Chapter One Hundred and Five
“How subtle do we want to be?” Aurora asked. She was squinting at the screen in front of her where a 3D map of the system was displayed.
“What do you mean?” Twenty-Six asked.
The mechanic had remained on the bridge after their little fly-by. She was using one of the consoles to check the ship’s status, going into ea...
2025-03-12 07:45:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Four
55th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
Maldrak stared at Baron Goldfilius for a long time. The only motion in the room was the faint breathing of the three men within and the shimmering shuffle of a curtain caught in a faint breeze. His hand tightened on the he...
2025-03-12 05:34:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five Hundred and Thirty-One
“I refuse.”
“You don’t have the authority to refuse.”
“Yes I do.”
“Whose?”
“My... womanly authority to not go because I don’t want to.”
I watched the argument ping-pong between Caprica and Bastion, both of them failing to convince the other. Bastion was tall, calm, and placid. Capric...
2025-03-11 23:21:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Three
***
“So, uh,” I started. “Did Deus Ex tell you about what I was doing?” I asked.
Shy slowly and carefully shook her head.
“Right. Well. She wants me to check up on all the local samurai, make sure they’re alright. I guess... give them my number, in case something comes up. You know, if you need help or something.”
Chapter Ten
A million thoughts flashed through her mind... is what she would have liked. At least then, she might have been able to pluck one up to use it. But at the moment, her mind was an untouched test sheet; all questions and no answers.
Emily took in a deep breath, and used the moment to try and centre herself. She was reminded of a few stress-relieving ...
2025-03-11 00:37:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Three
Viridian’s day started early, with her and her puppet companions moving through the village towards a great disturbance by the docksides. There were sailors escorting a corpse out of one of the homes when they arrived, and Magus Maldrak preparing himself to leave on his excursion.
It was an exciting start to what should have been a day dedicate...
2025-03-10 03:56:47 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-Two -
***
I took a quick shower, with the water on cold. It was refreshing and I needed it to get my thoughts straight.
Almost as soon as I was done, I got into some clean samurai clothes, then jumped back into my power armour. The last thing I did before I was out the door was give Lucy a parting kiss. “Don’t be gone too long, we do have sc...
2025-03-09 05:50:22 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Two
We made it to the first bend in the corridor and instantly I knew we were in for some amount of trouble.
A trio of drones were waiting at the end, their little tracks humming along as they charged across the corridor. It seemed like they’d mostly slipped out of small openings placed in the walls, with sliding doors that hid them rather well.
<... 2025-03-08 00:56:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Nine
Emily put the pencil down, leaned back, closed her eyes, and let out a long sigh. Hopefully one quiet enough that the other students in the room wouldn’t hear it.
The test today didn’t count for too much. It would be graded, and the grades would be counted for their final mark. Midterms.
She’d spent the last couple of wee...
2025-03-07 19:25:43 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Two
“Hmm... looks like we can go around, but it’ll mean cutting out across unmarked land. There’s no road there,” Jorvin said. He was eyeing a map of the region, one that Maldrak had procured before their trip here.
It wasn’t the most accurate, but it was good enough. Draya Calyrex had a long history with cartography, though it wasn’t alway...
2025-03-07 02:52:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty-One
***
“If you’re going to make me do your work for you, you’d better have some serious bribes lined up,” I said. “My schedule right now is filled to bursting.”
“So is everyone’s,” Deus Ex said. “But I can sympathize a little. I rarely have a day with fewer than eighteen hours of work time lined up in it. Sundays excepting, ...
2025-03-06 20:27:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-One
Maldrak didn’t vocalize anything to let the others know, but he was appreciative of the seat that was offered to him. It was pleasurable to pull his aching feet off the ground for a moment.
“The tea will come soon enough,” the Magus across from him said. “But in the meantime, I must ask out of professional curiosity. The puppets that you se...
2025-03-05 23:21:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One Hundred and Four
With the Sappho still slowing down, and the Jovian fleet rapidly catching up, one might have suspected that the battle between the two factions might end in a predictable manner, especially if anyone was aware of the Empress’ presence.
But Ivil had heard Aurora and was actually considering what she had to say. ...
2025-03-05 20:47:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-One
Just barging into a magically warded room with no preparation or thought was, generally speaking, a dumb idea.
I hadn’t lived as long as I had doing dumb things, and so I was very much tempted to call this entire mission off as Alyssa poked and prodded at the door.
I didn’t, however. Mostly because she was a somewhat compete...
2025-03-05 03:22:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five Hundred and Thirty -
We decided to leave in the night, but then that seemed like a lot of trouble. Plus it was snowing pretty heavily, and Caprica said that she really ought to tell the local Sylphfree embassy that she was heading out, otherwise they might freak out a little.
Also, we were all a little lazy by the time the sun set, so... the...
2025-03-04 22:18:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty -
55th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
He would never let his walking partner know it, but he was growing quite tired as he walked. Months held up onboard a ship, and prior years lingering within academic halls, grand libraries, and tiny laboratories had never aff...
2025-03-03 23:24:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Twenty -
***
I should pick up smoking.
All the cool old movies had protagonists that would smoke a cigarette in bed after some big sexual conquest, right? Sure, they were in proper beds, not a cot shoved into the corner of a tiny living space, and they weren’t usually doing any sort of conquesting while in a moving vehicle, but I felt like the princi...
2025-03-03 17:12:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Nine
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
He was planning to awaken at first light and set off soon after breaking his fast.
Instead, he was awakened an hour before the sun kissed the horizon...
2025-03-02 22:53:45 +0000 UTC View PostNew Index!
Look, new cover!
Anyway~
Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V8wQNDEs6u5xFFlATKhMxVugXP5Y_bcxylaSwsG1iPU/edit?usp=sharing
<...
2025-03-02 20:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Eight
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
Maldrak looked up as someone knocked on the door into his office. “Come in,” he said, and a moment later the door carefully swung open. It was Jorvin, though the Mage-Knight wasn’t alone. Behind him came the three ...
2025-03-02 14:14:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Nineteen -
(super viral)
***
Eric stared at me for a moment, then started walking again. I hoped to catch up to him. It seemed like he was just giving me a tour of the floor, really. Though he might also have been parading me in front of all his coworkers.
I didn’t have a great impression of how the Family’s internal shit worked, but I ...
2025-03-01 15:48:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty -
Jenny gestured Sharp back, then tugged one of her handguns out of its sheath. “Guns out,” she said.
“Really?” Sharp asked.
“I’m with her on this one. Better have a weapon on hand and not need it than the opposite,” I said.
Sharp blinked at that, but she pulled out a gun from her pack anyway, a compact lit...
2025-03-01 02:07:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Eight -
“No,” Aurora said. “You need to eat otherwise you’ll be hungry, and if it goes on for too long, you’ll end up sick.” She placed a hand on Maple’s shoulder and carefully spun her much smaller sister around and had her sit back down at the dinner table.
Maple started to eat, but her eyes quickly lost focus and she was ...
2025-02-28 17:19:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Eighteen -
***
Eric seemed to know where he was going, so I continued to follow him. The all-white corridor we were in shifted as he took a turn into a large room with walls lined with floor-to-ceiling posters in glass-fronted frames. Posters of different Samurai, most of them in cool, heroic poses. This was obviously some sort of central hub space, with a d...
2025-02-27 16:02:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Seven
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
“You just have to feel it,” Magus Discipulus Clarthorn said. He gestured towards his chest, where his heart was. “It’s like... touching a tapestry with your heart. You feel the weave, and the cloth,...
2025-02-27 02:59:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One Hundred and Three
“You killed my family and yet you don’t even have the decency to know who I am?” the woman on screen asked.
“Sorry?” Twenty-Six said. “But, uh, when did this happen? I don’t remember killing anyone.”
“And I don’t know who you are, so kindly shut up,” she snapped. “Aurora Sterlingworth. You kil...
2025-02-26 09:09:07 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Six
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
“How are you feeling?” Viridian asked. They had snuck out the back of the church, then moved with some speed away from the centre of town. There had been cries and angry shouts behind them, but those had stayed near th...
2025-02-26 04:29:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Five Hundred and Nine
It was early evening when we left the library. It wasn’t shutting its doors yet or anything, but the lanternmen were going around outside, turning on the lamps on poles that lined the streets even as the sky started to darken at a rapid rate.
If we wanted to make it back to the Beaver before it was completely dark ...
2025-02-25 16:12:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Seventeen
***
“So... yeah, bye man,” I said.
Radikal smiled right back. “Yes. It was genuinely nice to speak with you, even if we strayed from our initial topic. Have a good... ah, afternoon, Stray Cat.”
“See ya, Doc,” I said before terminating the call.
Leaning back after the image of the old guy blinked away, I reached up and ...
2025-02-25 05:27:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Thirty-Five
54th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era
Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex
Viridian barely had time to react before Highthorn hurled Lazur across the church, sending her crashing through a row of wooden pews. Splinters flew, the sound of snapping wood mixing with the heavy thud of Lazur’s body...
2025-02-24 14:27:36 +0000 UTC View Post