Chapter 20
What Causes the Rifts?
We sat in the darkened vehicle, waiting for Auntie and Ceecee to come back. After the monolith, there needed to be a discussion, apparently. And this planet had never heard of child deaths from overheating in a vehicle.
Then again, this planet m...
2025-04-15 02:53:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 78
Awakening (Part I)
Badump, pump, tis.
Frank first felt his body, its natural rhythms, its movements first. The process was odd, almost clinical. He watched his heartbeat, his chest rise and fall with each breath, and his dual circulation routes going in near ...
2025-04-14 01:16:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 19
Whining Like A Boy
Pain.
Indescribable pain coursed through my hand and by extension my entire body. It felt like I was getting a tattoo performed on my body by an easy bake oven light that had been set to hundreds of degrees too high.
I tried to pull m...
2025-04-11 09:08:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 18
The Magic Monolith
(Two Months, and Eight Lower Rift Runs Later)
We followed the routine.
One rift, a week off to recuperate and let the energy expand in our growing bodies as needed, then rinse and repeat.
As with any plan to scale back that is me...
2025-04-09 17:33:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 331
Can You Give Me A Hand?
(Valeria)
Watching her Master work was truly a sight to behold. Ruthless dedication to ensuring both a standard production rate, and for constantly trying to improve.
From her time in the Legrand Empire, Valeria had been made aware of th...
2025-04-08 11:02:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 330
Empty Success
I was there, right at that sweet spot, the moment between creativity and actuality. For a moment I could feel the world pushing against my mind, telling me that I was nearing another breakthrough.
It’s odd how familiar this feeling had become, this me...
2025-04-06 16:52:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 17
The Sister Trap
Squeak!
While not necessarily a word or phrase, one of the two female warriors already assembled for today’s training did exhale excitedly, which amplified by the mesh cloth used for the mouth and eye covers produced an eerie squeaking sound...
2025-04-05 19:19:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 16
Summer Plans
(Beginning of Summer Break, Age 7)
When I first heard about the practices of these people of Earth07, that of taking their kids out while they were young to be exposed to rifts powers, I was originally horrified.
To think that a family would willing...
2025-04-04 10:27:34 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 29
The Code
“Many in our line of work might speak of the code, but it is meaningless and trivial. An ideal way of saying you were better than the rest because you had morals. Don’t listen to them, when anyone offers you a code, take it, bind it, then leave. Never let them ...
2025-04-03 09:37:50 +0000 UTC View PostInterlude XXVI
(Cassidy)
“Something’s wrong momma,” Cassidy said, her words causing her mother to look away from the task she was now performing.
“What do you mean? That’s just Memaw being Memaw.” Cassidy’s mother replied as she took a moment to look at the screen ...
2025-04-01 23:27:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 329
Not Superstitious, Just OCD
“She’s still at it,” Valeria whispered to Penelope.
“Yes, this is truly a moment to learn from,” Penelope quipped back.
By now everyone had come to our makeshift laboratory, which so happened to have been set up right there...
2025-04-01 11:12:39 +0000 UTC View PostGood evening everyone,
First I wanted to say thank you all for continuing to stay and help make these stories works we can all appreciate and enjoy.
Again, a note that the billing cycle is turned off for March 2025 (thus you will not b...
2025-03-31 23:37:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 328
A Simple Supply Run
“Come on mom, we are going to be late,” Gwen said, her voice trying to maintain a calm regal quality that is only slightly offset by the way she gives off very minor body shifts denoting her true feelings on the matter.
If she were a full kits...
2025-03-31 02:15:19 +0000 UTC View Post<<<<Author's Note: just a final reminder that after this weekend the new name for this series will be revealed. If you have not voted or provided your own suggestion please do so, and thank you. >>>>
Interlude II
(Eight Months...
2025-03-30 04:19:30 +0000 UTC View Post<<<<Author's Note: Just a reminder that later this week I will be choosing a new name for this series based on the recommendations posted. So please go, check out the other options and vote on the one you wish to see.>>>>
Chapt...
Chapter 327
Oh Karma!
“Oh Karma, how can you ever be considered heartless, when you clearly have earned my own tiny heart many, many times over.” I state, while clutching at my chest and feeling that same tiny heart beating at a near frantic pace.
At my comment Mallory of co...
2025-03-26 09:22:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 88
Sinus Allergies And Stones
(Darcy Renolds)
Sinus pressure.
Over the past few days, Darcy felt more and more headaches brought on by sinus pressure.
Everything seemed to set her off too. Everything from there being a buildup of barometric pressure ...
2025-03-25 09:34:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 326
Mythical Beasts and How to Slay Them
(Mallory)
All families are different.
Meaning all family dynamics are also different.
Given how Mallory’s own family was, most willing to cut her out or tear away at the empire she built up while she was sick and dyi...
2025-03-24 01:13:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 14
Increasing Difficulties
(Two Months Later)
We moved with precision and silence.
By now even the escorts guiding us moved silently through the brush.
This was our seventh lower ranked rift in four weeks.
The process for the previous six rifts was simp...
2025-03-23 02:24:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 13
The First Strike
We moved in the way a herd of foraging hippos might have.
The noise that we all generated, well the other children generated could be heard echoing throughout the forest. It was an eerie sound that sent shivers down my spine.
With each step, the...
2025-03-22 04:50:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 28
Staging A Long Con
“A long con can be something you develop, or something that develops organically, either way know that before you begin, they are costly in two different ways. First it costs you time, this is crucial for if you are to do it, then you might grow weary w...
2025-03-21 10:14:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 12
A Proper Indoctrination
(Five Months Later)
Following the events of the profiling ceremony massacre, what the people of town and the surrounding countryside called that botched awakening event, my life changed dramatically.
First, my self-defense training intens...
2025-03-21 00:14:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 325
Another Hour, Another Failed Teaching Experience
Well, that could have gone better, I think to myself as I quickly exit class.
Just moving on instinct, I left. I never felt so vulnerable. There I was telling everyone my deepest inner thoughts, when they all just star...
2025-03-19 09:51:21 +0000 UTC View PostGood evening everyone,
Honestly I meant to write this message earlier, but I got sidetracked. As some of you might remember (from last year) March is my birthday month, and as my birthday gift to you all, I am going to pause the billing cycle for April 2025.
T...
Chapter 324
Magic Resonance Class
(Valeria)
“So, I am going to apologize in advance. Today I do not expect to do too much actual training for classes,” Dr. Spiritlight spoke confidentially to Valeria.
Hearing her speak, Valeria felt a part of the hope that had been wel...
2025-03-17 10:27:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 77
Mark of the Beast
(Ravena)
The ritual had been a success, at least that is what Prentip said.
“The rest is up to the participants to travel the journey they wish to take,” Prentip said about the now four outsiders who were all undergoing different transforma...
2025-03-16 11:11:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 11
The Profiling Ceremony Massacre
The day started off so well, even the mistakes should not have led to such a moment.
In the grand scheme of things.
From what I had been led to believe and understand from that point, this event was minor. The ceremony profiler ha...
2025-03-15 14:12:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 10
The Ceremony
(Friday)
The ride to school was rather eventful.
Only for the fact that for the first time ever Auntie rode with us. Her seat was supposed to be in the front, next to Ceecee the driver. Yet, she instead chose to ride in the back with Sarina and me.<...
2025-03-15 02:38:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 9
Profiling Ceremonies, A Preview
(Seven Months Later)
Fortunately for me, there was some kind of truce brokered between my family and the Oteranskis.
While this truce didn’t stop our class from occasionally seeing Landrina in passing, it did mean that her stoppi...
2025-03-14 03:45:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 323
Silently Arguing With Yourself And Still Losing
“How is it always you?” Mallory begins. She’s talking to herself, but I know she is talking to herself about me. “Then there are times, when they are about other people, but they are still really about you.”
...
2025-03-12 14:41:15 +0000 UTC View Post