Jason watched from the roof deck as Rufus, Farrah and Gary headed upriver on the skimmers they kept stored on the yacht. With them was Estella Warnock, whom they were escorting from the Adventure Society camp to an actual population centre. Estella would be fulfilling her role of scouting out such places, for opportunities and danger. She didn't need the escort, but it was a chance for Rufus, G...
2022-03-18 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post“This valley would be gorgeous if we could actually see it through the rain,” Jason complained as he looked out the window. The convoy was floating on or just over a rather busy river, with water traffic heading in each direction. The vision-obscuring downpour slowed progress as boats, skimmers and hover vehicles cautiously navigated the waters and each other.
The banks were dangerous...
2022-03-17 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostKorinne glowered, complaining.
“This is a bunch of lizard shi–”
“We took a vote,” Rosa said, cutting off her latest complaint. “You’re the team leader, Korinne, not the team queen.”
“I don’t feel like the leader when you all mutiny like this.”
“We didn’t mutiny, Korinne. We just bought a vehicle that we actually want to live in.”
They we...
2022-03-16 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostTL;DR: The Patreon and all new chapter releases will be pausing in April and July. No chapters will be released on any platform and there will be no charges to maintain Patreon membership. New patrons will be charged if they join during this period. Book 5 will still come out in April as scheduled, and I don't have a final date on book 6 yet, but July is a pos...
2022-03-16 08:56:02 +0000 UTC View Post“There is an option,” Jason told Arabelle. “Something I’ve discussed with Carlos before. There is a place where things that aren’t usually possible become possible. Somewhere I can turn off what’s been done to Melody, so long as she is there. Removing it would kill her the moment she left that place, but suppressing it should be safe enough.”
“You’re talking about your s...
2022-03-15 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“The full explanation is somewhat complicated,” Arabelle said.
“It’d bloody well want to be,” Jason told her. “If there’s a simple explanation for how your team member ended up chasing around my team member’s evil brainwashed mum because he’s in love with her, a lot of people have been very, very oblivious.”
They were sitting in the cloud yacht as it hovered over...
2022-03-14 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe small convoy carrying Jason and his friends turned east as soon as it hit the coast, hovering along the wide and well-maintained network of roadways. The immediate turn east was to Belinda’s disappointment, as she was interested in heading further south. That way led to the famously sketchy nation of Girlano and all the opportunities it offered to an enterprising and open-minded young lad...
2022-03-11 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostJason and his team, plus Rufus, were sitting around the conference table on the cloud yacht, looking at a projection of a map.
“We’re freer now to make our own decisions than we’ve been in a while,” Humphrey said. “That means literally charting our own path. We have a general plan of moving south, down this continent before crossing over to the Great Southern Continent. We’ll ...
2022-03-10 22:01:12 +0000 UTC View PostIn the atrium of his pagoda, Jason had set the cloud flask on the floor and placed a funnel into the neck. He had a large box of quintessence gems that he tipped into the funnel.
-------
A large flying carriage landed on the lawn in front of Jason’s pagoda. Jason and his companions emerged, along with Liara, and Jason immediately walked up to the pagoda doors, which opened at his approach. As soon as they did, water came spilling out onto the grass. It was far from a flood, but enough to demonstrate that the massive atrium floor had been flooded to at least a couple of centim...
2022-03-08 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostBook 5 is being published in ebook and audiobook on April 5th.
Chapters from book 5 will be taken down in two weeks from all (legal) online sources.
I'm not wildly comfortable with this just being a charmless informational post, but I'm kind of drowsy and tapped out on witticisms. Also, I'm pretty hungry. I'm going to go have a sandwich.
2022-03-07 22:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostEstella Warnock still thought of it as her grandfather’s house, even though he was now gone. After the death of her parents, Warwick Warnock had retired from adventuring to raise Estella, never pushing her to adventure the way he had her father. Warwick had learned that lesson at the price of his son’s life, and had been determined to avoid the same mistake with his granddaughter.
War...
2022-03-07 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Humphrey is the least-suited to duelling out of you four,” Neil assessed as they watched Humphrey enter the arena.
Jason had a lot of training and experience in the five years since his first arrival on Pallimustus, allowing him to master his own power set. But when it came to group tactics, Jason could not match the lifelong education people like Neil, Humphrey and Rufus had gone th...
2022-02-25 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostTL;DR: I'm taking next week off for mental health (and to get ready to move); big chapter to round out this week.
Writing this story is what I do. It occupies the vast majority of my time and I'm usually revising and editing late into the evening or even early into the morning. Some days are easy, some are hard, and when the whole week is hard, I end up with a constant headache...
2022-02-25 13:39:38 +0000 UTC View PostJason’s commandeering of the arena’s public address system had broken the tension between Rufus and his opponent, Glenn Twenhey. After they saw Jason escorted off, however, they went right back to staring at one another. It was more than just assessing the other by physique, clothing and body language. Their auras were clashing like fencers, each seeking an opening that would make for an ad...
2022-02-24 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostMelody woke up in a small pond, her head pounding. She opened her eyes and saw massive amounts of destruction above her, something having ravaged the inside of Asano’s cloud building. It had destroyed the room she was in and dumped her all the way down into the mostly intact atrium.
She was in the waterfall pond that was the atrium’s centrepiece, but the damage meant the waterfall no ...
2022-02-23 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMy audio publisher has produced an animated trailer with bit of a PS2 game feel to it. They'll be using it in marketing materials, but if anyone is interested, you can get an early look here before it gets listed and becomes searchable.
https://youtu.be/WIhPVGgPDgU
On one side of the duelling area, the entire wall was made up of reinforced glass, behind which was the lake at the heart of the sky island. Specially reared aquatic creatures, unfazed by the regular water traffic, swam around in the water. It was an impressive backdrop for anyone viewing from the seats that made up the other side of the area, also behind reinforced glass.
There were VIP ...
2022-02-22 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“I can’t believe his majesty went along with this,” Liara muttered as she rode an elevating platform into the bowels of the sky island.
“Dinner and a show,” Jason said. “What’s not to like?”
A vast amount of infrastructure was in the underground portions of the flying island on which the royal palace and residential sectors for royalty and foreign diplomats were loca...
2022-02-21 22:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostJason, Liara and Zareen were sitting at a table, with Hector de Varco standing in front of them. It was already drawing attention, even if people couldn’t hear through the invisible privacy screen. Hector was a larger man than his relative, Lancet, and less polished. His hair was trimmed short instead of a sculpted coiffure, with broad shoulders and an outfit that, while tailored, lacked the ...
2022-02-18 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostUnsurprisingly, the commotion in the middle of the palace ballroom drew attention from across the room. After glancing at Gary standing over some nobleman he had dropped with a serving platter, Jason’s attention moved to everyone else. He watched body language and looked for aura spikes, as much as he could without pushing out his senses more forcefully. Most of the obvious reads came from yo...
2022-02-17 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe arena-like ballroom was set up in various zones, often repeated in different places around the room. Along with long buffet tables, stewards roamed with trays of food and drink. There were tables and small lounging areas, each with its own very high-end privacy screen. The privacy screens kept any sound from getting out, but did not prevent it from getting in, and there was no shortage of p...
2022-02-16 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe tailor, Alejandro Albericci, had come to the pagoda to make final adjustments on the formalwear of Jason’s companions. He was also a fully capable dressmaker and had arranged the gowns for the female members of the group - some of whom were more open to the experience than others. Sophie glowered as Alejandro checked over Belinda’s gown.
“Why would anyone wear this?” Sophie as...
2022-02-15 23:08:07 +0000 UTC View PostJason walked across the atrium of the pagoda and looked at the doors leading outside with a frown.
“Why do these swing open?” he mused out loud. The doors and the section of wall around them dissolved into cloud-stuff, revealing Zara Rimaros standing outside them.
“I’ll be with you in a sec,” Jason said. “I’m just doing some home renovation.”
The cloud-stuff re...
2022-02-14 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostJason and Liara were in the pagoda, taking tea in a parlour as they discussed the Adventure Society liaison to his team.
“Vidal Ladiv,” Jason said. “It’s kind of an inspired choice. Someone I like and respect – when I don’t, that becomes clear very quickly. But he’s not someone I’m close to, who will be biased in my direction. It’s a smart choice.”
Vidal Ladiv wa...
2022-02-11 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMaldonado's team whirled at the unexpected voice. A man was walking out of the jungle and over the ritual line at the edge of the base camp. He was wearing dark red combat robes, not voluminous like a scholar's robe, but still draping loosely. He was not tall, but he had the lean athleticism of an adventurer. His features were sharp, with a pointed chin under a neatly trimmed beard. His dark ha...
2022-02-10 22:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA suppression-collared adventurer was trudging through the jungle, but paused in a clearing. He looked around, warily, seeing nothing but lush jungle and dark shadows. His expression was conflicted for a moment, then he turned to walk in a different direction.
“That’s not the way,” a cold voice said, sending a chill down his spine, despite the sweltering jungle. He looked around aga...
2022-02-09 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe adventuring teams led by Rangel and Tellez were in dense jungle. With eleven members in the combined group, it was necessary to cut a path, but magic was more than up to the task. One of Rangel’s team members, Barrera, had been doing so with a conjured blade-whip that made short work of anything from thick scrub to entire trees.
Sunlight speckled in through the canopy above, vesting...
2022-02-08 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a rocky outcropping on the southern mainland, well beyond the border of Storm Kingdom territory. Towering over the jungle, it overlooked a sweeping river and was an excellent landmark to portal to. A portal opened as someone did just that, and adventurers started emerging. Emerging first were silver rank guild adventurers, followed by Princess Liara and, finally, a visibly nervous Aut...
2022-02-07 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostJason tossed the list of names onto the table in front of him.
“This is what Dawn was up to,” he said as he rubbed his temples. “She could have told me. It’s not like I was doing much more than lounging about recovering.”
He got up and moved out onto the pagoda balcony, leaning on the rail and looking out to sea. In the distance, light was flaring as a magical storm was ab...
2022-02-04 22:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post