They began to feel the bite of the missing supplies on the third day.
Angharad had measured her portions from the start, planning for four days’ worth of meals. Formal registration with the duelling circuit had exempted her from ever having to attend isikole, the mandatory four-year schooling, but Mother had seen to it she received some of the training nonetheless. She had not ...
2022-10-21 04:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostLady Ferranda Villazur, wide awake and miffed at rats invading her camp, pointed her pistol at him.
Though she must be a decent shot, Tristan was more worried by Sanale carefully aiming his long-barrelled musket. Malani had a reputation for being good shots and the same was true of huntsmen: a man who was both was not to be trifled with. Pressing his knife tighter against Lan’s throat, ...
2022-10-14 04:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt was an unusual experience, Tristan mused, to be treating others using a poisoner’s kit in ways he had largely learned through study of interrogation. Not that anyone could tell the difference.
“I don’t need a stick to bite down on,” Felis insisted. “It’s just a little pain, I can take it.”
In most circumstances, the man might even have been right: regular use of dus...
2022-10-07 04:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe sharp crack echoes against the stone, smoke billowing past the open door.
There is a grunt of pain but men still rush past the threshold: tall, becloaked, bearing blades. Mother bares her own, undaunted by the numbers, but a shot sounds from the back and she staggers. Red blooms on her chemise, deep in the belly, and she lets out a wet gasp before she is struck across the...
2022-09-30 04:00:39 +0000 UTC View PostIt was an old road, nibbled at by the elements the way crabs would nibble at a corpse, but it had held up well.
Enough so their pace across the plain was swift even though two of their crew were old. Vanesa was in better shape than Francho, whose cough resurfaced with often, but Tristan would still bet on the toothless old man in a fight: she’d candidly admitted that without her spectac...
2022-09-23 04:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThey’d not left the campsite for half an hour before it got worse.
“We agreed to pool our men together, Ferranda,” Augusto Cerdan shouted. “You would go back on your word?”
“I gave no word,” Lady Ferranda Villazur evenly replied, “and go back on nothing. If you assumed, Cerdan, that is on your head alone.”
The eldest of the Cerdan brothers was the on...
2022-09-16 04:00:25 +0000 UTC View PostLieutenant Sihle had said the road began half a mile ahead and that was where they found it.
Tristan was no tracker, not so far from dirty alleyways, but though the ancient paving stones were half-covered by dirt and dead leaves they were too large to be missed by anyone with eyes. The woods were light on either side but grew thicker swiftly, leaving the impression of a path cleared thoro...
2022-09-09 04:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostPeople could be funny about death, Tristan thought.
Dozens died in Sacromonte’s gutters every day and no one batted an eye, but if you tossed forty bodies on pyres and made people look at them suddenly it was the greatest tragedy in the world. Watching Isabel Ruesta bawling her eyes out the thief held back from rolling his own. Her admirers were already flocking to offer her sweet words...
2022-09-02 04:00:45 +0000 UTC View PostTeeth shattered most satisfyingly under her boot, the mantic whimpering as it fled. Angharad added a flourish to her wrist purely for effect, spearing the spirit from behind and nailing it to the deck before setting a fang-strewn boot on its head and ripping her saber clear. She flicked the ichor off the blade, eyes scanning the lower deck for enemies. Her comrade-in-arms did the same from her ...
2022-08-26 04:02:47 +0000 UTC View PostTristan needed a way in.
The infanzones had claimed a corner of the hold and were entertaining the sole foreigner they’d decided was worth their time, mere feet away but far beyond his reach. The thief did have to admit the Malani they’d picked was a fearsome specimen, with two inches of height on him and a build hinting she could handle that saber she was dragging around. Unlike the ...
2022-08-26 04:02:44 +0000 UTC View PostThey were waiting for her at Fishmonger’s Quay.
Every street had a pair of redcloaks watching passers-by, forcing any hooded or veiled to show their faces before they were let through. Angharad, keeping to the alleys, saw how they compared the faces to small pieces of parchment. She was only able to get close enough to see it was a drawing, but that told her enough: her hunters knew wha...
2022-08-26 04:02:40 +0000 UTC View PostHello again!
I'm back from my break with another series for you to read, as promised. The first book of Pale Lights, titled 'Lost Things', will be debuting on 26th just as planned. It's been pretty great to work on and I hope you'll be as taken with reading the series as I have been with writing it!
With a new series I'...
2022-08-20 15:27:31 +0000 UTC View PostHey!
First off, as was mentioned in the pitch for the perk in question the extra chapters that were Patreon-only are on the main site now that the book is over. If any of you didn't enjoy reading them because of the Patreon format, I'd encourage you to have a look there.
With that out of the way, well, we got to the end of the road. Occasionally wondered if I ever would, especially ...
2022-02-27 17:25:54 +0000 UTC View Post“Beware the gap between the lesson taught and the lesson learned.”
- Delosi saying
Eudokia mostly remembered being hungry.
She wasn’t sure how she had ended up on the street, but then most of the others didn’t either. They begged by the thoroughfare with worn bowls, getting coppers or scraps when they weren’t being chased off by the guards, and it was a rare...
2022-02-08 05:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostDue to the size of the final chapters of the series (usually around twice my usual chapter length) there's going to be a delay to the February extra chapter's release. Instead of coming out on the 1st it will be coming out on the 8th, which gives me a little more breathing room work-wise. Apologies for the delay, I hope you'll enjoy both the final arc of the Guide and Scriven when it comes out!...
2022-01-28 22:50:02 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the February extra chapter. One vote per patron, it will close on the 14th. Since Book VII is still scheduled to end in February, this will likely be the least of the extra chapters. Other announcements will be coming when the series comes to a close, but for now vote!
Scriven
A look at Eudokia as a young girl and what drove her to become the Scr...
2022-01-07 20:39:27 +0000 UTC View Post“You don’t want to be the best sword on Calernia, kids. That’s the one everyone’s always trying to kill. No, if you want to make a career of this aim to be the fifth finest sword – high enough they pay you well, low enough no one would really gain by offing you. Maybe it’s not the dream, kids, but unlike the dream it’s a living.”
- Transcribed lecture of the duell...
2022-01-07 06:18:07 +0000 UTC View PostDue to delays brought about by my recovery from Covid and the crunch of ending the last book, the January extra chapter will be coming out with the second update of the month, Friday the 7th, instead of the first.
My apologies for the wait,
E.E.
2022-01-04 04:30:32 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the January extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 10th.
Scriven
A look at Eudokia as a young girl and what drove her to become the Scribe - and eventually make Assassin.
Blessings
Adanna of Smyrna on her way to becoming the Blessed Artificer, living in Ashur but never far from Praes' shadow.
<...
2021-12-03 21:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Hatred is more reliable than love for even good men may become ingrates but few will renounce a grudge. To make hatred for the sake of being loved is to trade iron for tin.”
- Extract from the treatise “On Rule”, author unknown (widely believed to be Prince Bastien of Arans)
General Rumena’ivedran’ikole had always hated Great Perun.
It was a pustule of a ...
2021-12-03 05:01:13 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the December extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 9th.
Tomb
A look at the drow general that became Mighty Rumena, from the last days of the Empire Ever Dark to the moment it earned its famous epithet.
Scriven
A look at Eudokia as a young girl and what drove her to become the Scribe - and even...
2021-11-02 04:07:51 +0000 UTC View Post“To be good?
An empty boast.
To be good at!
There is the glory,
even in devilry.”
- Extract from the play “I, Triumphant”, author unknown, banned by decree of the Tower under Terribilis II
Rosalind hadn’t been a Fairfax until there were no Fairfaxes left. She still remembered the knight that’d taken her...
2021-11-02 04:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the October extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 9th.
Challengers
The Calamities held Callow against all comers for decades. A peek at what that was like, from the perspective of the heroes come to challenge them.
Scriven
A look at Eudokia as a young girl and what drove her to become the Scribe - a...
2021-10-02 16:38:01 +0000 UTC View Post“We fear Evil as we fear the wave that drowns us, but it rests atop an ocean of smaller evils.”
- Extract from the transcript of the 'Sermon of the Shores', as spoken by Sister Salienta
Of all the ships in her father’s fleet, Hye Su loved the Venerable Tortoise the most.
It wasn’t like the others because it’d come from across the Tyrian Sea, from Asadal: the...
2021-10-01 05:00:59 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the October extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 11th.
Legacy
A look at how Akua Sahelian was raised and how she came to be the Heiress.
Hunt
A look at Hye Su's early days before she became the Ranger, living with her extraordinary parents while being pursued by the Emerald Swords.
Ca...
2021-09-04 16:14:46 +0000 UTC View Post“The only true kindness is that offered to a passing stranger, when there can be no expectation of reward.”
- Melete the Stern, Atalante philosopher
Hanno did not feel as if he had come to a city, though the Gigantes called it such.
Hemera was nothing like what he had known, the cramped and organized streets of Arwad. The airy halls of the Gigantes were scattered ...
2021-09-03 04:01:24 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the September extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 11th.
Stranger
A piece centered on Hanno and Antigone, set in the years they spent under the tutelage of the Gigantes.
Hellhound
A look at Juniper's childhood and early years in the College, studying how they shaped the woman she grew into.
<...
2021-08-04 21:31:13 +0000 UTC View Post“Good and Evil are a false dichotomy, each claiming to perfect while the other is imperfect. Neither holds any meaning: imperfection was seeded at the heart of Creation before its first breath. The sole lucid decision that can be made understanding this is to overcome that imperfection, to transgress beyond the confines of mortality.”
- Translation of the Kabbalis Book of Dar...
2021-08-03 04:00:48 +0000 UTC View Post“How many will ever see a devil in their lifetime? Evil first the province of men, for it is we who inflict it to each other.”
- Isocrates the Harsh, Atalante preacher
Constanza could have blamed it on the potion, but now she knew better: it’d been her. She’d gotten too comfortable, too soft. When the fat men from Mercantis came waddling into camp, asking about her ...
2021-07-02 04:00:40 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the poll for the August extra chapter! One vote per patron, it will close on the 8th.
Stranger
A piece centered on Hanno and Antigone, set in the years they spent under the tutelage of the Gigantes.
Hellhound
A look at Juniper's childhood and early years in the College, studying how they shaped the woman she grew into.