“It’s time,” Jori said, fighting down the excitement rising in her chest. Finally, they were going to do it! Nuros’ servants were going to die—some of them, at least. They would have to hit them hard and fast and disappear before Nuros could respond. If a greater demon ever found their burrow, they were dead.
But that wasn’t going to happen. They were in the middle of nowhere,...
2025-08-24 11:49:26 +0000 UTC View Post“They’re here!” Piranin called out as she pushed through the doors into King Grundrik’s private rooms. “Humans, your majesty! I saw them with my own eyes.”
Grundrik looked up from the report he was reading and scowled at his excitable young aide, pressing down on her mind with his power. She shivered and dropped to a knee, bowing her head. New help always needed a bit of...
2025-08-19 12:08:45 +0000 UTC View PostI'm debating putting Jori's scene second in this chapter, because the ending hits better for a chapter ending, but I haven't decided yet. Subject to change, feel free to weigh in.
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“We have some… news,” Ed began as Jori stepped out of the summoning circle. They weren’t in the Underkeepers’ headquarters or in Iriala’s office like usual. The air smelled slight...
2025-08-15 21:55:39 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time they’d hiked back up, fetched the others and returned, the chamber was cool enough that the others didn’t need magical protections. Several Karil’Dirin goblins accompanied them to confirm that the way really was open again. Their shaman, whose name was Grannang strode up to what remained of one of the tunnels near the far side, grumbled something and kicked at the glassy stone...
2025-08-11 22:43:06 +0000 UTC View PostI hope you guys like mad science magic, because that's pretty much the whole chapter today.
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Bernt looked over the other spellforms on the wall, trying to make sense of what the elemental was trying to do. “Life” was what it had been talking about when it had made his spiritual sea. It had, judging by what he’d seen in its mind, apparently also managed to ignite ...
2025-08-07 21:28:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe goblins led them down the tunnel only a short distance before they reached another small intersection chamber. A warm, dry wind blew up out of the tunnel on their left, making a soft howling sound as it passed them by. The Karil’Dirin goblins looked down the tunnel uneasily, though their shaman seemed unconcerned, commenting something to Xul’evareg.
“He’s saying that it’s no...
2025-08-04 21:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a long, hunched-over walk that couldn’t have taken more than half a minute in actuality, Bernt emerged from the tight tunnel into a large natural cave. It was, as promised, much roomier than the entrance had been. The walls and floor bore toolmarks where miners had worked, probably decades or centuries ago.
Along the ceiling, tiny natural light crystals shone down like stars in th...
2025-07-30 20:43:36 +0000 UTC View PostJosie strode into the magistrate’s chamber to hear the verdict for her big case, trying not to let her nerves show. The summons had come too early. They were supposed to have another hearing next week to further debate the issue of Jori’s legal personhood.
Her heart sank when she saw that no one had marked out a spot for a summoning circle.
So, it was like that.
She’d he...
2025-07-26 21:49:49 +0000 UTC View PostHi all, I'm not better yet, but I've finally managed to get another chapter out. More soon. I'm also running edits on some prior chapters to try to clean up some setup things for the RR version, mostly as per your guys' helpful feedback. You guys don't always get the best and cleanest version of the story here, but your comments and interactions help to make the writing process more interac...
2025-07-23 19:47:54 +0000 UTC View PostTolland, the long winded old Madzhuri representative, is now a paladin again (totally forgot in an earlier scene and made him a priest, this will be cleaned up in the rr version)
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The innkeeper’s suggestion that Bernt could find a spot to sleep in Nirlig and Uriah’s room turned out to be somewhat overoptimistic. Their tiny room barely fit the two cots that were already ther...
2025-07-16 22:26:19 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s quite a fascinating process,” Grand Thaumaturge Jopuri said, pouring coffee into three cups that he’d laid out on Dalbrand’s desk in the archmage’s office. “It almost appears as though you’re melting the malformations away before reinforcing the threads with your exogeneous material structures.”
Dalbrand narrowed his eyes at the man in warning for the gentle attemp...
2025-07-13 22:23:35 +0000 UTC View PostBernt half expected to be marched straight to the Norhold Command Center to resume his work healing the military’s remaining burnouts, but instead he found himself following Archmage Dalbrand up to Norhold’s castle, which sat up on the slope above the city on its southern edge. The guards waved them through with barely a glance.
Without stopping, Dalbrand led him through a large court...
2025-07-09 22:03:11 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, Bernt avoided practicing any spellwork for fear of antagonizing his guards. Eventually, though, the sheer boredom of incarceration wore him down. He began casting small spells – a light in the evening, a quick gust of wind to air out the room. Then, he used a stoneshaping spell to turn a floor tile into a cup. There were still a few herbs in his bag, and he could conjure water at wi...
2025-07-06 11:04:01 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the updated edited version as of August 12, '25
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Bernt could feel a blood vessel pulse in his temple as he worked to keep his mana network under control. He wanted to show this man what it meant to make an enemy of him. He was a paladin, sure, but he’d seen that Noruk didn’t protect his chosen ones from danger. Hannis had been a high priest, and he’d die...
2025-07-02 21:58:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe trip back up to the Peaks was long, but somehow Bernt still felt like he arrived too quickly. His experience at the Conclave so far, as well as his interactions with Jesra had shown him that he wasn’t cut out for complex political maneuvering. He didn’t like having to guess at the motives of people whose job it was to hide them, or to worry about whether and how someone might be trying ...
2025-06-29 21:56:25 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m not so sure this is a good idea…” Estrid said as she watched the vial of burning rain on the table. It looked exactly like the one he’d used to form his first investiture, with a large, burning drop that burned at the bottom of the glass for just a few seconds before it evaporated. Then it formed a tiny, golden cloud that roiled beneath the cork for a little while before precipit...
2025-06-26 22:21:01 +0000 UTC View PostJori had received an enchanted timepiece from Iriala to help her track their scheduled summoning times. It was a simple metal rod that cast a shadow according to the position of the sun. The archmage hadn’t been sure it would work in the hells, but Jori didn’t see why not. She needed to know what the time back in Halfbridge was, after all, not here.
When she’d planted it in he...
2025-06-22 21:18:52 +0000 UTC View PostI realized as I was writing this that I overzealously cut out 2 bits of exposition from earlier chapters that I'll need to write back in for RR. I had a feeling I was being too slash-happy. I'm terribly sorry and will point you to the appropriate sections when I get them put up. For context in this chapter they are namely 1.) that representatives from Noruk are being oddly underzea...
2025-06-18 20:19:34 +0000 UTC View PostFor the next... 3? maybe 4 chapters, please shout if you feel like something wasn't sufficiently set up. I'm trying not to drag out the political stuff too much without skipping steps, but it's crazy hard to tell if you had enough information as a reader before certain scenes hit, because I'm sitting over here with pages and pages of context and notes that you don't see and I can't feel wha...
2025-06-15 11:42:26 +0000 UTC View PostFeedback requested: This chapter picks up about 2-3 days after ch 15, skipping some plot-irrelevant bits where Bernt is trying out more spells and generally having a bad time talking to other legitimators in front of the Hall of Witnesses. The question is, does it feel like we missed something? Should I go back and put it in?
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Bernt cast a fireball from his right hand...
2025-06-11 20:53:50 +0000 UTC View Post“They’re called revivalists,” Doreen explained, handing Bernt her battered tin tea pot, which was filled to the brim with cold water. “They’re loud and obnoxious, but they’re not relevant to Madzhur’s politics. Or, they weren’t when I lived there. This… well, it could be a problem that they’re here.”
The old priestess had come back up to the temple about an hour afte...
2025-06-08 21:40:56 +0000 UTC View PostHi all, sorry for the late post. I've finally got my family, cats, and stuff all moved to my new place in Berlin, which was way more complicated than moving should have any right to be. I also rewrote this chapter once, and I'm sure you can guess which part is trouble. Turns out that writing a conspiracy theorist is harder and less fun than I originally pictured in my head.
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2025-06-04 22:02:32 +0000 UTC View PostBernt wanted to spend some more time catching up with his friends and he still needed to talk to Uriah about what else he might have learned from his novels, but as he approached the Scryer’s Office at the Mages’ Guild, he could already see that wasn’t going to happen. The place was very nearly as crowded as when he’d been there hours before.
Iriala’s token sped things up, but i...
2025-05-29 19:40:42 +0000 UTC View Post“First thing is, of course, I’d like to be paid appropriately for my work,” Bernt began, doing his best to sound like he wasn’t intimidated at all to be negotiating with a high-ranking government representative, and an archmage besides. “My boss and several of my coworkers in Halfbridge are former war mages and I believe I have a good idea of just how valuable I can be to you...
2025-05-27 22:01:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe biggest pinch of the move is over, so I should be able to keep up with posting from now on again. There's a possibility I miss a post in the first week of June, but I don't think it'll come to that. So, officially, we're back to normal!
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“The duke is going to be there?!” Bernt blurted. “I can’t show up like this, look at me!”
Bernt hastily cast a cle...
2025-05-25 18:07:14 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, It's 1 in the morning, so I can't promise the edits are clean. I'll go over it again tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's a chapter for you!
Edit 5/21 -- I did another round of editing on it and am significantly happier with how it turned out.
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The next morning, Bernt rose early to begin the long hike down the endless stair toward Norhold, stopping only ...
2025-05-20 23:03:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe cultist’s name was Ranna. She was the same woman who had originally found him at the confluence, together with a dwarf and a human man both of whom Bernt had killed. She had left them to die while she ran off to get her master to ambush him. He told Song about it the moment he recognized her, of course, but the cultivator hadn’t cared at all what the woman’s past might be – Ruzinia ...
2025-05-17 21:33:01 +0000 UTC View PostBernt marched down the path, trying to keep up with Song as they made their way down the mountain toward the Phoenix Reaches where he’d left his things. He’d tried to come up with several arguments to convince the cultivator to come along, but he shouldn’t have bothered. Song practically jumped at the chance to “stretch his legs”.
True to his word, the cultivator set a breakneck...
2025-05-14 16:27:09 +0000 UTC View PostAs Jori felt herself dragged out of the hells by magic, she mentally prepared herself to deliver her update for the great mages. They’d raised Lidis to class two, four of her scouts had returned with recruits who they’d either saved from predation or captured, and the base was coming along nicely. Souls were always thin on the ground in this area, but they’d made do so far. Now, though, t...
2025-05-11 12:15:39 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time they finished the three-hour ascent up the endless stairs and stepped through the doors of Ruzinia’s Temple, Bernt wanted nothing so much as to go to sleep. The sun had long since set and the Sacral Peaks were quiet, with only Nurok’s temple guards and a few night owls roaming the streets.
He expected the place to be dark and quiet, but the sanctuary was still lit, and the...
2025-05-08 11:17:03 +0000 UTC View Post