Chapter 109: Farmond Blackstone
Liv realized that she was holding her spoon halfway between her bowl and her mouth, forgotten, so she set it back in the soup. “I have, actually,” she admitted. “I can make a sword. I can fling it forward, if I want to. Honestly, I could make half a dozen swords and fling them at an enemy. I also don’t have a problem an...
2025-02-21 20:24:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 108: Authority
The first few weeks at Coral Bay, with the giddy joy of new friends, evening meals at the Crab and Gull, and the pleasant distraction of Cade Talbot, now seemed to Liv like not only a dream from which she’s woken, but in fact a waste of time that bordered on irresponsible. While she’d been drinking too much wine and giggling, her people had been attacked a...
2025-02-20 20:45:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 107: Spirited Debate
“Where are we headed?” Tephania asked, as the group spilled out of Blackstone Hall into the courtyard at the center of campus.
“The landing of High Hall,” Liv answered. “There’s plenty of room up there, and a table we can use.
Sidonie glanced over to Arjun. “Rosamund is fine,” she said, “But we aren’t rea...
2025-02-19 15:24:45 +0000 UTC View Post154 - The Gate
And I say unto you, those who stand against the word of the Angelus, they are forsaken.
The Testament of Isrāfīl
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19th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
The first pair of guards were loitering at the base of the stairs which led down to the cistern level. In the glow of an oil lam...
2025-02-19 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 106: A Voice in the Dark
The morning after the funeral, Liv rose early and dressed in the winter things stored in her rooms at Kelthelis. The parka with an outer layer of seal fur, the boots, all of it. She didn’t intend to have much waste heat to work with.
She wasn’t quite able to leave the courtyard alone; two of House Syvä’s guards accompanied her out onto t...
2025-02-18 12:35:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 105: May Not Feed the Wicked
It was dark by the time Liv went downstairs to join her friends, and the oil lamps had been lit. Someone - Liv wasn’t certain who - had settled them all in a sitting room, and the girls were nestled under a mass of warm furs, all on a cushioned bench. Arjun must have slipped out, after Auris had passed, because he’d taken a s...
2025-02-17 14:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 104: The Son of Celris
As soon as she was certain the waystone was active, Liv hurried back to Steria. Keri was holding the mare’s reins, and she set her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle.
“Are you certain these people are ready?” Keri asked, leaning in and lowering his voice as the blue light built around them, brighter with every passing breath.&...
2025-02-16 15:07:08 +0000 UTC View PostI've done a first pass trying to address some of people's concerns, in terms of adding development to Liv's relationship with Cade. It's a hefty chunk of chapters; while some people may want to reread it to give feedback, others might prefer a change log.
I'm interested in constructive suggestions from here!
--------------changelog-----------------
90: On the way back to High ...
2025-02-15 22:34:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 103: Tidings
A pounding on the door spiked through Liv’s head like an iron chisel. Her mouth tasted foul, like a mountain squirrel had crawled inside while she slept, died, and then rotted for a week. She rolled over onto her side, pulling the blankets over her head, to make the pounding go away, and found herself up against another person.
Another naked person...
2025-02-15 13:59:07 +0000 UTC View Post153 - Maaz the Brave
There is nothing more valuable than knowing the ground on which you will fight; that one thing is worth a thousand men.
The Campaign Journals of General Aurelius, volume I
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19th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
If Ismet hadn’t known what to look for, she wasn’t certain she would ever have found the drainag...
2025-02-15 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 102: Skinner
Storm eels.
Liv grimaced, already thinking through all the ways this could very quickly go wrong. Professor Blackwood had described how they could release a shocking pulse into the water around them, strong enough to stun a human. Once you couldn’t move, it was an easy matter for the eels to latch on with their mouths and drag you under. If y...
2025-02-14 20:50:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 101: King Tide
The sea was still a somewhat surreal place for Liv: after spending nearly her entire life in the mountains that surrounded Whitehill, looking out onto a flat expanse that stretched to the horizon made it difficult for her to judge distance accurately.
The sun had risen high enough above the tree line to the west that it cast golden morning light down upon the ...
2025-02-13 15:31:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 100: The House of Wyrms
Keri turned away from Calevis to confront the wyrm itself, while all around him people scrambled down over the tiered stone benches into the bowl of the amphitheater. The creature’s head was massive – the size of his bedchamber at Mountain Home, perhaps – and covered in scales of mottled brown and green, the better to blend into the forest. ...
2025-02-12 20:08:44 +0000 UTC View Post152 - Jabal Al Nusur
The officers can do their arithmetic about how many men you want to send at a wall, but what I know is this: I’d rather be the one on top of it, than the one climbing the ladder.
The Life and Times of Legionary Titus Nasica
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19th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
Nasir al-Rashid’s reinforc...
2025-02-12 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 99: The Hall of Ancestors
“Look, Rei,” Keri said. “Do you see all the animals?” He held his son up with his left arm, while using his right to point at the carved tree trunks that surrounded Kelum Kedim. Surrounding them, as far as they eye could see, were giant pillars of red cedar, shaped using a combination of tools and magic to depict the animals that popul...
2025-02-11 20:49:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 98: Permutations
Liv and Rosamund walked over to the ballroom together, parting ways with Arjun. It was an odd reminder that Blackstone Hall, prior to housing the college, had been the manor of a noble family. While the dance floor wasn’t as large as the one at the royal palace in Freeport, Liv could easily imagine a dozen couples swirling about under lit chandeliers...
2025-02-10 20:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a Sunday surprise for you! This began as rice on paper, migrated in a rough form to Inkarnate so that I could keep track of things, and has been updated and turned into an absolute work of art by Sarah Murphy, who also did our cover.
2025-02-09 20:45:45 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 97: The Storm Eel
“These are the mana beasts you are most likely to encounter during a king tide,” Professor Blackwood explained, as Liv’s class gathered around a series of large sheets that had been laid out near the enchanting workshops.
Spread across the fabric were an incredible variety of dead sea life, with a single commonality: each creature had been altered by ...
2025-02-09 14:27:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 96: Time and Tide
By the time Liv had the pie ready to bake, her hands and arms were thoroughly covered in flour. She’d unlaced the left sleeve of her bodice and rolled back the linen shift underneath to her elbow; the bandages on her right arm would need to be changed, because there was no point in trying to clean them.
She was certain that Professor Annora would ha...
2025-02-08 14:25:43 +0000 UTC View Post151 - Suq Alnakhil
Every oasis is precious; a small, delicate world within a vast wasteland.
The Commentaries of Aram ibn Bashear
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16th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297
Suq Alnakhil, orPalm Market, was an oasis nearly as blessed with water as that beneath the Rock of Eayn Zarqa’....
2025-02-08 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostI have several codes, provided by Tantor, for free downloads of the audiobooks for both Faerie Knight and Graal Knight. If anyone is interested, let me know; I'd love it if people were willing to leave ratings/reviews on Audible after giving them a listen.
Edit: Looks like the codes are through a different website than audible, my fault for not reading that part.
Edit #2: The last...
Chapter 95: An Assignment
“Observe,” Archmagus Caspian Loredan instructed, and Liv couldn’t help but lean forward in her chair. “Aluthō ais’veh Novis perae Mae,” he incanted, the words clear and forceful, carrying easily across the library.
It was a spell that Liv had both seen and heard before, going as far back as the day she’d met Master Jurian for the first ...
2025-02-07 14:34:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 94: Classes
After a wonderful dinner at the Crab and Gull, during which Thora and Wren assured Liv that she no longer had to worry about meals at High Hall, she wanted nothing more than to immerse herself in the hot spring beneath Castle Whitehill and clean off the sweat and dirt of the day.
Unfortunately, she would have to make do with the facilities provided at High Hall, ...
2025-02-06 15:13:52 +0000 UTC View Post150 - Auberon’s Test
There’s more than one reason the general never tried to rebuild the damned city - who ever decided it was a good idea to build in the swamp, in the first place? Probably a couple of poncy old senators looking at a map.
The Life and Times of Legionary Titus Nasica
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13th...
2025-02-05 21:55:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 93: Arianell Seton
It took a bit for Professor Annora to get Celestria off the field; Arjun ended up going to help, at the healer’s request. Liv was only vaguely aware of what was happening. A few moments after the pressure of her opponent’s word had eased, Liv was still feeling its effects.
She couldn’t stop fidgeting or sit still, and the only...
2025-02-05 21:53:30 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 92: Celestria Ward
Liv’s friends welcomed her back to the stands with congratulations and, in the case of Rosamund and Cade, quick hugs. It didn’t escape her notice that Wren had arrived, at some point during the duel, but Liv had greater priorities at the moment.
“Tarts, please,” she said to Thora, and accepted the package of desserts from the Crab and Gull, p...
2025-02-04 20:47:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 91: The Bodyguard and the Professor
Wren made her way down to the training yard while the eastern sky was only just beginning to lighten into a shade of pale, luminescent blue, rather than star-spangled black. She gnawed on a hunk of day old bread, taken from the kitchen of High Hall, and a slice of sharp, hard cheese. She had a wineskin full of chicken blood, as well,...
2025-02-03 20:51:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 90: A Night’s Rest
By the fourth time she’d iced over her bandages, Liv could no longer deny that it was time for her to call it an evening. Another two bottles of wine had been ordered and then consumed, and a dessert consisting of three kinds of berry tarts had been soundly demolished by the table.
“I can’t believe how casually you do that,” Rosamund said, ...
2025-02-02 14:55:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 89: The Crab and Gull
Liv looked to the stands, where Thora, Wren, Arjun and Tephania were waiting for her. Despite Professor Annora’s healing magic, her arm still throbbed painfully, and she could feel it swelling all around her elbow. It would be very nice to sit down, and even better to be back in her room on the second floor of High Hall, so she could crawl into ...
2025-02-01 15:26:05 +0000 UTC View Post149 - Burning White
It is a mystery to me, to have found a hidden room in the deepest cellars, sealed with the emperor’s own mark. An emperor of many generations gone, no less, when our legions first came to this wild place. I would never have found it at all, if not for having to send workers below to repair the water damage.
The Journal of Decimu...
2025-02-01 12:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post