Behind them, the wailing of the guard sirens began in earnest. Arkar took a sharp turn and climbed a spiral staircase attached to two houses stacked atop one another. Ardi followed him, staying close. He didn’t know how ...
Clearing his throat, Arkar steered the car out of the yard, and they rolled along the Markov Canal. But this time, they did not head down, toward the Martyrs’ Bridge — the main crossing over the Crookedwater Canal that divided Old Town and the New City. No, they kept on climbing, higher and h...
2025-03-06 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan nearly choked on his ice cream. Oh, he’d been called all sorts of names behind his back: beast, subhuman, non-human, half-man, half-blood, spawn of the Dark Lord, and so on. But that was always behind his back. And it had only really happened at the very start of his time at...
2025-03-03 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan, who’d barely slept a few hours, finally reached the Black House. It was only his second time coming here alone, without any escort from the Second Chancery, and once again, he felt ill at ease.
The massive, black edifice, with its silvery window frames, seemed to press down on his ...
2025-02-27 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe few automobiles that were driving alongside the black hulks of the Second Chancery swerved sharply aside, like frightened sheep wandering too close to a shepherd’s dogs prowling along the meadow’s edge — unnoticed at first glance, yet ready to sink their teeth into any throat that threa...
2025-02-24 23:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostArdan struck the floor with his staff, and the ice needle that formed in an instant shot out from its tip. Trailing a faint, blurry shimmer behind it, the needle slammed into the dummy dressed in a jester outfit. At last, the mocking puppet had failed to raise its shield in time.
Exhaling i...
2025-02-20 23:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostBeneath the cloak of night, which was as thick as a coat of spilled oil paint, the old detective and the young mage trudged through the snowdrifts, drawing ever closer to the mansion. It loomed over them like some fairy-tale monster torn from the pages of a horror story. Pilasters bared their fan...
2025-02-17 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan blinked, and in the nerve-racking dimness — lit only by a meager oil lamp, which was barely enough to chase away the prideful darkness — he suddenly made out features he recognized.
A revolver being held in an outstretched hand was aimed directly at the bridge of the young man’s...
2025-02-13 23:01:08 +0000 UTC View PostArdan and Milar stepped inside a place that, presumably, was meant to fulfill every lofty requirement Mart believed the proud title of “restaurant” came with.
An expensive parquet floor lay hidden beneath plush carpets edged with golden thread. The walls were adorned with an intricate m...
2025-02-10 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Thus, determining the depth, length, and width of even the most trivial cut by relying solely on one’s own eyes or makeshift tools is hardly convenient,” Professor Lea said as she pushed her wheelchair, rolling in front of the blackboard until she stopped near the edge. With some effort (w...
2025-02-06 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdan looked around frantically, but all he saw was a blinding darkness that seemed to be coiling around them. It was so dense that you could barely see past your own nose, let alone the length of your outstretched arm.
Sounds — lost and hollow, like a scream muffled by a pillow shoved ag...
2025-02-03 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostA crushing silence descended upon the room for an instant, broken only by the steady drip of Ordargar’s blood as it seeped through the wrappings on his mangled leg.
“Honored guests,” Arkar said in a hoarse voice, loud enough for everyone to hear, “our bar would like to offer its sin...
2025-01-30 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdi pressed his forehead against the blisteringly cold, ice-covered steel handrail — it was so frigid that its frostiness bit through his woolen hat — and mulled over everything that had transpired.
In the worst possible scenario, if Kerimov died… would they expel him from the Grand?...
2025-01-27 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostHello there.
Here we go.
10 chapters ahead of RR. And for the next 10 weeks, Patreon will get two chapters a week (Tuesday and Friday [CET]), and when the gap with RR reaches 20 chapters, then RR will also get two chapters a week, and th...
2025-01-23 23:12:01 +0000 UTC View PostAfter setting aside his staff, putting down his grimoire, removing his boots, leaving his patched crimson cloak on a makeshift hanger, and unbuttoning his coat, which was too light for Metropolis’ still biting winter, Ardi, now dressed simply in a jacket and pants, collapsed onto his bed.
Ardan sat there, twirling a pencil between his fingers — an annoying habit he’d picked up from Kelly, who often spent his evenings in the kitchen, working on documents and reports — and stared at the half-finished design of a seal. His mind was elsewhere entirely.
A Tazidahian chimera...
2025-01-23 23:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan stepped over the makeshift threshold and found himself in a cramped, narrow, and rather short tunnel. Hewn skillfully through the foundation and hard ground, it ended in a spiral staircase that descended straight down to a makeshift hatch welded onto the pipe of an enormous storm drain.
... 2025-01-23 23:09:00 +0000 UTC View PostThey drove toward Baliero in complete silence. With each new, desolate turn; with each new traffic officer trembling from the cold they left behind; driving past quiet streets hiding from the barely-perceptible tread of the moonless darkness; along sidewalks where people hurried to return to the ...
2025-01-23 23:08:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdi’s instincts, drilled into him by Guta, reacted faster than he could even comprehend. Ignoring the blinding pain, he let go of his staff, hunched over to avoid the large, hairy fist swinging past above his head, then dove at his opponent’s legs.
Slamming his shoulder into the man’...
2025-01-23 23:07:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdi breathed in the fragrance of grass just barely waking from its slumber. The blades of grass swayed, yawning toward the slow-moving, fluffy clouds that meandered lazily across the swiftly-brightening, blue expanse of a sky that suddenly seemed so much higher than before. The little hunter rai...
2025-01-23 23:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostArdan sat in silence, staring at the fogged-up window of the car. Beyond the gray glass, massive red trucks with eight wheels had already halted in the street, and men in blue jackets were unrolling hoses and connecting them to the pumps that drew water from the tanks of the trucks. The firefight...
2025-01-23 23:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan retrieved his clothes from the temporary wardrobe, where the polite staff, with barely-noticeable weariness etched onto their faces, were consistently greeting and bidding farewell to visitors with routine and slightly dim smiles.
After throwing on his coat, putting on his hat, and wr...
2025-01-23 23:04:00 +0000 UTC View PostWith his sleeves rolled up, wearing a slightly-worn shirt and a loosely-knotted tie, Ardan sat on the cold floor of Aversky’s testing ground, glowering at the absurd dummy. The life-sized mannequin dressed in a jester’s outfit mockingly smirked at him with its crudely-painted crimson smile an...
2025-01-23 23:03:01 +0000 UTC View PostSoon, the low-rise buildings were left behind. The modest brick structures that had lined the streets gave way to towering, two-meter-high fences. Crowned with spirals of barbed wire, these fences, like the buildings themselves, were an unwelcoming shade of red brick. The few streetlights that co...
2025-01-23 23:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostArdan just stood there silently for a few seconds, trying to process what he had just heard. Boris? Kidnapped? Who? Where? How?
Questions swarmed his mind like a hive’s worth of disturbed bees, battering against the walls of his skull. He nearly let them escape, but right now, a girl who ...
2025-01-23 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe days stretched into a series of unhurried copies of each other. In the morning, Ardan would wake up, wash himself, then exercise by lifting a block of ice made from snow taken off the roof instead of a stone. Afterward, he would dress, exchange greetings with Tess, who was usually hurrying of...
2025-01-18 18:54:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn the first days after the holidays, the Metropolis looked... just like it usually did. Except for one thing: cars were still scarce. Lone trams, creaking slightly along the icy rails, moved in a leisurely manner through the snow-covered streets. Only a few sleek, low-slung new cars kept them co...
2025-01-18 18:53:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Bandits?” Ardan repeated, disbelief flashing across his face.
For a moment, he thought it might have been a lingering dream and he’d misheard, but the conductor’s jerky nod dispelled any such delusions. Or had it? What would bandits be doing out here in the steppes, and during the ...
2025-01-18 18:52:00 +0000 UTC View Post“You’re leaving, aren’t you?”
“Yes, tonight.”
Ardi lay beside his brother in the snow, watching the sky. The snowy clouds clashed like rival armies, merging into vast sheets and then splitting apart like sullen, puffed-up kittens.
“Because you have to?” Erti aske...
2025-01-18 18:51:00 +0000 UTC View Post