Connor had never trusted Maths.
He’d been good at it once, back when numbers meant actual things. Apples in a basket. Change from a fiver. The number of blows it took to break a padlock. Back in Year Five, he’d even won a laminated certificate with a cartoon owl on it that said “NUMBERS WIZARD.” He’d stuck it in his bedroom windo...
2025-10-15 07:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post"I'm going to need you to carefully run me through what happened here," the Dane said, selecting the least blood-smeared of the barbershop’s remaining furniture and lowering himself onto it with the resignation of a man already drafting his apology to Oversight. "I don’t need what you say to be the unvarnished truth. I don’t even need it t...
2025-10-13 07:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“You're honestly telling this face - this face - that you don’t know who’s supplying you?” Jaz said. “What? Did you just wake up one morning and there were suddenly two keys of gear in your toilet cistern? Tell you what, mate, you must be the single luckiest drug dealer in the whole of Aston! Visited by the Heroin Fairy in the...
2025-10-11 07:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“So, were you really shot?” Jaz asked, not looking up from the glovebox as she rummaged through the mess of someone else’s receipts, breath mints, and spare mags.
“I’m sensing some scepticism,” Connor said. “Not sure I like it.”
“Well, yeah. To hear the boss tell it, you were plugged but good and died on the table s...
2025-10-09 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe air in the converted warehouse stank of stale coffee, whiteboard ink, and an aggressive sort of sweat. In fact, it smelled like the building itself had been panicking overnight and still hadn’t settled down from its nightmare. A dozen mismatched chairs formed a loose semi-circle in the middle of the space, their cushions sagging under the ...
2025-10-07 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostDespite his interdimensional exhaustion, Connor got off the bus three stops early. He didn’t glance back. You never, ever glance back. That was how you gave the game away.
Instead, he strolled into Mr Habib’s corner shop, bought a bottle of Lucozade he didn’t want, paid in change to drag the moment out, and stood beneath the convex b...
2025-10-05 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Connor put one foot in the Dungeon, everything shifted.
His spine snapped into alignment with a whispering click, like a safe being unlocked. His breath steadied and the buzz behind his eyes, the nag of old injuries, the dull knot in his knee from too many nights on concrete floors was gone. Not numbed. Gone. Like they’d never had t...
2025-10-03 07:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostConnor didn't even get to see the creature emerge through the wall.
One moment there was nothing, and then the next… there was. It was like the shining area of the wall sneezed and a growling wet shape instantly stood in front of it, hunched and jittering, like something that had been dragged from the underworld and then left to ro...
2025-10-01 07:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe Dane had been sitting next to Connor’s bed for sometime, one hand resting lightly on a folder he hadn’t yet opened. In his other was a pen he hadn’t used at all. You didn’t get to the boss’s position in life and do stupid things like actually write stuff down.
“I’m sorry, but can we just go over it all again?” he said, ...
2025-09-29 07:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Babes, listen. Listen! I know I said I’d come straight home, and when I said it, I meant it, I did. From the deepest bit of my soul. But the lads’ve had a shocker of a week. Gav’s just crawled off the night shift smelling like diesel, Dean’s nan’s back in hospital with that thing they still haven’t named, and Keith, well, Keith’...
2025-09-27 07:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostConnor realised he’d not been listening to the enthusiastically wittering voice for quite some time.
Not out of rudeness, though that was a tempting option at this stage of proceedings, but rather because he’d been trying to determine quite how much trouble he was actually in.
He’d read about things like this happening. One min...
2025-09-25 07:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“—through and through, right upper chest. No lung collapse but he's hypotensive, pressure's crashing. He's lost over a litre, someone get that O-negative up here now!"
A hand slapped his skin. Velcro tore and pain erupted in his skull.
"—exit wound’s clean, but he’s bradycardic. Pupils—Christ, look at his pup...
2025-09-23 07:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“... and I’m halfway through peeling off her onesie, right, when she looks me dead in the eye and says, ‘Do you want to see my collection?’ No context. That’s all there was. Like she was casting a spell or something.”
The massively oversized man in the Hawaiian shirt paused as his story elicited whoops and cackles from...
2025-09-21 07:06:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Arclight, stop!” I shouted, hauling Eryn to her feet. I grabbed and pulled her back toward the others as the two Primal Forms tumbled from the dissipating black smoke in a blur of golden fur and dark purple scales.
They were a chaotic vortex of teeth and claws, rolling across the scorched earth in a tangle of limbs, kicking up clouds ...
2025-09-18 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe world swam back into focus as the mattress moved beneath me. I blinked, my mind still foggy with sleep, seeing Eryn nearly bouncing up and down as she got dressed in her adventuring kit.
“Slept well?” I murmured, my tongue fat.
She turned with a smile so bright it outshone the early morning sun and popped a Mind Gem int...
2025-09-16 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next few days we settled into a rhythm of stability, one I hadn’t known for a long time. While Dawnwatch buzzed with the frantic energy of repairs and reinforcements, our small circle turned inward, focusing on improving ourselves.
With their soul weapons at breakthrough, Eryn had convinced Lan to join her in picking up shifts a...
2025-09-14 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostI smiled at Eryn where she sat across from me at the dining room table, nursing a mug with both hands as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. I’d never seen her hair this wild before. It looked like the weeds tumbling past outside Dawnwatch, and I loved how she let me see her this way. The shadows under her eyes and the redness of not q...
2025-09-12 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFey stomped her foot angrily. I looked to Ragul for help but interestingly enough, the vampire seemed to be on her side for once.
“You haven’t shaved, and you stink,” she claimed. “Didn’t you say you took a bath this morning? What were you doing?”
“I—I bathed,” I lied. “Yesterday.”
“In orc sweat, no less...
2025-09-11 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostKnut’s room was crowded.
Nabeeh lay strapped to the reinforced bed, a forced, brittle smile on her face. Eryn held her hand tied down, while Knut stood guard by the door like a mountain. Katherine was preparing to heal, a focused, professional calm about her. Mara stood in the corner, an intimidating observer, and Lan lingered awkw...
2025-09-10 11:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostMy head hurt even more than the wound in my ribs. And it wasn’t just the hangover either. I was in the throne room sitting next to Seldon with Stein standing to my left looking at the crowded chamber of the dead king. Would this never end? Was I ever going to have another day for myself?
The questions roamed through my mind as I gazed ov...
2025-09-09 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIt was afternoon by the time I re
turned home. Sitting cross-legged on my bed, Roq rested across my lap. The house was quiet. Knut was out escorting Katherine to lunch before her big assist with Nabeeh’s breakthrough, Lan was…somewhere, while Eryn and Nabeeh were outside practicing with Eryn’s new skill.
Pa and Torsten had star...
2025-09-08 11:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Ragul,” I said. “The usual, please.” I looked over to my side where Arstemion was burning a hole into my chair at the bar. I didn’t want to say anything. I’d make new chairs. I had time now.
Nobody even gave the demon general a look. As his legions chased the Quinta north, Sankta Varathians returned to what they did best, cele...
2025-09-07 11:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe last of the stew was scraped from our bowls and Ma’s lemon pie had been utterly vanquished by a king who had, for a brief period, been more than just a warhammer. He’d been a part of the family, eating, rather messily perhaps, but eating with us nonetheless.
Roq was back in his normal form now, leaning against my chair, likel...
2025-09-06 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostTarga grabbed a golden soldier by the throat and raised him to eyesight. He smacked his twitching body into the ground, growled pulling his axe back, and then split the Quinta’s skull.
The large angry orc glanced at me as I stepped through the portal and into the Ashpit. The leader of the Loco Bruego was covered in blood and much of it w...
2025-09-05 11:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe officials and Harold left, leaving me to stand with Pa, Ma, and Edwin on the plot of land behind the smithy.
The commander clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“You’re not wrong, Ash,” Edwin said, his voice low enough that only I could hear. “About going on the offensive. At least, not in my view. But Central Command… they se...
2025-09-04 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostTowers of smoke rose from the Temple District. The ancient grounds of worship were now a stronghold for the north men. Except for Morgefah’s temple and a bit of collateral damage on the others, the Quinta left most of it intact. I couldn’t tell whether it was out of respect for the Gods or simply for practical reasons, but either way the hom...
2025-09-03 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“…and then the Emmets chased us for a long time. By the time we closed on the Ironclad Ravine, we had finally outrun them.”
I didn’t mention how Roq had carried Knut and I, while the girls all held onto him, running alongside. It had given us enough distance that by the time I ran out of mana and he turned back into a warhammer, Er...
2025-09-02 11:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI never thought I’d see such a dawn. It felt like the sun itself served the Emperor and his fanatics by shedding its rays over the shining army to blind us. Shimmering, sparkling streams of Quinta funneled through our streets like molten gold through a webbed canyon. Pillars of smoke billowed as tall and thick banners with the five-pointed sta...
2025-09-01 11:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe tunnel was one giant, muddy throat, and we were being swallowed.
I’d been carving a path through the tunnel for what felt like an hour, but probably was only several minutes. Each step was a battle, one where monsters from the darkness threatened to take someone from me. Eryn kept our back clear, clogging up the path with dead carcas...
2025-08-31 15:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe world became a churning, muddy, watery hell.
I was thrown end over end, the thick, soupy brown water a suffocating blanket. The gritty taste of mud and the foul stench of crushed eggs and rot filled my senses anytime my head made it up out of the water. All the while, my ill-fitting armor felt like a cage designed to drown me.
I ...
2025-08-29 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post