In the silence, Shanine looked between all four of them, eyes jumping from one to the other. Zed knew she was searching, looking for something. He knew what it was but left it to her to ask the question. When she did, it surprised no one—except Trevor, it seemed.
“Where’s she, by the way?”
“Who?” he asked. “Mean girl?...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSeth looked at it closely but couldn’t discern any more than its aesthetic appeal. “It is?” he asked.
Jim nodded. “He’s probably being sponsored by one of the houses. He must be talented.”
Seth shrugged as his minds took offense.
Is he trying to say we don’t have talent? That we’re only here because of the s...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostShanine sat up on her new bed, easing herself into a comfortable position. From the expression on her face as she did, she would’ve preferred something more comfortable.
Zed watched her go through the process. She adjusted here, twitched there, shivered a bit. It was an amusing process executed in search of a solution. After a while, she...
2023-12-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLucas led them from the room, silence his new companion after his outburst. The short exchange in the waiting room had given Seth a broader understanding of how much the world truly disliked the concept of a pure core. He’d thought they’d simply thought it inefficient, now he knew they hated it. Why? Because it brought death to so many, appa...
2023-12-11 04:06:51 +0000 UTC View PostSeth watched the man through hooded eyes. “I thought you just said solo adventures are a quick way to die.”
“So is being what you are,” Jim replied casually. Then he turned to him and added: “Something must kill a soul mage someday.”
Seth didn’t like this. “Tell that to Barons,” he grumbled.
“Barons die, too...
2023-12-11 04:03:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe adventurer’s guild building was a massive conglomeration of roofs and buildings that rivaled the sight of castles ancient even to the world before the first crack. Its compound was larger, large enough to occupy ten more of it. It surprised Seth because he hadn’t known there existed a place within his father’s territory with a much lar...
2023-12-11 04:02:22 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: This chapter contains sexual content: Age discretion is advised. That said, I will mark where it begins and where it ends.
Ezril was halfway inside his tent when Lenaria pushed passed him. Surprised, he studied her, choosing to remain halfway into the tent as she turned to face him. She watched him with w...
2023-12-11 03:57:54 +0000 UTC View PostWhen night came a few of the adults had a fire burning as they did every night. It was a fire that would burn deep into the night, adding its crackling symphony to the forest’s echoes, a new member of its orchestra surrounded by the adults who would talk and drink and make merry if they saw fit. But though it burned so late and would last the ...
2023-12-11 03:51:52 +0000 UTC View PostEzril looked up from his Sunders, shaken from his surprise.
She was old. Very old. Her weathered skin, leathery from age, drooped on both sides of her face where her cheeks hid beneath it all. It fell so low that it dangled with each facial movement. And she walked with a cane. Her hand trembled as she moved the cane, and when she walked t...
2023-12-11 03:48:41 +0000 UTC View PostAwakening cocoon. Zed wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that even as the lower left portion of the crimson orb was blasted into oblivion. Unfortunately, while it was no longer as thick there, it remained just as thick in other places.
A spatter of the cocoon splashed against the back wall, staining the blue in its crimson. ...
2023-12-11 03:42:23 +0000 UTC View PostNo one said anything. They all stood, patient, waiting for what would happen next. Zed’s intrigued smile never left his face.
“I’m just saying,” he said. “It’s kinda odd seeing an Awakened among the Olympians. You guys strike me as badasses.”
Trevor shrugged, unconcerned. He was clearly used to people being surprised by...
2023-12-11 03:39:41 +0000 UTC View PostZed sat down with thoughts running through his mind. He would be worried if any of them were actually important. Regardless, they continued to flow, countless and merry as if important in their own right.
Beside him Oliver sat as well.
“You think she’s going to be alright?” he asked Ash.
They were seated in a different ro...
2023-12-11 03:37:23 +0000 UTC View PostIshtaaq woke up slowly, groggy and on the edge of confusion. He laid with his back against the ground and his eyes to the sky. The view that met him was a canopy of green leafy tree branches. They blotted out the sun so entirely that it felt as if it was evening. His body ached mildly and his muscles felt sore. Rather than address that, he moved...
2023-12-06 05:31:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis is a Hobby. Please help make corrections where you see fit, suggestions are greatly welcome, and plot holes being pointed out will always be appreciated. Enjoy at your own peril. Also, title suggestions will be amazing as I still have none.
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“Did you make t...
2023-12-05 06:02:09 +0000 UTC View PostLenaria stilled under Ezril’s touch, growing quiet. Her body rigid, as though mounted to the spot where she stood.
Ezril had had encounters with time. Perceptions warped with it seeming to go on forever. During Father Talod training it would seem to go on forever when he’d want only for it to end. Or during Priestess Ellenel’s privat...
2023-12-04 22:36:03 +0000 UTC View PostLenaria had grown more affectionate over the days, touching him frequently, and easily. Maintaining prolonged physical contact. Once, when they had been talking, her hand had been on his face the entire conversation, her fingers caressing his cheek. When he had drawn her attention to it she’d simply shrugged but not taken it away.
“It ...
2023-12-04 22:32:10 +0000 UTC View PostOn their second night Cyrinth had looked at Ezril’s Sunders strapped to his back as if they were useless before telling him its uselessness in the art he would teach him. That night Cyrinth had had him seek him out in the darkness with closed eyes, telling him how he wasn’t simply capable of seeing in it but capable of much more.
Ezril...
2023-12-04 22:29:00 +0000 UTC View PostSeth nodded to himself after a while and said, “We are.”
When he turned his head to Jim. Jim could see he had made a decision.
“So?” he asked. “What’s it going to be?”
“I’ll be a hunter,” Seth said.
Jim nodded sagely. “Then you’ll need a team. And I already have one in mind. Mind you, they’re all...
2023-12-04 22:24:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe seminary, as cruel a place as it always proved itself to be, was nothing if not consistent. When a seminarian displays an aptitude in one talent, they honed it. The countless training implemented was only designed for the sake of broadening their horizon. It was expected that every Reverend know a little about a lot of things and a lot about...
2023-12-04 22:22:34 +0000 UTC View PostSeth absently adjusted the straps of the sword he had still not yet seen.
“Is it that heavy?”
Seth nodded.
Jim chuckled. “That’s because you’re wearing it wrong. Weapons like that have an under draw.”
“Under draw,” Seth asked, confused.
Jim rose from his chair and stepped around the table. He approac...
2023-12-04 22:19:00 +0000 UTC View PostPanic filled Daniel’s mind. He’d allowed much happen during the spars because the ship had enough health potions to restore almost any and all injuries. They were high grade alchemical concoctions, created by the finest mages and alchemists in VHF.
But it couldn’t bring a person back to life. It couldn’t raise the dead.
It wa...
2023-12-04 22:14:22 +0000 UTC View PostOliver’s jaw dropped.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked, practically bolting from his chair. His legs carried him all the way to the glass before he could even think about it.
On the other side, the training room, Chris hit the wall with a force that left Oliver and perhaps everyone who wasn’t an Olympian in the room wo...
2023-12-04 22:08:14 +0000 UTC View Post“What are they doing?” Kid asked. He was standing next to Daniel now, watching the spar that was less a spar and more a fight unfold before them. On his left, Ronda watched with a strong frown.
“I’m not sure,” Daniel said. “Zed is doing something. I cannot say what.”
“He’s fixing himself,” Festus said, unconcerned...
2023-12-04 21:56:29 +0000 UTC View PostZed had hoped to get Chris with that one. It wasn’t necessarily a surprise attack, not as far as surprise attacks went, but it was sure to take her by surprise. From what he knew about magic, not many people could focus so heavily on one spell just to turn and cast another. Surely Chris had been banking on that. Was it her purpose for casting ...
2023-11-30 06:04:43 +0000 UTC View Post“Bone density,” he muttered, staring at the notification. He would’ve liked to say he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about the attribute but that would’ve been a lie. Bone density was the most passive attribute he could think of. It was like a person having a stronger heart than other people. It was powerful but not necessarily noti...
2023-11-30 06:00:55 +0000 UTC View PostEzril’s head turned immediately. Looking over his shoulder he saw Lenaria standing in front of the tent, eyes casting in different directions, searching. He returned his attention to Cyrinth but the man was gone, as though he had never been there in the first place.
Cyrinth had seemed like a dying man the last time they had met. Tonight,...
2023-11-30 05:53:59 +0000 UTC View PostEzril had been wracking his mind in search of what to expect of his observer. Now, he relaxed in recognition of the voice of an old friend.
By the life of him he would never have thought anyone would find him in a place whose location he didn’t even know. Still, his level of surprise wasn’t much, considering the situation. After all, h...
2023-11-30 05:28:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe houses were quite literally self-explanatory.
When the car dropped Seth off at his destination, he found himself standing in front of a cavalcade of houses lined side by side. Each one was different from the other, numbers boldly written on massive placards handing just above their doors.
At first he assumed there existed some ki...
2023-11-30 05:24:13 +0000 UTC View PostSeth walked for ten more minutes before he held up a pedestrian. The lady was plainly dressed in a simple pink gown that hugged her features enough to note her minor curves but naught more with perhaps an inch of height on him, not enough for him to tilt his head to meet her eyes. She held her hair back in multiple braids and had puckered lips t...
2023-11-30 05:19:51 +0000 UTC View PostThis was insane.
Staring at the bustling crowd of people selling their wares and going about their day, Seth could not stop the frown that contorted his face. It was not anger. No. Anger was an emotion left for those offended, rightfully or not. What he felt was discomfort. Its mix with a touch of fear did nothing to aid him.
He knew...
2023-11-27 05:44:38 +0000 UTC View Post