There was, as you might imagine, considerable argument about our next step. There was one and only one quest which had a time limit, and that was the one that Perisev had set for us, which was to go murder Captain Blue-in-the-Bottle. We had other quests, some of them that I’d had for a very, […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 199: Nearest and Dearest
The marriage inspector was the last thing we needed to deal with in Anglecynn, with the caveat that the Amaryllis clones and thirty of the tuung would stay behind in order to manage everything within the kingdom. The clones were hilariously bad at anything related to combat, and couldn’t use magic or entads, but the […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 198: Prurient Interest
“Alright,” said Amaryllis, smiling at me. “We have a huge amount of time blocked off together, impeccable defenses, and no distractions or other threats to our lives. It’s time to talk about what we’re telling the marriage inspector.” “Yay,” I said. We were together at one of the estates that had once belonged to Amaryllis, […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 197: Second Degrees
Juniper, What the actual fuck? I tried to think of some other way to start this letter, but I kept asking you that question in my head. If it wasn’t going to be the first line, then it needed to be the second. Some possible first lines, ‘So you married Amaryllis,’ or ‘I hear you […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 196: Notes II
This is the first chapter of a five-chapter batch, though this chapter is mostly in-character notes, letters, or musings, and can be skipped if you don’t like that kind of thing. Note from the Author Reimer’s Notes: The Optimal Build There is no optimal build. Every build has trade-offs and compromises in it. Some fare […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 16: Epilogue
Hirrush sat down on the bed beside Hirrush, laid back, closed his eyes, and dipped into the mental realm. He looked over his cottage, spent some time making sure that everything was in order, and then breached into Hirrush’s mind. He found Hirrush sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking out onto calm clouds. […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 15: The Crown in the Castle
Sofia had visited the seedy parts of Marurbo before, hiding under her cloak while seeking out spirits, but none so bad as this. There were parts of the capital city where wages were low and troubles were high, where the city guards treaded lightly and people kept their mouths shut when questioned about a crime. […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 14: The Dark Wizard of Donkerk
“Forward movement,” said Henry. Sofia had thought that the world had gone silent when she’d used the power of the Boreal Crown. This was something else entirely, silence that left only the sound of her beating heart and the rustle of her hair. Yet it was familiar somehow, and stirred up a memory of — […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 13: The Revelations
Henry had given Sofia the magical bracelet to smooth out his passage through the walls, then she had left with it. Sister Verna had locked the door behind them when she’d left, after a brief but angry questioning about how it was Henry had gotten out of his room. Leaving the room through the door […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 12: The Foresworn Citadel
To say that Ventor was fast was an understatement. After thinking about it for quite some time, Miriam came to the conclusion that the only thing she had ever seen that was faster than Ventor was an arrow in flight. Ventor could move more quickly than every other point of comparison; he was faster than […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 11: The Twist in the Winds
The sitting room had become Rowan’s private place. It was the site of his first foray into disobedience against Ibrahim, as well as the accomplishment of a martial victory in the mental realm over his old master. Both those victories were private ones, never to be shared with another living soul, which made the sitting […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 10: The Dueling Deceptions
The small, unassuming cottage with a sod-covered roof looked just the same as it ever had. Omarr and Hirrush stood back to look at their work, which mostly amounted to making sure that their work couldn’t be seen. Some of the wards would be activated only in the event of an emergency, but they had […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 9: The Fated Meeting
Rowan sipped his wine across from his father, not looking at the conspicuously absent chair to his left. They were eating in the Blue Room, as was custom. Dinner was venison steak and mashed yams, both done with an expertise that elevated them above their status as common peoples’ food. For the first three days […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 8: The Journey North
Ventor was called into throne room on a particularly bad morning. One of the serving girls, a freshly hired one, had brought breakfast to his room by mistake. He had stared that the tray of food. The sausages had been fried enough that the skin had cracked, revealing grease and juice inside. There were six […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 7: The Mentalists
After a year had passed, Rowan had gone far beyond what Psychic Superiority had to say on the matter of dark mentalism. It was clear now that Walther Cremlau had only been picking at the edges of an idea far larger than himself. From the marginalia of the book, Rowan doubted that the man had […]