eligos

Pyrrhic II (First Draft)

There’s a lot to learn, living rough in a place like the Sanctum. It wasn’t like I could walk into a trade-post and buy supplies. Even if I wore a mask, my eyes were a dead giveaway.

What you can eat and what you can’t becomes a weekly gamble that could turn daily at any given time. Shelf life is a serious concern. Dehydrating and ...

Double-Blind CH13

In the early thirties, while the rest of the world was experiencing a hard come down from the roaring twenties, an Australian Major named Meredith was given a simple task. He was to cull an invasive species plaguing local farmers in a venture later known as The Great Emu war. And he didn’t skimp on resources. Meredith brought a trained army, ...

2022-02-07 04:22:56 +0000 UTC View Post

131. Pyrrhic I (First Draft)

Lokerias shivered in the cold, stifling a cough. He had always been prone to illness, but his now threadbare apparel, along with the drastic shift in temperature between Sanctum chambers hadn’t done him any favors. He wished, not for the first time, that his genealogy had far more water mages, and far less from the earth. If they had an unlim...

2022-02-05 03:10:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH12

The dungeon lobby was not what I expected. White marble flooring divided into squares paved a large open space penned in by glass. A receptionist’s desk, complete with a widescreen computer monitor and a rather geriatric looking qual-comm phone, stood near the front. There was a wide swathe of wall behind the desk where a corporate logo would...

2022-02-03 02:25:51 +0000 UTC View Post

130. Interlude: Thaddeus

Something dark was brewing in the heart of Uskar. It had always been a hard place, rife with rebellion and uprisings, all-but-requiring a distasteful excess of brutality to keep in line.

But this felt different. Like an old ghost come home to ruin. Chaos.

Thaddeus, the king’s spymaster, felt like he hadn’t slept in years. His j...

Double-Blind CH1-11 (Draft 2)

AN: Hi all. This is the beginning of a new pro

2022-02-01 04:16:04 +0000 UTC View Post

129. Interlude ? (Sanctum Epilogue)

129. Interlude ?

The Black Beast watched from the Celestial darkness on the happenings below. He was neither the designer of the elaborate machine, nor an actor within it. He was simply its keeper. As the many centuries rolled on, one after another, he performed his duties stalwartly and without complaint. But even he was not without des...

128. Interlude: Bellarex II

“Are you certain?” Ralakos asked.

“Erdos is the only loose end.” Cairn looked so haggard in the memory that Bellarex barely recognized him. He was slumped over in Ralakos’s sitting room, staring at the fire.

“Seems rather cold, even if you do see him as your enemy.” Ralakos stirred his tea, his gaze never leaving the ...

127. Interlude: Bellarex I

Bellarex focused on her breathing. In and out. The crowd roared as she delivered the final blow. The strike cleaved through his armor, leaving the skin beneath intact. It was an undue mercy, and she knew that. But there was no sense harming an already beaten enemy.

Her opponent, a violet infernal with moderately powerful fire magic had b...

126. Sanctum XLX (First Draft)

Thoth smiled. Her mouth was still bloody. “Foolish. You know I’ll tear through that sad little host behind you, so you’re offering yourself as a noble sacrifice. I thought you’d realize that wouldn’t work by now.”

“There’s no nobility in it. And posture all you want, but I know you won’t kill them. They’re not humans,...

Corrected mistake in 124/125

Just to clear something up real quick. 

Ralakos is the High Council member who helped Cairn out during the Enclave Arc.

Morthus is the retired infernal and member of the Metamorphosis Group who lives in the Sanctum. He left the Sanctum the first time to speak to Cairn, leave his recommendation with the council, and return to the...

125. Sanctum XLIX (First Draft)

Before the words left my throat, there was a crash of thunder. The gray clouds gathering at the top of the dome had finally begun to rain. Thirsty earthen paths worn down from daily foot traffic around The Heart drank deeply, light-brown turning darker as dirt became mud. Unrelenting rain drenched my hair, obscuring my vision with muted gold, u...

2022-01-19 01:08:32 +0000 UTC View Post

124. Sanctum XLVIII (First Draft)

I hadn’t touched the rawer, more elemental side of magic since my injury in the crossroads. The infernals discounted such methods entirely, considering them to be base and uncivilized. And they were. Breathing in the raw chaotic energy of a forest fire, followed by the actions I’d taken at the crossroads was likely more than enough to cause...

2022-01-17 01:13:37 +0000 UTC View Post

123. Sanctum XLVII (First Draft)

Bell stared at the tunnel wall and wiped a tear out of her eye. “This is the hardest thing anyone’s ever asked me to do.”

The responsibility I was trusting her with was enormous. Something many would consider to be cruel. But it was the only way.

“You don’t have to go through with it,” I put an arm around her shoulder a...

122. Sanctum XLVII (First Draft)

“What is this place?” Jorra asked. Even though his voice was hushed, I fought the urge to tell him to be quiet. Something about this place felt wrong. We were walking side by side in something that looked to have once been a quaint mountain town. Housing cabins and log buildings had rotted long ago, some barely standing, the rest collapsed ...

2022-01-13 02:48:16 +0000 UTC View Post

121. Sanctum XLVI (First Draft)

The spark levitated above the wood, dancing around Veldani’s face. A trickle of sweat dripped down the violet skin of her forehead. I saw Maya’s jaw drop.

“That’s… it?” I asked dubiously. Veldani looked displeased with my statement, but after all the build up, it felt like something of a let down.

“There’s more that...

120. Sanctum XLV (First Draft)

If it wasn’t already obvious enough that Thoth was now prioritizing hunting me, the augury shielding rings began vibrating constantly not long after we left. There was a small victory in that, but I wanted to avoid thinking too long on the mechanics of the spell itself, or whose blood she was using. After a brief discussion, we decided that t...

2021-12-31 23:44:30 +0000 UTC View Post

119. Sanctum XLIV (First Draft)

“Dammit” Jorra whispered.

We’d spent the better part of an hour frantically searching the area. My chest hurt, my accumulated wounds going untreated as Maya helped us search. There was no trace of a return portal, visible or otherwise. Though he was the last person I wanted to talk to, I eventually summoned Vogrin for confirmation....

118. Sanctum XLIII (First Draft)

Before

“So, you didn’t like it then.” Thaddeus leaned against the bar three seats down from me, seeming entirely unsurprised.

“No. They simpered.”

I didn’t often keep company with him. In all honesty, I disliked him before there was even reason to. He was too smarmy, too slick. That wasn’t uncommon, amo...

117. Sanctum XLII (First Draft)

Seeing it up close confirmed my suspicion. It wasn’t the sort of thing the Infernals used, but I’d studied it. It was some sort of complex ritual magic, not unlike augury. And there was one rule of ritual magic. You never interrupted the casting, once it had started. And if you were, by some ill hand of fate, interrupted, the consequences w...

2021-11-11 05:24:25 +0000 UTC View Post