Not ten steps into running out of the graveyard, I stopped suddenly. “There’s one more grave I need to see.”
Seyari pulled up beside me and took my hand, her expression conflicted.
“Abby?” Joisse asked, standing close.
I nodded. “Yeah. Tania can wait a few more minut...
2023-04-22 02:02:04 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: I've also attached the Prologue-Ch7 PDF to this post. I'll move it around to the Patron Demons' next chapter, and then leave it on Ch7. I didn't think it was worth a ping over on its own.
Tyaniis let Dyni swim the aazh back into the city, ...
2023-04-21 00:24:25 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: A SoW post on a Thursday? It'll be *multiple* posts today. I'll post a message when it's all complete, but the reorganization I've talked about is happening now. As I've mentioned, the advanced chapters for Scales & Shadows will be going away (but posting publicly on RR & SH... 2023-04-19 01:23:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Phaeliisthia’s words hit me hard, and they made me think. I’ll have a role in “this,” she said. A role to play in the struggle for power between the strongest players in Jii’Kalaga and the external forces that draw ever closer.
I glanced at my sire, Hssen Tyaniis Ssyri’...
2023-04-17 04:08:35 +0000 UTC View PostSomewhere in the Central Sea
Salvador leaned against the ship’s railing, feeling the warmth of the old wood against his arms. The winter sun warmed the deck enough to be comfortable, and the atmosphere was lax; a calm ocean ahead and the cries of birds above a ne...
2023-04-15 03:13:40 +0000 UTC View PostGuardian of Uzh? I didn’t know what to make of Phaeliisthia’s words.
More importantly… she was going to be our new tutor. Already we were drawing eyes, and this outlandish woman had a sort of presence beyond even my sire.
Kyrae elbowed me, and bowed low. “I a...
2023-04-14 04:13:17 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Me in March: time to up my writing volume to 4 chapters a week at 2.5-3k words a chapter! Also me: Wow I like 4k word chapters, aren't they fun? The answer is yes, by the way. I get to write more in-depth scenes and you lovely folks get bigger updates. But wow is the editing time go... 2023-04-12 03:07:21 +0000 UTC View Post
A/N: Sorry for this chapter running a little late. Power decided it was taking the day off for most of the afternoon, and this wasn't a quick chapter to edit.
I expected a grand ship. Something that would make the aazh’kaa Kyrae and I had arr...
2023-04-10 06:20:37 +0000 UTC View PostI hesitated. Like I always did, I hesitated. I didn’t know if the demon I had pinned was bluffing or not and rather than commit to a course of action, I let my mind wander.
This time, it was only for a moment; a fraction of a fraction of a second. But for the greater demon under ...
2023-04-08 03:10:09 +0000 UTC View PostMy sleep was restful until just before I awoke. I felt myself slipping into the cold, waking nightmare of the void. Then, warmth and light flooded in: black nothingness replaced by black stone.
Though, I could still feel the shadows. Ever watching. Ever waiting. Ever ready.
“Of cour...
2023-04-07 05:07:11 +0000 UTC View PostWe settled in for the night at a campsite far enough from the road we wouldn’t be seen. Camping like this served two purposes: one was that we wouldn’t be visible from the road in case anyone wanted to try their hand at a little opportunistic nighttime thievery, and the other was that I could...
2023-04-05 02:09:01 +0000 UTC View Post“I’ll admit I am surprised you thought to turn to Phael, Hssen Tyaniis. Or that you think she will listen to either of us.” Ussyri Noksi said slyly, coiling tighter in the depression she was resting in. “I thought you would wish for a tighter leash on your reunited family.”
“Wil...
2023-04-03 01:41:31 +0000 UTC View Post“So you haven’t been able to find Vivian?” I asked Guard Captain Kerra.
She nodded tiredly. “We haven’t.”
I sighed and rubbed my temples. “I don’t want her thrown in prison or anything—I just want to talk to her. Do you really think she’s skipped town?”
“...
2023-04-01 02:47:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe room went quiet at Hssen Tyaniis’s words. She didn’t quite meet my eyes and I didn’t meet hers. What do I do? Is… is she really my sire?
Until now, I’d never really considered parents, or… one parent. I was an orphan. Simple. If Tyaniis was my sire and ...
2023-03-31 05:47:45 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: This was one of my absolute favorite chapters to write. In fact, I wrote it around when I was writing 117/118. It just didn't fit the timeline or pacing really.
Ardath, Empire of Ordia
“Paladin Miller, have a seat.” High ...
2023-03-29 05:38:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe shadow moved around the garden sundial noticeably before I found my words again. “I—wha… hssssss.”
Or not.
Ssiina laughed at my state, though she did push herself up higher to look over my head at the fallen ssyri’zh. “Will she be alright, sister?”
“...
2023-03-27 01:41:26 +0000 UTC View PostNo amount of assurances would get us back into the inn without a conflict. Carrying an unconscious wrath demon was too much.
The Gelles Company, however, proved slightly more accommodating. They didn’t have any rooms in the small office officially, but an angry, tired gr...
2023-03-25 03:18:06 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Where I remember to capitalize familial terms used as names edition. Oh, and a PDF for the first arc chapters will out out at the end of the month.
Dried, fluffed, and dressed in clothes that smelled oddly like nothing at all, Onussa led Kyrae and me back almost towar...
2023-03-24 00:34:50 +0000 UTC View PostReports of a “mage duel” in the old church on the city’s south end made their way to Guard Captain Kerra before sunset. By the time the sun had dipped under the horizon, she was on horseback tearing through the streets toward the church, half a guard contingent behind her. Given that, even ...
2023-03-22 03:13:11 +0000 UTC View PostKyrae and I followed Onussa out of the temple. My sister returned a small smile I gave, but neither of us spoke.
The empty hall soon turned into a decidedly busier one—carvings of Jaezotl lined the walls and symbols of a white fang over an emerald scale hung above the doors. Others in Tem...
2023-03-20 02:24:06 +0000 UTC View PostI tore into the nave, claws clacking against the floor. Ahead of me, another wrath demon—for that’s all they could be—was standing up from a pile of gore they’d been tearing into.
They stood, surprisingly, taller than I did. Or, they would have had they the posture to stand up strai...
2023-03-18 02:40:51 +0000 UTC View PostTwo lamias entered: one man and one woman from what I could tell. The woman was lania’el and the man ke’lania, although his build was slimmer than I would have expected from someone who’d certainly not wanted for food. She had dark greenish-brown hair and scales to match, with a skin tone l...
2023-03-17 02:31:29 +0000 UTC View Post“How do you plan to find the culprit?” I asked Vivian as she walked forward, scanning the jumble of buildings.
“Have you been through here, demon?” she asked, now apparently comfortable enough with our surroundings to call me a demon openly.
The question caught me off guard. ...
2023-03-15 02:48:57 +0000 UTC View PostIssa’s arms slowly slackened around Kyrae as her breathing slowed. When the young elf realized her sister was losing consciousness, she jolted, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her from trying to shake her sister awake.
“Shhhh,” Ssyri’zh Onussa said in a soft voice. “The us...
2023-03-13 01:54:48 +0000 UTC View PostI ate ravenously, listening to the others talk tactics over breakfast. Seyari and I hadn’t exactly taken time to get food the previous night, preoccupied as we were with… other things. Before we slept, she’d shared some of what she’d heard in her own investigation and her anger had taken ...
2023-03-11 02:58:40 +0000 UTC View PostOne Night Ago, Ess’Sylantziis
I shivered in the humid evening air. Dampness clung to my scales like an open sore, and I tried to sink into the mud of our current hideaway, deep since the last rain.
Kyrae would get us food—I just…couldn’t. Not since th...
2023-03-10 02:25:29 +0000 UTC View PostI found myself pinning Vivian the mercenary down into the hard, icy snow outside the clandestine meeting spot of a group of murderous ex-soldiers. Her crossbow lay in the snow next to us, and the painful hole where an enchanted bolt had fire into me leaked blood that bubbled and melted the snow b...
2023-03-08 04:17:22 +0000 UTC View PostOne month ago, Ess’Sylantziis
“Issa!” Ynna, my boss, shouted.
I jolted. “Ma’am!” I pulled my hands from the nearly clear water and started to pour it off the rice. I tried to focus, but found my attention slipping away immediately.
“Issa....
2023-03-06 01:10:05 +0000 UTC View PostIf I were human, what I was doing would’ve terrified me. Alone, I followed Richter and his group of potentially-murderous acquaintances to the edge of Gedon. Here, small farms began to break up the sprawl, resulting in clusters of old, squat buildings. Many of them were stone and some of them p...
2023-03-04 04:02:27 +0000 UTC View PostContent Warning: homophobia (didn't think that'd come up in this story, and it is brief)
When Jenz knocked on the door, I let him in. He walked with a notable limp and sat heavily down in the room’s single chair...
2023-03-01 03:57:52 +0000 UTC View Post