Aster Brooks Books

Ch. 41: Alyx: Sneaking in

Alyx and company walked through the lower halls of the temple, the twisting hallways spreading in every direction, level after level of subbasements still waiting to be explored.

“I expected more pushback,” Marco muttered as they walked with purpose past another group of priests.

“Walk with confidence,” Telis ordered, demonstrating with her head held high and her steps fast but not rushed. “With purpose. We have business here. Others will feel that and not question it.�...

Ch. 40: Salos: Releasing the Dragon

Salos did not like the plan. But as usual, he did not have a better one.

His heart hammered in his chest as he leapt from Cass’s shoulder into her shadow and Shadow Stepped out around a corner and out of sight.

His Stealth pushed out to the maximum as he waited for Cass and her pursuers to pass. It was an eternity of tense worry she would be caught. It was a matter of seconds as they raced by, none the wiser that the true demon lurked just out of sight.

Now, to stay tha...

Ch. 39: The Captain

Cass and Salos stalked the fleeing paladin through the halls, their combined stealth skills hiding them in plain sight as the man ran through the complex. Even if they hadn’t, all eyes were on the paladin as he shouted about his urgent news for the captain. Who would have stopped to look at the shadow creeping after him? 

In minutes, they were in the Copper Crescent’s center of operations. It was a busier section of hallway, the doors to either side open and filled with men and...

Ch. 38: Ahryn: Light Message

Ahryn was used to being ignored. It was usually better than being noticed, if he was honest.

He was used to their low expectations. He was used to missing them, anyway. It mostly didn’t bother him any more. 

But he’d hoped today would be different. 

He stared up at the darkening sky as he walked through the city. Kohen walked a few steps ahead, an easy grin on his face. He wanted an early celebration for his performance in the arena.  

With Alyx...

Ch. 37: Questions

Cass’s Focus had only come back up to 306 when the paladin she’d knocked out with the cold woke up. 

He grunted awake, his head snapping to and fro as he tried to figure out what had happened and where he was. Cass didn’t wait for him to get his bearings. 

“Welcome back,” she said, pulling the rickety chair she’d found amid the crates up in front of him. She’d been kind enough to sit him up, but not kind enough to find a second chair. He had to look up at h...

Ch. 36: A Breath

Cass stared down at the paladin’s body. He was dead. 

She was alive. 

But he was dead. 

She—

She had killed him. 

Salos hopped up next to her. “Good job.”

Cass nodded mutely. 

“Did an exit open?” Salos asked, already focused on the next task. Already looking to evaluate if killing this man had served them.  

Cass reached out with Atmospheric Sense. The air hadn’t changed. It continued in its stran...

Ch. 35: Copper and Flames

Cass took a deep breath as her opponent’s struggling slowed to ineffective wriggling beneath thickening ice.

Across the room, Salos’s attack had not stopped. 32 was covered in cuts. There wasn’t a joint in his armor that wasn’t bleeding, and a good number of his plates had new, bleeding holes. 

And yet he still hadn’t fallen. 

Salos dashed behind him, his dagger again diving for the man’s neck. 

Again, that shimmering shield appeared in the w...

Ch. 34: Copper and Cold

This isn’t working. Cass and 29 stared at one another across her ice field. He was unarmed and panting from exertion. His sword lay on the ice behind her. His shield lay under a layer of ice in the opposite direction. 

Cass had limited methods of injuring him and an ever-decreasing budget of Focus with which to work.

Stamina: 120/138

Focus: 248/549

Meanwhile, Salos continued stabbing Lvl-32. His dagger plu...

Ch. 33: Copper and Ice

Cass and Salos skulked down the halls. Cass clenched the dagger in her hands. They had the ghost of a plan and were just looking for an appropriate target. 

A pair of paladins stormed down the hall, crossing hers. 

Order of the Copper Crescent Paladin (Lvl 32)

Order of the Copper Crescent Paladin (Lvl 29)

Let’s go, Salos whispered from her shoulder.

She shook her head. One first. <...

Ch. 32: Alyx: Breaking in

“And we found the staff there.” Pellen pointed at a rubbish pile behind the Temple. It was mostly food scraps decomposing into fertilizer for the gardens. 

Alyx’s hand clenched around her sword hilt. 

She, Pellen, Telis, and Marco stood in the temple’s shadow by one of the back service doors. 

Cass was still missing. 

They’d asked inside. The priests all shook their heads, claiming no one had seen Cass. It had been hours already since Pell...

Ch. 31: Shifting Mind

Cass’s eyes flared open. She was leaning against the dragon’s flank. Its scales were hot, like her stove top when the oven was on underneath. She pulled away as the dragon shifted, its neck craning against its chains to reach her, but falling short.

Salos, you there? Cass asked.

“Here,” he said as he materialized on her shoulder. 

Cass breathed a sigh of relief. She knew it hadn’t been a dream, but she had still worried. 

He inspected ...

Ch. 30: Return

A wave of emotion crashed over Cass. She collapsed back into her chair, looking at her options. 

Salos was finally done absorbing the soul. 

He was back. The tension slipped from her shoulders. 

With him at her side, who could stop her?

Well, there was a new worry that he wouldn’t be on board to rescue the dragon, but she was pretty used to bulldozing that kind of complaint these days. She’d figure something out. 

She just needed to pick o...

Ch.29: Bond

“So, the easiest solution sounds like you should make me your Dragon Knight,” Cass said. That should fix the rabid feral dragon thing, if nothing else.

She’d made herself comfy in front of the fire, leaning back in her extra wide camp chair, one leg hanging over one arm of the chair as she preferred to sit.

“No,” the dragon said. He lay on the opposite side of the fire, still predominately on his empty side of the soul well, but his head and front legs hung over the divi...

Ch.28: Binding

Cass found herself in her campground. The wind whipped wildly through the trees, and the fire pit glowed with welcome at her side. Behind her stood her tent, open but empty. Around her towered redwoods, their tall branches piercing a star-filled sky. 

Somewhere far behind her, she could hear the rush of waterfalls. Had there always been waterfalls at this campsite? She didn’t think so, but there was something right about it. 

Unlike the sharp divide before her.  2025-02-22 23:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Ch. 27: Prisoners

Cass wasn’t prepared for what she saw inside. 

A dragon. 

It was huge. The dragonlings had been about the size of ponies, plenty big but tiny compared to the beast before her. This dragon filled the room, as wide at the shoulders as a car, long enough that even curled around himself, he made SUVs look small. 

He was mostly a dusty brown, the luster entirely absent from his scales. A rash of molting peeling scales crisscrossed his body in burnt amber and ash ...

Ch. 26: Stealth

Cass heard their voices next. 

“Can you believe we need to add a third containment circle,” one of them complained to the other. A man’s voice. A touch nasally. “We weren’t even done with the first two.”

“Third?” another scoffed. A woman’s voice, sharp like high heels on tile. “I think you mean fourth.”

The pair walked toward her.

Atmospheric Sense said their hands were full. One carried a stacked set of box-like objects in their arms. The ot...

Ch.25: The Door

Cass put a hand on the door. It was cold under her open palm. Solid. Immobile. 

Elemental Manipulation hadn’t worked on the crystals in the Catacombs or the glass floor in the hallway. Would it work on metal? Surely, it would be more fruitful than her attempts at applying Strength to the problem had been so far. 

She pressed with Elemental Manipulation, pushing her Focus into the material. 

The metal of the door was indifferent. This wasn’t impossible, but...

Ch. 24: The Storeroom

Cass had a poor sense of the passage of time, but it was probably several hours later when her resources recovered to acceptable levels. 

Stamina: 138/138

Focus: 439/549

Health: 68/133

So far, no one had come back to check on her. No one had noticed the smell of smoke or her medical herbs. If Cass didn’t know better, she might have assumed they’d abandoned her, forgetting about her very existence...

Ch. 23: Alyx: Proving

Alyx’s heart hammered in her chest as she stood in the waiting room outside the arena. Above her was a stadium of eager viewers, all waiting to see who would be their new Dragon Knights. 

She flicked up her Blessing description again.

Major Blessing

She had already won. This was just set dressing. Just a show for the people. 

A dragon was hers. It was just a matter of which one. 

Around her waited the other finalist...

Ch. 22: Injured and Alone

Cass blinked awake. The floor under her was cold. The ceiling above her was green.

Everything hurt. 

She tried to sit up. A mistake, as she could feel her brains sloshing in her skull and every muscle screaming in protest.

Stamina: 44/138

Focus: 66/549

Health: 70/133

She groaned and let herself fall back to the floor.

“Salos, are you awake yet?” she asked the empty air. She knew...

Ch. 21: Pellen: Divination

There was nothing on the bench. Pellen slumped to the seat, burying her face in her hands. 

“Lady Mage!” a boisterous voice called all too loudly through the temple.

Pellen looked up. The swordsman from Lord Kohen’s party waved at her as he walked up. 

“Sir Daidyn?” she asked. Was everyone here today to pray for their lords? She once again wondered if she should do the same, though, again, she wondered who that lord would be.

“I thought that was y...

Ch. 20: Pellen: Concepts

Pellen picked at the skin around her fingernails in a poor attempt to sit still before the priest of Will, the man who would appraise her compatibility with Arcane. 

“No need to be nervous, miss,” he said. “Just put your hand on the plate here.” He gestured to the plate of blue-black metal on the table. An Arcane shard—a sliver of glowing gold crystal—already sat in the divot to one side of the plate. 

Pellen reached out and touched the metal.

“Now pu...

Ch. 19: Unstoppable Force

The captain stood before the priestess and her priests, his shield raised, a green force field separating Cass from them. 

Fortitude’s Aegis

[A skill bestowed by the goddess Fortitude to protect her faithful followers. Only a truly unstoppable force could break this.]

No. How could he have reacted in time? There had been a fraction of a second between the blade of lightning exiting Confounding Mists and the captain stopping it. If he had...

Ch. 18: Priestess of Fortitude

Wood splinters flew through the air and sparks of lightning exploded around her. Tempest Blade broke with no weapon to support it. 

The paladin’s blade sliced toward her through the maelstrom of shattered staff, nothing remaining to block its path.

She needed to move. 

A piece of broken wood remained in her clenched fist. It was, maybe, two feet long? Across the hall lay the upper third, lightning burn marks scorched into the gnarled top. 

The entire m...

Ch.17: Twisty Little Hallways

If the paladins had all been big, this man was gargantuan. He was easily two heads taller than Cass and twice as wide at the shoulders. A pair of bull horns protruded from either side of his forehead. His skull bulged under his skin, and his nose was flat like a cow’s. 

His equipment was much like his men’s: heavy armor, green tabard, shield, and sword. However, the details were taken to the next level with each element. 

It wasn’t enough to have heavy plates of me...

Ch. 16: Forced Scuffle

So she couldn’t run. Fine. How else did she get out of this? 

Fight her way out? 

How many opponents were there? Two in front, at least. Atmospheric Sense found four more in close proximity, all approaching quickly, and more, too indistinct to count, beyond them. How many were truly more opponents, and how many were double-counted from the looping air? 

But, even if it was just six or so, that was still too many. She was only level 23. These enemies were all...