Before I can do anything else, a warning blares into my skull, making me wince from the sheer force of it. I have to blink away the spots in my eyes to even begin to parse what just happened, but when I do, my eyes widen.
[Let it kill you.]
It's a Paradox Warning. The skill construct resonates within my core, and I stare up at the volley of golden spea...
2024-09-10 16:23:44 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note (New / 15 Oct 2024): Posting this one early since I'm going to be on a flight when the chapter would normally go up. Enjoy the chapter!
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One thing I hadn't really considered on the way down is that the flower's blooming outside the building—the inside isn't exactly filled with pretty blue petals or anything remotely flower-adjacent. I...
2024-09-07 18:38:14 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: We might be doing Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for a bit while I catch up. Enjoy the chapter!
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You were a painter once.
You saw the world in colors no other mantodean could. Close one eye, and the painting shifts—your sight was your pride. Your first love glowed in your sight, didn't she? Her carapace glowed with streaks of ultragold and silver...
2024-09-05 16:33:53 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Sorry this posted a little late! The chapter was ready, but I had to rush for a flight to Oregon (which is where I'm going to be hanging out for the next month or so). I took the chance to rewrite the chapter a bit and improve it since I was traveling anyway. Enjoy the chapter!
--
Guard takes point as he leads us down the stairwell of the building, hi...
2024-09-03 23:27:44 +0000 UTC View PostRhoran's mind was fragmented, but he was slowly gathering himself.
It was nothing unexpected. The Integrator—former Integrator—was held in place only by the meager mental structures he'd created for himself before this transition, and the trip through the broken Intermediary had maimed those structures even more than he'd been prepared for. If Lhore had given him a littl...
2024-08-29 19:56:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a variety of art I've gotten as commissions and gifts as extra content for the day. Most are by cosmiccroissant on Twitter except for the Gheraa concept art (last in list), who is done by an artist that wanted to remain anonymous. Some may have been seen before, but I forgot to put it in a proper image post!
2024-08-26 13:12:23 +0000 UTC View PostI take a moment to review my skills before we actually head into the Empty City. I've lost a number of them, and it's... surprising to me, how much that fact aches. They shouldn't even be alive, let alone sentient enough to sacrifice themselves for me the way they did. They're Firmament constructs residing within my core, my soul—whatever you decide to call it.
But I grasped at a Talent...
2024-08-26 13:02:19 +0000 UTC View PostJust a heads up--posting this while I have the energy to sit at the computer. I picked a very bad time to fall sick considering I have to travel next week, haha. I'm going to put all the energy I can toward recovering, so I might miss a chapter post or two. I'll make up for it when I can. Thanks for the patience!
2024-08-23 07:44:30 +0000 UTC View Post"You could have at least warned me you were going to try it," Ahkelios complains.
He's been justifiably upset for a while now. We're taking our time and walking back toward Isthanok, although it's a long way away; the Knight covered quite a lot of distance while he was out of control. I'm almost back to the Cliffside Crows. My memories of traveling are somewhat...
2024-08-21 16:05:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing I experience is pain.
Kauku wasn't lying about the strain this Inspiration causes. It's not just the way it peels away at my Firmament and tears me apart from within—it's the physical change, too. I stagger away from the ledge before collapsing to the ground as a series of cracks resound within my body. It's not a sound so much as it is a kick of bass that's accompanied ...
2024-08-19 15:36:08 +0000 UTC View PostI hesitate for a moment before I agree. There's no specific reason for that hesitation; Kauku hasn't asked me to do anything I wouldn't be willing to do anyway. More than that, he seems pleased that I'm his Heir, and while I don't know specifically what that means, it does seem to imply that he has a vested interest in my success.
It just feels like there are holes in what h...
2024-08-16 16:02:38 +0000 UTC View PostI stare ahead into the empty space in front of me, my entire body on alert. I can feel the hairs on my body standing on end like a static charge is passing over me—every instinct I have screams at me that something's here, and that that something is dangerous. Fight-or-flight tells me to run, to turn and get away as fast as I can.
But I don't see anything in front of me. It's e...
2024-08-14 16:42:53 +0000 UTC View PostThere's a whole mess of notifications that come right after that notice, but my attention is briefly taken up by the Interface's phrasing. It says I retrieved a Talent—not that I unlocked it. Not even that it's been granted to me. The way it's phrased, I almost feel like it's not something built into the Interface.
"Interface," I say. "What do you mean by retriev...
2024-08-12 16:12:27 +0000 UTC View PostSo much has happened since the last time I allowed myself to properly look over the Interface. So much has happened since I've gained the Interface, for that matter. It doesn't feel like it's been all that long, but it's hard to put the timeline together in my head—I'm aware, in an abstract sort of way, of all the events that have passed. The timeline of everything that's happen...
2024-08-09 15:43:22 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note:
My internet is a bit borked. Trying to get it fixed! It's still (somewhat) working, but only if I sit and wait a really long time for each individual page to load, so hopefully this post goes through.
That said, welcome to book 3!
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"You ever think about how weird this all is, Ethan?"
Ahkelios isn't looking at me. He's staring out over...
2024-08-07 14:23:23 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue 3 - Loneliness
"I not stay with you."
I've dreaded hearing these words from Tarin, although I think on some level, I knew it was coming.
"You find way for me to stop looping," Tarin says. "I... please."
"It's not because you want to forget, is it?" I ask tiredly. I don't think I can make him forget, even if I wanted to.
"No," Tarin says. "...
2024-08-05 15:38:30 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue 1 - Guard & Whisper
Some time after the raid is cleared, everyone gathers. Almost everyone, anyway. Bimar and Miktik are missing—according to Guard, Miktik needs emergency medical attention, and he's sent one of his proxies with them to make sure they stay safe. Part of me wants to go after them and make sure they're safe, but...
There's still She-Who...
2024-08-02 16:18:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe asteroid looms above the city of Isthanok. I look up at it, and I feel less fear than I should. Shifting to the third layer has... changed things.
Not as much as I'd like, perhaps. That asteroid is still entirely capable of killing me if it hits.
If it hits.
I just have to make sure it misses.
He-Who-Guards and She-Who-Whispers are both holding it off w...
2024-07-31 15:48:26 +0000 UTC View PostRhoran snarled, slamming his fist into his desk. "Someone tell me how a human is moving two layers in a single shift!"
"Seems Gheraa was telling the truth about your temper." Lhore didn't seem particularly bothered by the situation. She leaned bac...
2024-07-29 16:05:39 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Next chapter will be the final one for this book. After that I'll post a series of (very short) epilogue chapters to wrap up Book 2. Just a heads up!
Edit: I miscounted! Two more chapters until the end of the book. This is the third last chapter.
--
I can't stop it.
The thought intrudes on my mind, foreign and not my own. There's ...
2024-07-26 15:30:33 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Long chapter!
--
Vahrkos had never been tired before. Not to this extent. It was rare these days for anything to tire him out—ever since he'd experienced his Convalescence, it was like his Firmament was three times as efficient. Slipstreams were easy for him to navigate like they had never been before, and Firmament flowed along his jo...
2024-07-24 15:19:59 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Posting schedule will be one chapter Monday/Wednesday/Friday, in line with RR. Just trying to get everything to line up! Been real sick all weekend, but Book 2 is done (including 5 short epilogue chapters). Book 3 is in planning stages.
--
Bimar and Miktik's bodies are positioned outside the gate to the scrapyard in the exact same positions I found th...
2024-07-22 15:09:55 +0000 UTC View Post"Two rings."
The words make Whisper freeze, just as she'd told me. I admit, I was half expecting this to be a trap. "Check your messages," I tell her. "You sent one to yourself agreeing to work with me."
This is probably the easiest time I've ever had talking to Whisper. She doesn't even say anything—I can feel the flow of Firmament as she instead just immediately opens her Interf...
2024-07-17 15:34:25 +0000 UTC View PostI'm back in the lab.
The first thing I do is brush off the strange, distinct sensation of Once More into the Fray falling apart inside my... Firmament core, I suppose. It's a distinctly uncomfortable feeling, like holding broken shards of glass inside my mouth. The skill still feels usable, but only barely; thankfully, the feeling fades soon enough, and I'm able to direct my attention els...
2024-07-15 15:41:46 +0000 UTC View PostMiktik's workshop is empty, which is more or less what I was expecting, though I was hoping it wouldn't be. I look around, trying to glimpse any signs of activity. It doesn't look like anyone's been here since the last time we convened in the area.
"Think Bimar's back at the lab?" I ask out loud, glancing at Ahkelios.
"That, or she hasn't had enough time to get here," ...
2024-07-15 15:38:58 +0000 UTC View PostTo say that Wander is unhappy about the Integrators' raid is... a bit of an understatement.
"You're telling me I could have died permanently," he says, shuddering. "Being eaten!"
"We don't know that he was eating you," I say, trying to placate him.
In retrospect, I could probably have phrased that better. Wander turns to glare at me. "That does not m...
2024-07-15 15:37:29 +0000 UTC View PostI'm back in the laboratory. I let out a breath of relief—I wasn't sure how far back the skill would be able to take me. For the first time, I've been able to feel the process of time whirling back around me, and I've had to keep an eye on the stability of a skill while doing so.
This is as far back as I can take myself before it begins to fall apart. If I bring myself back...
2024-07-08 15:52:38 +0000 UTC View Post"Are you his accomplice?"
Whisper's first question is blunt. It stuns me, too—not because of how direct it is, but because of how utterly wrong that assumption is. She stares at me with her arms folded behind her back, her stance regal; if this had been my first time meeting her, I might have assumed that all was well.
Except this isn't how she acts. Whisper doesn't ...
2024-07-08 15:51:28 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: We're back with three chapters and everything up to the end of Book 2 drafted! Finally managed to get everything together and planned out, and I'm trying out a new strategy when it comes to chapter drafting, so I have all the scene skeletons written and just need to edit them into something that's paced well.
These particular chapters kept growing whil...
2024-07-08 15:49:44 +0000 UTC View PostHey guys--I think I'm going to have to admit to myself that I need a small break from writing rather than trying to write and rewrite the same bit. It's by no means going to take a long time, but I've paused billing for the time being. In theory all I need is a couple days to recuperate from all the hospital visits I've had and I'll come back with a bunch of chapters, but I've had enough compli...
2024-06-17 15:52:20 +0000 UTC View Post