With the immediate source of potential tension between them at least nominally resolved, Sen and the prince settled in a more relaxed conversation that focused on the reason that Sen had actually been meant to visit. The prince started by giving Sen a general overview of the local political scene...
2023-08-31 08:31:37 +0000 UTC View PostAs he’d been directed, Sen presented himself at the home of the prince. Although, words like palace and fortress sprang to mind a Sen stood at the gate of the walled compound. It seemed the guards had been expecting him, because he was ushered inside quickly and shown to some kind of sitting ro...
2023-08-30 17:16:41 +0000 UTC View PostSen was disheartened to discover that news of the prince’s visit to him, as well as Sen’s identity as a kind of folk hero and sect bogeyman, had spread through the city like wildfire. He supposed it had been predictable but it didn’t make him happy. It had drawn attention down on him that w...
2023-08-30 07:30:47 +0000 UTC View PostPrince Jing was usually a reserved man. He had taken to heart the admonition from both of his parents that you could learn more by listening than by speaking. Yet, on the way back to his home, the prince was all but silent. He kept thinking over his odd meeting with the cultivator Lu Sen. His vis...
2023-08-29 19:14:04 +0000 UTC View PostSen eyed Chan Yu Ming carefully. He was relieved to see that she gave her brother an exasperated look. He also took the precaution of cycling up some air qi and closing the room to listeners.
“Of course, I didn’t go falling in love. I just went looking for a better option.”
“A...
2023-08-29 06:18:56 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you kidding me?” asked Sen. “He’s here?”
Lo Meifeng narrowed her eyes at him. “Explain.”
“Oh, right, you weren’t there that part. Short version is that Chan Yu Ming is a princess. She’s got at least one brother who, somehow, knew I was coming. He sent me invit...
2023-08-28 16:23:53 +0000 UTC View PostShi Ping and Falling Leaf had both stayed back while Sen and Chan Yu Ming dealt with their respective welcoming parties, but Sen could tell they were both curious. Falling Leaf’s curiosity was either casual or dampened by her apprehension at the city looming over them. Shi Ping’s curiosity, o...
2023-08-28 06:52:21 +0000 UTC View PostSen mentally throttled the urge to yell at Chan Yu Ming. Of course, she’d left out that trivial detail of being royalty. Much as he might like to, though, he couldn’t really blame her for not bringing it up. Sen had his prejudices, and she knew about them. He didn’t like nobles. Fr...
2023-08-27 13:39:19 +0000 UTC View PostFor all that Sen had thought about it, imagined it, and tried to mentally prepare for it, the capital still stunned him. It was just so damned big. When he’d imagined it, he’d imagined something like Emperor’s Bay, just more of it. The reality of miles upon miles of buildings and roads grou...
2023-08-26 14:27:40 +0000 UTC View PostWhile villages and towns pockmarked the countryside along the road, even the fast-traveling cultivators might only see every other day out in the vast stretches of land between major cities. As the distance to the capital dwindled down to the point where they were only a few days out, the density...
2023-08-26 04:04:22 +0000 UTC View Post“Shi Ping, come with me,” said Sen, striding down the road ahead of the others.
Shi Ping fell in next to him without a word. The man had become a functional mute since making the choice to come with them. He’d answer questions directly put to him, but rarely volunteered to contribute ...
2023-08-25 06:24:35 +0000 UTC View PostSorry, I got sidetracked the last couple of days. Here's the new Rinn's run chapter. ~Eric
***
Of course, getting docked was a bit more complicated than Kalan would have liked. While the station could dock a ship like the Zeran cutter, Kalan had to do a lot more expla...
2023-08-24 15:50:10 +0000 UTC View PostAs a general rule, Sen found the huge distances between locations on the continent to be irksome. Given the time constraints he was under, that was still true on some level. Yet, for once, he saw the weeks they still had left to travel before they reached the capital as something of a blessing. O...
2023-08-24 15:41:43 +0000 UTC View PostSen’s chat with Chan Yu Ming seemed to have shattered a number of illusions she’d had about her clever plan, because she almost entirely withdrew from everyone else. He’d see her staring hard at nothing, shaking her head, and even occasionally muttering to herself. He assumed that she was t...
2023-08-24 07:24:15 +0000 UTC View PostJust as he’d indicated in his initial statement to everyone, Sen had them up and on the road at first light the next day. He kept them moving too, stopping only briefly for meals. Most nights they camped. Shi Ping had complained, once. Sen hadn’t said a word to the man, simply looked at him w...
2023-08-23 17:09:55 +0000 UTC View PostThat first night back, there had been a lot of questions about what he and Falling Leaf had done and seen. Sen offered them a very abbreviated story where he left out the sensitive parts, such as their encounter with the spirit oxen. As far as Sen was concerned, that wasn’t information anyone e...
2023-08-23 05:31:32 +0000 UTC View PostShi Ping was happy. He was so happy he could barely contain it. That damnable man had gone off into the wild with that beautiful, but deeply unsettling, young woman. He’d said if they weren’t back in a month, they wouldn’t be back. It was the last day, and there was no sign of them. He’d ...
2023-08-22 18:51:11 +0000 UTC View PostSen became aware that he was aware again. The last thing that he could recall was setting off that thing he’d made in what he’d assumed were his last moments in life. Thinking back, it looked like insanity to him. Maybe it had been insanity, but he thought, maybe, it was an insanity ...
2023-08-22 05:40:02 +0000 UTC View PostIn the back of his mind, behind the rage-induced madness, a little part of Sen knew that provoking the dragon was foolish. Yet, that tiny voice of warning was lost in the need to hurt. Whatever constraints, conscious or unconscious, that had held Sen in check in the past fell away. He cycled for ...
2023-08-21 15:45:14 +0000 UTC View PostLeaving the next day turned out to be substantially more difficult than Sen expected. Every ox in the herd had to take a moment to come and, well, he wasn’t quite sure what they were doing. Offering their blessings? Wishing him good fortune? He didn’t know, but he smiled and bowed to each in ...
2023-08-21 04:13:32 +0000 UTC View PostSen thought that it wasn’t really necessary, but the oxen insisted on taking him and Falling Leaf back to their herd. They spent two days sheltering beneath the considerable protection of the spirit oxen. Individually, a spirit ox was potent and formidable, although slow to rouse to action. As ...
2023-08-20 18:14:54 +0000 UTC View PostSen landed next to Falling Leaf and slammed a lightning wrapped fist into the face of a demon ape-lizard. The creature was hurled back from the panther girl with its jaw hanging at an odd angle and much of its skull caved in. Whatever the raw force of the blow hadn’t done to kill it, the web of...
2023-08-20 08:17:45 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Sen was ready to leave right that minute, he realized it wasn’t practical. It was still dark out for one. Even though Falling Leaf was probably better equipped to travel under those conditions than any of his other traveling companions, it was an unnecessary risk. One that could be easily...
2023-08-20 00:26:07 +0000 UTC View Post“You what?”
“I killed them. That entire branch of their family. Gone. Doing that once was enough for me. I’ve no interest in going down that road again. And from what you said, it could come to precisely that.”
Chan Yu Ming scowled at Sen so hard that he could see it quite c...
2023-08-19 08:40:06 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been a minute since the last Rinn's Run chapter. The title of book two is Rinn's Run: The Ikaren Gambit, hence the TIG acronym. It also let's me separate out the books in the chapters post. This chapter is a little rougher than I'd like, but I needed to get something down on paper, so to...
2023-08-19 01:34:58 +0000 UTC View PostAt the sound of his voice, two of the giant spiders whirled to face him. Sen had never particularly liked spiders. They were always a threat to anyone looking for somewhere cozy and dry to sleep on cold or wet nights. While most of their bites would just leave someone itching for a day or two, th...
2023-08-18 13:33:00 +0000 UTC View PostSen rolled his eyes and gave serious thought to going and yelling at Chan Yu Ming. Then, he thought about it a little harder. There was no upside to going back and yelling at her. It likely wouldn’t change anything. At best, she’d probably just follow them more discreetly. Plus, even if he
Sen didn’t sleep straight through for a whole day the way he imagined he might. Instead, he found himself getting up periodically to make food, chat a little, and then go back to bed. As the hours of sleep slowly accumulated, though, Sen started to understand just how bone tired he had...
2023-08-17 15:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe question hung in the air between them like an awkwardly placed holiday decoration. With the question asked and Sen’s silence stretching out longer and longer, Chan Yu Ming looked increasingly uncomfortable and nervous. For his part, Sen’s initial instinct was to flatly refuse her. Sen lik...
2023-08-17 10:42:32 +0000 UTC View PostWhile most of the water cultivators didn’t know the details, everyone knew that something had happened by the way that Sen swept through their compound like a tidal wave looking for something to crash down on. Those who saw him coming made a point to be urgently needed in some other di...
2023-08-17 01:06:12 +0000 UTC View Post