Chapter 267: The Hunt
A rattling volley of projectiles - Ghveris called them shells, though Wren didn’t see what they had to do with the ocean - whistled through the air, tracking just behind her as she climbed up above the first cataract.
On the rocky heights, to either side of where the headwaters of the Airaduinë plunged down to the plateau where the Alliance scout...
2025-09-26 13:43:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 266: Amelina Ridley
“Push harder,” Amelia Trafford urged.
Keri was lying back on the table, in the chirurgeon’s quarters, while she held his left foot in her hands, with his knee bent over his chest. He should have been able to kick her backwards into the wall: the woman was not a warrior, and half his weight.
But as with everything else since he’d woken ...
2025-09-25 14:22:15 +0000 UTC View PostGot my flu shot and covid booster in the same arm yesterday before leaving work, and man am I feeling it today. Ended up taking time off to recover. This combination always puts me on my back.
Chapter 265: The Butcher and the Bone Breaker
Identifying just what the crystal did was, unfortunately, only the beginning. The next step - and the more difficult one - was to disable ...
2025-09-24 14:36:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 264: The Crystal
The high desert was still the cool temperature of early morning when Liv climbed out of the excavated chamber which had become her living quarters. She thrust the curtain of canvas which served as her door aside, and then paused to hold it out of the way for her cousin, Miina.
“Thank you for acting as my squire,” Liv told her, once they were out in...
2025-09-23 16:52:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 263: Precedent
Liv circled the armor stand, examining each piece in turn by the light of the oil lamp burning in her excavated chamber. Outside, the moon would be rising, to compete with the ring of the old gods for the claim to brightest object in the night sky.
Kaija – or whoever the armorer had found to do the work in her place – had worked miracles ...
2025-09-22 18:05:33 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 262: Black Iron Wards
The contrast between the high desert and the mountains clustered around Nightfall Peak was obvious from high above. It was the colors, more than the elevation: shades of brown, orange, and gray gradually began to include muted greens, until at last the slopes which were fed by snowmelt bloomed a vibrant emerald. And through it all, the southern tr...
2025-09-19 17:28:22 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 261: Truth
“Is’Bheuvō Kvel,” Keri said, allowing the incantation to vibrate up through his chest. The word of sight - though, according to the old priest from Lendh ka Dakruim, the word of perception might be a more accurate label - woke in the back of his mind.
It was a very different feeling than using Savel. Keri had been imprinted with the wor...
2025-09-18 15:13:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 260: Red Cliffs
The red cliff looming over their heads cast Liv, her grandmother, and Elder Aira in shade. As the hours went by, and the day progressed, the arc of the rising sun would shorten the shadow until eventually it disappeared, leaving the half-exposed rock on which they sat burning hot. But for now, just after dawn, morning in the high desert was shockingly c...
2025-09-17 14:37:16 +0000 UTC View Post
We have a book three cover! I think the extra time our artist put in was worth it :)
2025-09-17 13:05:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 259: A Debt
The morning after Liv had left Whitehill, Keri found that he was not entirely certain what to do with himself.
Olavi came to the rooms he’d been given - the same set of guest chambers the Summersets had provided him with when he’d first visited with Liv. His armor had been set in one corner of the bed room, opposite the bed itself, on an armor stand.&nb...
2025-09-16 15:13:08 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 258: Feic Seria
Wren felt the heat of the painted desert hit her in the face with all the force of a warhammer. Spring in Whitehill was still nothing compared to the high, arid terrain surrounding Silica’s nest in the Vædic ruins left behind by Staivis, the long dead Lord of Stone.
Half a dozen of Liv’s new personal guard were already fanned out around the wayston...
2025-09-15 13:57:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 257: Snowdrops
When Liv’s mother had first written to her, while she was at Coral Bay, with the news that she had agreed to wed Archibald, Liv had decidedly mixed feelings.
Given everything that had happened since then – the assault on the Tidal Rift, Liv’s visit to Lendh ka Dakruim, the conclave and her escape from Coral Bay, the fight at the Foundry Rift and th...
2025-09-12 14:25:09 +0000 UTC View PostI think maybe one Liv and one Wren to take us over into Varuna, and then we begin the assault on Ractia's forces - at least the preliminary movements.
Chapter 256: Maneuvering
Liv tried to tell herself that Ilmari ka Väinis was simply angry - not necessarily at her, but at what had happened to his son. Still, it was difficult - when they’d visited Mountain Home, she’d fel...
2025-09-11 14:26:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 255: A Gathering of Elders
The title had made Liv uncomfortable from the very beginning.
It didn’t seem to matter that she’d never claimed it for her own, or even used it herself. It had been Ghveris who first used the words, and following the battle at the pass, and Liv’s very obvious fight against Genevieve Arundell, it had somehow spread among the alliance arm...
2025-09-10 15:37:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 254: The Council Atop the Mountain
“Not everyone here is fluent in Vakansa,” Liv pointed out. “Do you speak Lucanian, Juhani kæn Kalleis?” There was a part of her that wanted to offer a word of comfort to Wren, but she had the feeling that if she looked away from those gray eyes, she would be admitting defeat, or at least ceding ground.
“Somewhat,” J...
2025-09-09 16:01:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 253: The Movements of the Enemy
Liv raised her hand, letting it hang in the space between where she sat on the floor, and where Keri lay on the bed. Her Authority swirled around his, like the fresh water at the mouth of a river entering the sea, and mixing in a brackish swirl.
She could feel that Keri’s Authority was weaker than hers, less well trained.&n...
2025-09-08 14:14:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 252: To Save and To Be Saved
When the light of the waystone faded, Liv, her grandmother, Kaija, Matthew and Arjun were left crammed around a block of ice nearly six feet long and three feet wide. Mistress Trafford had wanted to come, but the chirurgeon wasn’t a mage. Without even the rushed introduction to Elden mana circulation techniques that Liv had given Matthew,...
2025-09-05 17:22:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 251: Cold Sleep
“How is she?” Liv asked Arjun.
The two of them, along with Wren, waited in Matthew and Triss’s sitting room, while Aira and Liv's grandmother proceeded into the bedchamber. Liv could hear the murmur of Matthew’s voice, and Mistress Trafford, the castle chirurgeon, in response. Still, as skilled as she knew that Amelia Trafford ...
2025-09-04 18:10:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 250: The Soul Untethered
A sudden pain filled Keri’s head, so intense that he staggered from the overwhelming force of it. He felt the muscles of his face sagging, and he pitched over to one side. Dimly, he was aware that Olavi had caught him before he hit the rampart, but he couldn’t make his mouth work. His Næv’bel clattered down to the stone, and an ima...
2025-09-03 16:56:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 249: Edwin Teller
It would have been nice, Liv decided, to have a bit more in the way of journeymen to work with.
Gamel would have been ideal. After all, he’d spent years helping Jurian manage basic combat courses at Coral Bay, so he knew exactly what was needed. Liv could have trusted him to run herd on just over two dozen students as they careened down The Hi...
2025-09-02 20:17:42 +0000 UTC View PostI recently spoke to the folks over at Mosaic Digest about both Guild Mage and Faerie Knight! Feel free to go check it out :)
2025-09-02 00:33:02 +0000 UTC View PostAnd with this, we begin book seven! Slowing down a bit from the climax at the end of last book :)
Chapter 248: The List
Geometric embellishments of rime bordered Liv’s window panes like a gilt wooden frame surrounding a hung portrait. Unlike the warmer climes in Coral Bay, Akela Kila, or in Varuna, mountain communities such as Whitehill often saw overnight frosts late into s...
2025-09-01 14:52:28 +0000 UTC View PostIn addition to catching up on suggested edits, I've gone through and done some adjusting re: the Liv / Rose development from chapter 229 on. All changed chapters are now live here, and you can find a changelog below for easy reference.
This isn't to say there might not be a bit more polishing done before the final version sees print, and I'm always interested in more feedback.
229 ...
2025-08-30 14:07:29 +0000 UTC View PostHere is the final chapter of book six! On Monday I'll begin book seven, and I'm looking forward to diving into our characters having a chance to shape the world around them, and make changes to how things are done in the north.
I'm much more satisfied with this chapter. I'm going to be taking a pass to revise the Rosamund stuff at the end of 246, based on some of the wonderful feedback I'...
2025-08-29 16:57:43 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the last Liv chapter of book six! Tomorrow will be a Millie chapter, to wrap the book with a view of the aftermath in Freeport. Then, on Monday, we'll start book 7: The Mountain Queen.
This ended up being written in two sessions today - the third section several hours after the first two. Hopefully the break didn't lead to any inconsistencies, but if you find them, let me know, pl...
2025-08-28 21:40:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 245: On the Banks of the River Aspen
“This is how things are done,” Matthew argued. It was the first time that Liv could remember him raising his voice with her,ever. The part of her mind that was still thinking about consequences or public perception confirmed that it had been a good idea for them to have this talk privately. She’d brought them up to the t...
2025-08-27 14:56:44 +0000 UTC View PostCheck the Epub now, should be fixed
Chapter 244: Parole
“No,” Liv said, shaking her head. The sudden motion made her sick to her stomach, and acutely aware of the headache she’d been ignoring constantly for days now. “That is not at all what your mother intended. And as far as Triss is concerned, I have an idea for how to help her. More than one, in f...
2025-08-26 13:45:22 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 243: Heir
According to Wren, the Falkenrath troops were two days out from the wall at the time Liv killed Genevieve Arundell. Matthew and Triss came from Whitehill the day after, and they’d had to take a carriage rather than horses. Mistress Trafford accompanied them, because Triss was sick once again.
Liv had met them at the edge of the encamped northern army,...
2025-08-25 13:52:19 +0000 UTC View PostBig chapter today - almost 500 words more than usual!
Chapter 242: The Battle of the Pass X: The Lady of Winter
Cold mountain wind whistled around Liv’s face as she banked and dove through the sky above the pass; the rush of air against her skin was enough that she had to blink tears away from her eyes.
Half a dozen golden spears shot toward her in a wave. Liv tucked h...
2025-08-22 14:54:35 +0000 UTC View Post