Amdirlain’s PoV - Beneath Wudang Mountain
Rustam rushed through the tunnels after her, his Power reaching out to constrict passages. His first attempts were too slow, and Amdirlain hurriedly dove between closing rock walls. She continued to race along even as he started to close a long length ahead of her. The theme of the Power he’d used to create boulders around his...
2024-11-17 21:18:32 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Wudang Mountain - Zixiao Palace
Dark furnishing and decorations were a constant theme as they moved through the palace’s corridors, yet they had a comforting, protective feel rather than being coldly repressive.
They eventually came to an expansive courtyard with a plain walkway surrounding it, but there wasn’t a single obstruction across its...
2024-11-14 20:35:30 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - West Wind’s Court
Four days later, Amdirlain stood at the midpoint of a narrow valley neck, carved plateaus along its sides accommodating thousands of observers. She counted at least thirty distinct orders from the varying styles of robes spread across the valley walls. They were still streaming into position, racing along the walls, or descending fr...
2024-11-11 04:10:21 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - West Wind's Court
When Amdirlain arrived at the library, nearly two scores of curious practitioners followed her. Their broadcast thoughts were awash with even wilder rumours than those she’d heard from their initial guide. A student leaving the library with a bundle of scrolls almost spilled them at her feet. Hastily retreating, he grabbed the entry d...
2024-11-08 02:27:46 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - West Wind’s Court
Bai Hu hunted her tirelessly, his blade slicing open flesh at the slightest opportunity. The tricks she used to hound Master Payam and Jinfeng earned barks of laughter from him. Throughout the clash the air buzzed with metal striking against crystal and, wherever the blows were, energetic slivers of metal spun away, only to be drawn...
2024-11-04 09:54:02 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - West Wind’s Court
The first techniques they found proved problematic, so they moved on through the collection. During the following hours, they discussed and culled dozens more for various reasons. The comfortable conversation and her use of classical references drew the occasional pleased smile from Cyrus. Later in the afternoon, when they’d gotte...
2024-11-01 04:59:13 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - Northern Tibet - West Wind's Court
The young boy assigned to lead them buzzed excitedly, his eyes roaming over the view from above the city, but he still paid enough attention to direct their route northwards. As they travelled, the rumours circulating over the last day were loud in his mind.
I made a whole constellation dedicated to the martia...
2024-10-28 09:17:42 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - Nepal Mountains - Silver Lake
Preparing to leave Silver Lake didn't take long. The biggest delay was Jinfeng fetching Timur from the compound. After they returned to the inn, the group found an isolated spot some distance from the town suitable for a sparring session: a long undulating mountain slope with plenty of rocks and uneven footing. Sarah landed ...
2024-10-25 00:09:42 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Material Plane - Space
While Amdirlain and Gilorn planned and caught up, Amdirlain recreated the world she’d just destroyed; this time, she used the planetary songs from the orrery rather than a composition from scratch. Freed from composing on the spot, she could focus on her singing. The sensitivity of Phoenix’s Symphony allowed her to catch note...
2024-10-21 06:58:56 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Deep Space
When Amdirlain arrived, the chain reaction within the sun had the mass shifting through hues towards Gideon’s predicted whitish-blue. She settled in a spot she calculated would be a suitable distance from the fierce sun for an Earth-like planet and adjusted her momentum so she began orbiting it. The target point for the first planetary cor...
2024-10-17 22:07:01 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains
With their return to the suite, Klipyl fixed Amdirlain with a worried look. “I updated Ebusuku on what happened. She’s worried about you, so if you’ve got anything I can share with her that would be appreciated?”
“I’m closer to how Ori perceived things, but I’ve got some weird Primordial material squeezing around my ...
2024-10-14 19:38:35 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains
For five days, Amdirlain constantly sang; in her lightning-fast perception, she combated the gnawing pain with music for an agonising eternity. Sarah hadn’t left once but remained standing behind Amdirlain’s floating form with arms wrapped around her midsection; the comforting touch provided a welcome anchor within the storm of tort...
2024-10-10 09:48:40 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains - White Tiger’s Claw Sky Keep
On the second morning of the junior tier matches, Klipyl sat beside Amdirlain in their section in the upper stands. Jinfeng was below, meeting with other members of the sect she had fought beside years ago. As the day progressed, Klipyl wasn’t the only new arrival; various masters took up spots and, ami...
2024-10-07 01:19:24 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains - Silver Lake
The morning after the senior students' ranking wrapped up, they divided the arena floor into ten large circles spread out along its length. Their formation was a staggered pattern that allowed each circle to extend past the halfway mark of the area.
As the fourth person allowed onto the floor, Jinfeng took up a spot ...
2024-10-03 21:28:31 +0000 UTC View PostThis time, the changed scene is outwardly more congenial, yet it rings with a thousand malicious tones that scream through my bones and stick their tongues into my ears. As they slime over my eardrums, I clamp my palms to my temples, pressing to keep my brain contained. We’ve arrived on a balcony with thousands of erinyes in closer proximity than the canyon allowed. Some carry protoplasmic ra...
2024-10-03 10:51:35 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains - White Tiger’s Claw Sky Keep
None of the newly passed students were in sight when the afternoon rounds started. The afternoon’s combat still showed minimal Ki use; the most common signs were an incoming blow slowed, a strike hitting harder than expected, or an opponent standing unshaken beneath a pummelling. Between the matches, Am...
2024-09-30 20:52:23 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains
When Amdirlain and Jinfeng returned to the inn, Sarah spilled the news of the Grandmaster’s plan to include Amdirlain in the tournament.
“Oh, really?” purred Amdirlain. “This should be fun.”
“You’re going to accept?” asked Jinfeng.
Amdirlain smirked. “No, it’ll be fun to shoot them down in flames. T...
2024-09-26 21:25:03 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains
Amdirlain had settled down to relax with her scrolls, but her renewed leisure time was brief. A half-hour had passed when she felt Sarah and Kadaklan returning through the mental link, and Amdirlain unlocked the door without rising from the table.
The pair entered the suite and looked over her collection of scrolls without saying ...
2024-09-23 00:07:20 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - West Wind’s Kingdom
As they moved away from the kingdom’s edge, the villages became more settled towns with well-equipped guards, regular patrols, and sturdy bridges over the broader rivers. When spring had finally rolled around, they were among the kingdom’s more populated areas, and the roads and facilities were relatively congested. It was now...
2024-09-19 14:11:34 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Northwest India
As they trekked northwards, Amdirlain felt for minds nearby. Beside the buzz of the village thirty kilometres ahead, there were only a few hunters about, with both Human and non-Human minds. Glimpses from their eyes showed scaled bodies but, rather than the rougher scales of the Lizardfolk, they possessed fine serpentine scales. While t...
2024-09-16 12:10:23 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Barents Sea - North of the Russian plains
With the house packed up, they reappeared on the edge of the ice-covered sea, only to find a blizzard had erupted since their departure. Kadaklan wrapped his arms around himself, clutching his flapping robe about himself.
“This place is far worse than where we were staying. Truly, no Phoenix should be i...
2024-09-13 05:22:24 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - Vehtë - Norway
The group fell into an easy routine of training and exploration, with a strange absence of White Dragon sightings that Sarah attributed to the change of seasons. Amdirlain allowed the others to handle the monsters they ran into, having already gotten more experience than she'd expected on the trip. A complete lunar cycle passed before Gre...
2024-09-09 21:49:16 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Vehtë - Norway
When Amdirlain returned to the river bank where Sarah’s house had settled, she found Sarah clearing a swath of trees towards a rock face. The others were tending to the debris nearby and stopped when she arrived.
“I found a friend,” quipped Amdirlain.
“Then why do you smell of blood, fur, and Mana?” asked Sarah. 2024-09-06 11:46:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Amdirlain’s PoV - Vehtë - Atlantic Ocean
Amdirlain stood looking over the barren rock beyond the dunes and hummed at the back of her throat. The dragons’ occupancy had probably lasted over a thousand years since they’d driven humanity from the equivalent of Europe and the Middle East. Though it would have appealed to her gamer’s viewpoint to wipe out hundreds of ...
2024-09-02 18:16:35 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV
Upon leaving the Lizardfolk village they’d restored, the group bypassed the other settlements on the peninsula and traced a route westward along the sea. Once they passed through the strait into the Atlantic, they followed the coast again until they reached a scenic spot on the eastern edge of the ocean, west of where Lisbon would be. The rocky area Am...
2024-08-29 11:01:24 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Mediterranean Sea - Italian peninsula
Amdirlain returned in time to see the first twenty villagers stir; groaning with fatigue, they looked about in confusion. As Dralic moved to reassure them, Klipyl began to revive the next group.
With the group justifiably close to hysterics, Amdirlain stretched her Charisma across them to still the surge of e...
2024-08-25 22:02:30 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain's PoV - Vehtë - Mediterranean
By the time Amdirlain returned from the ruined temple, Kadaklan had finished cleaning the filth from Jinfeng.
"One ruined underground temple complex cleared," said Amdirlain. "Shall we wait here until sunset and cross at night?"
"You're not looking to go striding across the waters in the daytime?" quipped Kadaklan. ...
2024-08-22 04:40:28 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Vehtë - Mediterranean Sea
The sea breeze from the Mediterranean brought with it the odour of dung fires from the Lizardfolk town. Its haze wafted across the ruin and mingled with the images her techniques showed her. Clairsentience strained to show the building that had once stood there, so Amdirlain instead scanned through the debris, looking for any...
2024-08-18 08:44:50 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Vehtë - Greece
After the drama with Lutu and the gorgons, the next day’s trip along the coast proceeded with a suspenseful quiet. Kadaklan harvesting from bushes to test for alchemical properties made Amdirlain jump in her skin the first time leaves snapped. Startled by her spinning to face him, Kadaklan laughed and lifted the leaves he’d claimed....
2024-08-15 04:38:27 +0000 UTC View PostAmdirlain’s PoV - Vehtë - Mediterranean Sea
Hours had passed and, with the sunset, Sarah had called it a night to get some rest. The waxing moon was nearly full, illuminating the rough terrain, and Amdirlain sat on the front porch, catching up with Klipyl and Jinfeng. While asking Jinfeng about the province she came from, Amdirlain heard rocks tumble from a cave and cl...
2024-08-11 08:50:02 +0000 UTC View Post