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Penitent Book 3 Ch 41: Wizard's Rage

Ollie stopped in midair for a moment when the rift closed, hanging there in surprise. Three of the chitin armored horned men wearing lizardmen as backpacks were fighting the soldiers and militia, and he’d been dodging the two remaining harpies, throwing spells at them when he could, but he lost all concentration. Michael had run through the rift, then half the prisoners had returned, then the...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 40: Die Hard

Michael slammed his divine fist into the nearest of the horned men, his barrier-covered fist smashing into his kidney and causing him to collapse as divine fire began to spread across his body. Another of them tried to grab him, but he ducked beneath the grab and punched the horned man in the jaw causing him to stumble and fall. He took the initiative, launching himself in the direction of the ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 39: Armed Captive

They were mounted and riding toward Hillbloom within minutes. Blake still had soap in her hair and Ollie was yawning having been woken up from a dead sleep to ride, but in spite of that they were all focused. Smoke came into view before the village did, and Michael could feel the anxiety and dread building in his gut as they rode toward the rift. This time it wasn’t only because he was sensin...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 38: Hillsedge

Lance led them through the gates of Hillsedge, and as they entered they were welcomed with smiles and cheers by all of those that saw them. They had been away for nearly a week and in that time had closed a dozen rifts, even more than they had in the week prior. They’d been focused on those that were difficult for the regular soldiers and knights to reach, the ones that had been slowly reinfo...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 37: Pyotr

Pyotr dodged the blade by an inch, his own sword whipping forward across the Burndan knight’s throat. He twirled around him and smacked down a spear that was about to strike a Cantalian soldier before sending a powerful kick at a Burndan soldier’s chest, causing him to fly with tremendous force toward his allies. He began to mutter under his breath, picturing the coals in his wood stove, th...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 36: Honoring 3 Gods

Michael had grown used to the sights, smells, and sounds of infirmaries by this point. They smelled either sickly and of rot, or unnaturally clean. They all had the same basic layout of beds in a row and tables or trays covered with small covered bottles, either glass or clay. There would occasionally be some side rooms for patients of status or those who needed to be quarantined, and the sound...

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Penitent Book 3 Ch 35: HQ

With the rift sealed and the invaders dealt with the retinue took only a few moments to recover before they got back on the road to Lataxia. With the number of rifts that were opening it seemed inevitable that they would run into some on their way, and the one they sealed wasn’t the last. They closed two more, one which sent out what seemed like sentient sludge and another that appeared to ha...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 34: Outmatched

Spears and fireballs flew toward them at the same time. Had they not been on the lookout for an ambush, they wouldn’t have been ready for it. Michael blocked one spear with his shield and another that was aimed at his mount with a barrier. The fireball seemed to vanish, then reappear behind them exploding as Ollie diverted it with a portal spell. Laird was taken in the shoulder and stomach, b...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 33: Onward

Once everyone was informed of the finer details of their mission by the knight-captain, they all began to gather supplies and equipment. Michael found the knights of Hume’s official blacksmith in town who started on some quick patches and repairs on Michael's armor and shield. While he was waiting for that, Michael took the time to dig out his hand mirror and take a look at his Titles and Dee...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 32: Orders

Michael, Ollie, and Lance had a few drinks and exchanged more stories about what had happened since they’d been separated. Lance let slip that he was infatuated with the Lady Delia, which Ollie immediately began teasing him about, but the teasing stopped once Michael told Lance about Davi.

Lance stared at his ale for a few moments after Michael told him, then took a long sip. “He seem...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 31: Canebreak

Once Carmen was placated, she went and began to write a list of what patients she hadn’t been able to heal and had been instead focusing on treating and reducing their pain before tearing it up. 

“I’ll just take you to them myself. If we go to meet them then I won’t have any appointments to make anyway.”

With that they all found themselves falling in line behind Carme...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 30: Medical Consult

They began to make their way toward the infirmary. Michael and Ollie drew a fair amount of stares. Michael in his now patchwork armor, and Ollie in his garb that made him look like he was meant to be painted on the side of a van.

“So, you clearly made it to Old Hume okay, but joining the knighthood? How did that happen?” Michael asked Lance.

“The journey here was difficult. I�...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 29: Reunions and Briefings

“Who is it that interrupts the ceremony?” asked the Knight Captain, his voice booming even more than it had when he’d been leading Lance through his oath.

Laird saluted and looked down. “Knight Laird and Knight Blake Captain. We have news of the villages to the northeast that we feel warrants your attention.”

“Is this regarding the mapping the horned creatures had been d...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 28: Greathollow

Michael, Ollie, and Knights Laird and Blake spent the next several weeks going from village to village on the path toward the Knight Captain who was based in the central town of Greathollow. The pattern was much the same as it had been in the previous ones. They would arrive, Michael would heal any injured, and then they would work together with the local knights and militia to close all the ne...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 27: Laughter

Michael dodged backward as the silver winged creature threw another dive-propelled javelin at him. It was female, that was the only conclusion he could make given its state of undress, and roughly one and a half times his size. She had long blue hair that was woven into thick braids and her ebon skin was marked with tattoos the same silver as her wings. Michael found her beautiful even as she d...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 26: Marcus

Marcus looked down the barrel of his rifle to make sure that it was still straight. There was a very slight bend to it that he’d need to compensate for. When had that happened? When he’d blocked that spear thrust? No, that had been a different rifle. Oh well, no time to actually fix it and Cantalia was lacking in gunsmiths anyway. His other rifles had their own problems, and he’d been for...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 25: Motivation

The beetle was a solid chitinous creature about the size of a football that looked like a roach with much sharper mandibles. It spread its wings and prepared itself to launch toward them.

Ollie pointed his staff at it and a small bolt of fire blasted out of it and shot the creature backward.

“Go and get help, warn everyone to take shelter in their homes!” Michael yelled at the y...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 24: Acid

After a few more conversations, waking up Ollie, and explaining more about the gods to those curious Laird, Hu, Ollie and Michael were at the gates heading out of the village and towards Creekbend. From what Michael understood it was close enough that they should arrive in just under a day as long as they didn’t run into any difficulties on the way.

When they were nearly halfway there M...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 23: On to the Next

With the last two rifts closed they made their way back to the village. It was late afternoon when they started walking, and they were a good distance away, but the militia was eager to be home and wanted to push their way there rather than camp for another night. Michael felt at ease for the first time in a while without any rifts spilling out dread. He’d gotten used to a low-level anxiety t...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 22: Enemy's Enemy's Enemy

They camped that night several miles from the next rift. Michael felt that the last two were very close to one another. Definitely within one mile, but perhaps even closer than that. He was starting to gain some more precision in his ability to tell where the rifts were and what kind of dangers they contained. There were nuances to the dread they seemed to fill him with and those nuances seemed...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 21: Eyes

There was a cheer as the rift closed and Michael found himself jostled a bit by the group.

“Making short work of two rifts with no casualties or even lingering injuries. I’d say we’re on track for our best day in a long time,” said Hu.

“We should push the advantage,” said Laird between orders to head back to the wagon and make sure that their supplies were accounted for....

Penitent Book 3 Ch 20: Rightness

With the rift sealed Michael began going from person to person, making sure they were alright and healing them if they weren't. Clyde was okay, as he’d been healed in the middle of the fight, but he was a bit pale, the specter of death hanging close by after he came so close to meeting it. Aside from this there were a number of other injuries, but Michael was able to heal them of their worst ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 19: Lead by Example

Michael gave a heavily condensed account of his travels so far with the occasional aside by Ollie and as they spoke they noticed more and more of the village militia members walking a bit quicker so that they could hear more of the story. Even Laird, who was primarily focused on the road and making a pointed effort to ignore them, still slowed his horse down a bit more so that he would be able ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 18: Preparations

It wasn’t much longer before the rest of the village was awake. The guards on the walls and roofs were shifted, with several of those taking over being those that had been injured just the previous day. Hu and Ollie arrived at the small training ground around the same time with Hu seemingly laughing at something Ollie had said as they made it there.

“Ser Hu,” said squire Bawn with a...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 17: Lessons

Michael awoke before the sunrise and crept quietly out of the infirmary. There were guards up on the makeshift walls, doing a better job of staying awake than many of the professional soldiers he’d worked with. Perhaps it was because it was their own families and homes that sat behind them. He muffled himself and walked around the village until he found a more open area. Within it he saw mult...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 16: Hu's on first

From the gate Michael was able to see what looked like fifteen or sixteen men and women. Four were on horseback and with them was a cart being drawn by a mule. Two of the men on horseback were clearly the knights that Kris had mentioned, and the others behind them on horses looked to be lightly armored as well. The knight’s armor was interesting, with solid pauldrons rather than layered ones ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 15: The Helpers

The armed villagers looked at one another, confused by Ollie and Michael’s conversation.

“We’ll serve, that’s why we came here,” said Michael.

They lowered their weapons and exchanged glances. “You chose to come here to help?” asked the woman in the lead.

“Well, the gods guided me here, but I probably would’ve come anyway. This is where I can do the ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 14: Deja-Vu

Michael and Ollie took some time to recover from the fight. They ate some of their remaining trail rations as well as some fish Ollie had managed to yank out of a river with magic. Michael didn’t consider that particularly sporting, but it was easy to forgive when he had the option of fresh fish instead of hardtack and salted pork.

Ollie was playing with one of the puppet corpses while ...

Penitent Book 3 Ch 13: Strings

Michael and Ollie continued travelling south along the lake of beasts. They had a few close calls with rift creatures, and an unpleasant experience with goblins, but overall it was a peaceful trip compared to what they were used to. In the mornings Michael would train and Ollie began waking early to spend time going over the notes and coiling his magicka channels. Michael tried to coil his own ...