Saithorthepyro

Chapter 39 - Too Many Leads

I got out of the chair, too late to chase after Varrow. 

“I’m not working for Versalicci!” I protested as he neared the window. “I’m here on my own business.”

To my relief, he did not leap through the window. To my dismay, he pulled a saber from a wooden umbrella stan...

Chapter 38 - A Returned Coat

I shrugged at Versalicci’s comments. “Truth be told, even if it wasn’t suicide for myself trying to hammer through that…well, the Duke certainly made it easier by melting the middle. But it’s only a useful bluff while we’re in this room.”

“So, an empty bluff, then?”

...

Chapter 37 - Knock Knock Knockin on Hell's Door

My chisel cut into stone, slicing through the quartz with difficulty as I tapped it slightly with the hammer. Bits of the crystal flaked as the diamond head of the chisel carved out a curving path, forming the basis for the circle.

The stone room I was in had an entire sheet of crystal cove...

Chapter 36 - Bargaining and Holy Water

Melissa froze, her expression of smug satisfaction immediately turning to fear. The color drained out of her, leaving her nearly as white as a human. Her eyes flickered between my face and Versalicci. Comparing structures and details. Making connections. Sure, half of my ancestry came a few thous...

Chapter 35 - An Emptied Bag

Moving into the house didn’t take long. 

The house I was currently in, not the one down the street which was also there’s but served as a way to keep attention off of themselves. There was a tunnel linking the two, which meant dedicated observers had puzzled something out by now. 2024-07-19 16:00:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 34 - In Which a Tongue is Gained

It was afternoon by the time I’d woken up, and not on the same day as I’d swallowed the sedative.

I’d gotten dressed and tried to get used to being in my old body once again. Missing the door knob when trying to open the door and the number of times a hoof had hit something told me it...

Chapter 33 -Sedation

I stumbled through the Infernal Quarter bleeding more than just blood.

The constructed illusion I’d woven around myself was fading fast, getting pumped out at about the same rate as I actually bled.

I’d stopped to change the illusion to an Infernal man of above-average height and ...

Chapter 32 - A Hole in the Sky, A Way Out

Simultaneously feeling internal relief while puppeteering my face for a subtle expression of fear was quite the trick.

I spat and cursed their names and made a lunge for Voltar that saw me clubbed to the ground with the butts of muskets. It wasn’t an inspired performance, but I might as w...

Chapter 31 - The Trial Farce

The carriage jolted as it turned corners, the sudden movement throwing me off balance.

Normally I’d be able to tell it was coming and brace myself, even at the speeds we were traveling. Normally.

My head hit the wood of the carriage’s side, cushioned only by the burlap sack that h...

Chapter 30 - Three possible exits

Just as a note, the previous chapter did not include the original last line for reasons I’m unable to determine. I’ve since edited it in, but we’ll also be opening this chapter on the same line for anyone who read it before I made that edit. Apologies for the misunderstanding.

Chapter 29 - An Eye of Fire

Well, this was a conundrum. 

My metal-thread-wearing intruder was moving into the warehouse with a lantern in hand. Given the organization of the shelves from the route he was taking, I could either leave now or stay and see if I could get some answers out of him.

I crept around ...

Chapter 28 - Trapdoors and stuffed Leechs

It was never advisable to walk the docks of Garretsville at night.

This district had started well outside the city’s limits, a thousand years ago, but as the city had grown it had swallowed the port town. It’d kept its independent spirit thought, which as time went on meant it’d becom...

Chapter 27 - Rooftop Conversation

It was never easy to walk the rooftops. It meant was walking across one roof, climbing down, and then finding a way onto the next roof. Heavens and Hells help you if that next roof had tiles or anything else that could break and make noise. When people were walking effortlessly across roofs, it u...

Chapter 26 - Two Masks, One Conversation

It didn’t take long for Liu Xang to talk the nurses into letting me visit with him. Being a distant descendant of a Companion of the Shining Princess came with some perks, even after this many generations removed. The name had the weight to get the foot in the door, and both politeness and bein...

Chapter 25 - Possessed are no longer allowed in the Hospital

I needed to come back here and steal this bed.

My apartment’s bed had hardly been the worst place I’d slept, indeed an improvement over the gutter, the street, or even coffin beds, all of which I’d endured over my years in the Quarter. But this bed was to my apartment’s bed what the...

Chapter 24 - The Poor Rats

“No,” I whispered, turning away from the sight. My tongue slipped out unconsciously, licking some of the arterial spray off of my face. I bit down into it, holding it in place before it could slip inside. I winced, tasting copper as my teeth sank in to hold the possessed appendage in place. 2024-06-24 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 23 - Top Hats are not Friends

It took far too much time to return to the Infernal Quarter. I hadn’t asked about a carriage to take me back, simply retrieved my belongings and started my journey on foot. Going on foot meant a long trip hoping no one paid too much attention to me or felt tempted to try and steal the small bag...

Chapter 22 - The perfectly wrong way to drink tea

After I’d returned from her heir and delivered my report, Lady Karsin insisted I stay for at least a cup of tea, which I didn’t turn down. After all the chaos of today, it was barely afternoon. A moment to relax seemed well deserved.

Unfortunately, it seemed one of the topics of convers...

Chapter 21 - A Seemingly Pointless Visit

The walk through the interior gardens of the estate was enjoyable, if brief. Lady Karsin’s servants took us through the gate and guided us along a path towards the back of the estate, trees and bushes of varying kinds forming a wall blocking sight from the main entrance.

I wondered how ma...

Chapter 20 - Careful Timing Required

They’d had a carriage waiting for me, which had drawn enough onlookers pulling out onto the street had been an issue. 

“I’m going to have no peace for the next few months, perhaps even years,” I observed as the carriage tried to make its way through the district. “You’re aw...

Chapter 19 - Sword at a noble's throat

The stairs creaked beneath my feet, some of them shifting under my weight. The half-hearted thought of seeing these fixed rose up again. There was no real chance of them ever being fixed. I didn’t have the time or money, the landlady could not care less about maintenance, and my fellow tenants ...

Chapter 18 - Logs for a Fire

Kalasyp was going to be furious.

It’s all that echoed in my mind as I walked the street. It shouldn’t. On the list of things that had gone wrong, not fulfilling my word to Kalasyp was far, far down.

Could he blame me? It’s not like I’d planned this morning to be banned from th...

Chapter 17 - Cost of a buried past

I didn’t try running. Helvek had spotted me already and made swift progress to where I stood. All running would do is delay this and antagonize him and Almaseck. Not something I could afford to do, nor want to do. No matter how much this delayed me, I was on decent terms with both of them.

Chapter 16 - Weave a Web

All around me, the dwarf settlement extended up and down along the cavern's walls.

I’d been in a few dwarf-built settlements underground before and each tended to differ depending on where they’d carved out their settlements. When you have an existing natural cavern like here? They too...

Chapter 15 - What lays underneath

I really needed to stop going into dark places.

I did have a lamp with me this time, a candle burning at the center and providing some light. Not as much as I’d prefer. The darkness ahead shifted as I pushed forward, shadows dancing along the tunnel walls.

I walked along a rough sto...

Chapter 14 - Never a moment's rest

I resisted the urge to curse. Not only would it not do anything, but the assortment of thugs before me and Tolman might think it referred to them.

It did, but provoking them wouldn’t do any good.

Five people stood outside the entrance, maybe a dozen feet away. Most of them wouldn’...

Chapter 13 - The Vanishing Act

My testing closet lay utterly empty except for a small pile of dockworkers' clothes. I stared down at them. I….the door had been locked. I leaned down, lifting the clothes up, searching through them as if I could find them hiding among them. The door had been locked!

I found nothing besid...

Chapter 12 - The Art of Street-fighting Urchins

Silence reigned as those words left my lips. I looked at Voltar, but his expression still refused to shift.

The poison was called Angel’s Sorrow for a reason. It didn’t need to be an angel, but it required a divine creature to shed its tears. The concentrated sorrow of such an entity wa...

Chapter 11: Never Consume Unfamiliar Substances

“Shit,” was Zarrow’s only remark. His eyes flitted towards the doorway, trying to find a way out without touching Voltar.

The detective watched in mild amusement as my patient tried to move as far away as the chair would allow. I had no idea where these two had crossed paths, but Zarr...

Chapter 10 - The Unforgivable Crime of Ruined Tea

The following day began with tea.

I stared at my small teapot, focusing on counting the seconds. It helped distract me from the pounding also on the inside of my head.

I’d come here after waiting outside my lab for half an hour. Making sure that the intruder didn’t just have a key...