Power rushed through Akari’s soul, spreading through her channels until it slammed against the cuffs and collar. Trask’s mana cleared from her brain like morning mist before the sun. Every cell in her body sang with purpose. Every channel blazed with light.
This was nothing like the vio...
2025-06-19 15:44:53 +0000 UTC View PostAkari’s eyes snapped open, and her soul ached with a sudden pain. She tried to move, but cold metal bit into her wrists and ankles. Impedium. Not to mention Nightfang’s technique—whatever the hell that was. Her old teacher had never made her aspect public.
A dark hood shroude...
2025-06-14 19:05:20 +0000 UTC View PostAkari followed the Darklights through the empty clinic. The halls stretched endlessly before them, all gleaming floors and harsh fluorescent lights that made her eyes water. Or maybe that was something else.
Kalden leaned heavily on her shoulder, and his hand squeezed hers as they wal...
2025-06-10 11:04:46 +0000 UTC View PostElend sat in the hotel room, watching the shadows lengthen as evening approached. His tablet lay dark on the table in front of him, and he drummed his fingers against its smooth glass surface.
Akari was sleeping off her training session, curled up against Kalden like a protective cat. Zukan...
2025-06-05 00:08:00 +0000 UTC View PostAkari curled up beside Kalden in their hotel room, listening to his steady breathing as he slept. The healers in Pine Hollow had done good work, but Master-level techniques left their mark. He could walk if he had to, but he still couldn’t train or fight if it came to that.
Zukan watched ...
2025-05-31 18:58:18 +0000 UTC View PostRelia stood with her father in the Palace Prime’s medical wing. Dain’s body had been scattered across three separate gurneys, draped with white sheets. Crimson stains seeped through the fabric, and the scents of blood and antiseptic filled her nostrils.
Eduardo Dain—always so composed...
2025-05-24 15:14:21 +0000 UTC View PostAkari stood with her back to Kalden’s, cycling spacetime mana through her channels. The snow stung her bare feet, while her dark hair thrashed in the mountain wind. Puffs of white air blew out through her nostrils.
‘They’re trained to work as a team,’ Kalden said through th...
2025-05-17 17:50:00 +0000 UTC View PostKalden sprang up in his bed, glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand. Three o’clock in the morning. Battle mana surged through his channels, and his heart beat like a war drum.
Akari rolled over in the bed to face him. “What’s wrong?” The only light came from a...
2025-05-13 12:05:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Breaking tonight on KCN—exclusive footage of the criminal duo known as the Soul Reapers.”
The screen showed a grainy video from a dark alley, where two black-clad figures fought a squad of armored police officers. The figures moved like Masters, too fast for the cameras to track. The...
2025-05-08 11:43:42 +0000 UTC View PostDetective Evan Trask stood in the middle of Silver Court, scanning the crowd of protestors as they marched through the dark mist.
"Form a line!" he called out.
Rows of officers spread across the street, blocking the intersection with walls of protection mana that rose twenty feet into...
2025-05-05 12:13:24 +0000 UTC View Post“How’d she look?” Elend asked as he stepped through the open portal. His dark gray armor bore the scars of battle—not just dirt, but scorch marks, and the craters from enemy Missiles.
Akari scrambled for the right words to describe Relia, but came up short. She looked . . . normal, ...
2025-04-30 11:59:27 +0000 UTC View PostShit hit the fan later that night.
A group of Artisans struck the mayor’s home after sunset, and three civilians died in the crossfire. The news showed footage of the aftermath, including close-up shots of the corpses, half-buried beneath the stone rubble.
The Cult of Solidor was
Rain pounded against the loft’s windows, warping the skyline in a blur of hazy lights. A wall of storm clouds hid the morning sun to the east, dark gray with traces of bright blue mana around the edges.
Akari and her team stood in a loose semicircle around their TV. She didn’t normally ...
2025-04-22 11:54:28 +0000 UTC View PostAshur pushed open his office doors to reveal the familiar space beyond. Bookshelves lined three walls from floor to ceiling, and tall glass windows dominated the fourth, looking out over the Inner Sea. His wooden desk was gone, replaced by a stand that looked almost like an alter. Elise’s metal...
2025-04-14 12:07:12 +0000 UTC View PostRelia sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, back pressed against the foot of her bed. The room looked like a dark chapel with its polished marble floors, high ceilings, and ornamented glass windows. It was far too large for comfort, and Relia felt like a bottle cap rolling around the bottom of a...
2025-04-12 18:48:25 +0000 UTC View PostAkari kept waiting for a knock on her door, but the days stretched into a week with no word from Trask or the KCPD. The Artegium also kept quiet about the break-in, along with their missing quantum computer. Not that she’d expected a big announcement from them. KU ranked among the world’s top...
2025-04-06 12:22:32 +0000 UTC View PostAn enemy Missile tore through the forest with a whistling shriek. It came as a faint pinprick of light on the horizon, but Akari couldn’t dodge or block it in time. One second, it was there beyond the trees. An instant later, the sharpened mana struck her hard in the stomach.
Talek. <...
2025-03-29 18:59:26 +0000 UTC View PostStep Six: hide the evidence.
Zukan stood his ground as the chief stepped through the front doors of the Mirage. He looked like an older version of Trask with his pale Espirian complexion and sharp features. However, the chief had a more weathered face with creases around his eyes a...
2025-03-24 11:28:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe officer stopped at the end of the aisle, turning to face Kalden’s group. He was a broad-shouldered man with a blue uniform and a jagged scar that ran across his left cheek. “I found something,” he said in a low voice. “Aisle Seven.”
Boots clicked against the marble floor as an...
2025-03-22 19:16:04 +0000 UTC View PostStep Five: get back to the Mirage.
Kalden cycled his battle mana as the newcomers fanned out across the restricted section. Trask headed straight for the row of locked doors while the others scanned the surrounding aisles.
They couldn’t see Kalden’s group through the camo...
2025-03-21 00:15:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 17: The Restricted Section
Step three: open the locked door.
Arturo led the others up the stairs toward the library’s top floor. Unlike the rest of his team, Arturo had actually been inside the restricted section several times. Not this year with all these silly rul...
2025-03-15 11:59:18 +0000 UTC View PostStep one: Find an alibi.
“Here’s another problem,” Akari told her team. “Everyone at school thinks I’m a troublemaker now.”
Arturo chuckled from his desk chair. “You were always a troublemaker, shoka. But everyone thought you were harmless before. Now t...
2025-03-12 11:19:20 +0000 UTC View PostRelia watched a dozen memories unfold from Elend’s childhood, from the day he created Glim, to the moment he trapped her with the soul oath.
Akariel’s ashes. This explained so much.
Elend and Glim were inseparable today, but few relationships started out like t...
2025-03-07 17:57:05 +0000 UTC View PostRelia loomed over her patient’s bed, fingers splayed, shaking with the force of her technique. Angelic mana surged through her like a storm, cleansing every cell in her body. The rush sent shivers down her spine—colder than winter frost and sharper than a blade artist’s weapon. <...
2025-03-01 01:16:03 +0000 UTC View PostKalden sat cross-legged on his bed, trying and failing to make a new Cloak technique. He’d already spent some time working with Irina’s Cloak of a Thousand Eyes, but that felt wrong for his aspect.
Irina saw the world exactly as it was, whether she dealt with a patient in the Healing Ar...
2025-02-22 16:36:16 +0000 UTC View PostAkari woke up early the next morning, then she and Kalden headed straight for the Student Admissions Office on the north side of campus. They turned in their second-year insignias at the front desk, expecting a quick exchange.
Instead, their appearance caused an uproar among the staff...
2025-02-15 16:18:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone,
For various reasons, the illustrator for the first Web of Secrets cover ended up not being a good fit for me right now, so I won’t be continuing the series in that style.
I did research some other illustrators, but there’s a lot more stress and effort involved in over...
2025-02-13 22:08:14 +0000 UTC View PostSilence fell over the chamber, and Kalden took in Akari’s words. She’d been quiet these past few minutes, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. He’d known she was plotting something, but he’d been too distracted to ask what.
All eyes turned to their new teacher. Whispers flew back and...
2025-02-06 13:09:41 +0000 UTC View PostThe next week flew by, and the team continued hunting mana beasts around the Trenches. That first gloomfang had been a headache to kill, and Akari had barely squeezed out fifty mana points from its soul.
They’d killed half a dozen more since then, and each one gave them more mana than the...
2025-01-30 13:10:38 +0000 UTC View Post