The next night passes in a surreal blur of heat and the rhythmic drumming of Poppy’s footfalls as we race across the desert. The loose sand begins to become more firm, gradually giving way to cracked, dry clay. I spend the hours riding working on Attuning more of my blood. Surprisingly, it only takes two more of these Attunement sessions before I’m done. We only have about a hundred and fif...
2024-12-20 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs the sun rises and we get ready for bed, I notice a problem. There are five of us and only two tents.
“The others were destroyed by the reapers,” Quell says, apologetically. “But they’re each big enough for two people, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Darian says. “That should give us enough beds for ...
2024-12-18 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI gradually wake to a pounding headache and the sound of hushed voices. A fire is crackling nearby and warming my face. I risk squinting an eye open. It’s dark out.
My mind swirls with disorientation. How did I get here? Why am I at a campfire? Who are these people? What happened?
But as I stare at the strange people sitting across from me, recognition slowly dawns. The huma...
2024-12-16 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWe arrive at Peakshadow the following evening, an hour or so before the sun will slip beneath the surrounding hills. The town is murmuring with quiet, everyday life.
I don’t recognize any of it.
I’m not sure what I’d been expecting. Maybe flashbacks to when the predator first possessed me, crushing my freewill like a bug. Perhaps I’d see a familiar house or patch of street a...
2024-12-15 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post[Crimson Aegis removed from Inventory.]
The wyvern’s jaws smash into the shield, crushing me into the ground.
The Aegis’s conscience bursts into my mind at the same moment, briefly looking about in confusion. We’ve moved again! Where are—Oh! That’s a lot of teeth. Is it time for another fight?
“Endure!” I cry. Magic flashes over the surface of the shield as the s...
2024-12-13 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostQuell had been busy while I was asleep. After waiting for the guard rotation to pass us by—a schedule Quell had apparently spent some time deducing—we leave camp and make for a cluster of rocks a hundred yards away. Behind that is a star drake, already loaded up and waiting for us.
“At least we won’t have to worry about dying of dehydration,” I say, noting all the water skins. 2024-12-11 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, Patrons! I wanted to thank you for your support over the last year. I can't express how much I appreciate you all!
Can you believe it's been 12 months since I started posting my stories? A lot has happened since then! I never thought Podium would want to make an audiobook of my weird little book. But here we are! Glass Kanin will be publishing on KU and Audible on January 14th, 202...
2024-12-09 21:50:38 +0000 UTC View PostDespite Quell’s clear interest in the report on his sister, Captain Darian leaves with her guard to go examine the evidence of the Moonfall’s trail. Quell’s face falls as she leaves, and he and I are left alone.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” I say, awkwardly attempting to comfort him. “Darian seems capable.”
“Oh, she is,” Quell agrees, glancing away from where the...
2024-12-09 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostEach afternoon, Caecius tells me to come back the next morning to work on a new piece with her, so I do. It’s not exactly how I intended to learn about glass magic, but I suspect I’m getting a better education here than I would have in some formal educational setting. I have to get Zyneth to recharge my illusion spell each night, but it’s a small price to pay for access to such knowledge....
2024-12-08 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Well, come on,” Quell says, heading for the front of the tent and holding the flap open for me.
Outside the sky has turned purple, pink clouds swallowing up the stars. The sun is still hidden behind a dune, but I doubt it will be for much longer. Guards fall into step behind Quell and I as we move away from the tent, though mercifully they hang back far enough to allow me to speak to...
2024-12-06 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHello all! If you're reading this, then the first book of Friendly Fyre is complete on Patreon! Thank you all SO MUCH for reading, and for all of your support!
There will be more Friendly Fyre books to come.
I admit, I did not expect this book to be as popular as it has become. I never would have guessed a cozy genderbender, pseudo-kingdom builder, and weird take on a Dungeon Core ...
2024-12-05 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostPink and yellow sunlight spills over the palace as we drift silently over the arctic. All the guards, all the harpies, all the Fyrethians, from the original and lost colony alike, step outside to squint against the sun. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen it.
Ollie is with me, curled up on the balcony outside the throne room. His tail is hanging over the edge of th...
2024-12-05 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe shield appears in the air before me, immediately lashing itself to my arm like a handsy kid afraid of being dropped.
Oh! We’re in a tent now? How did we get inside? Is it time to fight something?
“Gods’ grace,” Constance murmurs. He draws his sword as well, and magic similarly swirls around his hand: holding it in place, I realize, much how the Aegis clings to me.<...
2024-12-04 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostUsing the throne’s spell network, I don’t need the Dungeon Core’s interface in order to “see” across my kingdom. I can intuit the exact inflections of my rudders. I know how much lift the cloudstone is providing. I can tell the precise heading, pitch, and altitude of the Fortress at any given moment.
Okay, so it’s not “seeing,” exactly, but neither is using the Dungeon Cor...
2024-12-03 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe arachnoid guard Xamireb holds the flap of the tent open for us. I roll my shoulder and crack my neck, the aches of the battle finally starting to catch up to me, then duck inside after Quell.
The tent is the size of a large room, and several rugs and pillows cover the ground. No chairs, though. There’s a leather map spread over the center of the floor, around which the pillows are a...
2024-12-02 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostI'm approaching the end of the first draft of the Kanin Fodder (Book 3 of the Kanin series). Based on the first poll results, I will be giving a name to the predator. I've narrowed it down to a handful of options. I'm curious to see which you would prefer. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to make them in the comments!
2024-12-02 04:14:44 +0000 UTC View PostThere’s no time to fight off the predator and the thugs at once, so I pick my battle. If I can’t convince the predator from the outside, maybe I can direct it from within.
We sidestep the dryad as they rush toward us. Void snakes out from the bottom of our coat and grabs their leg as they pass. They trip with a cry, and go crashing to the ground.
Their friends laugh. “What was...
2024-12-01 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs the remnant’s influence spread through the fortress, following the instructions of its organic companion, memories tickled at its mind. It had once been interfaced with the fortress in such a way before. Some time in the past. It didn’t know how long ago, because it didn’t have any concept of time. Except for when the other voice intervened, with counters and numbers and all sorts of n...
2024-11-30 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI let my head fall back on the sand and exhale my relief. I can feel my heartbeat pulsing through my entire body, adrenaline still pumping through my veins, exhaustion and soreness aching through my muscles. Kind of missing that refresh that comes with a level-up.
If another cactus shows up before this night is out, I think I’m just going to let it eat me. Lord, I could use a drink.&nbs...
2024-11-29 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMirzayael stabs forward as I step back, diving into the Dungeon Core’s interface to access the throne room’s spell circuit. It takes me three seconds to find what I need.
I grab the spell lines powering the crystal lights in this chamber, and I snuff them out.
The room plunges into darkness.
Well, near darkness. The Fortress itself is still lit, and the distant light from ...
2024-11-28 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostDespite all evidence to the contrary, Prince Quell displays he does, in fact, have some common sense in him as he skids to a stop just short of the nearest cactus limb. I catch up to him half a second later, lunging around him and slamming my shield into the ground as the cactus turns and jabs in our direction. I activate Devour, which pleases the Aegis to no end, and the part of the vine that...
2024-11-27 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI duck down beneath Ollie’s spine ridges as a spray of ice and stone showers us. My legs are squeezed tight around his neck, and my hands have a death-grip on his scales—even my wings are wrapped around more of his spines in a desperate bid for extra purchase. My veins are full of adrenaline, and I can feel every beat of my heart pulse throughout my body. I’ve never been so afraid, and so...
2024-11-26 17:53:51 +0000 UTC View PostI run across the desert, swearing at every little inconvenience that has become my life. Sand is in my boots, making every step annoying and uncomfortable.
“Stupid sand,” I growl, squinting when a breeze blows a gust up into my face as if in retaliation. I cough up the grains and blink grit out of my eyes. “Stupid desert! Stupid, stupid prince.”
[Sanity Level: 94%]
... 2024-11-25 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostIn the telepad square, I find a job board, which is probably where I should have started. The wall has several messages pinned to its surface, some of them magically affixed, some of them mundane. A lot of them are asks for package deliveries or miscellaneous repairs.
It’s not all dedicated to odd jobs, however. One section of the board features a single crisp piece of parchment, upon w...
2024-11-24 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAs Dizzi begins organizing the harpies and laying out our plan, I turn to Fyreneth’s throne. I should be able to finish the remaining stone conversions from here. Connecting to the spell network in the throne now might even help me jumpstart the process once everything is complete.
Are you ready? I ask the Dungeon Core. It’s time to interface with the throne. Since o...
2024-11-23 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“On your feet.” The arachnoid soldier prods me as I still lay there, mind whirring a mile a minute.
Someone out there—gods, or demigods, or whatever—knows why people like Hans and I are here. Or at least, they know we are here, and they’re looking for us. Until I know why, and that they have our best interest in heart—and let’s be honest, that doesn’t s...
2024-11-22 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe Jorrian troops send vibrations through the ice as thousands of armored boots stomp against the ground in time. Through the Dungeon Core, I count them by the number of footfalls. I determine they’ve come with direwolves and larger beasts by their gait. I feel the wheels rolling over the ice from whatever machines of war they’ve dragged with. They’re not in a hurry. Their movements are ...
2024-11-21 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI groan, managing not to fall forward onto the sword.
“Throw down your weapons immediately,” the woman orders, still keeping the sword level at my throat.
My vision is starting to swim back into focus. I hope I don’t have a concussion. “That might be difficult if I’m not supposed to move.”
The woman narrows her eyes at me. “Don’t get cheeky.”
She...
2024-11-20 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMy mind moves through the stone, buoyed along by the Dungeon Core. The Core is delighted by all the work I’ve been giving it of late. We zip through veins of rock like electrons on a circuit, flashing through the network of spells strung together throughout the fortress by threads of mana-conducting stone. It’s enormously complex—more than my mortal mind can comprehend at once. But for th...
2024-11-19 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post[Sanity Level: 100%]
Eyes wide, the prince opens and shuts his mouth. Then he opens it again. “Are you, um, quite sure you’re not here to kill me?”
His voice is quakey and ridiculously posh. I laugh, but the sound that comes out of my mouth is foreign, with a slightly crazed edge. I snap my mouth shut just as quick, amusement turning into alarm. The mental fog th...
2024-11-18 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post