tejoka

Chapter 106 (Draft)

When I opened my eyes again, the world was crisp and clear. I could sense the qi around me far better than I could ever remember, and my range had expanded considerably once again. My body seemed to brim with energy, and as I slowly got to my feet, it felt a little like I was floating through water.

I cracked my neck and examined my surroundings. I was still in Rijoko’s shrine, and sinc...

Chapter 105 (Draft)

I paced up and down Rijoko’s shrine, my footsteps echoing in the silence. I had trouble keeping my gaze from the spot where Mother had just been.

There were a lot of emotions waging war inside me, and I took deep breaths, trying to keep them in check. Grief was making steady headway and would probably win my internal war soon, but I didn’t allow it to. I shoved everything aside, to de...

Chapter 104 (Draft)

A/N: I finished this earlier than I thought, so I decided I might as well keep to my regular update schedule here, even if it's a little rough. There's still something of a cliffhanger at the end of this one, too.

As I continued hurrying through the palace with my badly-injured mother in my arms, I got the sudden thought that this had to be a bad dream. It was just sur...

Interlude: Tenira (Draft)

Note: This interlude should actually be placed before the latest chapters. It takes place during the time chapter 100 covers. I'll post it to RR and SH on Monday, and probably the next regular chapter there on Tuesday, at which point I'll also post the next chapter (104) here.

Leri Tenira looked out over the war camp, glancing at the tents’ worth of martial strength ...

Chapter 103 (Draft)

Cliffhanger alert. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

“… forty-eight… forty-nine… fifty!”

I took my hands from my eyes and glanced around, trying not to grin too broadly. I’d called loudly enough that I was sure Xiaodan knew I was finished. Other cultivators could probably hear that from farther away, but I didn’t really care. We were in a rather lo...

Chapter 102 (Draft)

I smoothed down my robe and glanced at the mirror. I felt like I’d stepped back into an old, familiar role. One that I’d barely realized I’d gotten used to, before I stopped it, and which was now here waiting for me, just the way I’d left it. Except that I wasn’t quite the same. The recent experiences had changed me, perhaps only in small ways, but enough to make the lavish, blue and ...

Chapter 101 (Draft)

I found it a little scary that you could see the changes the war had brought to the Imperial capital from above. Thousand Lights City looked mostly the same, but not entirely. Factories had sprung out of the ground like mushrooms. Some of them belched dark smoke into the sky, even though we’d wanted to avoid using steam power or fossil fuels. There were more soldiers visible on the streets an...

Chapter 100 (Draft)

Tenira avoided me after that. I tried, but never managed to get her alone. She was always busy, either talking to someone or in a planning meeting with the others, not just myself. She didn’t make much of an effort to hide it, and I didn’t force the issue.

I could have just summoned her to me and ensured we had a private chat, but I didn’t. I was afraid that being too pushy now woul...

Chapter 98 (V2) (Draft)

This is the updated version, the core of the previous chapter 97.

When I turned around, I noticed that the two Adzurians were watching me. The man, leaning on the railing, raised an eyebrow. His clothing looked like something out of a movie or video game. Skintight leather and a half-mask, all black. His arms were bare and I had to force my eyes not to linger on the sh...

Chapter 97 (V2)

This is the updated version, expanding on the beginning of the previous chapter 97.

I crouched down low, giving my technique less surface area to cover. It probably didn’t make much of a difference, but every little bit might count. Besides me, I heard Elia shifting her weight, and suppressed the urge to tell her to quiet down. In truth, sound was less of a problem t...

Chapter update

Hi folks,

I hope things are going well for you.

I've significantly revised and expanded Chapter 97, especially the beginning. There will now be a new Chapter 97, while most of the previous one - with a few additions - will form the new Chapter 98.

That means that the Chapter 98 I posted here before will now be Chapter 99 (and so on down the road). I'll change the title accordi...

Chapter 99 (Draft)

It took a while for things to settle down for us to start talking seriously. But after a few minutes, the ship was pulling away on a southern course, while Tenira, Kajare and me met in a small meeting room inside the ship. Glancing out the window, I could see Elia and some of the soldiers on deck. But Kajare was finishing a technique that would dampen the sound of our conversation, so we could ...

Chapter 97 (Draft)

I found it a little ironic that out of every time I’d been to the coast in the last year or so, this was the one that looked like what you’d imagine if you heard the word ‘beach’. The trees weren’t palms, but they did have large, green leaves that swayed a little in the breeze. The cloud cover had lightened, and the sun shone a few beams down that made the water sparkle. The sea was a...

Chapter 96 (Draft)

“I suppose it was too much to hope for that we’d be able to complete our journey in peace and without being bothered by the Zarian,” I sighed.

Elia shrugged and gave me a wry smile. “We’ve been making good time ever since we left the city. I think we’re doing well.”

“Not as good time as we might have if we’d just focused on traveling,” I grumbled, but without any...

Chapter 95 (Draft)

I hesitated for a moment, then circulated a trickle of qi to my eyes to get a better look at the fire. By now, it was clearly visible from here. People were starting to move away, and when I swept my gaze farther out, I could see how the Zarian were organizing their response.

I couldn’t help but smile. None of them was even looking in my direction. Not really. But that was the point of ...

Chapter 94 (Draft)

I stretched and felt my neck pop. It felt good to work out the kinks, even if my qi-strengthened body didn’t really need it. Even after a few hours of remaining more or less in the same position, I knew I was ready to run or fight right away. Just one of the little benefits of cultivation, which most people didn’t think much about.

I retreated carefully, keeping an eye on the gate and...

Chapter 93 (Draft)

‘Is everything clear?’I asked.

‘Yes, Your Highness,’the guard answered, his visualized form in the dream nodding.

I would have preferred to talk directly to Tenira or one of the others, but none of them were asleep right now. Lei was supposed to be, I thought, but given the situation with my disappearance, it didn’t surprise me. I had to make do with one ...

Chapter 92 (Draft)

A soft splash sounded, and I froze, hoping that it had gone unnoticed. None of the people I could see even glanced in my direction, so after waiting for a bit, I continued carefully pulling myself from the water. It was dark here, and I’d chosen a spot where the street lighting didn’t reach to the banks of the river. With the darkness qi around me, it seemed to be enough.

Once I stepp...

Chapter 91 (Draft)

When I woke up, it was with a feeling of trying to struggle through morasses clinging to your consciousness. One that spelled trouble, waking from a sleep that was too deep. Especially since I wasn’t supposed to dream anymore, but I also couldn’t remember what I’d been doing while I was out. That made me suspect that the Zarian must have sedated me.

I lay still and didn’t move whi...

Bonus: Christmas story

I actually wrote this for my mom for Christmas to show what I was writing about, introduce the premise and characters. But I'll share it with you awesome patrons. I hope you like it. Obviously, this takes place in the past compared to current story events, during the time Inaris was mostly in Blue Valley City.

Snow laid on the peaks and slopes of the Central Mountains,...

Chapter 90 (Draft)

Happy holidays! I hope you have a nice Christmas, if you celebrate it, or just a good day. Personally, I scheduled this hours in advance since I'll be busy celebrating Christmas Eve with my family.

I blinked, then waited for a moment for everything to come back into focus. My body ached, and it felt like I might have broken a few ribs or an arm, but I could deal with t...

Chapter 89 (Draft)

Compared to the mountains towering on the horizon to the northwest, the ones we were flying amongst now seemed downright small. But they were still mountains, and the mix of altitudes as valleys and peaks blended into each other must have done something to the air currents. Wind assaulted us constantly. Because of the terrain, our force couldn’t move at their top speed, but we were still maki...

Chapter 88 (Draft)

Surreptitiously, I glanced at my watch. Almost an hour. We’d talked for longer than I’d thought. I returned it to my storage ring, frowning a little to myself. How long would it take for Hajake to get a clue?

I wasn’t the only one who seemed to be getting restless. Looking through the spacious room, quite a few of the officers were more active than before, shifting position to talk ...

Chapter 87 (Draft)

The landscape passing below our airship was interesting enough that I wished we could’ve traveled on the ground. While it was nice to see from an airship, I would’ve liked to be a little closer, take a better look at things, maybe listen to some of the locals. Of course, even as cultivators or with spirit beast mounts that wouldn’t have been as fast as an airship, and we were in something...

Chapter 86 (Draft)

“They’re all waiting on you, Inaris,” Tenira said.

I didn’t turn away from the window, a large glass plane spanning a good chunk of the room, and the view it offered me of the landscape. “I know,” I answered. “I’m letting them wait. For a bit.”

Cloth rustling and the soft sound of footsteps indicated that Tenira was coming closer. She didn’t answer right away, so...

Chapter 85 (Draft)

I couldn’t tell when we crossed the border. While I had the map perfectly stored in my memory, it didn’t show every detail, and the surroundings were too irregular to give me any real clue. I’d looked at a few more detailed maps, but not of this area. There hadn’t been time for everything, and maps weren’t a priority. Not that it mattered.

Aston leaned over and raised his voice ...

Schedule change

Hi folks, I hope you're all having a good day.

My buffer has almost shrunk to nothing and I think quality is going to suffer if I force myself to continue writing to keep up with my current schedule, so I'm going to slow it down.

From now on, I'll post new chapters regularly on Mondays and Thursdays.

There's still going to be a third chapter this week, on Friday or Saturday, a...

Chapter 84 (Draft)

On first glance, the Earth Continent wasn’t much different from the Sky Continent. I hadn’t expected it to be, of course. I’d traveled to enough different continents on Earth to realize that while landmasses tended to put limits on flora and fauna, cultures couldn’t be so easily defined and architecture often changed gradually. Even going from America to Europe might not seem like much ...

Chapter 83 (Draft)

The first sign anything was wrong were the airships leaving the area around the capital. I expected to find some, most of them heading south. While I could see those, there were also several heading in the opposite direction, and a few on various other courses. While the stream of reinforcements to the south seemed to be ongoing, with an airship leaving every few hours at least, there was too m...

Chapter 82 (Draft)

The airship braked hard, making me grab the railing to preserve my balance, then turned around. The sails of qi, translucent extensions of energy, flared for a moment before they vanished again as the vessel evened out. It stayed floating in the air, a few hundred meters up but beneath the range it should usually fly at, and gave me a good view of the landscape below us. I smiled.

“Ah, ...