Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic
Torm remained silent until the stairs descended another fifty metres from the corridor. “How much further are you looking to descend?”
“If I didn’t mess up the conversion, the plan’s cross-section showed the tallest chamber on the top floor being forty metres.”
“Going to carve out the full base they designed for all o...
2022-08-10 12:31:45 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic
While Amdirlain sensed no impatience, the others’ presence prompted her to hold Isa out at arm’s length. “But we’re good now, right?”
“Only if you’re okay,” replied Isa, wiping away her tears.
Amdirlain gave Isa another brief hug before she released her. “I’ll be better when I get released from Culerzic, but one...
2022-08-06 15:52:26 +0000 UTC View PostIlya’s silvery song shivers with awful notes when we reappear above the next tower, and her rage erupts. A piercing hurricane slices down the staircase before dust clouds spray from every opening, carrying bone and shattered metal. The building sings like an off-key flute, a shrill deafening sound that stirs the grim music of the undead to life. Their chorus is louder than the last one we’d...
2022-08-03 10:57:28 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic
With her hand pressed against the wall beneath the first archway, Amdirlain paused and glanced at Torm. “This will take a little while. Did my arrival interrupt anything urgent?”
“I was harvesting giant necrotic worms from the Blood Fields’ far edge so our cell leader could trade them for the local currency?”
“Cell lead...
2022-08-02 04:25:41 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic
When Amdirlain appeared on the plateau’s lip, she was under an angry molten sky, unchanged from the last time she'd seen it. Flames formed from mottled combinations; dark, angry reds and bitter orange raged from horizon to horizon. Though the flames provided far more illumination than Earth's midday sun, they didn’t illuminate the plains b...
2022-07-27 12:08:21 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
Time Sense prompted Amdirlain to end her latest session, and she almost teleported to her next target out of habit. A quick check confirmed Ascetic Triumvirate had reached 100 last practice session, and she made another change.
[Experience Allocation confirmed:
Ostimë: 50% weighted.
Ontãlin: 50% weighted]
Absently rubbing...
2022-07-23 15:08:03 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
Even in the Maze, five months laying motionless had coated her with dust, and while Teleport had left the caked layer behind, the sensation lingered on her skin. Stretched out in the pool, Amdirlain relaxed and considered her next move.
“I hope Ebusuku won’t get angry, but if I end up any place in the Abyss, I’ll need to be as strong a...
2022-07-20 08:34:47 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
While her body wasn’t a perfect replica of Mortal flesh, it certainly had hunger, thirst, and fatigue down perfectly. It was odd after going so long without needing rest to depend on Psi techniques she’d learnt to wash other people’s fatigue away. After months of holding her body’s desire for rest at bay, she wasn’t sure how long she’d...
2022-07-17 08:07:53 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
“We’ve been at this for weeks; how have you continued to contain that rage?”
Athena rose and stretched before making her way to the water basin. That her thoughts were now clearly audible to Amdirlain was both a blessing and a curse. They could communicate clearly outside the mind palace, but it now slowed Amdirlain's progress, even wi...
2022-07-15 07:22:49 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
When Amdirlain teleported back to Athena’s cell, she found the olive tree had regrown. Athena was already awake and pacing out the chamber’s walls, but Amdirlain recovered her dress before she pushed a thought toward her. “Been awake long?”
Athena spun and set her back to the closest wall, her stance reminding Amdirlain of an Olympic...
2022-07-11 21:46:52 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
Without the vines hampering her, Amdirlain pushed Ki Movement and distributed keys far quicker than she’d expected. Exploring her way through a new area of foul spirits, she spent a few days locating chambers before she got started. The first unit that appeared took a step back from her, though its spear stayed levelled at her chest.
“Pl...
2022-07-09 23:44:29 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
With the thorns retracted, recovery hadn’t taken long, and Amdirlain opened her eyes to a spotless expanse of grass beside the pool. Rocked by body blows of pain and heartache from Orhêthurin’s memory, she let herself float along in its current and took apart the memory. Years of practice in dissembling the foulness she’d absorbed from the ...
2022-07-06 17:24:41 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
When the double chime sounded, Amdirlain returned to her chamber, carrying the pouch of keys Rasha had handed her. Though she raced along with reckless speed, the vines held back from breaching flesh. With each risky manoeuvre she executed, they merely shifted their weight and thrashed persistently in their attempts to force her off-balance.
Amdirlain’s PoV - Maze
The phoenix’s wings flared through her and Amdirlain drifted across a darkened landscape focused on the shadow beneath the meridians. She’d spent days cycling to repair the gap left by the vines, and not once had it reacted to the Ki despite its obvious awareness of Soul Sight. Fortunately, despite the Ki energy pouring through her, t...
2022-07-01 15:27:22 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
She’d spent weeks exploring regions where the energy within felt promising. Now, all she had left of her accumulated keys was a sole key that she’d left laying on her folded dress.
The Ki racing through her meridians flared and, caught in her meditations, Amdirlain almost missed the oddity completely. Adrift in a no-mind meditative state...
2022-06-28 12:21:17 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
As a chime’s impact rang out, Amdirlain again found herself on the pool’s edge within her space. Stepping into the water, Amdirlain quickly washed off the blood trails that crisscrossed her body. She’d pushed through four times to handle an increasing number of Tier 6 before stopping to meditate and let it reset. The fifth time she’d hoped...
2022-06-25 12:09:36 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
With the killing of nearby entities, she’d quickly provoked the guardians’ reappearance. The burning pain from the memories echoed within the vines and spurred her on. A punch shattered the first unit without time for its usual request.
Blasting through them without hesitation, she only bothered to check with Analysis when new units made...
2022-06-23 02:14:49 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - Maze
Her skin glowed golden with the energy circulating through the phoenix pattern. As the feathers flared upwards, Amdirlain blazed past the Guardian and unleashed a flying sidekick. Precisely targeted against an unsuspecting foe, the edge of her foot decapitated the room's inhabitant. Its aura fading rapidly, Amdirlain spun on her heel and stuck her t...
2022-06-20 09:51:23 +0000 UTC View PostMinerva’s PoV - Nova Roma
The Temple’s side balcony had once provided a view of buildings sheathed in polished white stone that ran to the fortified harbour entrance. Yet it had been a sight that had hidden a decaying culture with the ratio of slaves to citizens at twenty to one. Even though she had to admit Remus wasn’t free from such behaviour, in the harsher n...
2022-06-16 18:08:43 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Maze
“Amdirlain, how were you reborn as my baby?”
Ebusuku’s voice snapped Amdirlain awake from the exhausted slumber that had swamped her after the corridor, but it took her a few moments to process the words. Amdirlain felt the grass tickling her back, and she realised she hadn’t even made it to her hidey-hole. Sitting, she found the poo...
2022-06-13 04:55:53 +0000 UTC View PostEbusuku’s PoV - Laurelin
“Ebusuku.”
Farhad’s call came from the baby’s room I’d sorted out before Gailneth’s birth. Without thinking, I teleported to the room, hoping nothing had gone wrong in the diaper lesson. Maybe he should take the Wizard class this time to whisk away messes.
Our newborn baby had become a boy, which was the source of his con...
2022-06-11 05:48:48 +0000 UTC View PostLivia’s PoV - Judge Po’s waiting area
Time is hard to measure here, with no shifting light and no apparent need to breathe. Those surrounding me don’t even blink, cough, or shift their weight, just staring off into the distance as if enraptured by something only they can see.
When the black desk re-appears with the same young man behind it, I’m glad to see e...
2022-06-07 23:27:24 +0000 UTC View PostEpochē - PoV - Kingdom of Darius - Northern reaches
The sense of her magic shattering caused Epochē to halt with the dagger just breaking the surface of Hades’ skin. Despite the trickle of golden ichor spreading across his stomach, the Olympian didn’t flinch away from her gaze.
The golden script that blazed into Epochē’s awareness made her hiss just as she...
2022-06-07 23:27:10 +0000 UTC View PostEpochē - PoV - Kingdom of Darius - Northern reaches
The sense of her magic shattering caused Epochē to halt with the dagger just breaking the surface of Hades’ skin. Despite the trickle of golden ichor spreading across his stomach, the Olympian didn’t flinch away from her gaze.
The golden script that blazed into Epochē’s awareness made her hiss just as she...
2022-06-06 23:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostTorm’s PoV - Eyrarháls - Evening Third Day
He doesn’t say a word when he enters the study; he simply lets the door settle behind him. Lord Týr’s presence had been apparent when he entered the building, but his purpose is unclear. Once I wouldn’t have had to wonder what he needed, my Oath-Link would simply have made it known. Now it’s a struggle to hear through...
2022-06-01 17:38:19 +0000 UTC View PostLiranë’s PoV - Eyrarháls - Morning Third Day
The meeting when the others awake is simple and to the point: killing Raivo.
Leaving them to it, I continued to work at the traces I’d located the night before. Mentally scurrying through the shadow tunnels, I steadily feel the trail growing stronger as I work, from its freshness and the additional psionic residue t...
2022-06-01 12:30:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 201 wanted to be difficult over the weekend and had me re-write three times.
While I eventually figured out why I didn't like it, cost me a lot of time to get it to the point of being mostly roughed out. Had tried to skip some preparations, and I had a character complaining that she didn't get air time.
The last and fourth full re-write covered a much smaller set of events, ...
2022-05-31 23:44:56 +0000 UTC View PostLivia’s PoV
Blackness surges only a moment behind a wave of pain, and I can only blink at what’s suddenly before me. A corridor stretched onwards, with endless rows of people standing in lines on dull grey stone squares. Those waiting nearby vary widely in their attire, from simple crisscrossed robes secured with a cloth waistband and woven straw sandals to elaborate ...
2022-05-24 22:05:36 +0000 UTC View PostEpochē - Crete – Early afternoon Second Day
When the one-sided slaughter ended, Epochē reappeared, and her ledger snapped shut; the noise drowning out the cursing women. Ignoring the prisoners pinned to the chamber’s stone wall by her Spell, she focused on the tall figure wreathed in red lightning. “Now that the interruption is over, do you agree with the plan or ...
2022-05-23 05:21:13 +0000 UTC View Post