Epsilon Twilight

65. Vitality

“Here only basic food or ingredients are served,” The maid continued talking, but she barely kept an ear on the woman’s words. “If you want prepared food, we can order the chefs. Would you like us to do so?”

“No, thank you,” The scribe of commoners replied as she slightly turn...

64. Feast

Oh. It was a miracle that she held herself up, or that was what Aloe was inclined to believe. She hyperventilated as the words of the emir reiterated in her mind, the caress of her breath still lingering in her body and memory. Oh no.

Even if she was not one for gossip and...

63. Step

Even though it was just her second audience as a scribe – she had just one more under her belt as a spectator – Aloe had already grown used to them. They were slow and tedious, not a lot of things happened unless the emir accepted a petition, which seldom happened. The most stressful part was...

62. Undress

The sun greeted Aloe like a cold slap of water.

“Auuuugh!” The woman groaned like a dweller going into labor.

Whilst she lingered on the warmth on her sheets, Aloe raised her back from the soft mattress. Her vision was blurry, and her head pounded down on her, but her number one q...

61. Imagine

“I am Idris,” the man started, though his voice trembled slightly, “and she’s Fayruz. As you may have guessed, we are the assistants of your predecessor, the scribe of commoners, Shahrazad.”

Idris bowed slightly and Fayruz followed suit. Their eyes were filled with doubt, fear bei...

60. Assistant

Aloe had no way of knowing how much time she spent on the bath floor, the cold stone caressing her calves, but when she left, the sun was already coming down.

“You look radiant, Aloe!” Lulu greeted her as the scribe entered her office. The maid made no mention whatsoever of the time she...

59. Naked (and Afraid)

Dread would have filled Aloe’s mind but another more prominent thing occupied her thoughts.

Boobs.

Rani-al-Sadina looked at her with all her mighty and exposed body, the emir did not flinch nor blush at her presence. In any case, the buxom woman only appeared more comfortable now th...

58. Clothes

Two dry knocks rippled into the unconsciousness, causing consciousness to shift into motion.

“Nine more minutes...” Aloe weakly mumbled, more a reflex than a coherent thought.

“Venerable Scribe, the two hours have already passed.” The voice sent a clear message through the air...

57. Rest

It was hard to keep her concentration after staying for more than thirty hours, but Aloe had a trick up her sleep: drugs.

Lazily, she poured ter’nar leaves on her recently heated teapot, courtesy of the palace maids. Whilst the leaves weren’t a stimulating substance, they managed to kee...

56. Alike

No one paid attention to Aloe. Well, they did, but no one congratulated her on her dress or makeup. Being an adult is hard... It was worth mentioning how she selectively erased the memory that she hadn’t made the makeup herself nor did she own the dress, but those details were not wort...

55. Luxury

Aloe hadn’t slept. And this wasn’t an exaggeration or a hyperbole, no, she hadn’t had the time to sleep. Tamara had vaguely instructed her on everything her mother had been doing, and it soon became obvious that it was a lot.

As a child, she had never been a crybaby who resented her p...

54. Training

First light vanished the coldness of the night. The caress was light, a probe more than anything, but in a few hours, the low temperatures would be substituted by an appalling heat. She liked it better that way.

Heat made it better to train.

Swoosh, swoosh. Her blades broke t...

53. Scribe

“I... of course, Rani,” Aloe responded submissively, doing everything in her reach to not irate the ruler of the city.

“Good.” The emir clasped, a smile written on her face, her eyes closed in amusement. “Going back to the subject at hand, you want to be my scribe of commoners. Ri...

52. Object

“Excuse me?” Unfiltered confusion flooded Aloe’s thoughts. Though her visage was overrun by embarrassment as she violently blushed.

“Don’t fret, you are excused.” The girl, no, the child said to her face. “Though you should be ashamed of being a virgin at your age.” Then any...

51. Anxiety

Noon was drawing near, yet hunger felt like a stranger to Aloe, so she did the first thing that came to her mind. She knocked thrice on the door in front of her.

“Coming!” The muted voice of a woman responded, her steps far louder than her voice. “Who’s the- Oh.” Mirah opened the ...

50. Taxes

The day ended before Aloe noticed. She was tired from the journey, so even if the sun had yet to set, she went to sleep. Her house felt empty when she woke up. With the shack at the oasis, that was fine, it barely had three rooms, more than enough for a person; but her two-story house with more c...

49. Transaction

Umar took the cloth out of the jar and unfolded it to reveal a mound of leaves and flowers. They were still green, but some sections had begun to dry becoming slightly brown by the withering.

“Looks good so far.” He commented not a second before literally eating one of the flowers.

48. Product

“Are you ready, Fikali?” Aloe stood up after tightening the last straps holding her belongings on the dweller’s saddle.

“Wroo!” Fikali raised her claws and head high, though instead of intimidating, it came as a rather cute gesture.

“Good to hear that.” Aloe kne...

47. Requirements

Disregarding the events of her coming of age, Aloe felt good. These last days she had been feeling horrible as she told herself that it all had been her fault, that she had abandoned her mother, even if she had never uttered those words to herself. The cruelest of thoughts were those that came wi...

46. Adult

She couldn’t believe it, but it was true. She had had a good night’s rest. It almost felt nature-defying. To celebrate such an accomplishment, Aloe slept until noon.

There weren’t many daily tasks remaining at the oasis, most could be done weekly like cooking, washing, and shoveling w...

45. Spree

Yesterday had been a hectic day. Mainly a pain-ridden one, but for Aloe, that had become the bare minimum requirement as of late.

After reinfusing the cannabis plant – and almost collapsing, Aloe took a bath on the oasis. Some days she just dipped in water, yesterday wasn’t one of those...

44. String

Aloe was ecstatic. After more than a month, she had finally made it. She had changed the infusion of an already infused seed. The possibilities... there weren’t many, to be honest, but those that did exist held so much potential.

“Oh dunes...” Then the gift of afterthought fell on Alo...

43. Change

The thing with seeds was that they didn’t have much vitality. Aloe had yet to check it to make an actual solid theory, but every living organism was born with low vitality and only got more as they grew older. She hadn’t checked for humans, but the difference between date seeds and grown palm...

42. Infusions

“Oh.” The muted sound coming out of Aloe’s mouth was but the pure expression of surprise. No words were needed except... “I knew it.” Her lips curved into a devilish smile, there was no feeling more intoxicating than being right.

However it may be, Aloe read the leaf in front of h...

41. Date

She had fallen asleep, there was no shame in admitting it. Her body hurt from being sat in the doorway all night long and the rest she had gotten out of it was awful. The first light woke her far, earlier than she used to wake up. Even if she had gone to sleep earlier, she hadn't appreciated the ...

40. Wind

Her hands trembled.

Whilst others would have thrown themselves at the ground and pleaded for mercy, Rani just stood silent. But staying silent for someone of her status was still a lot.

She was now alone in the office, the Sultanah was long gone, probably to attend in a celebration of...

39. Timeline

It soon became clear that there wasn’t much left to do today. Regardless of Aloe’s thoughts of incompetence, she had managed to do more chores than ever before in a single day, and the sun had yet to set.

But there still were some tasks left to do. And some weren’t the prettiest.

38. Streak

The soup was passable. Somehow, it had aged wonderfully, the flavor being better than when she had cooked it. The taste was mostly salt though. Not to say that salt didn’t taste well. Aloe liked her salt and potatoes, but she would prefer something better.

It didn’t take her long to hav...

37. Exaltation

Whilst tedious, chores brought peace to Aloe’s mind. And it wasn’t like she could go instantly back to evolving plants, she needed to recover her reserves before.

She started by boiling water from the oasis as she was running out of drinking water, so she was back to endless sessions of...

Possible Drawing?

Hello there,

As you have all seen, publishing schedule is back on track, and I'll do my best to keep it that way. I also intend to release another Bulk Art update when my plant artist is done, but that may still take around two weeks (you have seen some of the plants already in the latest c...