Mirian found herself moving down, then up, then spiraling around, then going down again. She passed several rooms with closed doors, trying in vain to place where she was on the map she’d studied, but the cave network of the Grand Sanctum had ra...
2024-08-08 20:51:16 +0000 UTC
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Some recent law had made the Great Library remove all the modern maps of ‘secure buildings’ like Parliament and the Grand Sanctum, but Mirian used the trick she’d learned in Torrviol of scouring old, disorganized shelves for outdated edition...
2024-08-07 16:29:22 +0000 UTC
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Palendurio was built on an old karst landscape, so there were stone spires throughout the city that people had encircled with houses anchored into the rock, as well as large hills riddled with caves that had been colonized with structures. Profess...
2024-08-04 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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As the cycles continued, it was those moments of friendship that Mirian held onto, that helped bolster her when she felt bitter and alone. Telling Beatrice about the roses helped her friend find acceptance in the nature of the cycle, and softened ...
2024-07-31 18:59:59 +0000 UTC
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They made it back to the surface two hours later, having fought through a scattering of labyrinthine horrors and a chimera that seemed to have come from an undiscovered eco-node on the first level. Mirian went through the motions of denying that s...
2024-07-29 20:56:50 +0000 UTC
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The team spread out to take measurements in the room, placing down several divination devices to take readings on ambient mana levels and energy types. As the two arcanists channeled mana into them to activate them, Gomaer went up to one of the wa...
2024-07-29 20:15:39 +0000 UTC
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The levitation wand made the long trek to Frostland’s Gate much more bearable. Being able to simply fly up the steepest part of the pass saved her a great deal of soreness and an entire day of travel. She was careful not to use it too much, thou...
2024-07-28 23:44:57 +0000 UTC
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The first thing Mirian thought, looking at the Labyrinth glyph sequences she’d brought back, was that the sequences were impossible. Glyphs had to be in a specific order for mana to flow properly. An ulic glyph could never precede ...
2024-07-28 22:18:32 +0000 UTC
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Mirian ran out the door after Grimald and Beatrice, with Cediri trailing behind her. The evening was darkened by clouds streaming across the sky, but already, Frostland’s Gate was dotted with magical lights floating in the air. Echoing from near...
2024-07-28 18:56:05 +0000 UTC
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Turning her back on the greater horror took effort. It was large and vicious, and her mind could picture all sorts of ways it could mutilate her. When she heard its horrible hissing scream, it took a lot of effort not to turn to face it again. She...
2024-07-28 17:32:18 +0000 UTC
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After Mirian finished putting up basic wards in her quarters, she started working on an eavesdropping device she could deploy, then an all-purpose divination device. Already, she was annoyed that she didn’t have access to a focus. What she reall...
2024-07-28 16:39:16 +0000 UTC
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Over the next few days, I'm going to be moving the $10 tier of support to be a total of 25 chapters ahead. That release will start today. Once that's done, I don't plan on making any other tier changes. Also, after that's done, I'll have a small ...
2024-07-28 16:13:37 +0000 UTC
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She slept for at least ten hours, then woke feeling refreshed. The room she’d paid extra for in the Kivinotsuur had its own hearth, and the warmth from the little spell engine kept the room warm despite the raging winds that blew down from the E...
2024-07-28 16:02:15 +0000 UTC
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The glaciavore let out a blood-curdling roar. Mirian led with an incineration beam. It would have been powerful enough to lance a bog lion, but the ice armor on the huge myrvite only steamed. No heat attacks she thought as s...
2024-07-24 16:34:44 +0000 UTC
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Hi all! When I started this story, I sketched out a map of where things were so I could keep track of it all. As Mirian starts to expand her journey to other lands, I figured you all might want to see that map so it's easier to keep track of where...
2024-07-21 18:51:17 +0000 UTC
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Going north instead of south would mean that Mirian wouldn’t have a chance to deploy her seeds of chaos design, since it required the train system for dispersal, and there were no trains that got anywhere near Frostland’s Gate.
Still, sh...
2024-07-21 18:13:41 +0000 UTC
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As the latest cycle progressed, Mirian released more seeds of chaos and continued to monitor the newspapers, while Lecne used his contacts in the black markets to keep an ear out. Sulvorath had stopped getting his contacts to deploy ‘wanted’ p...
2024-07-17 16:42:10 +0000 UTC
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As soon as the doors to the temple closed and Mirian dropped the illusion spell on Arenthia, the entire room of waiting priests burst into cheers, and the high priestess could hardly move as every man and woman of the cult rushed to hug her and we...
2024-07-14 15:52:03 +0000 UTC
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Three hours after waking up, she chanced to pass Lily as she headed to her next class and her roommate didn’t even turn her head. The disguise had certainly worked. Mirian crafted the replacement part for the train and scribed the ...
2024-07-10 17:55:24 +0000 UTC
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It took some convincing to get Nurea to cough up her contact in the Syndicate, but with Nicolus’s cajoling, she finally did. Afterward, she gave Nicolus fair warning that someone might be coming after them. Likely, Nurea would have them both out...
2024-07-07 17:31:52 +0000 UTC
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The Temple of the Four stretched across the top of Cairnmouth’s second great hill. Four colossal statues of the Gods looked out across the city from each corner, and behind them lay the monumental architecture of the temple complex itself. The t...
2024-07-03 23:21:02 +0000 UTC
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Mirian and Lecne worked to plan her return for the next cycle. She studied maps of Cairnmouth, and Lecne recalled the schedule he followed on the first three days of the month as best he could. More, they planned how to save High Priestess Arenthi...
2024-07-01 22:59:02 +0000 UTC
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The Cult of Zomalator was a small bunch, but what they lacked in size they made up for in eccentricities. They spoke in both the ritualistic language of the Order and the unceremonious slang of the Cairnmouth streets. With Priestess Arenthia dead,...
2024-06-30 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Mirian followed Lecne through various twisting alleyways. If he was trying to disorient her, he needn’t have bothered; after the second turn down an angled alley, she’d lost all sense of direction. The tall brick buildings in this part of the ...
2024-06-26 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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She woke in agony again. Physical, from the curse, and mental, from the horror of having just blown apart her own head, starting with the jaw. The lingering feeling of that squirmed through her whole body. She turned her head and vomited.
â€...
2024-06-23 16:38:08 +0000 UTC
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The second curse killed her, but unlike previous deaths, it wasn’t just the memory of the pain that followed her—the agony lingered. As it slowly faded, she felt tired, like she did when she’d been directing the Battle of Torrviol and had go...
2024-06-21 01:09:32 +0000 UTC
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The next morning, there was a stir across campus. Students huddling to talk in hushed voices, then disbanding. Paranoid glances cast out. A tension in the air. It was mostly sixth years gathering, but the talk was spreading to the lower classes.
2024-06-17 22:08:27 +0000 UTC
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Mirian tried to figure out what in the Gods’ names had just happened. She’d won. She’d finally fucking won. The Divir moon had stayed in the sky another day and then—
Then Nicolus had shot her.
Only, it hadn’t been N...
2024-06-13 04:45:09 +0000 UTC
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The plan was that they all surround the bridge together, but Archmage Luspire had other ideas. He rushed ahead of the group, hovering above the deck with the levitation wand. As soon as he encountered a group of Akanan crewmen, bumbl...
2024-06-10 04:01:40 +0000 UTC
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On the 10th of Solem, on the 48th cycle, Mirian began to assemble her assault team. She sat down with Professor Torres and showed her the schematics she’d been working on. The blueprint of the airship was covered in notes and shorthand for glyph...
2024-06-06 01:38:39 +0000 UTC
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