The ground remained more-or-less flat until the very foothills of the mountains, as if someone had jabbed them up through the flat plane of the earth with no care for how the world around them might be shaped. Looking at them, Ike thought he might reach them in a day, but they ran and ran for wee...
2025-03-04 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWith no sighting of Palio, they smoothly exited the crevasse. Ike pointed the way across the grasslands, and they set off. In their white puppet robes, nothing stopped them. Puppets wandered by in the grasslands. At first, they were all human shaped, but the further they went, the less human they...
2025-03-03 15:08:00 +0000 UTC View PostRhys and Mae charged at one another. At the last second, Mae’s hands blurred, and she drew a sword. Rhys, not to be outdone, drew his broken sword in the same instant.
Mae saw the stub of a blade, and she laughed. “What’s that going to do?” Ignoring it, she swung at his neck.
...
2025-03-03 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostRhys backed away. He laughed. “Me? No, no…”
“You’ve beaten my strongest students, no?” Cynog pointed out.
“I…” With Ev’s assistance, sure.
“Is there anyone here who could defeat you?”
Rhys licked his lips. “That is…”
Cynog gestured to Er...
2025-03-02 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe puppets stared at the three of them, then ran toward them. Mag jolted and reached for his sword, but Ike put his hand out, stopping him. Not yet.
Without giving them a second look, the puppets pushed past, rushing into the building.
Ike and Wisp exchanged a look. They sha...
2025-03-02 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“So good to see you. Thank you for coming,” Aquari said, meaning not a single word of it. She gestured. “This is Rhys, a student of mine. He will serve as your assistant while you’re here, show you around the school and help you and your students get situated.”
Rhys smiled. He ste...
2025-03-01 15:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostThey charged the puppets, and the puppets charged them.
Instantly, it was chaos. Limbs flew everywhere as Ike smashed and hacked with the Hungry Sword. Whenever a puppet tried to strike him, he blocked, and the Hungry Sword quickly gobbled up their weapon. This time, he didn’t fight to in...
2025-03-01 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostRhys worked through the night, picking up every last scrap of trash from Aquari’s manor and the grounds around it. When that was done, he lugged the trash up higher into the mountain, around the corner and out of sight in a deep ravine that was somewhat hidden from the main upper peak village. ...
2025-02-28 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe puppets charged, and Ike charged back. Lightning flickered over his hands as he gripped one by the head and smashed it into the one behind it. Their heads shattered. The two staggered around, blindly knocking into their fellows. Crouching a little too low for their blind grasps to find him, I...
2025-02-28 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostTwo weeks until the guest teacher arrived. Rhys took a deep breath. He looked around him. This was the Schoolmaster’s house. It was the obvious place the guest teacher would go when he arrived here. In other words, it was the first place he had to clean.
Rhys looked at Az. “Can you arch...
2025-02-27 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostUp toward the exit hatch. For the majority of their ascent, no one tried to stop them. They were hardly the only mages on brooms. There were the teachers and students, and a few other mages who floated around, enjoying their rare moment of wakefulness by zipping about on brooms. When they closed ...
2025-02-27 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostRhys unfolded the letter and began to read the ‘guest teacher’s’ response to their Schoolmaster, Aquari.
Schoolmistress Aquari,
I write to you today to—
Immediately, Rhys’ eyes blurred. The full power of Speed Reading and skimming kicked in, and he bl...
2025-02-26 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostBefore long, the puppets started filtering away from the streets. Most headed in one direction, toward the largest, grandest building in the strange city. A few wandered back toward their houses or shops, or headed out toward some distant part of the city to enjoy what remained of their time awak...
2025-02-26 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostBrightbriar clapped. The puppets hurried from their busy street scene to return to their former places along the edge of the rows. Despite his heavy heart, Ike had no choice but to fall in. It was that, or die. Die slightly less pathetically than the poor puppet woman, die struggling, die fightin...
2025-02-25 15:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostRhys drew up to Aquari’s mansion. It stood over him, the entryway’s pillars soaring high over his head. Everything about it was designed to make him feel small. Not that he minded. He was a small lump of trash, best ignored until he wanted someone’s attention. He tried the door.
Locke...
2025-02-24 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe two figures reached the bottom of the stairs, vanishing from Ike’s sight. He pursed his lips in annoyance, but quickly schooled his face back into the respectfully neutral expression of all the puppets around him. If they were all lined up on the street, it implied that Brightbriar and the ...
2025-02-24 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostRhys made his way over to the fountain, gently pushing the other trash out of his way. At the fountain, he surveyed the problem. The large trash was no issue. For the most part, he could fish it out with a few sticks, some shimmying, and a little Trash Intent. It was the smaller trash that was tr...
2025-02-23 16:18:31 +0000 UTC View PostIke froze. His heart raced. He stared up at Brightbriar as if his life depended on it, body still while his mind churned at top speed. He couldn’t fight the man here. He wasn’t strong enough. Attacking would only be suicide. But if he didn’t, if Brightbriar came down here, then he was dead....
2025-02-23 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! I should be speeding back up to normal here. The personal events are over for now, and I'm free to do what I really love, which is an abnormal amount of writing!
Rhys dripped three dots of potion on his hand. That was all the more he could ha...
2025-02-22 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIke ran around the corner and into the park, in time to find Wisp cornered by a taller man. The man, promisingly, stood in front of a barrel full of brooms that emanated mana signatures—weak ones, little more than Rank 2, but mana signatures all the same—and less promisingly, held his hands o...
2025-02-22 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostUnderground, there was no day-night cycle. The sky remained lit at all times by an enormous crystal set into the ceiling. Since everyone inside was a mage, that caused no trouble; none of them needed to sleep, anyways.
A mage… or a puppet, Ike noted. Either way, they didn’t nee...
2025-02-21 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“You three. Are you still wandering around aimlessly?”
Before Ike could find anything fun to do, the man who’d caught them in the automaton’s room called out from behind them. Ike turned.
Crossing his arms, the man shook his head at the three of them. “Look at you louts, flo...
2025-02-20 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOut of the alley the spiral staircase spilled out into, and onto the main road. Mages wandered all around them. Children ran and laughed, chased by their parents. Adults hurried about on their chores, or chatted with friends. A man and a woman walked arm-in-arm, giggling and transparently flirtin...
2025-02-19 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis staircase wasn’t a tunnel through the earth, but instead a winding spiral staircase in wrought iron. For the first few twists, it pierced through the earth, but then it opened up into a massive cavern. Ten of the first room could fit in this space. In fact, if Ike took the entire first roo...
2025-02-18 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostIke whirled. Ahead of him, Wisp tensed as well, and behind him, Mag cringed.
A man, not masked, nor wearing white, stood before them. He looked like an ordinary mage in all ways. No… he is an ordinary mage? Ike frowned. He couldn’t be sure of anything. After all, Brigh...
2025-02-17 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostSorden led the way to her house. Rhys followed close behind, familiar with the route from the previous time he’d handed herbs over. She had him wait outside her house while she vanished inside and emerged with a white enameled bottle. A faint aura of mana emanated from the bottle.
“What...
2025-02-16 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostClad in white robes and the matching featureless masks, they strode into the white city. Wisp didn’t hesitate, but immediately led them into one of the white buildings. To Ike’s surprise, the door swung open, not locked or barred in any way. A small, pristine room awaited them, completely cle...
2025-02-16 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostBefore long, the city rose before them again. This time, with Mag’s help, they avoided the puppet patrols all the way through the suburbs, but before long, they ran out of trees. Ike stood at the edge of the woods, staring ahead of him. This was the last stand. From here on up, the roads became...
2025-02-15 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWisp threw a spider thread up to the edge of the cliff, then climbed up, and Ike followed close behind. Mag perched at the edge of the cliff, waiting for them to climb up. They reached the top without trouble, and Ike stretched. “Well, that was weird.”
“They’re pretty weird. Probabl...
2025-02-14 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHis grip slipped, but only for a moment. Rhys caught the ball and clenched down, tighter than before. It shuddered, tried to slip, but this time, he didn’t let it. The intense pressure from Rhys’ mana, the steam, and the heat all came to bear on the orb, and it finally, at last, melted.