William was just about to scoop another mouthful of porridge and berries into his mouth when someone scooted into the seat next to him.
“Marline.” He inclined his head before returning to breakfast.
A breakfast that, prior to his t...
2024-04-26 20:40:34 +0000 UTC View PostYelena watched the doorway through which the young Ashfield scion had just left for a few moments more as she pondered over the meeting they’d just had.
Precocious indeed, she thought with a smile.
A smile that only gre...
2024-04-20 11:26:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Where did he get a core?”
There was no preamble as the Blackstone matriarch appeared within the crystalline confines of the communication orb Tala was stood in front of.
Truth be told, that didn’t surprise the Blackstone heir. 2024-04-14 12:32:11 +0000 UTC View Post
William struggled not to wince as the door to his alchemical storage room slowly cracked partially open.
“Goddesses’ mercy,” Marline hissed from behind him. “How is it worse the second time?”
“Because we added a few things ...
2024-04-06 13:15:06 +0000 UTC View PostWilliam smiled broadly as he watched his team whooping and hollering with delight as they made their way back to the dorms.
Though there was no missing the slight… gingerness of their movements.
Nor the smell, he thought wit...
2024-03-29 14:33:28 +0000 UTC View PostAN: I remember someone asking for the old chapter nineteen to be reposted, so here it is.
Now little more than a non-canon omake of 'what could have been'.
Among the staff of the Academy it was generally acknowledged...
“Are you insane!?”
All movement in the hallway paused at the sudden outburst, before rapidly recommencing as the cadets present saw from whom said outburst had originated.
“Ah Tala,” William smiled as he regarded the rapidly re...
2024-03-25 08:49:42 +0000 UTC View Post
House move went well. My back hurts. My fingers are sore. My mother's plants have been re-homed rather than thrown into a burning pit of fire like they deserved!
*Cough*
Just letting ya'll know that the next chapter will eit...
Griffith watched with muted awe as dozens of sailors and fishmongers clambered over the slowly rotting corpse of what had once been a mighty animal.
Mighty enough to have once been thought of as a god.
And now she was dead.
“Al...
2024-03-15 14:19:02 +0000 UTC View PostEvan scowled at the visage that greeted him as he emerged from the toilet stall he’d just occupied.
There, reflected in the mirror over the sinks, was the passive expression of William Ashfield, the boy casually washing his hands as he hum...
2024-03-09 14:07:52 +0000 UTC View Post“You know, it’s not going to disappear.”
It amused him a little how Marline failed to react to his words as she maintained a death grip on the mithril core in her hands.
For his part, he’d stashed his own below deck in an innoc...
2024-03-06 16:05:29 +0000 UTC View Post“It doesn’t look like much.”
It was all William could do not to sag as Verity so casually undercut his grand reveal.
Admittedly, the orc wasn’t wrong. His latest invention didn’t look like much. Little more than a long pipe w...
2024-03-01 11:49:59 +0000 UTC View PostSup all,
I'll just come out and say that I made a mistake last chapter - one that's been bothering me since yesterday.
Which is a shame because I like it as a chapter.
The issue is one of chronology.
To that end, I want...
Among the staff of the academy it was generally acknowledged that, for all that they were impressive displays of wealth, engineering and foresight on the part of the Crown, the Floats and Skeleton were imperfect systems.
The practice environ...
2024-02-24 09:49:08 +0000 UTC View PostTruth be told, Angelina hadn’t even been aware that the Academy had alchemy labs. Certainly, she’d never had cause to visit them in the two year she’d spent here.
Though, as she looked at them now, she had to wonder if she wasn’t alo...
2024-02-18 10:43:00 +0000 UTC View PostWilliam would be the first to admit that this was a terrible idea.
“We- we shouldn’t,” the very seductive dark elf under him moaned as his lips trailed along her neckline, fingers moving undoing the buttons of her shirt. “It’s… I...
2024-02-09 11:43:23 +0000 UTC View Post“So, nothing happened?”
“As I’ve said. Repeatedly. We shared a room. That’s it,” William mumbled as he pulled up his welding goggles.
Seam looks good, he thought as he gazed down at the oversized and partially cons...
2024-02-02 11:22:08 +0000 UTC View PostAs far as taverns went, the Salty Kraken could best be described as firmly average. Neither particularly rough, nor particularly classy, the small business nonetheless had a quiet reputation for reliability and security.
A reputation aided b...
2024-01-26 11:28:15 +0000 UTC View Post“He rejected me!?” Tala definitely didn’t screech.
That would be beneath her.
There was definitely a certain amount of… frustration present in her voice as she stared down her teammate.
Cherie shifted uneasily under her f...
2024-01-18 10:36:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Someone asked for a map and I do happen to have one. (Generated well in advance while I was planning out the story.)
So here it is. The map.
Of the world.
A world I have yet to name.
“He’s developing a reputation for being particularly vigorous.”
It didn’t need to be said who ‘he’ was. Tala’s reluctant fiancé had been a hot topic of conversation within the dorm of her team since before he’d even shown up...
2024-01-11 20:56:44 +0000 UTC View Post“We slaughtered them!” Bonnlyn cheered as she took a swig of her flask.
The dwarf looked a sweaty half-dressed mess as she reclined into her seat, the top half of her gambeson unbuttoned to reveal her rather ample cleavage to the world.<...
2024-01-04 08:27:24 +0000 UTC View Post“She’s staring at you.”
At Bonnlyn’s words, William glanced across the training fields to see that the green-clad half-elf from yesterday had arrived with her team. And sure enough, she was eying him.
Which was a little amusing...
2023-12-29 10:56:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe bolt-bow was, by any and all metrics that mattered, little more than an oversized nailgun. Oh, it had certainly been beefed up – the ‘nails’ it fired had more in common with crossbow bolts than anything else and the energetic properties ...
2023-12-21 11:23:47 +0000 UTC View Post
"Early designs of the Drake can rightly be said to be the template from which all other designs were born.
Though the original variant's air-frame was made of lacquered wood, it wasn't long before advances in elemental alchemy allowed t...
“I think I’m going to die,” Bonnlyn whined as she sank onto a chair with all the grace of a jellyfish beaching itself.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Olzenya grunted half-heartedly as she took her own seat.
Despite her words, the ...
2023-12-14 07:40:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Why’s everyone staring at me?” Verity asked warily as she paused in the act of tearing into her food, with an enthusiasm usually relegated to wild animals, to glance around the cafeteria.
Just watching her, William knew he would need ...
2023-12-08 02:12:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt had struck her at breakfast, and it struck her now, for all that the entire populace of the Academy wore uniforms, they weren’t actually all that uniform.
For example, the classroom Bonnlyn sat in now was a veritable riot of colors.
... 2023-12-03 05:55:03 +0000 UTC View PostAwkward.
If he were forced to pick a word to describe the current atmosphere, awkward would have been it. With tense being a close second.
The team’s common room had already divided itself in two. Or perhaps, two and a half would be ...
2023-11-28 05:48:41 +0000 UTC View Post