In minutes, we had reached the shore of Goryuen, traveling in the wake of the two Solstice ships. There wasn’t a real dock constructed on the beach just yet, despite all the construction underway. Captain Satoru parked the Kaminari Maru not far from shore and then prepped one of the lifeboats to ferry us onto it.
Azarus, Liora, Renauld, Venix, and I all piled into the boat...
2024-10-04 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post“The hell are they doin’ here?” Azarus asked aloud.
I shared a look with the rest of my companions before shaking my head and raising the far-eye again. After a moment of study, I frowned in confusion. “It…looks like they built a base?”
And they had.
The ‘island’ itself wasn’t as small as I had been expecting it to be. In my mind, on the way here, I had thoug...
2024-10-02 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostI found the entire voyage aboard the Kaminari Maru to be…honestly kind of annoying. Most of the sailing that I had done in the past had been under the sails of the Thorny Reef. Some of my fondest, freest memories here on Vereden had been on that ship, simply standing at the railings and staring off into the distance. Some men found the endless blue horizon of the ocean ...
2024-09-30 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostHours later, the two of us relaxed together under the sheets of her futon, exhausted after our…exertions.
Turns out, the same enhanced stamina that aided an Awakened in battle had benefits in other ‘areas’ as well.
That had been a fun and interesting discovery to make those weeks ago.
I accepted the pipe that Bella passed my way and took a long draw from it, letting the ...
2024-09-27 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostCoughing, I sat up from the dirt as quickly as I could, if only to fix Venix with a gobsmacked look. “Excuse me?” I asked in complete disbelief.
The Antium man finished shrugging his robe back into place, from where it had fallen off his shoulders during our duel. He then crossed his arms and fixed me with an even stare, as the crowd in the background only started to react to...
2024-09-25 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThis wasn’t going well. The duel had only been underway for two minutes, so far, and I was already on the back foot.
After his little declaration, Venix had stopped playing with me. I got the impression he wasn’t bothering to hold back the strength in his blows as he sought to cow me. He wasn’t going full force, I think, but he was no longer holding back.
The results ...
2024-09-23 17:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostI found Venix waiting for me exactly where he said he would. The inn had a small practice yard behind it. I’d even used it a few times for some basic practice, with or without my companions.
He was standing patiently in the middle of it, his four arms crossed and his eyes closed. It didn’t look like the Antium man had moved an inch in hours, with how still he was. I couldn’t even re...
2024-09-20 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief.
And in growing annoyance.
“I forbid you or any of the others,” Venix continued, to the confusion of said others. “From traveling to Goryuen.”
A frown grew on my lips to match his own, and I stepped closer to the Antium man. I looked up and met his eyes, uncaring about the height difference. “Explain.”
“The isle is beyo...
2024-09-18 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAs I descended into the valley that held the temple, I was enveloped in a sense of peace. The entire area, from the carefully tended forest to the multiple ponds, exuded an atmosphere of harmony that permeated every inch of it. It was so tranquil in this small valley that it was actually home to a number of protected Kawamaran species, rare or otherwise.
Not far off of the cobblestone pat...
2024-09-16 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI took the offered materials, of course.
What other choice did I have? It’s not like I was going to turn down the path to what I had actually been fine with visiting Kawamara for. I was…a little worried that my companions wouldn’t be interested in following me to Goryuen, but not that much. I had already spoken to everyone, including Venix and Bella before she had ...
2024-09-13 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post“This,” Masayuki said, drawing a circle around one area on a map he had pulled out from underneath the table. The tea tray had been set aside to make room for the large strip of parchment. “Is an area that is known as Goryuen.”
I leaned forward in order to inspect better what the Lord had indicated. His finger was pointing towards the third island to the southwest in the archipela...
2024-09-11 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAccording to the servant, Lord Ashiwara was only willing to give me the information that I wanted face-to-face. And only if I could present the sword that he had commissioned at the same time.
You know.
The one that I had already finished.
After the servant had bowed and scraped away from me upon delivery of his message, I immediately made a bee-line back towards my i...
2024-09-09 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“What, Alaric actually surrendered?” Renauld said, startled. After a moment, he smirked with a mouth full of sharp teeth. “Didn’t think the bastard would actually cave, with the way the siege has apparently been going.”
Liora, meanwhile, looked down at her own cup and stared into the green tea within thoughtfully. “The siege of Blutstein had been going on for well over a month...
2024-09-06 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostI couldn’t dawdle in the dining room forever, however. As much as I might have wished to, I had plans for the rest of the day. And while they didn’t involve any of my new hobbies, commercial or otherwise, I was still looking forward to it.
My friends were coming back from their hunt today, after all.
Well, they were supposed to, at least. The specific team of Oni Hunter...
2024-09-04 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostIt was only by the flickering light of the lamp in my room that I could see at all.
But…that was fine, these days. Ever since my transformation at the tail end of the Elderwyck campaign, my eyes had been altered by the curse of the Rhazal the Harrower. They were more sensitive now, and it was far easier to see in low illumination. But as a consequence, they glowed ever so slightly throu...
2024-09-02 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe rats were arguing again.
They bickered back and forth uselessly from around the table set up in the throne room, mindless in their panic. Raised voices and screamed insults were abound in the air as the gathered noble men and women of the high house of Herztal gave voice to their panic. All the while, the most worthless of all sat on high in his gilded throne, clutching at the arms of...
2024-08-30 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“From the top, then,” Grey said solemnly, picking up the sack Honoka had given him earlier. Carefully, he withdrew seven items from within it, and set them on a small table next to the ritual area. One remained in his hand. “All things must align with your Terrestrial Affinity. For Northern Fire, we have a splinter of Emberwood. A hardy tree from the icy far north, unexpectedly tinged wit...
2024-08-28 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI simply stared into Sylvia’s gemborn sapphire blue eyes for a moment, doing my best to hide my unease. I may have a maxed-out Acting Talent, but I couldn’t be sure I was able to fool her.
Sylvia had always been more perceptive than most gave her credit for.
“What did you want to know?” I finally asked quietly.
To my surprise, Sylvia began to fidget in...
2024-08-26 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Venix?” I breathed in pure shock. “What are you…how are you…?”
Venix.
I…hadn’t seen him up and about in months. The last I had seen of the Antium, he had still been in a coma after the last ditch attack he had resorted to during the battle at Caer Drarrow.
When did he wake up?
“Oh, hey,” Renauld said behind me, sounding com...
2024-08-23 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI nearly choked on my glass of water. “Excuse me?”
Bella didn’t raise her head from the lowered position she had it in. “I said I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
Bella had led Liora and I to the command room of the Thorny Reef, completely unsurprised to see the two of us following her. There she had offered the two of us drinks. I ...
2024-08-21 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostGrey and I broke up for the day not long after that, since my mentor was still busy with everything involving the Elderwyck occupation. I got the impression that he really didn’t even have the time for the lesson he had given me.
He’d instead made time.
I appreciated that, I did. But that didn’t change my opinion about leaving. I just…I needed to go. It was...
2024-08-19 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAN:
I think I've made a decision. Like most of you can probably guess, this book is winding to a close. It'll probably finish next week. Technically, it's still Book 4. As in, the one that directly follows the entire trek to and fight at Caer Drarrow.
That's over a hundred chapters ago. Way too long for an individual book, over 200k words.
Thus, I'm going to be splitt...
2024-08-16 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostA frown crossed my lips, as I began to feel a sense of impending dread.
Meanwhile, Jason started ranting drunkenly at me. “I trusted you!” He screamed, swaying from his own inebriation and keeping an accusing finger pointed at me. “And all along you were one of THEM! Youuuu…you were one of those evil BASTARDS FUCKING EVERYTHING UP!”
Most of the aid workers in the ...
2024-08-14 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostEventually, I outright fled from the clinic, unwilling to be anywhere near where the apparently amnesiac Sylvia was. I didn’t know where I was going frankly. All I wanted was to be gone.
I found a place.
An abandoned bar.
Honestly, it was a wreck. Most of the furniture had been reduced to splinters, and there were more than a few splotches of dried blood littering the floorb...
2024-08-12 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAfter our emotional reunion in the middle of the Healer’s clinic, the meeting had adjourned. Woodrick and Leopold had left, leaving Grey, Honoka, and I alone with the comatose form of Sylvia, citing a need to oversee the occupation of Elderwyck. The actual Healer had rolled her eyes at us and left us alone without a word, while Sparrow...
Sparrow had pulled me aside as the meeting was b...
2024-08-09 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostI clambered up the old, ancient tree I had picked out for my purpose with ease. Once I had reached the apex, shrouded in my Thorn Cloak, I took out the far-eye I had received from Maria in her 'care-package'. Extending it, I looked out in the direction of Elderwyck proper.
While I had been busy overnight, the Army of the Uprising had arrived.
The massed troops of th...
2024-08-07 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!” The plantation owner screamed at me from his bound position in the dirt. He was an older man, strangely overweight in comparison to most of the Veredenese I had met. His formerly well-kept grey hair was wild and hanging over his reddened face as he struggled against the ropes I’d bound him with.
And I was currently in the process of freeing all of the Sc...
2024-08-05 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn’t hard for me to sneak away from the guard headquarters. Not with my experience, and with my now…former position within the Nocturne Division. All the guards and soldiers were too busy dealing with refugees to even try to search for me.
Once I was a good enough distance away, I lingered in a rubble-strewn alley that existed between two buildings that had collapsed in on themse...
2024-08-02 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAs corrosive murk started to thread its way through the entirety of my being, I began to feel something else. Something much more immediate, and much more distressing in the moment.
My body began to change rapidly.
Inside of me, I felt it as my bones began to shift, cracking and extending and fusing and growing. Even though I was hunched over, I knew that I was growing tall...
2024-07-31 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI instinctually froze, pinned from the almost physical force of Honoka’s fury. I felt like a small animal trapped beneath the gaze of an angry tiger, keeping still to try and escape their attention. I turned my head slightly to look at the door I had just come through and considered just bolting for it.
Honoka didn’t like that.
The older woman snarled and lifted one finger to po...
2024-07-29 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post