Leon felt immeasurably better when he left his soul realm than he did when he entered it. He knew what he did and didn’t want to be, and he had the next few moves of his life planned out. He would build a new family, a new Clan, out of House Raime, and he would run it as he saw fit. No slavery, no using sentient creatures as magic power generators, and no needless and selfish conquest. Hopefu...
2020-12-14 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAfter his short talk with Nestor, Leon wandered the forest in his soul realm for a long time. He opened himself up to the sounds of nature, but since it was his soul realm, it was unnaturally quiet. Still, Leon reveled in that silence, feeling clear-headed for the first time in weeks. It had taken quite a bit of thinking and moralizing that even he found a little bit strange, but he felt like h...
2020-12-11 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLeon sat in his villa staring at a wall, at a loss as to what he should be doing with himself. The King and Penitent had an enormous amount of work to do with the western revolts, so after agreeing to accompany any force sent out to track down Octavius, Leon hadn’t stayed with them for long.
He consequently had a few questions that were left unanswered, mostly related to the whereabouts...
2020-12-09 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostLeon numbly listened as Ajax narrated the events of only two days ago from the report he’d received. Octavius had escaped from the dungeon, broken free by unknown persons who were possessed of alarming strength. The current theories in the Bull Kingdom pointed to only a few parties, with the most likely being a group of rogue actors within the government of the Talfar Kingdom trying to exact ...
2020-12-07 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe capital was fairly quiet; surprisingly so, in Jormun’s opinion. It had barely even been a month since the Bull Kingdom’s civil war had ended, so he’d expected to see their capital in an absolute flurry of activity. However, it seemed that many of the people who had fled the city had yet to return, and without the Legions there to make up the difference, the city was relatively deserte...
2020-12-04 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostAnother long chapter today, almost 6k words. 529 will also be of comparable length. ;)
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On the plane of Aeterna, the Heaven’s Eye Merchant Guild had a virtual monopoly on all banking from one side of the plane to the other. They were also the largest non-government operated group who participated in international trade, being more than capable of moving just about anythi...
Chapter further below, this is just something I wanted to say beforehand.
A lot of patrons not returning in December, so I'd figured I'd leave everyone with a 6500 word chapter to end the month. Next month, I'll be lowering the goal for bonus chapters again, and going forward I'll be increasing the minimum number of words I want for every chapter to 3,000, up from 2,000. T...
Leon’s heart was conflicted as his group returned to Teira. The weight on his mind from the thoughts he’d had in the control room of Xaphan’s prison had eased a little, but the problem persisted. In the end, he hadn’t taken the power crystal from the prison. He didn’t feel like he needed it, and that he’d go further without it.
Just setting aside the moral quandaries that the eve...
Asking Valeria to be a part of his future was a spur of the moment decision, but it wasn’t one that Leon took lightly. Neither Elise nor Maia seemed to be too surprised or perturbed by his statement, though he could feel their grips on his arms tighten so he knew there would have to be a discussion later. Given that both had expressed their support for his pursuing a romantic relationship wit...
2020-11-25 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“What in the name of the Ancestors is this place?” the Heaven’s Eye diplomat asked in wonder as Leon led them through the halls of Xaphan’s prison. He was asking the question on everyone’s mind, as Elise and the rest of the Heaven’s Eye escort stared at everything around them.
It had been surprisingly easy for Leon to convince all of them to take a different way home tha...
Well, I was surprised for the reaction when I mentioned I had decided to cut Chapter 73. Every piece of feedback I got back about that decision was that I should leave it in, and I mean every bit of feedback. It was unanimous. Caught me off-guard.
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Chapter 73, The Pool
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The events of the first two days in the Academy set the pre...
2020-11-23 04:16:20 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Elise dragged Leon and Maia off to bathe, Leon didn’t even question it. He was looking forward to being with his fire-haired lover again even though neither he nor Maia were in moods to physically express that. The three simply enjoyed the time they had together, with Leon and Maia crammed together in a small wooden tub and Elise quietly rubbing their shoulders in turn, listening to them...
2020-11-20 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeon stared back at the Forest of Black and White from the mountain pass that lead back to the Brown Bear’s vale. Everything had worked out in the end, but he couldn’t say that his time being back home had been particularly pleasant. The ice wraiths, the Gorgon, Nestor, Justin, all of it ran through his mind as he took some time to reflect on everything that had happened over the past week....
2020-11-18 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostAll too soon, Leon and his group’s time in the Heartwood grove came to an end. Leon didn’t want them to stay too long, even though the grove itself seemed to revel in his presence as much as he reveled in its. The golden leaves of the trees seemed to sparkle and glimmer more the second morning than they did the first, and Leon momentarily wondered what Nestor’s thoughts about the place wo...
2020-11-16 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe further Leon went into the Heartwood Glade, the more furious he became at Justin’s ‘apology’. While the apology itself had seemed genuine enough, Justin had not once said anything about feeling sorry for his attitude towards those with Inherited Bloodlines, showcasing that the attitude that allowed him to do what he did with a fairly clear conscience hadn’t changed. What was more, h...
2020-11-13 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Leon’s group awoke in the Heartwood Grove, the sun was already high in the sky, showing that they had all been much more tired than they had realized—they’d slept for more than twelve hours. Without the unknown fate of Justin or a mysterious Thunderbird Clan base in the mountains to push them onward, however, no one was in too much of a hurry to leave.
As a result, Leon said that ...
It was a fairly short night for Leon, mostly because of his conversations with the Thunderbird, Nestor, and starting his tutelage under the latter. A lot had been given to him to think about and to practice, and now he was greatly looking forward to returning home and getting in some much needed rest.
One thing that he still had to figure out, however, was his relationship with Valeria. Now ...
For several long hours, Nestor and the young Raime spoke at great length, with Nestor getting a feel for Leon’s current skill in enchanting. By the end of it, he wasn’t particularly enthused about Leon’s skill, but he grudgingly admitted that there was some talent there that could be nourished.
It would have to be nourished another time, however, for Leon had to get at least some
2020-11-06 16:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Leon had no reservations about leaving Valeria and Justin alone again. If they hadn’t run away the first time he and Maia had left, then he doubted they’d vanish on him now. So, after seeing Valeria’s reaction to Justin revealing some personal information that Leon guessed she didn’t know, he felt it was best to give them some space.
To that end, he and Maia found another room to get...
“So, Kamran has enemies,” Leon continued, not letting Justin stop even for a moment, “how about the old Thunderbird Clan? Do you know of any old allies of them that might be willing to aid me?”
“I can’t say, the Thunderbird Clan’s destruction was long before my time.”
Leon nodded in understanding. Justin was barely more than a hundred years old, while the Thunderbird had t...
For a while, Leon and Justin’s conversation was dry and without too much emotion. Leon, after everything that had happened over the past few hours and days, was just about done with being passionate about his enemies, especially with Nestor and Justin firmly in hand. Justin, meanwhile, was utterly defeated, and was mostly going along with whatever Valeria wanted him to do.
Leon wondered if...
Retrieving the crystal that stored all the power in the facility was fairly easy, at least compared to the moon stone. Leon’s only concern had been what might happen to the lift and the rest of the facility once it was no longer powered, but Nestor had been adamant that the enchantments running these things could still be powered individually.
It was still a little nerve-wracking for Leon ...
For a long few seconds after Leon and Naiad left her alone with her father, Valeria stared at the door, simply contemplating the implications of what Leon had just done and all that had happened over the past few hours. He’d brought her father back to her alive, and he’d left her alone with him seemingly without care that she might take the opportunity to run away.
Given how difficult it...
Well, this one's a little late, I apologize for not getting it out the Monday after the last revised chapter like I'd been hoping. Originally, I was planning on keeping most of the details of Leon and Valeria's fight, but in the end, I decided against it and just rewrote the entire chapter. Oddly enough, Leon and Valeria's initial fight was actually one of the parts of this arc that...
2020-10-26 01:26:55 +0000 UTC View Post[I couldn’t get a good look at it, but if I’m right, then that rock was touched by a Primal God,] the Thunderbird said, her tone grave. [Probably more than touched, though, if these wards are truly needed…]
Leon cocked his head and entered a more guarded pose, with Maia beside him doing likewise after seeing his caution, but he doubted it would make much of a difference if the thing wa...
Leon exited the magic power generator room—he couldn’t think of anything else to call the place—with Justin still limply slung over his shoulder. A part of him was still demanding that he set Justin down and do as the man asked, to kill him before Valeria could find them, but by now, that part of him was growing smaller and weaker with every step he took.
For his part, Justin didn’t ...
Leon sat down upon the platform that Justin had been imprisoned on, his eyes wandering the room. He felt surprisingly at peace despite the magnitude of what he’d just done; Justin would likely wake soon, and when he did, Leon’s entire world could—and probably would—change.
But he’d also finally made his choice, he’d follow through with his promise with Valeria and give J...
There he was, in the back of the room. Justin Isynos. One of the men responsible for the murder of his father, his uncle, his grandfather, and the destruction of his House.
Everything else in the room vanished, as far as Leon was concerned. He had eyes only for Justin, and he started to slowly stalk over, a dark look crossing over his face.
As he walked over, he took in the sight of the m...
Valeria sighed deeply as she stepped back from the lift panel.
“There’s no way I’m going to get this damn thing to move,” she said with a deep scowl. “The power requirements are too great for me to power myself, and besides, I think the lift has been physically locked wherever that Nestor guy took it, but I can’t say for certain.”
[But it isn’t going to move?] Naiad asked....
Leon waited with bated breath, his eyes unwaveringly locked on Nestor. He saw every tiny movement of the older man’s magic body, and at the first sign of his return to Leon’s soul realm, Leon would spring into action. He’d done everything else he could do until then, so now he had to wait.
Above him on her perch was the Thunderbird, watching Nestor as well, but also occasionally sparin...