Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“Ah.” Felix wasn’t quite prepared for that one. “Well, home is…was Fort Lauderdale. That’s in Florida. Which is in the United States—I’m not sure how much context I should give.”
Vess waved a hand. “Was it nice? Florida?”
“It was too hot, too humid, and too sunny. ‘Nice’ is a bit of a stretch…but it could be beautiful.”
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Harn brought his hammer down. Sparks flew like a brilliant waterfall of purple-blue motes before they vanished, eaten up by the relentless cold. Outside the forge he’d commandeered, night had fallen. The winds were brutal but Harn welcomed them—tonight, his work required more than simple heat.
He lifted his hammer. The haft was of rich, golde...
2023-04-24 19:00:46 +0000 UTC View PostAs is required by my contract, I'll be removing almost all of the chapters for Abyss (chapters 425-531 ish). But! Since it's my birthday tomorrow, April 22nd, I'm going to leave them up for the weekend. Any new folks can check them out this weekend, and I'll remove them all Monday.
Have a great weekend, folks!
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Felix shut the door. “Explain.”
The Chanters stood in the center of the room, eyes roaming over the jars and sacks, the fire, and Pit, who sat unperturbed on the woven rug. Laur, in particular, stared pointedly at the Skull of the Forsaken.
Tzfell folded her arms below her bust. “The Kingsrock was once a Nymean stronghold. The oral histories the D...
2023-04-21 15:43:10 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
* * *
Evie landed in a roll, springing up to her feet as her spiked chain retracted into her hand. Behind, the last of the Brumalbats fell in gruesome pieces, their icy wings and dark ichor splattering the cliffs below. A Yttin harpoon speared the center of the nearest corpses and snapped back, snagging the majority of its guts. They splatted messily beside her.
“Gross.”
Pit landed beside her, his dark armor making him look far larger and ...
2023-04-19 14:22:36 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
Harsh screeches scratched at Loquis’ ears, and it was all he could do to shout orders over the din. The Brumalbats swarmed the blue sky, their ice-wreathed wings glittering like diamonds in the sunlight. They were huge, easily the size of a man, with twice the wingspan. A few weapons were hurled from the town below, but the simple black iron spears clatt...
FYI, next Wednesday I'll be pulling chapters of book 7 off Patreon (and RR/etc) in preparation for it's release on May 3rd! It will be releasing on Amazon/Audible simultaneously, and both are available for preorder now.
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“There’s an attack?” Felix asked. All around him ...
Enjoy! Longer one today!
* * *
The interior of the fortress was far homier than Felix anticipated. He expected martial defenses and an abundance of ice; what he found was similar to almost any town he'd encountered up to this point. It had shops, taverns, a smithy, even a kennel for the massive Hoarhounds.
Also a lot of ice.
The walls were made of it...
2023-04-12 16:31:54 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
A small, hiltless blade appeared in Felix’s hand. It was crooked, pitted, and dull along the long edge, but he marveled at the ability regardless. Shaping things out of raw Mana was still a trip. With a flick of his wrist, he threw it down into a post of wood he’d shaped up from the deck. The blade went right through the post and out into the dark.
Hm. No ...
2023-04-10 17:11:20 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
When Felix came back to the ship, he found a crowd of onlookers. Arclights with spells dancing on their fingers, Blades and Bones with weapons drawn, and numerous Yttin and Henaari bearing spears and tridents—ready and willing to mete out death, but finding only Felix and the empty dark.
They burst into applause.
Felix stifled his embarrassment as he ...
2023-04-07 16:49:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
Felix massaged the back of his neck as he leaned away from the System screen, sitting now on the deck of his ship. His Aspects were aching, strained in ways that made his core space feel more than a little shaky. It wasn’t so much that his physical form was exhausted, but the metaphysical piece of him that was Tempered. His Body, Mind, and Spirit felt raw...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“Well…that’s new,” Evie said.
Before them was the same floating conglomeration of wood, stone, and crystal as he’d created before, just as large and strange as the first time. Living wood shaped into the form of a huge, four-winged whale covered in moss, flowers, and crystals. Masts shaped like tree trunks rose up into the featureless dark o...
2023-04-03 23:36:00 +0000 UTC View PostNext chapter we'll be getting into the action a bit more. Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
The company marched through the Fogland forests, making short work of the distance with their Tempered Bodies. Zara was happy to note that all of those going with Felix were at least Journeyman Tier, and their Aspects were powerfully bolstered by the Territory’s signature Essence Draug...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Thanks in part to an impromptu festival, everyone made it out of Elderthrone with little effort. Vess was more than a little surprised at that—the guards they had posted at the walls weren’t ones to slack off, after all. Yet every one of them had been distracted by one thing or another.
Did Karys set this up? she wondered. Vess had sp...
2023-03-29 17:33:57 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
Seeing the Nagafolk off didn’t take long and Felix was thankful for that. He had entirely too much to do and too little time to do it in. Lists of supplies, people to wrangle, and Pit had gone off somewhere without telling him. The last wasn’t a big deal—Pit was entitled to his alone time—but when he was setting out on a trip like the one they’d planned...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Atar hunched forward, peering closely at the sigil he was inscribing on a length of stone. His hand ached, cramping up despite his Adept Tier Body—the amount of inscription he had done in the last week was enough to make a lesser mage’s hand fall off completely. It wasn’t enough though, not when Atar’s gaze flicked back toward the gleaming metallic tome tha...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“...and do not break her heart.”
“Stupid perfect recall,” Felix muttered, jogging up a staircase three steps at a time. As if he wasn’t nervous about his dinner date already, now he had Darius’ intimidating face seared into his memories. “And what changed his mind so much?”
Much as he appreciated the man’s aptitude and training, t...
2023-03-22 17:39:10 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
“First Form!” Darius commanded. “Owl!”
Felix rushed forward, hooked blade leading the way. The movements of First Form, also known as Owl Form, were inspired by the quiet and observant nature of that bird. They emphasized slow, deliberate strikes and precise footwork.
It was a sadistic choice for the obstacle course ahead.
Blades as long a...
2023-03-20 13:50:45 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
Slightly shorter one today, but it kinda has to be. More on Monday!
ToC
* * *
The night was cold, but for once the flurries had ceased. The mountain air was pristine, lent an incredible clarity that still roared across the foothills, sharp as glass. Within a wide pit dug into the snow a fire burned, crackling across the winter-wet logs and releasing a plume of pal...
Some answers and a few new questions in this one.
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“I’m sorry, what?” Felix wished something more refined had immediately popped out of his mouth, but Vess’ etiquette training only went so far. “I’ve never even been to Neer.”
Yorun was almost shaking in his seat. “Please forgive me, my Lord. I spoke out of tur...
2023-03-15 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
Evie stood atop the waterfall, looking back over what had once been a riverbank before Felix had gotten his hands on it. Now a castle soared upward in the early morning light, all of it built of that dark stone of his. There was a crenelated wall, at least thirty strides high, and inside that was a large hexagonal building, three stories tall and fitted with small arro...
Enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who signed up for the newsletter!
I'll be sending out my March one next week!
ToC
* * *
The Chanters didn’t say much after Felix showed up. The stooped old lady had only bowed a little before she swooped off, clattering across the heaving deck on a knobby cane, calling out for the injured to be gathered together. The entire ship soon transformed from ...
Enjoy!
Oh! If you want to sign up for my newsletter (emails go out like once a month, at most) you can do so here: http://eepurl.com/igq0s5
If you sign up, you'll get a little treat! A commissioned piece of artwork of Pit as he looks at the start of Book 6: Expanse!
ToC
* * *
“Th...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
“Oh, that makes more sense,” Felix said, sometime later. The gray sand beneath his feet was just as pale and gritty as he remembered, as were the green vinegar waves that crashed nearby. “They’re in a Manaship.”
A fair distance out, barely a speck on the horizon, was a Manaship flying a series of colorful flags. Zara said they were traditional indicator...
2023-03-06 18:09:39 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
Vess watched Felix zip into the sky, and despite the lightning that enveloped him, she could still make out his form quite clearly.
“Working on your Perception, Lady Dayne?” Darius asked.
Vess coughed and turned away from the sky. “What is it you need, Darius?”
Her father’s Chosen Hand was following the fading trail of Felix...
2023-03-03 18:41:02 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
There was a pervasive quiet in the woods, broken only by the percussive crunch of snow beneath their boots. Felix and Vess walked, not speaking, between frost-coated ridges and winding, old-growth trees wide as houses. The nervousness he felt had vanished, dwindled beneath the thick silence and replaced by a familiar wonder.
Songbirds chirruped in the branches ab...
2023-03-02 00:54:30 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
In a quiet, snow-coated glade, a portal split the air.
Birds scattered and small creatures skipped across footprints that had barely filled in, while the rent sucked up the air around it like a gasping man. It widened, loosing a fluting note that soon trembled with vibrato—until it stopped. There was only silence and the night-dark hole, and both of them br...
2023-02-27 21:13:40 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
ToC
* * *
“Don’t tug at those,” Harn snapped. His hammer never faltered, ringing against some red-hot piece of steel. “You’ll open up your wounds again.”
Evie dropped her hand from the cloth bundled around her left shoulder. Stupid Adept Perception. Can’t get anything by him. “It itches. And I wouldn’t be openin’ my wounds if you l...
2023-02-24 18:08:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 555! That's a fun number.
After some consideration, I've editing some bits into chapters 527, 533, and 534 to better reintroduce/establish Pit's condition/issues. Give those a re-read if you like!
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Jesus, what am I doing? Felix fell back on his heels, letting the spinning pattern of Chthonic Tribute die down to a low hum. “Pit. Back off.”<...
Enjoy!
ToC
* * *
Felix ripped through the cloud layer atop a bolt of lightning, and found chaos.
The storm that had quietened raged anew, and gale force winds ripped at him while snow and hail tried to blind him. He cast his senses out, Perception and Affinity both, and found that the storm was not the same as when he’d fought the Ice Drakes. The sky itself was dark, purple...
2023-02-20 16:08:44 +0000 UTC View Post