, however, weighed the silverlight. The scale we carried wasn’t intended for that kind of volume, so I’d had to do it in batche...

Fate's Attendant 1.8

Hong Fei, freshly barbered and dressed in his new clothes, looked like many of the old veterans who’d washed up against the duke’s gate over the years. The guards noted the similarity—the sword carried openly and the way Hong Fei moved with it, like he’d been born with the weapon at his side. There was also the familiar tautness of his expression, the air of quiet desperation hidden behind lethal competence.

A guard stepped forward—from the honors stitched onto his sleeves, a ...

Eight 5.38: No More Holding Back II

Stepping within ten yards of the stairwell’s landing triggered the sound of a bell tolling, along with a blast of disorientation like I’d taken a punch to the chin, rattling my brain. I withdrew immediately, yet I still caught the tail end of a Thousand Spears spell across both arms. Water poured from the Hoarder’s Pocket to snake around the wounds and heal them.

The disorientation took longer to shake. Healing Water didn’t fix it, and precious seconds were lost as I continued t...

Fate's Attendant 1.7

Two handspans of the sun’s travel later, Auntie Ling explained to an amused Hong Fei the nature of the changes to his card, but there was only so much she could do with gestures and dirt drawings.

Hong Fei smiled and nodded along, but it was hard for him to focus on anything that wasn’t how good his body felt. His lungs breathed easy, without tightness or pain in his back. The aches that followed him from the steppes had vanished completely. Even his hunger felt fresh and wholesome....

Eight 5.37: No More Holding Back I

Author's Note: We're getting close to the end, y'all. Only a couple more chapters to go after this one. Also, in case you didn't see it, the first chapter of Fate's Attendant is now available for Level 5 patrons.

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We each needed to return individually to the physical world, so I moved the spear, knife, and arrows protecting the doorway to my soul’s bast...

Fate's Attendant 1.6

Hong Fei woke up feeling damp. His clothes, his hair, and his skin were slick with the previous day’s rain plus the dew that had accumulated overnight. The feeling wasn’t pleasant, but given the alternative—not waking up, ever—he decided it was acceptable.

Opening his eyes, he saw the first blush of dawn light touching the tops of the trees. The early morning risers were already calling to each other among the branches. It’d been their whistles and songs that had awoken him. 2025-07-17 15:49:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Eight 5.36: More Than One Knife

Yuki’s voice wove through the rhythm of the fight, guiding the cadence of attacks, feints, and withdrawals. At the speed we were going, there was no time for complete thoughts, so they moved at the speed of reflex, of instinct, and of a network overclocked by the hidden mind’s influence.

So when Baxta grew two new arms, we adapted. Yuki highlighted the one true attack hidden among the other false ones. And when Baxta switched to a style that focused on many small cuts attacking in w...

Fate's Attendant 1.5

Hong Fei knew that something had happened to Ling. The question he faced as a result was in which direction he should flee. Going forward meant death and to north was the cliff overlooking the Tistkil River. That left either climbing the mountain to go around the danger or reversing directions to return to Blue Lotus City.

There was money in Hong Fei’s pouch now; he could afford the fee for a carriage, and a reputable company might not be stopped by soldiers investigating the disappea...

Eight 5.35: The Plan in Action III

Author's Note: Just a reminder that these are first-draft chapters, and some of them are definitely going to be rough, including this one, for example.

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The obsidian knife floated closer, so that Fala could examine the runes. Then, she flew through the rest of the chamber in her own inspection of the walls. ‘This is a complicated spell. How can we know Baxta’s intent?’ 

‘Oh!’ A spike of discomfort went through Yuki. 

...

Fate's Attendant 1.4

Not only could the badger read, but it was also able to write. The problem, however, became apparent immediately. When the badger scratched its name into the mud, “Ling,” the characters were from the same unfamiliar language as the one on the portrait.

“It has to be magic,” Hong Fei said. “That’s why you can understand me.”

The beast pointed between itself and the letters. It then directed him to listen to the sound of the wind blowing gently through the leaves, foll...

Eight 5.34: The Plan in Action II

The mountain roared as hundreds of thousands of tons of rock tumbled past the fortress, burying some of the Maltrans gathered in the mining compound and sweeping away others. Credit to the original builders, even though the fortress shook and my stomach floated as the first three floors collapsed as intended, the walls remained intact. The only signs of damage were dust falling from the ceiling and a cracked stone here and there; that was all.

Landis had faced away from me and toward th...

Fate's Attendant 1.3

Hong Fei walked across two hillsides before he could go no farther. The footing was simply too treacherous for him, the water streaming past his feet threatening to pull him along.

The badger had taken to walking downslope of him, so that it could catch him should he fall. It had happened twice already, and Hong Fei might’ve been willing to risk a third time if not for the drop of a hundred zhang downslope.

Nearby a bird hooted its indignation at the rain. Hong Fei silently agre...

Eight 5.33: The Plan in Action

I’d gotten quite good at reconnecting my spirit to my body, with my family’s help of course.

The process went smoothly this time, and Yuki was present and ready to have their consciousness merge with mine. For a moment, we united in our amazement at the eventfulness of the previous evening, then we separated so that each of us could come to terms with the others’ share of those events.

Carefully, I lifted myself out of a tub. Bits of tree bark and flower petals floated on th...

Fate's Attendant 1.2

Hong Fei held his sword at the ready with the intention to withdraw. Instead, his body curled around itself, sinking halfway to the ground before tilting onto its side. He lay unable to move except for the trembling in his limbs as the bones inside shook and the essence ran rampant, scalding his muscles, blood vessels, and organs.

There wasn’t much room for thought amid the pain, though a part of him found a way to wonder if the beast would eat the soldier first, since the man did...