Gugora crushes me in a hug before I’ve even finished setting foot back in the Starlight Inn.
“You’re alright?” he asks. “You’re not hurt?”
“Well, I think my ribs are about to crack,” I gasp.
He lets go, and I rub my arm; pretty sure there will be bruises there later.
“I shouldn’t have let those thugs take you,” he says, worry in his eyes.
Be...
2024-08-05 12:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostZyneth hovers his hands over the pile of sand uncertainly. “So I just fire a bolt of lightning into this? You really think that will work?”
Since I’m immune to lightning type arcana, I’m not overly worried about it going wrong. But at Zyneth’s insistence, we relocated the sand pile to a wooden pallet so as not to electrocute the whole sub. I figure, worst case scenario we just z...
2024-08-02 12:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostI grab Cyros’s arm and attempt to tug the knife away. His grip tightens, his arm like steel.
“What did you tell her?” he asks again. “If you don’t want to die, speak now.”
I nervously swallow, and I can feel the blade scrape over my skin with the movement. I tap his hand, too afraid to speak.
He glances down at the gesture, then moves the knife back, a fraction of ...
2024-08-02 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I didn’t lie!” I object as Talia pulls me through the city, an iron grip on my arm.
“Maybe not directly,” Talia says. “But it wasn’t the complete truth. You’re hiding something.”
“If you think that’s true, how come you didn’t say anything in front of Enrold?” I counter.
“Because Enrold is a moron.” Talia wrinkles her nose. “And he doesn’t act...
2024-07-31 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s a long walk to Fairwood. We didn’t start until just before evening, and we’re still walking hours after the sun has set. Our progress is made even slower given the wooden cart Hatsu is trailing. It’s piled high with vines, but it doesn’t take much imagination to wonder what’s obscured underneath the human-shaped mass of plants.
As we travel, my stomach starts to growl, an...
2024-07-29 12:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post(Fun Fact: I was going to rename this chapter to something normal before I submitted it to Podium but I forgot so now this chapter title has been immortalized)
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Zyneth narrows his eyes at my reaction. “What’s going on?”
“We were—” I struggle to pull my mind awa...
2024-07-26 12:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post[Lithe Build: +10 to Athletics. Cautious Spirit: +5 to Evasiveness. Obtained skill: Toxic Intuition. Status updated.]
A warm, tingling sensation passes through me. I immediately feel refreshed. The soreness in my arms is gone, the burning in my lungs has vanished. I stand, twitching with energy, eager to put my new abilities to the test. I close one eye, taking aim at the knot in the tree...
2024-07-26 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI freeze, staring at the corpse. It doesn’t look real, somehow. Like a prop in a Halloween store. I can’t really be standing in front of a body. That wouldn’t make any sense. Why would she be dead? How did this happen?
[Check,] Echo says, taking my questions as an invitation. [The corpse of Lord Kelwa Greenhand. It expired approximately eight hours ago via cardiac arrest.]<...
2024-07-24 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Sal,” Gugora says, catching sight of me in the doorframe. “I need to get back to the bar. Come help with the new guests. They need to be shown to room five.”
Cyros’s surprised expression is gone, smoothed into a neutral, bored look. He glances away from me, casually, as if he finds the inn’s decor—which is to say, dust and leaves—to be more interesting.
I set Iski...
2024-07-22 12:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostWe bound through the ship like an excited puppy, making a beeline for the exit. Well, most of us does: we had to leave our core back in the control room. But we take small bits of glass with us, pieces that don’t have air pockets. They act as bones within our form and can be rearranged as claws or teeth as we see fit. We like it when we’re able to merge the two magics. Even the part of us t...
2024-07-19 12:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostI can feel the numbing burn steadily creeping past my elbow as I hold my knife to my shoulder, wondering if I’m really capable of cutting my own arm off. I give my skin an experimental prick, then jerk my hand away.
“Holy shit,” I mutter. This can’t be happening. A plant. A plant?! It’s ludicrously unfair! I just survived being attacked by a GOD for god’s sake. Or, whoever’s...
2024-07-19 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAccording to Echo, I make it exactly eight hours and twenty-four minutes before I nick myself with the knife.
[1 point of Slashing damage self-inflicted.]
[HP: 48/90]
“Shit.” I drop the knife on the kitchen counter and stick my finger in my mouth, filling it with that coppery sour taste of blood.
Iski watches me passively from where she’s stirring the huge cauldron...
2024-07-17 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, Echo,” I say. “It’s time to spill your guts.”
[Command not recognized.]
I snort, scrubbing at the table. Seeing as I was well enough to raid his kitchen, Gugora decided I was well enough to clean the tavern, too. He’d given me the night to sleep, the morning to eat, and then immediately set me to work. I can’t believe I got lucky enough to get reincarnated in...
2024-07-15 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostSince this book is a rough draft and I'm writing as I go, some things aren't totally nailed down yet: like what to call Kanin's new class. So why don't YOU guys tell me what you'd like! I've left a couple options on the poll, otherwise feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments.
I'm going for something that evokes the concept of a magical servant (like his Homunculus role). T...
2024-07-12 12:20:01 +0000 UTC View PostEcho begins listing off the class options. [Mirror Mage.]
“Sounds dumb,” I say.
“It doesn’t matter what it’s called,” Zyneth says. “What does it do?”
[A class specializing in glass based magics. Mana consumption reduced by 50% for glass-based spells. Glass Attunement time reduced by 50%. The user additionally obtains the skill Elemental Dowsing which allows the...
2024-07-12 12:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostI tip back with a shriek, throwing my sandwich up in front of me in self-defense—for all the good a few pieces of bread will do to save me from getting cooked alive. A wave of warm air rolls over me, and I tense in anticipation.
Nothing happens. Cracking an eye open, the fireball is floating above me, providing ample illumination and a lack of fiery death. I stare at it in wonder, even ...
2024-07-12 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI jolt awake, and it’s dark. Ah, this is familiar. Drifting in and out of consciousness in a strange bed while I recover from medical treatment. I’ve been coming to all day: sometimes Gugora was there, sometimes he wasn’t. He gave me water and soup, once. The soup tasted like stale socks. He insisted it was medicinal, but I figure any benefits were outweighed by the desire to barf. He sho...
2024-07-10 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI fade in and out of pain. Everything comes to me through a fog. Sometimes I try to understand what’s happening: Where am I? Why does it hurt? Am I waking up from another surgery? But even as I reach for the memories, comprehension slips through my fingers and I’m absorbed back into the nothingness.
#
Once, my eyes crack open. The world is a blurred green. Birds chirp pleasantly...
2024-07-08 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post[As a reminder, I will be posting 1 chapter of Kanin Fodder every Friday. These are rough drafts, so it's entirely possible things will change between now and when the book is complete. Enjoy!]
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Getting marooned at the bottom of the ocean in a crippled submarine with rapidly ...
2024-07-05 12:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Champion yanks her spear from Terimus’s gut with a spray of blood. Rena screams in rage, drawing her weapon, and Layf cries out in shock and horror. Blood flecks my face like drops of rain, and my body feels full of static. No. This can’t be happening. This isn’t real. My mind buzzes and swirls in detached disbelief.
Crazed laughter shatters my horror like a hammer to a pane of ...
2024-07-05 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe pebblebacks stampede down the hill, and the water ripples and splashes as their thundering footsteps reach me. I back further into the water, raising my fists defensively in front of me, before realizing how absolutely pathetic and useless that gesture is. Even so, I’d rather go out fighting.
A whistle cuts through the air, and excited cheers and whoops quickly follow. Bright colors...
2024-07-03 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe familiar orchestra of medical devices gradually fades into the distance as a comforting darkness envelops me. I relax into oblivion, knowing that this is the end. I’m dead.
Finally.
No more pain. No more tests. No more sobbing parents futilely trying to hide their tears from me out in the hallway. I’ve been ready to rest for a long time now.
Only… nothing really seem...
2024-07-01 12:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostSorry, no new fiction content for you today.
Just a reminder that A Little Salty starts on Monday, July 1st, and will be posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday, until the book completes.
Meanwhile, Kanin Fodder (book 3) will be posting just on Fridays, starting a week from today (July 5th).
Once again, feel free to 2024-06-28 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
(Events take place immediately before Glass Kanin: Book 1)
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Zyneth peered around the crumbling corner of a building, looking down onto the City of the Dead.
Shadowy creatures crawled through the streets, green wisps of necrotic energy trailing their movement like ghostly shawls. Sometimes he could make out b...
2024-06-26 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostRevenge is a dish best served with poison.
Patreon Release date: Monday, July 1st.
Update Schedule: M W F
Read on for the synopsis ONLY if you don't mind typical blurb spoilers:
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2024-06-24 12:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone! Hope you've been enjoying the Kanin books so far. As you might have guessed from the way Loose Kanin ended, things are going to be shaken up a little bit going forward!
I've written (well, I'm still working on one) 3 spin-off books that take place in the immediate aftermath of Loose Kanin. These books effectively start immediately after t...
2024-06-21 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThunder boomed through the temple as a god appeared in a flash of light. Brushing a single errant lock of black hair away from the empty pits where his eyes should have been, he smiled.
“So. Who died?”
At the central dais, Lorata turned her head to cast a disparaging look over her shoulder. She moved only precisely as much as she needed to, as if the act of acknowledging the oth...
2024-06-19 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostVoid wraps around us, and all light vanishes from the world. I pull the magic tighter, squeezing not us but space itself. The darkness collapses in. There’s an inflection point—a tipping—and I feel the two separate points in the spell connect like magnets snapping together.
The roar of the wave vanishes. My soul lurches as I fall—Zyneth and I are both falling—but it only lasts f...
2024-06-17 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostWrestling control from the predator isn’t easy, but I do it. Its mind—like its body—is scattered, sent reeling from the explosion. Plus, a good portion of it getting ripped away by the containment cube didn’t hurt.
I mean, it did hurt the predator. That was the point. Anyway.
Now that I’m back in reality, back outside of the predator’s influence, Echo’s notifi...
2024-06-14 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostWe reach for reality, then hesitate. Doubt poisons our mind. Zyneth’s lightning can dissipate our void—weaken us. Maybe we shouldn’t fight. Maybe we should stay here. If we stay here for just a few moments longer, the portal will be closed, and then—
No! We hiss, shaking off the intrusive thoughts as we dive for reality. The exit is narrowing, closing right in front of Zyneth as h...
2024-06-12 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post