If you could leave the school, what’s the first place you would visit?
I would like to go to the beach. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been exposed to direct sunlight, or put my toes in the ocean.
Were you from a mage family?
Yes. I was a Kerrick, once upon a time.
What do you think is the greatest or coolest scientific (or magical) discovery to be made in your lifetime? (Not counting medical advancements)...
2022-10-08 12:00:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Max?” I said.
“I know, I know; you’re mad at me for running off, and I’m really sorry, but can you be mad at me later? I said I’d find the answer, didn’t I? This solves everything! Come look!”
“Max, you’re, um, bleeding a lot.”
He glanced down at his hands. “Only a little bit. Can we focus?”
I glanced at Kylie. She was staring at Max with iron hard eyes. I shrugged off my backpack, left it at her feet, and cautiously approached. “Can we tal...
2022-10-07 13:48:57 +0000 UTC View PostWe take shifts talking to Denish. He dozes off a few times, but we always manage to rouse him. I start thinking, maybe it would be better to just let him sleep, and try to rouse him when it’s nearing time to take the helmet off – but what if we can’t? You’d think the lack of oxygen would wake him when it’s time, but no – the body doesn’t sense oxygen, it senses carbon dioxide, and the suit is filtering carbon dioxide normally. According to the doctor, upping the carbon dioxide i...
2022-10-04 14:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay,” I said, jiggling a bit and breathing quickly and definitely NOT panicking. “Okay. So, maybe he left that coat here, and just went back – ”
“He’s been gone for several hours. This is all set up for a descent, including a rope. And Max doesn’t just leave his coat somewhere. The question is, what do we do now?”
“Well, we go for help, obviously. Malas is only a few minutes – ”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You’re usual...
2022-10-03 14:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Faith of Fionnrath heard the commotion outside, sighed, and put his book away. He called up his power, letting it trickle into his mind, until his teeth began to itch. Correctly channelling the Faith, so that it could speak its wisdom through him while allowing him to remain aware and in control, was a skill that had taken two decades to master, but it had long ago become second nature. He waited, while his door was pulled roughly open, and a stranger half-dragged inside.
The strang...
2022-10-01 09:32:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Destroy magic?” I asked. “How?”
“Modern enchantments are designed so that a spell trapped in an object is freed if the runic circle is destroyed beyond repair. But there are other runic languages that have other ways of doing things. You know how to empower water, yes?”
“In theory,” I shrugged. There were specific ways to put power into water or oil for potionmaking, via direct channelling or ichor extraction. It was fiddly, exhausting, and the return was extremel...
2022-09-30 15:05:31 +0000 UTC View PostWe have a crew of six, now. Five of us are in the safety of the back three quarters of the ship, with a nice livable atmosphere. Denish is locked in Chronostasis Ring 1 and Recreation and Medical Ring 1. He’s between two sets of locked airlocks that I can’t open. We have comms for as long as the power in his space suit lasts, which is going to be a lot longer than his air supply, so no problems there.
Tal might be able to get the airlocks open, but Tal is unconscious as a result of ...
2022-09-27 14:52:35 +0000 UTC View PostSaina got out of the hospital the next day. Despite my fears, she wasn’t pulled out of school. (There were probably political reasons, I supposed, why the leader of Refujeyo pulling their child out of the school and showing a lack of faith in an entire third of the Refujeyo government might be a bad idea.) She could stay… with some concessions.
I tried to ignore the two bodyguards while I crushed basil in our little potion workshop, but they didn’t make it easy. The muscular, tatt...
2022-09-27 01:44:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Will it work?” I asked. “Will going down that well get us where we need to be?”
The spellthing watched me from across the table, and sipped its tea. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
“Yeah, but did you, the real you, tell us anything we’ve forgotten about – ”
“Is the real me really somebody who tends to give useful and detailed instructions?”
“Listen, if I have any helpful disconnected memories about – ”
“Drink your tea.” 2022-09-23 22:08:07 +0000 UTC View Post
This month, we're looking at the development of Alania Miratova and Malas Aksoy, and the role they play in the story
2022-09-21 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“He died in here?” I ask. “That can’t… I mean, the computer said he succumbed to his infection a few days after his rampage.”
“Did it say where?” the doctor asks. “It looks like he was trapped in here. He wouldn’t have been able to seek treatment.” The body is face down on the pod; the doctor turns it to inspect the face. “Eyes intact,” it murmurs. “This is extraordinarily odd.”
“How?” Tinera asks. “It’s a corpse.”
“It’s a two and ...
2022-09-20 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t see how this is supposed to help,” Kylie said.
We were on Agreabla Insulo, looking back into the portal that led to the school. Max rubbed his hands in excitement, for a moment living up to the supervillain image that his gangly frame, tailored clothes and ridiculous goatee suggested.
“We need to get to Duniyasar,” he said. “You’ve done it by channelling while going through this portal before, right?”
“Yes, because the spell patch thingy to stop it...
2022-09-19 21:52:42 +0000 UTC View Post“Speak gently and quietly,” Malas instructed, “and if she gets worn out, leave immediately. She has a severe concussion.”
“Is she going to be alright?” Hammond asked. (I’d run into him in the hallway. Apparently he couldn’t wait, either.)
“I don’t know. There are no problems as of right now. And most people – but not all people – recover quickly from a concussion. Things are promising but I can guarantee nothing.”
We tiptoed around the curt...
2022-09-16 14:44:47 +0000 UTC View Post
When Aspen left for university, they took a photo album. Here are some of their photos.
2022-09-14 14:37:00 +0000 UTC View PostI sit back in my comfortable chair in Network and Engineering Ring 1, take a bite out of my tasty chocolate bar, and glance at the computer showing my crew hard at work. Denish lifts some kind of heavily modified piece of construction equipment in his bulky, uncomfortable space suit gloves, grunting with effort as he pushes it into place. The doctor presses its body weight against the frame of the door, bracing for vibration.
I take another bite out of my chocolate. For something so out...
2022-09-13 15:19:20 +0000 UTC View PostMy scream sounded a lot louder in my ears than expected. It took me a moment to realise that it wasn’t just myself that I was hearing; the sound of at least a couple of dozen confused, panicking, upset people crowded the air. The ground beneath Saina was the flat, smooth stone of the Pit platform. Someone had turned the simulation off.
In my peripheral, I could see people in brown surrounding the platform, holding the crowd back. Janitors, maybe, or Malas’ apprentices, or some other...
2022-09-12 15:17:21 +0000 UTC View Post“Run!” Hammond bellowed.
“What – ?”
“Everyone just run!”
He wasn’t grabbing at her mandibles, I noticed dimly as I made for the exit; he was holding a long rope of white webbing. Was he going to try to entangle her? Did he really think he could win that way?
Of course not. He wasn’t trying to win, was he? He was trying to buy us some time.
I hated running, hated leaving Hammond to face that thing alone, even though I knew it was the right decisi...
2022-09-09 21:13:19 +0000 UTC View PostDo you pirate media? I feel like you wouldn’t but it would be funny if you did.
I’m not sure what that means. Give me a moment to… ah, I see. No, if I want to access media, I simply purchase it. Or trade favours for it, as necessary. I’ve never illegally copied things for unentitled personal use, and I stand by my claim that that whole incident with the hidden texts in the Nordja library was a massive misunderstanding and nobody can prove I made any illegal copi...
2022-09-07 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“I have plan for Chronostasis Ring 1,” Denish announces, apropos of nothing. The three new crewmates have been awake for less than twenty four hours, and while the doctor doesn’t want them to move too far (‘sudden respiratory or heart failure are possible side effects for high-risk post-chronostasis cases, they shouldn’t be alone,’) it has noted that exercise and general moving about are important to recovery, so we’re all gathered in Recreation and Medica lRing 2, within sight ...
2022-09-06 14:38:04 +0000 UTC View PostWe weren’t going to lose track of each other at the edge of a clearing. We let each other go, and Hammond pulled out the map again.
In shadows of oaks old and deep, among her children, mother sleeps.
To convince them that you belong, you must dance to a hidden song.
Be the music, feather-light, lest she wake and hear your flight;
Move softly under silk-strewn skies and dance a m...
2022-09-05 14:44:15 +0000 UTC View PostI was eating scrambled eggs when I found myself surrounded.
“Treasure hunt today,” Pete said, sitting to my right while Saina cut off my left. I automatically went to push my chair back, but Hammond was a veritable wall in a cheerful scarf back there.
“I know,” I said. “We’re meeting in half an hour, right?”
“Sure,” Peter said. “Just making sure everyone’s ready.”
“I’m sure everyone will be ready, in half an hour.” I ate my eggs extra slow...
2022-09-02 16:20:25 +0000 UTC View PostMax arrived for the second week, staying (once again) in much fancier accommodation than I was. I didn’t say so to anyone, but I found myself wishing that it’d been Kylie, not Max, who was dating one of my friends, so she’d be in range. I should’ve arranged to spend time with her family this holiday. I should’ve accounted for the strain of separation. A bit too late to worry about that, though.
Max stepped off the bus into town with his goatee immaculately groomed and in expen...
2022-09-01 04:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostWe don’t really have a process for the whole crew revival thing. The doctor wants to administer Adin’s medical tests right away; I want to fill the other two medbay beds as quickly as possible. I think that the sooner we wake people, the better; the doctor thinks that the risk of leaving Adin alone when he might require medical attention is greater than any incremental added revival risk a few hours’ delay might make.
If I use my position as captain to order the doctor to come and...
2022-08-30 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View PostI spent the remaining time before the holidays training for the upcoming treasure hunt, doing the bare minimum of work in my classes, and researching contract spells. Specifically, researching ways to remove a geas. I probably could’ve saved a lot of time by just asking Max about them – not only was he well-versed in magical theory of pretty much any kind, but he had a contract spell, there was absolutely no way he hadn’t researched the entire topic to death – but I didn’t ...
2022-08-27 00:03:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Oh, no,” the doctor mutters, staring at the computer terminal.
I look up from my coffee. It’s been a full day since we finished purging the air filtration system (or at least the part in out part of the ship) and obsessively sterilising every surface to the doctor’s anti-fungal specifications, we’ve both physically recovered from our various ordeals, and I just want to sit back in the recreation ring and enjoy my thirty-year-expired freeze-dried instant coffee in peace.
This month, we're talking about the creation of Melissa, Chelsea, and Kayden's parents. Have fun!
2022-08-21 15:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostI pulled my right hand away from the grater, swearing, and managed to catch myself before automatically sticking the bleeding wound in my mouth. I was only grating oak bark, but it was good practice to avoid sticking one’s hand in one’s mouth at all when making potions.
I was too distracted to be making potions, anyway. It had been a long time since I’d managed to grate the skin off my own hand. Rather a lot of the skin was missing, but only the skin. I rinsed it off and doused it...
2022-08-20 02:06:36 +0000 UTC View Post“Good morning, Captain Aspen.”
“Mmmn?” I open my eyes and blink blearily at the person standing over me.
The doctor looks a lot sharper without the drugs in its system. It’s cleaned up, shaved its matted hair a lot more neatly than I did to my own, and dressed in a white wrap gown in what I’m pretty sure is an Arborea Pacifica style. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” I sit up, and wince. My injuries had been restrapped (presumably more competently) while I s...
2022-08-16 15:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post
ID chips were implanted into colonists shortly before stasis for recognition aboard the ship and new colony, but during the training, accommodation and boarding process, it was more convenient to use these paper ID cards.
“Are you looking at moving up a graduate level soon?” Max asked.
“Huh?” I sat cross-legged on the floor, scrawling a letter to my parents at a slightly awkward angle, hoping it wouldn’t affect my handwriting too much. “Not all of us are trying to speedrun out education, you know. At this stage, schooling literally could not matter less. Why, are you ready to move up to craftsperson and don’t want us poor little acolytes cramping your style?”
He smiled. “Can’t m...
2022-08-12 22:18:27 +0000 UTC View Post