Ali returned to her list and put a line through the top item. She didn’t have a full understanding of her awakened bloodline, but at least she had some solid clues. The next item on the list made her sigh, though. Having been disconnected from her magic for even just the few days she had been trapped in Cael and Gage’s Infinite Maze, it was surprising how many chores had pi...
2025-07-08 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe library buzzed and bustled with activity. Ever since Ryn had won the ancient Grand Library from Cael and Gage, she had begged Ali to come with her for her daily matches so that she could duplicate as many of the books from the spirit realm echo as possible. She knuckled the tight muscles in the small of her back and was rewarded with a satisfying pop as she stretched. With ...
2025-07-07 14:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“I think we’re ready, Ali,” Malika said.
Ali glanced around at the expectant faces of her friends and called Kir’vella, The Empress of Bats, over to join them. “Can you send these ones to the spirit realm?” she asked, pointing to Lira and Ryn.
“As you wish, Seeker,” her witch doctor said, somehow making the words sound like a demented cackle. Immedia...
2025-07-06 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAli was still a little unsteady on her feet when she touched down in the library, and she had to lean on Malika more than she would have liked to admit. As Malika guided her to her favorite reading chair – the big burgundy one that was soft and large enough that she could curl up in it with a good book – her friends fussed over her. Altogether too much.
“Be careful,...
2025-07-05 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAli groaned as the world vibrated violently around her. A sadistic gremlin seemed to have crawled into her brain and was gleefully stabbing at it with a red-hot poker.
“I think she’s awake…”
Malika? Ali grasped for her memories, but her mind seemed to be a mushy blur of pain.
You have gained Clarity.
The vibrati...
2025-07-03 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThey came for me. They really came. Malika had said she would, but Ali could not imagine how. The sight of the serious focus on Calen’s face as he faced down the swarm of shades with practiced proficiency, the concern in Malika’s eyes, and the smile on Mato’s face the instant he saw her lit a soft warmth that flowed out from her heart. She had been utterly alone,...
2025-07-02 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDespite their hostility and violence toward her, Ali felt like crying, too. How could they not see that Nevyn Eld had been using them? That he was the source of their suffering? In the background, the soft swishing of ice bolts accompanied the rising sounds of hissing shades as Ali gazed up at the broken form of Cael and Gage. “Can you repair the suppression aura?” she aske...
2025-07-01 14:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostAli paused outside the huge white marble building at the epicenter of the Infinite Maze, just long enough to summon a Berserker and two Abyssal Stalkers. Cael and Gage had not once demonstrated the capacity to summon combat minions, but she was taking no chances.
A flight of Glitter Dragonets swooped in through the enormous arched entrance, followed by dozens of Ghostly S...
2025-07-01 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostShe was totally and hopelessly lost.
Craning her neck around in all directions, Ali plotted a new path through this fresh section of the maze. A wide golden staircase spiraled overhead, linking two upside-down islands that crawled with softly hissing shades. She had given up on memorizing the layout entirely. Every time the spirit realm flickered to a different echo, all ...
2025-06-30 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAli felt the magic of the rough, cobbled-together teleportation spell twist and pull at her body, struggling to shove her through a thick, stretchy veil. The spell itself was inefficient, a tangled mess of suboptimal and incongruous runes that she had jammed together in her haste to avoid the brothers’ notice.
But what it lacked in elegance, it made up with brute force....
2025-06-29 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA sudden flicker shifted through the library, as the spirit realm was prone to do, and her tree appeared growing up through the atrium and all the books vanished. Moments later, it flickered again, and the tree was replaced with a spire of bone supporting an undead Skeletal Wyvern with the encrustation of bone covering everything. This echo lasted only a few seconds before it f...
2025-06-28 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“What the fuck do you mean, dead?” Jax yelled, his face red as he strode back and forth in front of his desk, visibly struggling to keep a lid on his fury and rage.
Kieran sat calmly on the guest chair in his so-called boss’s office, simply watching as his report worked its way through Jax’s emotions. It had been a fantastic plan, in his opinion, and when Jax h...
2025-06-27 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I’ve got an idea,” Ryn said, surprising Ali with the speed she had grasped the layout. “Move your Acolyte like this,” she said, moving the piece forward and into the center, a decidedly vulnerable position.
“Why would I do that?” Ali asked, studying the strange move.
“Because you’re threatening this with your Warrior and your Archer,” Ryn said, ...
2025-06-26 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe bulk of Ali’s attention returned to her body as the raid fights in the Lyton Ruins dungeon wound down. It had been touch-and-go for a few moments, but she had been happy to see that the adventurers had not cracked under the pressure as things had begun to go wrong, instead relying heavily on their teamwork to recover. And they had pulled it off – the team would advance ...
2025-06-25 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe path toward the first of the string of islands to the left of the starting Gate was outlined with oddly shaped fragments of arcane magic, barriers of uneven shape and size, resembling stepping stones in a pond. Only, instead of traversing water, they were transparent platforms, like glass steps suspended above the yawning space and the distant ground below.
She hopped...
2025-06-24 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAli tuned the brothers out while they continued to bicker, considering her situation carefully while she waited. Her two captors were most certainly eccentric, and Gage at least would be rather gratified to have her serve up dead. As soon as Gage began to suspect her of being interested in their story, both of them had clammed up. Try as she might, she hadn’t been able to coa...
2025-06-23 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe way forward did not look passable, and the elegant spiral of floating platforms to her left had some scary gaps in the arcane paths and bridges, but the way to the right seemed to be manageable, a simple staircase and an elevator to the first large island below.
To the right, then, she decided – not that it was a particularly difficult decision. She needed ...
2025-06-22 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAli stood in awe before the Gate, staring at the area beyond the shimmering ripples of space magic. She had not forgotten the dire situation she found herself in, nor the active raids she was still engaged in. Mato’s group had just pulled a nasty-looking cloned Ghoul boss while Calen’s group was deep into a fight against a powerful abomination that looked like an undead Fle...
2025-06-21 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 3 of 3
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Ali hid her two acolytes beside the large pillar while the entire cavern shook, desperately hoping it would not shatter. She left her rogue out in the open, relying on high dexterity and evasion to dodge the falling boulders while trying to stab a mountain of granite with a short dagger. It was not working particularly well.
While sh...
2025-06-19 14:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 2 of 3
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“Attack,” Seth commanded, sending his three heavyset specters into the chaos of spawning beetles. He missed having Willow and Teagan on his team, but he was much more useful down here where most of the monsters were living and not immune to his death magic.
The Subterranean Brood Queen was insane – technically an insect, but o...
2025-06-19 14:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 1 of 3 today.
After reading the comments from #333 and the lively discussion on discord, I made the decision to bring up Friday's chapters and release them all together today. Especially considering the nature of the chapters, and Ali's unique skills splitting her awareness in multiple places, I feel this will give a better reading experience overall. As always, feedback is welcomed....
2025-06-19 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAli struggled in vain. She twisted and thrashed, wrestling against the insubstantial wisps of mana that bound her essence to the Spirit Realm while her body was drawn inexorably back toward the mortal realm. She hung there, suspended halfway between realms, desperately holding herself together with nothing more than her will while immense forces tried to separate her from her s...
2025-06-18 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Ok, let’s go kill it properly,” Bartak growled, advancing into the ring with his sword already blazing. “Form up, you lot. No more fucking around.”
“I sense no mana,” Lilian said. “Just like that one upstairs.”
“This one is stronger,” Beltz growled, his eyes smoldering with fury.
Icy fingers of fear crawled up Ali’s spine as she saw th...
2025-06-17 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Last chapter landed hard for many, I'm sorry for that. Hopefully this one brings us back to a more enjoyable experience.
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“Why are you invading my home?” Ali asked, standing in a bubble of her barrier magic, flanked by the highest-level trolls she could make in the short time she had available. Even partitioned as her mind was, supporting the ...
2025-06-16 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostWith the kind of haughty finger flick of a noble forced to deal with the dirt on their own boot, the Ice Witch cursed the kobold rogue before Ali could even begin to have him flee. Ice mana surged, crystalizing in his veins as the potent spell settled upon him, freezing him solid mid-stride. Trapped within the suddenly rigid kobold’s body, Ali struggled with all her strength,...
2025-06-15 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Double release today - 2 of 2
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Ali frowned at her notes and her failed experiments as if her displeasure and frustration would somehow knock some sense into the bits that most assuredly should have worked together just so.
What did I miss?
Coming hot off her success with the transcription of Glimmer Shards into Arcane Shards, ...
2025-06-14 14:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Double release today - 1 of 2
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Lira stood solemnly in the midst of the bustling, makeshift camp, her heart heavy with grief and sadness. This had been a beautiful grove where ancient oaks had once spread their boughs, their leaves eagerly soaking up the light of the sun. She missed the thuds of acorns hitting the vibrant moss that carpeted the ground i...
2025-06-14 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAliandra Plague Ghoul – Undead – level 61 (Death). “Spread out!” Ali yelled, hearing the words in Common distorted by the unsuited fanged re
Plague Ghoul – Undead – level 61 (Death).
“Spread out!” Ali yelled, hearing the words in Common distorted by the unsuited fanged reptilian mouth of her kobold acolyte – some of the co...
2025-06-13 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAliandra It took three days before the first group graduated from Ali’s gauntlet. As predicted, the Hellfire Imp boss took the longest for t
It took three days before the first group graduated from Ali’s gauntlet. As predicted, the Hellfire Imp boss took the longest for them to understand and defeat, but rather than being frustrated and annoyed as she had feared, the ...
2025-06-12 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAli sat poring over her notes carefully. Resting on the table beside her were two vials of ink, one soul-affinity, and the other nature-affinity, the second made from an extract Eliyen was able to produce from a sliver of Living Essence.
Teharissa had been as good as her word, and when Ali had returned from the auction house with the crafting components she had requested,...
2025-06-11 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post