“I’m here,” Elend said as he approached the barn. “Open up.”
‘Took you long enough,’ Glim’s voice echoed in his mind. The door opened with a click, and the wards rippled as he stepped through. ‘Here I thought Kalden was boring. His brother’s even worse.’
Elend remained silent as he strode down ...
2023-05-12 12:15:22 +0000 UTC View PostKalden tried to break free, but it was no use. Ice froze his body in place, and even the mana in his channels refused to budge. He hadn’t been this paralyzed since the Battle of Tureko when Elend froze the entire city.
This man was certainly no Elend Darklight. Unfortunately, Elend wasn’t here right now, and this group was no match for...
2023-05-07 12:48:43 +0000 UTC View PostHer boots struck the concrete floor when she landed. Another maintenance tunnel? Giant conduits ran along both walls, and the sweet scent of dream mana filled the air. She’d expected to emerge in a grassy field like the one from their midterm exam. Instead, her portal brought her below the arena.
But why?
The reas...
2023-05-05 23:28:02 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I wasn’t completely happy with the way Chapter 44 turned out, so I made some quick fixes:
Kalden emerged in a massive chamber, as big as a warehouse. Steel beams supported the high ceilings, and crowds of students bustled all around him on the smooth concrete floors.
“Step forward,” a young woman said from the crowd. Her tone sounded bored, as if she’d been saying this same phrase all day.
Kalden stepped off the pla...
2023-04-29 18:49:56 +0000 UTC View PostAkari clung to the wooden rail as she stumbled down the staircase. By now, the other students had broken down the front door, and mana flashed through the library’s main chamber.
The building itself held together, but things looked even worse than before. One whole bookshelf was frozen in a block of ice, and scorch marks covered the wind...
2023-04-25 12:18:54 +0000 UTC View PostAkari knelt near a stained glass window on the library’s top floor. These windows didn’t normally open, but Arturo had overridden those restrictions from the basement. Now, she just had to figure out the controls.
Most of the buttons did nothing. However, one caused the window to slide upward in its frame. Just a few inches, but that w...
2023-04-22 13:26:10 +0000 UTC View Post‘Something’s wrong,’ Glim said.
Elend froze, turning his attention to the mana spirit in his head. ‘What is it?’
‘I’ve been looking through the records on your tablet. Looks like Dansin Roth met with Elise Moonfire during the break.’
Most people wouldn’t find this meeting strange. Pl...
2023-04-15 12:31:33 +0000 UTC View PostRelia stumbled through the staff room with Elise’s limp body over her shoulders. Mana soared through the chamber beyond, and Zukan’s footsteps echoed through the high ceiling as he chased down the stragglers.
Relia kept running the other way, ducking behind desks, shelves, and filing cabinets. Azul’s ashes. The audience must...
2023-04-09 12:36:08 +0000 UTC View PostAkari trailed Zukan through the library's basement. The massive dragon was surprisingly light on his feet, hardly making a sound as they passed through the shadows. Relia kept pace behind them, while Kalden stayed back with Arturo, acting as his bodyguard while he tinkered with the shields.
Zukan paused at a junction, raising a clawed hand...
2023-04-03 12:36:11 +0000 UTC View PostAkari lowered her gun and withdrew her knee from Arturo’s chest. Her legs shook from kneeling for so long, and the left one was half-frozen. Kalden and Zukan had only been talking for a few minutes, but it felt more like an hour.
Meanwhile, Arturo didn't budge an inch. His face had relaxed after the standoff, but his gun barrel stayed fi...
2023-04-01 11:54:48 +0000 UTC View Post“I found it!” Glim floated over in her Missile form. “It’s the white one on the left.”
Elend gave a slow nod, never breaking stride as he and Irina walked down the sidewalk. The sky was dark, but the houses shone bright against the night, with warm light spilling out from their tall glass windows. The tropical air was warm despit...
2023-03-25 14:04:19 +0000 UTC View PostZukan leapt down the stairs like a drake devouring its prey. He landed hard against the concrete floor, and the house seemed to shake on its foundation. His shield filled Kalden’s vision, a burning sun against a black void.
Kalden dodged right, forcing his opponent to get between him and his allies. Too slow. The shield caught h...
2023-03-18 13:45:06 +0000 UTC View PostFire fell from the sky. The Missiles came as compressed orange spheres against the night, arcing from some unseen place on the campus below.
“Incoming!” Relia shouted.
The attacks struck the roof, expanding to ten times their size when they landed. Fire barreled into Relia’s shield like a freight train, and fragments of stone a...
2023-03-09 13:06:14 +0000 UTC View PostElise Moonfire strode between piles of stone rubble, surveying the ruined cafeteria. Gusts of wind blew in from the shattered windows, and glass shards littered the tile floors. Wooden tables lay overturned and broken. Some had been used for cover, but most had been struck by stray Missile.
The second-years had banded together here and mad...
2023-03-01 12:56:42 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay,” Akari said. “Let’s get out of here.” She extended a hand toward the brick wall and formed another portal on its painted white surface. Unlike the last few portals she’d used in battle, this one led straight back to her secret hideout.
Kalden raised an eyebrow at the sight. “Where’s this?”
“Top of the libra...
2023-02-25 15:49:19 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
Just wanted to apologize for the unplanned hiatus this past week. My wife and I both had strep throat, and then I had a bad reaction to the antibiotics which caused a few days of nausea. All in all, this resulted in February 2023 being one of the most unproductive writing months I’ve had in the past few years.
Anyway, ...
2023-02-23 02:04:25 +0000 UTC View PostKalden slammed into his foes with the force of a rolling boulder. His blades spun like propellers, cutting through Constructs and Cloaks, tossing clouds of white mist into the air.
By now, he and Relia had taken out a full third of Blood Army. Another third had wisely fled, while the rest clustered around the command tent. Kalden rounded o...
2023-02-12 14:16:10 +0000 UTC View PostRelia knelt on the pavement, forcing life mana around Kalden’s wound. Her other hand stretched toward the sky, maintaining a dome of pure mana around them.
“Sorry.” Kalden gritted his teeth through the pain.” Getting hit wasn’t part of the plan.”
“What was your idea?” Relia asked as she surveyed the parking lot. By no...
2023-02-05 13:50:24 +0000 UTC View PostI’ve gotten a lot of comments lately (mostly on Royal Road) that imply the pacing in this series is too quick. One comment mentioned time jumps, and how they happen too frequently with not enough explanations. Other comments asked for more worldbuilding, more magic system explanations, or more time with the side characters.
The current p...
2023-02-04 19:44:25 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that I wrote a new scene (500 words / 2 pages) and added it to the very beginning of Web of Knowledge - Chapter 25: Ethics of Combat.
This idea came to me from a comment on Royal Road. Someone mentioned being excited to see Akari go back to her Theoretical Aspects class and show off her new ...
2023-02-04 19:06:26 +0000 UTC View Post“What’s the situation?” Kalden asked as he entered Blood Army’s command tent. In all honesty, it wasn’t much of a tent—just a covered section of the parking lot near the Artegium. Portable shield Constructs surrounded the edges, glowing with the pale blue light of protection mana. Guards stood at attention near the gaps, armed with s...
2023-02-01 02:06:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Wait here,” Kalden told his minions as he stepped through the bungalow’s front door. Back in the real world, this house belonged to his alchemy teacher, Professor Coleman. It wasn’t much of a house, but the man had clearly chosen it for its proximity to campus. Coleman also preferred to meet with students here rather than his office; th...
2023-01-26 12:59:52 +0000 UTC View PostElend sat in his office, waiting for the qualifying rounds to begin. It was a bright Talekday morning, and the sun cast its golden rays over the campus. Not that Elend saw much of it from in here. He and Irina had closed every curtain, focused only on the monitors in front of them.
The first screen showed Akari curled up in the back of a c...
2023-01-21 16:47:28 +0000 UTC View PostAkari’s mind raced as she processed everything. First, a wave of relief washed over her from head to heel. The real Koreldon City was fine. That meant her friends were fine too, and Kalden’s brother probably wasn’t a creepy kidnapper. She’d worried about all this in the back of her mind, but she hadn’t dared to think too hard. Distract...
2023-01-16 00:06:31 +0000 UTC View PostAkari woke sometime later—she couldn’t say how long. Her body was curled up in a ball with her cheek pressed against a rough carpeted floor. Gusts of cool wind ruffled her hair, carrying the scents of smoke and destruction.
She steadied her breathing, using the pattern she’d learned from Master Nightfang in Survival Tactics class. Sh...
2023-01-12 13:00:57 +0000 UTC View PostAkari practically skipped into her Theoretical Aspects classroom the next day. Her teacher sat behind a wooden desk at the front, leafing through a stack of papers as she settled in. A thirty-ounce Jumpstart mug sat in one corner, along with the half-eaten remains of a chocolate muffin. Various equations filled the whiteboard to her left, but th...
2023-01-08 14:11:47 +0000 UTC View PostHappy New Year’s Eve! Here are some blooper scenes as an end-of-the-year bonus. For those of you who don’t know, bloopers are something Will Wight does in his Cradle series. They’re usually silly, non-canon scenes that take characters or situations to extremes. I’m obviously not as funny as Will Wight, but I thought I’d experim...
2022-12-31 13:24:30 +0000 UTC View PostAfter breakfast, Akari headed downstairs into one of the estate’s aspecting rooms. And yes, the Darklights kept two entire rooms for this purpose. It was a matter of pride for wealthy families, even if they only used the rooms once every twenty years.
Why did they need special rooms for aspecting? Apparently, some ambient mana conditions...
2022-12-29 22:21:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone,
Just a few quick announcements for my Aeonica series.
First of all, The Justicar’s Heir (Aeonica Book 2) is now available on Kindle! You can find the US version of the book 2022-12-27 13:06:30 +0000 UTC View Post