3seed

29. Lockdown

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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The Standing Goat empties of its guests. Since none are Gloop, they can pass through the checkpoint out of No Town. Only the inn’s permanent residents stay, along with Milo, who’s been put into room 301 with instructions to rest.

The tables in the common room are moved aside, and Hallon, the General, and Safi use the time to train. Noor piles up the cushions around her to watch, while Wahid works in the kitchen and Rahima ...

28. Escalation

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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Hallon sweeps the ramp leading up to the Standing Goat. It’s early, well before first light, and her mind is like a dog gnawing at a bone; restlessly worrying at the edges of what she knows about the Calamity. How is she supposed to help? With these few—and powerless—people around her? Not that the General, Rahima, and Noor don’t have their connections. They do, and they’ve been useful, but they’re also so much less than...

27. An Intuition of Trouble

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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Hallon’s visit to the Scholar’s House proves unremarkable. She’d seen its spirit barrier when she still had her powers, but her investigation doesn’t reveal its source. The interiors are lovely, yes, and the rugs and textiles finely woven, but there’s no magician nor any sign that one once lived there—no runes, magical inscriptions, sacred geometries, or artifacts. The place resembles a community hall and trade center mo...

26. The Above and Below

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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It’s early; the sun still down and the air chilly. Only a handful of people are out on the street. From the corner of his eye, Milo sees a figure dressed in black collecting the refuse left out overnight. He doesn’t acknowledge the Hidden, and the Hidden doesn’t acknowledge him. They live in separate worlds.

Milo hurries. It’s the second day after the party, and he hadn’t seen Hallon since then. He’d stopped by, but ...

25. The Burden of Memory

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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That night, Hallon dreams of a boy running through a maze of trenches. A flare ignites in the sky to cast a red glow across the barbed wire and earthworks of No Man’s Land. At first, the boy looks like Hallon’s brother Arne, dressed as French soldier, but his face flickers as he runs. It shuffles between the people that Hallon’s known throughout her life until it settles on Omar Thulabi.

Shadows spill from over the sides...

24. The Party

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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A light shimmers in the gray fog. It feels like a nagging memory just out of reach, and Noor follows it to a doorway. Inside, there are tools neatly organized—chisels, rasps, and saws. A carpenter’s workshop. A man walks into the room behind her. He has worried eyes and a beard half-grown. A quarter-inch of his left index finger is missing. He looks around to make sure no one is watching before lifting a stone in the fl...

23. Reunions and Separations

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. Three chapters today to keep you all ahead of Royal Road. :)

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The library is small and unassuming, as if the planners were embarrassed by the need for one. Inside, the fixtures are plain, but the librarians have done their best to soften the stone with carpets and wall hangings. Most of the library is devoted to poetry and history, but there’s also a robust selection of books on biology and medicine. It comes from the research on t...

22. Waking Up Lost

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. Also: editing the novel is going quicker than anticipated; enough so that I can increase the release schedule to two chapters a week. I'll aim for Tuesdays and Saturdays.

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A blanket of soft wool. An open window. The room is small, with just enough space for a sleeping mat and a stack of books. Hallon tries to sit up, but dizziness overcomes her.

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Hallon dreams that she’s tied up while rats eat at her stomach, burrow...

21. Shift's Done

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. Note that this chapter begins Part 2 of the book. Just in case it's not obvious, there's been a time skip.
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The shift whistle blows on the garage’s lone speaker, the sound tinny and cracking. There’s a flutter of laughter as the workers lay down their tools and stand away from their stations. In the center of the garage stands a seven-foot frame vaguely in the shape of a human being. The panels protecting the interior parts have been r...

20. City of Shadows

Updated: Unlocked for all patrons. A bonus chapter. :)

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A violet bubble surrounds the Scholar’s residence. Between it and the scarlet cloth shading the busy market, they dye the morning in bright colors. If only it was as pleasant as it looked. The bubble buzzes with a static that makes it hard for Mary to think.

“How can you stand to touch it? It puts my teeth on edge,” she says.

“It’s crude and unpleasant, true,” Eratosthenes says, taking hi...

19. The Scholar's House

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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They shoo Milo out after breakfast. It was porridge again, but this time Wahid included two round pastries stuffed with dates for later. Milo also received strict instructions from Rahima to stay away from the hospital, but what else is he going to do? He doesn’t know anyone except for Hallon and the people at the Standing Goat.

He stands in front of the inn thinking about breaking both sets of instructions. The pro...

18. An Understanding Not Understood

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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Milo comes downstairs yawning to find the inn’s staff preparing for the day.

“You’re up early,” Wahid says. “Hold a jot, and I’ll get you something to eat.”

“Anywhere’s fine,” Safi says, motioning to the empty room.

The elevator door opens with a ding, and when Noor hops out, Safi reaches behind the bar for her cart. She wheels over to Milo’s table. “Good morning.”

“Morning.” Milo...

17. You Live Here

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. I'm publishing a chapter a day this week. Enjoy!

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A nurse checks on Hallon. On her way out, she places a blanket on Milo’s lap. Later, she taps him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Mister, but it’s time for me to take care of the young Miss. She’ll be wanting her privacy.”

Milo, focused on the equations, realizes that a request has been made of him. The part of him constantly observing notes the dawn light streaming throu...

16. Three Seeds

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. I'm continuing to push extra chapters to Royal Road, which means keeping you all ahead. Enjoy!

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Milo wakes up gagging. He turns to the side and vomits onto a pair of shoes. The man in the shoes dances back, but the splatter can’t be completely avoided.

“You are… ah… awake. Good. Good.”

The room isn’t much more than a bed, a metal stool, and a night stand. There’s no door, just a curtain drawn across the door...

15. A Deal to Live

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. A chapter a day this week. :)

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Milo’s insides twist in anguish. The giant pummels at Hallon on the ground, and there’s nothing Milo can do to stop the beating. There are no scenarios in which he can win against even one of the attackers, let alone the giant.

Tap tap tap-tap tap tap-tap. The man named Marid taps a knife against his leg. The people who’d attacked earlier pick themselves up. With each motion and eve...

14. The Standing Goat

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. I'm publishing a chapter every day this week, so you'll see another tomorrow too.

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The inn is three stories tall with a sign out front of a goat standing on two legs. Its brass-covered double doors are open to let the air in and the lively chatter of its customers out. The first floor is given over to a restaurant, and the customers sit on cushions at low tables, the air rich with the smell of warm spices. A stairway leads up to the ...

13. Welcome to No Town

Update: Unlocked for all patrons. I'm pushing extra chapters to Royal Road, so you'll see more of these this week. :)

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A long line of carts and trucks waits to pass through the Farmer’s Gate. The wall rises sixty feet above them, mounted with electric lights to flood the area below. A squacking truck loaded with chicken cages is at the front of the line, and soldiers inspect the driver’s papers and his cargo, while a machine gun crew watches from the saf...

12. Papers Please

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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Sand and stone give way to leafy-green orchards of pistachio and olive trees, to fields of onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers. This is the farmland that feeds Dawrtaine, so it’ll be just another hour—a little less, a little more—before Hallon can search for the source of the Calamity in earnest. Assuming that it’s not another dead end, of course. Oh, how she hopes it’s not another dead end.

She sighs when the train slow...

11. Stowaways

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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Rain falls on and off through the early morning, but it’s not enough to slow Hallon and Milo’s trek down the mountain. If anything, the rain is a blessing, masking their trail.

Hallon weighs the difficult decision of what to do with their soldier uniforms, but the risk of them looking like army deserters is too great. They also throw their borrowed uniforms off a cliff. Anything that draws attention is a potential danger, ...

10. A Boy and Girl in the Woods

Update: Unlocking for all patrons

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Walking out of the tunnel is like waking from a raucous nightmare. Before them, a steady rain falls on the green limbs of a forest. The water is warm and the air fragrant with the smells of pine, oak, and cedar trees. Nearby, birds chirrup to each other. Hallon finds a quiet copse well away from the tunnel’s exit before sitting Milo down. His eyes are mild and trusting. After their recent ordeals, they both need a rest, b...

9. Traversing the Upper Paths

Update: Unlocked for all patrons.

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The sun is a glowing ball seen through the storm wall, casting wavering shadows across the ice. Stepping out of the cave, Hallon feels like she’s walking on the ocean, the tides constantly shifting under her feet. She holds onto Milo’s arm to make sure he doesn’t fall. It’s a good thing too, because Milo’s knees nearly give out when he sees the wall.

“That’s impossible,” he says in a whisper. “I know I’m su...

8. The Cave

Update: unlocked for all patrons.

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Nothingness stretches in all directions. There is a realization of movement, but no reference points to help determine speed or direction. A memory triggers—

One night, Milo was aboard the university’s dirigible. There’d been a special dinner party for the physics students, and while the other guests retired to the salon afterward to talk, he’d fled through the service hallways until he found himself in the engine room...

7. Running

Eratosthenes travels through the gray space between universes following Hallon’s scent, her particular mixture of fire, curiosity, perseverance, and regret; her flashing eyes and hair the color of summer wheat. He knows she’s safe through the connection they share, but the journey is taking longer than expected. In his claws, he holds a branch of laurel, and the Green Witch’s consciousness rests inside.

He continues his seeking, and the universes pass like waves across his fur. Ti...

6. The Chase

Colonel Fares Abadoun, third son of the House of Abadoun, Commander of Labor Camp 35, frowns at the folding knife in his hands. The blade’s edge is keen and light ripples along its length. The spyglass is older, an antique of uncertain origin, but still working.

“The doctor’s in the infirmary,” Captain Tahr says, continuing his report. “He can’t treat himself, so it’s up to the assistant to make do. The guards that were on duty at Receiving have already been reassigned to ...

5. Labor Camp No. 35

A bonus chapter for everyone.

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The last time Hallon was ambushed, she’d just finished reading Gulliver’s Travels and was in a riverside pub in London hoping to meet the author. Before Mr. Swift could arrive though, there was a disagreement with a drunken sailor—and his drunken friends—and when Hallon came to next, she was on a ship bound for Jamaica.

Eratosthenes had been traveling at the time and crowed for a week on his return. He’d been in...

Update: Rewards for Level 5 & 10

TL&DR: There are changes coming to patron tiers: Level 5 and 10 patrons will be able to read five chapters ahead starting this coming week.

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The longer, more guilt-ridden version:

When writing Eight, I felt terrible about not being able to provide additional chapters to Level 5 and 10 patrons. It's a common practice for web serials, but work and life interfered every time I set aside the time to write ahead.

No more.

The truth is that I started Lions of ...

4. A Snowy Valley Disturbed

Hallon opens her eyes to a world made of whites and blues. A snow-covered hill rises above her, and atop it is Milo’s Matter Transmission Engine, the mechanical tree piercing the sky. Its inventor is farther down the hill, still unconscious. The parlor chairs and his tools are tumbled in the snow twenty feet beyond him.

Eratosthenes?

The dragon doesn’t answer. He must still be traveling. The plan was for him to follow after, tracking Hallon to this world using the con...

3. The Machine Tree

Author's Note: I've decided to move the publish date to Royal Road up. As a result, I'm releasing a chapter on Patreon early. There'll be another on Saturday.

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By the third day, Hallon’s convinced that Milo Rabbit is insensitive to the spirit world. As a test, she sends a small magic wafting towards the house—a compulsion to sneeze—and he does, but then goes back to tinkering with the mechanical tree in his parlor. He’s not suspicious at all, and doesn’t ev...

2. The Journey West

A second chapter to get the ball rolling...

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Hallon stops by the house in London before boarding the RMS Mauritania bound for New York. She looks forward to the journey—a chance to spend some time with Eratosthenes and catch up on her reading—but the passenger liner makes it across the Atlantic in just five days. That’s barely any time at all, not when the crossing used to take weeks.

And she finds New York much changed, with many new buildings rising up ...

1. The Traveler

The Lions of Dawrtaine begins!

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The moon sleeps on her back, just a sliver in the sky. A handful of clouds sail past like ladies in their long dresses. The spirit of a dragon soars among them, flying through their misty garments. The woman he follows isn’t some dainty lady. She runs with a fierce animal joy matching his own, making a game of weaving between the trees. Her name is Hallon Nilsdotter, and her steps are as swift as any hunter’s. She smells of fire a...