azaleaellis

Chapter 1.10 - In which Healer Clements has strange customers

Roger

Month 9, Day 28, Tuesday 6:00 a.m.

Roger Clements woke to the sound of someone pounding insistently on his door before the sun had even fully risen. He would have ignored the clamor, except for the same reason that he didn’t wear noise-muffling ear plugs to sleep. Sometimes, people came to him at odd hours with emergencies where some unfortunate life hung on the line.

...

Chapter 171 - Infernal Covenants

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday

From her knees, Siobhan fell back into a seated position, crossing her legs and ignoring the pain from her ankle. ‘At least I realized in time how stupid I was being. I didn’t actually do it. But obviously I need to reassess my decisions. Is this abnormally impaired judgement, or am I just that foolish?’

Will-strain started with he...

Chapter 1.9 - In which Percy is scolded excessively

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Monday 1:55 a.m.

Disturbed, Percy set the talisman atop his bundle of filthy clothing. “Did that hag put some sort of glamour over the talisman to make me think it was actually worth it?” A compulsion magic would explain why he had dropped his suspicions and actually tried to purchase it.

But that still wouldn’t explain the tattoo. As he looked clo...

Chapter 170 - The Heart of the Sun

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday

Siobhan may have blacked out for a moment—maybe more than once—as the world spun with strange incoherent imagery and flashes of light and darkness, a song from the void reaching out to her with velvet tendrils.

Rough hands on her arms and around her waist, making her abdomen moan out in pain. The Pendragon’s guards terrified eyes matched wi...

Slight Delay

Hey guys,

You may remember I mentioned that I was going to be away from home and my writing computer for a few days. (But that I would schedule the chapter).

Well I had planned to schedule the chapter on Wednesday, but I crashed and burned that day with what might have been a 24-hour illness or might have just been extreme fatigue mixed with good old-fashioned muscle soreness.

Chapter 1.8 - In which Percy is a bad influence

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Monday 1:35 a.m.

Percy scratched at the edge of the tattoo, but no artificial edge peeled up. He licked one of his fingers, then regretted it because of the bitter, dirty taste, but still used the wet digit to rub at the black lines on his skin.

Percy stared at it in astonishment, turning his skin to better catch the light. It didn’t hurt or have any t...

Chapter 169 - A Cloak of Shadows

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday

Siobhan squinted against the light, ignoring the screams of the guards outside the room while she took stock of her situation as quickly as possible. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she wasn’t starving or severely dehydrated. She did badly need to urinate, so it must have been at least a few hours.

The faintest twinge of cold need...

Recruitment Drive Blooper Scene

[Set in a non-canonical alternate dimension as the first human tests of the sleep-proxy spell approach in Chapter 154 – “Experimenting in Humans.” This “blooper” scene did not actually happen, unlike most of the other bonus content.]

Sebastien recruits human test subjects for the sleep-proxy spell. They are suspicious of her intentions.

This and other audio bonu...

Chapter 1.7 - In which Percy has a tattoo

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Monday 1:00 a.m.

The pain of a horrible headache dragged Percy to wakefulness. He blinked at the darkness, the a brick wall resolving into legibility as the blurriness receded from his eyes, visible only due to the dim yellow light coming from somewhere to his left.

Groaning, Percy rolled over onto his side, then took a break to manage the spike of pain ...

Children's Rhyme - Harry Harold Had no Hands Audiobook

[Accompanying Book 4's "Harry Harold Had no Hands"/ Chapter 147]

This rhyme details the life and untimely demise of Harry Harold, who had no hands but cast through his jeweled shoes. In cadence, it is often accompanied by clapping and footwork, or in more ominous tones, recited to children around the fire and as they are tucked into bed.

This and other audio bonus content...

Chapter 168 - Raven Clouds

Thaddeus

Month 4, Day 9, Friday 9:00 a.m.

Everyone in the room except for Thaddeus was nervous, though some hid it better than others. He had taken one of the best seats in the back corner of Harrow Hill’s third floor meeting room, positioned next to a window.

An entire row of distagrams sat against one of the walls, manned by a couple of nervous-looking young coppers. Every...

Chapter 1.6 - In which Percy activates the talisman

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Sunday 4:30 p.m.

Hours later, Percy finally left the copper station, having given his statement and apologized to Copper Shelleck, who merely grunted, giving him a suspicious and wounded look—until Copper Alma elbowed the man sharply in the side.

Percy looked up at the grey autumn sky and then, with weary paranoia, checked for any obvious danger or opp...

Chapter 167 - Eigengrau

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday

In an ironic boon, with Siobhan’s panic at the thought of death had come something else—a very faint burn, a muted rush. Adrenaline. Relief tumbled through her so violently she probably would have felt dizzy with it if not for this strange sensory deprivation effect.

It was enough for her to conclude that she wasn’t dead, and her body was s...

Chapter 1.5 - In which Lieutenant Robards sympathizes

Calder

Month 9, Day 27, Sunday 4:30 p.m.

Standing beside Copper Alma at the window, Calder took a sip of plain black tea as he watched young Mr. Irving walk through the station’s gates, wearing his now-dry clothing but still hunching against the bite of the cold. The boy looked both ways, twice, before stepping past the gates and hurrying down the sidewalk. Calder recognized the p...

Recruitment Drive [pre Chapter 154]

Sebastien

Set in a non-canonical alternate dimension as the first human tests of the sleep-proxy spell approach in Chapter 154 - "Experimenting in Humans." This "blooper" scene did not actually happen, unlike most of the other bonus content.

As she looked through the carriage win...

Chapter 166 - Poisoned Pawn

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday 9:45 a.m.

Judging by the lack of nearby screams, curses, or sounds of movement, Millennium and the others were completely unconscious. In the stable behind them, horses were whinnying and the workers were alarmed, but the vague sounds of a deep voice she couldn’t quite make out comforted them. One of their attackers, most likely.

Siobhan couldn...

Chapter 1.4 - In which Percy goes "down to the station"

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Sunday 1:15 p.m.

The shame of accidentally incapacitating the copper in such an embarrassing way brought Percy back to his senses, and with some flailing—on Percy’s part from incompetence, and on the copper’s part from debilitating pain—they managed to make it to the surface. With help from one of the small boats traversing the canal and people on the ...

Chapter 165 - Carried on the Wind

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday 9:40 a.m.

Siobhan suppressed her fear and all the instincts to flee or fight that it encouraged. If there was ever a time to use all the lessons she had ever learned from Ennis and act as if her life depended on it, that time was now. She let out a loud, breathy laugh and pressed a fluttering hand to her chest. “Oh, my! I apologize, sir! You...

Chapter 164 - A Foreboding of Woe

Siobhan

Month 4, Day 9, Friday 9:00 a.m.

It was the morning of the sentencing, and not all was well with Operation Palimpsest.

Siobhan waited in the private room at the back of the Kaiseki Ryori with a raven in a covered cage, inside a box meant to keep people from noticing any suspicious bird cages and drawing connections. She opened the window’s shutter just a smidge to lo...

Chapter 1.3 - In which Percy bathes in the canal

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Sunday 1:05 p.m.

“She probably didn’t have a license to set up a street stall here,” Percy muttered, gazing after her and the pursuing coppers.

Contrasting her appearance, which suggested an old woman, the hag was surprisingly spry. She ducked and weaved through the congested traffic near blocked off canal bridge with such alacrity that he doubted ...

Chapter 163 - Refinement of the Nine Heavens

Sebastien

Month 4, Day 7, Wednesday 7:00 p.m.

When Sebastien grew frustrated at her continued failure with both the journal and light-refinement, she turned her attention to one of the other esoteric spells she’d memorized. Turning the tip of her finger into a burning coal wasn’t something she could practice, but learning to leave an invisible tracking mark on something was poss...

Chapter 1.2 - In which Percy is conned

Percy

Month 9, Day 27, Sunday 1:00 p.m.

Three weeks earlier, Percy’s life was still normal. Or, as normal as it could get for someone with luck as bad as his.

It was the end of his shift at the bakery, he had been sent on an important delivery of some delicate pastries, and Percy was lost. “I’m going to be late!” he muttered to himself, turning in a circle before re-re...

Chapter 162 - Split-Will Training

Sebastien

Month 4, Day 1, Thursday 10:55 a.m.

‘Perhaps splitting your Will isn’t actually so hard, just like casting through a Conduit held somewhere beside your hands or your forehead isn’t so hard. Maybe, the only real barrier is getting stuck in a mental rut, just like Professor Lacer talks about. Maybe, if everyone wasn’t so convinced it was impossible, it would be e...