Flameruner

Memoirs 384 - Meeting or none

The change came with surprisingly little fanfare.

There were no more arrays unfurling overhead, no fresh storm of light to announce the shift.

All Scarlett felt was a distilled, singular intent as Fate took her demand into itself and the geas strained to make it real.

Then it struck a wall — a refusal so deep it might as well have been part of the world’s marrow.

Fat...

Memoirs 383 - Geas

Yamina activated the arrays at the heart of the chamber, and the floor itself sighed open like an eye. Glyph-lines woke one after another, chasing new paths across the marble in patient, concentric rings. Scarlett watched as the pattern gathered itself and settled into deliberate motion.

Soon, the entire space bloomed with hundreds of thousands of floating sigils, their light so intense i...

Memoirs 382 - To the Tower

“Slate,” Scarlett said, eyes fixed on the pale, expressionless girl standing inside the metallic cradle before them. “Come.”

She gestured for Slate to climb out of the structure.

The girl studied her quietly, then looked down at her own hand, then at the cradle beneath her. Slowly, she raised her arm, turning it over and examining it. Her fingers flexed experimentally before...

Memoirs 381 - Tribute of Dominion

[Main questline Updated: What comes next]
{The Chamber of Sovereignty has been reached. The Tribute of Dominion awaits. The turning of Fate teeters. What will be done with this power?}
[Objective: Decide]
[Reward: — ]
[Failure: — ]

Scarlett dismissed the floating quest windows that cluttered her vision, then stepped past them into the cham...

Memoirs 380 - Completions

Scarlett and Arnaud dealt with the remaining Cabal groups without major incident. Though she’d needed a few mana potions—especially after the clash with Leon and the others—she hadn’t come close to mana exhaustion. After eliminating the final Cabal group she could detect in the middle levels and absorbing the power from their altars, she regrouped with Arnaud, and together, they descend...

Memoirs 379 - Heroic face-offs

Regina stared at the sea of fire before them, its flickering light carving Baroness Hartford’s silhouette into something almost divine—an effigy wrought from flame. The heat in the chamber pressed down on her like air from an open forge.

Everyone felt what they were facing.

An arch mage.

Regina’s grip on her sabre faltered, but she caught herself, jaw tightening as she f...

Memoirs 378 - Villainess

Scarlett stood enveloped in a vast, colourless void — endless stretches of white and grey as far as her eyes could reach.

An indescribable pressure bore down on her, threatening to subsume and erase her very being.

She just scoffed.

Reaching inward, she drew upon her Anomalous power. It stirred instantly, rising to meet the oppressive force pressing down on her. The contest ...

Memoirs 377 - Wards and Provisions

Arnaud Astrey breathed in the brilliance of the fading golden radiance swirling around him as a resonant chime echoed through the chamber.

Everything went still.

The projections, ghosts, and shifting ‘reflections’ he’d fought moments ago were gone. Only silence remained. Heavy and taut with a residue of danger, yet carrying a weight of finality that suggested the worst had pas...

Next chapter up soon (ish)

Next chapter will be up in somewhere around 12h, give or take a few hours. (Some unforeseen circumstances means I currently don't have access to the latest chapter, and for some reason I have yet to make a habit of actually utilising Patreon's scheduling feature.)

Memoirs 376 - Her name was Amy

Scarlett walked. Just walked.

She didn’t look back. There was no need. She could still sense the presence trailing her through the quiet, borderless nothing. Soon, though, her surroundings shifted as streaks of silver threaded into her peripheral vision. Silent ribbons of light drifted in from the edges, and then, almost abruptly, the void thickened beneath her feet into something nearl...

Memoirs 375 - The Beginnings

Scarlett saw visions.

Or was that what they were?

She wasn’t sure. It was hard to tell. They came in fleeting flashes, yet each seemed to stretch on far longer than made sense.

She was a child beneath an endless red sky, playing with toys that shifted and shuddered whenever she looked away. Then she was someone else — standing in a ruined hall, surrounded by voices murmuri...

Memoirs 374 - Barred

Scarlett was gone.

Fynn didn’t know where she’d vanished to. He didn’t know where Rosa had disappeared to earlier, either. Both were simply gone, leaving no trace.

Not knowing was frustrating. Scarlett’s recklessness always made his blood itch, but he forced himself to trust her judgement. She would be back.

He caught the sharp scent of worry — Allys...

Memoirs 373 - Fatekiller

Scarlett watched the woman closely. “Kill Fate?” she repeated.

Yamina nodded once.

Scarlett stayed silent. The sea of gold around them almost seemed to thrum, as if to mirror the enormity of what had just been said.

Her gaze dropped to the shimmering threads beneath their feet, then to the fractured island ahead, pulsing like an open wound. “…When you say Fate… Do yo...

Memoirs 372 - Opposites attract

Scarlett turned.

A woman stood there, deep purple hair framing her face, gold-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

Yamina. But not the vacant girl from before. This was the real Yamina Ward — taller, older, and with sharp focus behind her eyes. She wore flowing emerald robes trimmed with gold, the embroidery glimmering faintly against the vast, glowing sea beneath them. Fr...

Memoirs 371 - Waiting beyond the fray

The echoes of battle dimmed into a tense hush, broken only by Rosa’s slightly uneven breathing. Scarlett stood silent, watching her.

Then she stepped forward and set a firm hand on Rosa’s shoulder.

“Rosa,” she said, her tone low. “What did you see?”

Rosa met her gaze. Her eyes carried a glassy, unfocused sheen that lingered before softening at the edges in...

Memoirs 370 - Within the threads

What exactly qualified as a major lapse in judgement?

Raimond couldn’t say for certain. Oh, he had plenty of ideas—brilliant, if he did say so himself—but most people would no doubt vehemently disagree with his particular brand of reasoning. And he wasn’t necessarily one to waste his charm or breath trying to convince them otherwise.

No, it was often simpler to let ...

Memoirs 369 - Hidden strings

Nobody moved. All eyes were fixed on the girl standing before them.

Yamina Ward stood utterly still. Eerily lifeless, in a way that felt almost staged — like a prop left behind on an abandoned set. Her golden eyes glowed, unblinking. Yet she seemed to be breathing.

The seconds stretched. No more changes. There really was no further phantom play of identities.

Scarlett narrow...

Memoirs 368 - Reflections of pasts and futures

The reflections materialised all around them, their mere presence enough to set Scarlett’s party on edge. The memory of their last clash with the Cabal’s group was still fresh. That time, the space had been filled with dozens of reflections, to the point where it was impossible to count.

Now, there were even more.

Golden light bathed the entire chamber, wrapping them in the glow...

Memoirs 367 - Spurning

The atmosphere carried a blend of suspense and expectancy as Scarlett and the others pressed deeper into the dark passages of whatever level of Beld Thylelion they now occupied.

Even though she knew someone like Ustrum was unlikely to have brought subordinates, she still found herself on edge at every faint sound or whenever they entered another empty stone chamber, eyes scanning each cor...

Memoirs 366 - Legends

There once was a mage lauded as a genius among geniuses.

Born during a time of turmoil—when a fledgling empire clawed its existence through constant war and shifting allegiances, and the path of a mage was regarded with both suspicion and reverence by those outside the already influential Rising Isle—he carried an ambition few around him could fathom. Only a rare handful he met in tho...

Memoirs 365 - Early arrivals

Scarlett wasn’t sure what to expect from this new, unexplored section of Beld Thylelion. She didn’t know what to make of the seemingly divine presence saturating its walls, nor of the ‘charge’ Itris had bestowed upon her. All in all, there was a great deal she was left wondering about.

As ever, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

But it didn’t halt their progress.

Contra...

Poll - Follow-up

As per the poll results, there won't be a chapter today and on the coming Thursday. There will instead be a couple extra chapters in the weeks following that.

Poll - Chapter schedule for coming week

A big work project + presentation popped up that will require much of my attention for the coming week (until next Thursday). This will be the last time this happens for the foreseeable future, but it might affect my ability to write during it. That's why I thought I'd create a quick poll regarding how you would prefer I handle this.

Option 1: I still release two chapters...

Memoirs 364 - Special people

“We need to be cautious here,” Princess Regina said from Leon’s right, gesturing towards the alabaster-white structure in the chamber’s centre. “That’s another hostile construct. Sir Leon, Briana, and I faced a similar one earlier. It nearly outmanoeuvred us.”

“So did Mel and me,” Skye responded, eyes seeming to track the shifting glyphs that crawled like liquid script a...

Memoirs 363 - Intervals

Leon’s boots scraped against uneven stone, the sound echoing through the ceilingless corridor like breath rasping in a hollow throat. Above them stretched only darkness, while the path ahead twisted in erratic arcs, narrowing and widening as though it had grown that way rather than been built.

Set into the stone walls at irregular intervals were strange shapes — half-formed limbs, war...

Memoirs 362 - What awaits

“Scarlett!” Kat’s voice rang out, quickly echoed by the others as they entered the chamber behind her. Their eyes darted between her and the burning scroll hovering in the air.

“I am unharmed,” Scarlett said, glancing at them briefly before turning her attention back to the scroll.

This was, presumably, her side of the ‘trade’ Itris had offered. Payment, in a sense, fo...

Memoirs 361 - Itris

The air was different. Heavier. Hotter. It carried the scent of scorched stone and something sharper beneath.

Around them, the lift shaft was silent and cold. But ahead, a single archway stood, flanked by intricately carved columns that almost seemed to glow in the ambient heat. It framed a threshold veiled in a wavering distortion, with streaks of red and crimson flickering beyond.

Memoirs 360 - Bypassing (not so) mainframes

Scarlett remained on the ruined platform where they’d fought the Cabal troupe, lingering until Rosa stirred. Thankfully, Allyssa’s estimate had been accurate, and within minutes, the bard shifted with a faint groan, eyes fluttering open as her fingers twitched against the stone.

Kat was already kneeling beside her, one hand firm on Rosa’s shoulder to keep her from rising too fast. �...

Update on schedule stuff

Generally, things have calmed down a lot more and I'll be returning to a more consistent schedule. Tonight's chapter will be up tomorrow, but after that, there likely won't be too many additional delays in the near future.

Memoirs 359 - Scary ol' knights

They stepped through the archway together.

The corridor gave way to something less like a chamber and more like a half-collapsed vault, its interior split into sharp, angular channels. There were no strange glyphs here, no lines etched into the walls like before. Instead, raised stone partitions jutted from the ground in tight, layered rows — narrow walkways twisting out of view in repe...