My left hand felt too heavy to knock with, held up to the door to Verrka’s home. From inside, I could hear my daughter’s voice, her laughter, mingling with the other young adults. Even holding up my second left hand didn’t seem enough.
“What did you just say, Marchioness?” The king raised an eyebrow.
For that reaction, I had to give him credit. The way he’d addressed me, by my noble title, he’d given me a way out, and a chance to explain myself ahead of any accusat...
2025-05-27 05:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostTo Utraxia, Sovereign of Pride, boredom was a constant threat. To call it a companion would be to undermine the lengths she went through to ensure that her perfection was not marred by ennui.
Writing had been a passion, once, before that sca...
2025-05-10 06:51:30 +0000 UTC View PostReactions to the high priest’s entrance ranged from incredulous to disbelieving. Having heard enough cryptic nonsense from the man who supposedly spoke with clear intent, I found myself firmly in the camp of the former.
Supposedly, this ma...
2025-05-09 07:03:40 +0000 UTC View PostFor the mortals, the time between when I revealed myself and when the panic started must have been an instant. For me, there was more than enough time to catch expressions, feel the anger borne of fear, and watch the hands that moved toward weapon...
2025-04-27 21:44:41 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I’d gotten a compressed course on noble etiquette, I’d learned a few things about timeliness. For one, showing up perfectly on time was apparently something that no one did. Never mind the logistics of appointing a specific hour and expec...
2025-04-15 05:25:27 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Hi all! Just as a heads up, the next full-length SoW chapter is going to be delayed by a bit (ideally it should be out on Monday/Tuesday but that is almost certainly not going to happen) purely because of the complexity and gravit...
2025-04-06 02:54:19 +0000 UTC View Post
The room was just as opulent as I remembered. No bed without Sey could truly compare to one with her, but the four-postered and overly-pillowed expanse certainly tried. Unfortunately, before I could draw a bath and not ten seconds af...
2025-03-26 04:09:18 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: I missed a week, so here's to make up for that. In other news, I think I'm finally getting back on track from a long period of burnout. That said, I've got something this weekend that will take me away from writing. Expect a c...
2025-03-19 06:01:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, I found myself flying out of Astrye, sizzling snowflakes in my wake. Anxiety? Check. And… that was the prevailing emotion, really.
Half a dozen sources all warring for attention and keeping me locked in a struggle to just keep ...
2025-03-18 05:08:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Mother, must you go?”
Duchess Arina Kapel looked down at her son, standing in the doorway with his nanny hovering just behind. She held a brave face behind the veil she’d taken to wearing. He’d seen already—of course she’d shown...
2025-03-04 05:47:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe game went longer than I’d expected, but I didn’t mind. In fact, I had a lovely time. Though I got the strangest looks after Verrka had asked me if I’d had fun. For most people, I suppose a game playing characters with magic...
2025-02-27 04:14:46 +0000 UTC View Post“You’ll be fine,” Seyari insisted.
I frowned at my reflection in the mirror. Half an hour of deliberation only to decide on no makeup, no horn adornments, and my hair left untamed down my back. “What if I’m too intimidatin...
2025-02-18 06:38:11 +0000 UTC View PostI awoke to two unfortunate problems: one was some powerful aura entering my demesne at the southern edge, and the other was someone banging on my door. Seyari, who’d pulled herself up against me, stirred awake, and I glared at the door through a...
2025-02-04 05:05:32 +0000 UTC View PostIt just so happened that a second storm rolled in that evening. By that time, however, I’d already landed on my island and stashed a few durians in my cabin. Even though it’d been only one night, I already missed Nelys’s presence here.
I touched down on dry, sun-warmed sand just above the tideline. I hadn’t particularly seen structures from the air, but I expected something. Behind me, my tail tip traced furrows.
Nelys must have seen me looking around, because t...
2025-01-17 04:33:00 +0000 UTC View PostA flash of pain. Darkness. Fire. Wrath.
Confusion.
Eyes snap open under a slate gray sky. Bleeding fingers dig furrows through ash-covered, half-frozen mud. Memories of battle war with memories of home, of expectations and… ...
2025-01-06 02:12:15 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
First of all, I want to thank you for your support for this series which has gotten so little comparative attention. You've doubtless noticed the lack of new chapters and the space between when they do come out. S&S is difficult ...
2025-01-04 23:54:25 +0000 UTC View PostTwo rooms. One shabby thing I could hardly consider a bed. Six hundred odd marks on the wall—had I really forgotten the number of days?
The salvaged parts of the shipwreck stood out against the bits I’d made with my own claws and fire. S...
2025-01-02 02:04:39 +0000 UTC View PostElnie looked up at me with narrowed eyes, but I couldn’t read her expression. I could, however, taste the flash of anger behind them.
“A contract? With you?” She seemed to be fighting a sneer.
I dropped the transformation on just...
2024-12-23 05:36:25 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you certain?” the demon in disguise asked.
“I am,” Aretan replied, pausing at the entrance to the cave. Tool markings and foot-worn stone hinted at a long history. “And were your mistress uncertain, she would not have sent you...
2024-12-09 01:10:12 +0000 UTC View PostIn the harbor, at berth, was the Lady of Liseu. The very same ship whose captain, Torrez, had plucked Nelys from their home to sate their wanderlust. Who had taken in Seyari and given her purpose, and who had been the first person other than my wi...
2024-12-02 02:32:46 +0000 UTC View PostBack in Astrye, I chipped away at the mountain of work I had to do before Sey, Myrna, and Phol arrived that night. The small smiles we got when we started distributing the food were a cold reminder of what had happened. I had the trust of most of ...
2024-11-23 05:01:24 +0000 UTC View PostWarm. I woke slowly, basking in the sensation. Rolling from my side to my front, I pushed up with my lower pair of arms and stretched out, feeling my somehow-not-sore muscles. Top arms, bottom arms, legs, tail. And I capped it off with a ...
2024-11-16 09:03:32 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! Sorry for the delay, I spent the first half of last week almost getting seated for a jury and that plus Halloween kinda scooched my schedule. S&S later this week, and ideally the next SoW this coming weekend.
2024-11-05 03:16:41 +0000 UTC View Post
“It’s over.” It was the first thing I’d said coming out of that hug, standing on the wall. Below, in the courtyard, anxious faces watched me with looks that ranged from relief to resentment. Nelys gave me a wave and a half smile, then boun...
2024-10-26 23:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostI ducked one spell and another landed. The missile that missed me hit one of their own, and I swept through with my axe, ending another life. At some point, enhanced paladins had tried to hold me down, but they hadn’t gotten far.
Despite m...
2024-10-18 02:54:32 +0000 UTC View PostImmediately, I was surrounded. Head and shoulders above the crowd of humans, I was an easy target for those with the right training.
And this crowd had the right training.
Unfortunately, they were slow. Slow like I hadn’t really thou...
2024-10-08 03:38:01 +0000 UTC View PostAfter I’d dropped Quiraxa from a reasonable height and before I could see my castle nestled amongst the mountains, I could see smoke. Not a great, billowing cloud of my city burning, not an orange glow pushing back the night sky.
Trails of...
2024-09-22 20:06:17 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! This one's a technical chapter, and the next one's a big'un. So many plot threads and characters and timings.
“Stack the logs against the wall there!” Kartania shouted. She took a moment to look do...
2024-09-17 05:14:29 +0000 UTC View Post