Furious Scribe

62. Hull - Audience With the King

Chapter 62

Audience With the King

I barely had time to take a single shuffling step towards Basil, still holding onto my guts to keep them inside, before the world went white and suddenly we were back in the real world. A wash of tingles went through me like I’d walked throu...

61. Basil - The Greatest Good

Chapter 61

The Greatest Good

I was impressed by Hull. He wore shock on his face sure enough, clear as day even with his skin covered in starlight, but he readied himself to charge when I beckoned him forward. Not before I did an Order Source Explosion, though. Having fought ag...

60. Hull - The Consequences of Winning

Chapter 60

The Consequences of Winning

“You best watch yourself,” Penkmun said, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. “You’re likely to get whacked on the head in an alley by some studious Tender desperate to study your soul card, and they won’t find you lo...

59. Basil - Old Acquaintances

Chapter 59

Old Acquaintances

Watching Hull destroy his mother’s card was like watching our enemies scatter to the wind, the spray of shards their fleeing backsides. I could feel the city of Treledyne become free as the fractured pieces vanished, no longer burdened by its inv...

58. Hull - The Love of a Mother

Chapter 58

The Love of a Mother

She appeared out of nowhere on the arena floor in front of me, looking startled. Seems the Twins hadn’t trusted her to take the tunnel route the rest of us used; they’d unceremoniously plucked her out of her comfy spectator’s spot and drop...

57. Hull - Persuasion, to the Death

Chapter 57

Persuasion, to the Death

I jumped up and down in place and shook my hands loose, wishing the stones of this weird place in the Twins’ city would give under my feet just a little like the boards of the dueling boxes in the Coliseum. The unyielding, ethereal cobbles...

56. Basil - When Words Fail

Chapter 56

When Words Fail

I won’t get to kill him. That was my first thought when the semifinal pairings were revealed. While an arm for an arm had contented me where the leonid was concerned, the Primarch had murdered Warrick, and I had planned to return the favor...

55. Hull - Know Thine Enemy

Chapter 55

Know Thine Enemy

“We approach the semifinal round,” Rakkoden said to us. “The moment of decision approaches. The Twins of Glory are pleased with the valor and pathos displayed so far.”

I couldn’t stop a snort. My mother had shown a lot of things on t...

54. Basil - Revenge

Chapter 54

Revenge

The leonid’s breath was hot on my face as he growled through his teeth. “I had hoped you would be more of a challenge than this, little human.”

Our duel was already well under way, and I had grown used to Dodging the first of his attacks with Flu...

53. Hull - Trickster

Chapter 53

Trickster

I sat and stared at the card I held. Ever since I’d earned the elevation at the end of my match against Xemris I’d kept it in hand. I just needed to keep touching it, running my fingers across its brilliant edges and its slick surface. Did it feel diff...

52. Esmi - Unwanted Future

Chapter 52

Unwanted Future

At any time now they would call her name, and Esmi felt the anticipation of that moment in her bones. She stood by Basil while she waited, a place that had been her sanctuary since she had returned to Treledyne. It still was in many ways: the feel of...

51. Xemris - The Only True Honesty

Chapter 51

The Only True Honesty

Xemris breathed deep to cycle the anger through her veins as she waited motionless on the dueling grounds. The Nether was so weak here in the mortal realm; she could barely feel the heat unless she used her own Source. For a moment she missed t...

50. Basil - The Time Between

Chapter 50

The Time Between

There was a flow of air in the room, but it was a hesitant thing, so light it would have escaped me if I hadn’t been sitting perfectly still, my senses questing after such a sensation. The gentle current tickled my arm hairs – the feeling soft a...

49. Hull - Sins of the Mother

Chapter 49

Sins of the Mother

The centaurs were making a fuss over Gale as they kept him from bleeding to death, but I kept my distance. He’d just make some stupid joke about being disarmed by the female centaur’s beauty, and I wasn’t anywhere near ready to fake a laugh ...

48. Titus - Far From Home

Chapter 48

Far From Home

The humans yapped at each other like cubs barely past their mother’s milk, which in truth most who still lived were. They celebrated the return of the long-haired female and the fat stack of cards she brought back with her – unearned spoils if Titu...

47. Esmi - Breaking Bread

Chapter 47

Breaking Bread

Esmi felt as if some huge golem Relic had its hand wrapped around her chest as she watched Stafford plunge his meaty fist into the prince’s guts. Someone nearby moaned in dismay, but she wasn’t sure who. She couldn’t breathe. She’d felt that c...

46. Gerard - What the Heart Wants

Chapter 46

What the Heart Wants

The damnable cell they were in for viewing the duels was not nearly long enough for Gerard to outpace the anger the conversation with his bastard brother had drawn up. Instead, he was forced to stew against the opposite wall, waiting for the cen...

45. Hull - Things That Matter

Chapter 43

Things That Matter

I’d only left Afi’s side for a bare moment to see the tail end of Basil’s match, but now I hurried back to her, pride at my friend’s win warring with the lurching unease of watching him coldly break the necro-bastard’s neck. I’d known ...

44. Basil - Vows & Victories

Chapter 44

Vows & Victories

Afi came back to us in a weeping, bleeding heap, which Hull took in his arms the moment she arrived, the two of them sagging down to the floor together. I had never seen him treat anything – or anyone – with such softness, and despite the ci...

43. Hull - What Is Mine

Chapter 43

What Is Mine

Afi was gripping my hand like she meant to break it as she stared at Edaine’s card with silent tears coursing down her face. Come to think of it, I was holding every bit as tight. Twins save us, was all I could think. Twins save us.<...

42. Basil - Round 1

Chapter 42

Round 1

The centaurs moved aside with an elegant sideways trot, their hooves clip-clopping on the stone-like substance we stood on. They were making a clear path for Edaine to exit the room through, so she could participate in the first of the matches, but instead o...

41. Hull - Union

Chapter 41

Union

I never thought I’d experience anything that could distract me from having an enemy’s hand clamped around my throat, especially when that enemy was a big-ass demon strong enough to tear through a full deck with a single blow to kill a fellow… but here we...

40. Basil - A Different Kind of Royalty

Chapter 40

A Different Kind of Royalty

The demon with the tail greeted Hull with a great deal more familiarity than I would have expected. I hadn’t seen her since Hull’s mother had tried escaping out of the Nether rift with the King’s card, and she looked considerably mo...

39. Hull - Into the Fray

Chapter 39

Into the Fray

We thundered down the main avenue watching cobbles shake loose and windows crack at every step. I laughed at the feeling of the wind whistling through my Iron Maiden Plate. I’d never been up so high before. I clutched the spike that was supporting me...

38. Basil - Friendship

Chapter 38

Friendship

The Precinct cleared quickly, in a flurry of pounding boots and jostling bodies. Afi cast one last forlorn look at Hull before vanishing into her Mind Home with the Queen.  

“To me!” Edaine bellowed as she strode to the front of the bu...

37. Hull - Unacceptable

Chapter 37

Unacceptable

I wiped my sweat-slick brow and stepped away from the mobile forge to catch my breath. The Queen’s smith – a man named Flockson – dismissed the Lesser Fire Elemental he’d had heating the coals and began stowing his tools. I only had eyes for the...

36. Basil - Off Center

Chapter 36

Off Center

There was a tang in the back of my throat. Not the metallic strangeness of blood I had experienced once as a child, but a stale heaviness that my body didn’t want to swallow. I don’t belong here anymore. It was an uncomfortable realization to...

35. Hull - Something Useful

Chapter 35

Something Useful

“Really do hate that son of a bitch,” I said, slumping in the chair.

“He’s your father?” A...

34. Basil - The Home Within

Chapter 34

The Home Within

I had spent a lifetime watching the Sun King streak across blue skies and float regally in his throne room, so I fou...

33. Hull - No End of Visitors

Chapter 33

No End of Visitors

I fell out of my chair trying to get up. Waking up had been terrifying, because I hadn’t even realized I...