Enjoy!
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“What’re you thinking?” Rissa stirred and twisted, facing towards Serenity instead of leaning against him.
“Did you have a nice nap?” Serenity smiled at Rissa. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was sometimes that she wanted to be with him. It wasn’t like he was actually able to give her much of his...
2022-07-16 22:52:08 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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While Russ, Phoebe, Aki, and Janice all talked about how they were going to handle the Child of Time Essence Seeds, Serenity and Rissa headed back to their residence. Serenity was completely uninterested in how they managed the “business” of the Essence Seeds; it had to at least break even or they couldn’t ...
2022-07-15 22:52:41 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity spent some time comforting Rissa, then worked with Aki to make another Unbound Fate Essence Seed. He didn’t know if it would work for Phoebe, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Serenity was grateful that the Essence Seeds could be removed from the dungeon. The tool used to make them couldn’t be witho...
2022-07-14 22:52:31 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Lady Andarit,
Your presence is expected at a reception for the Prince’s birthday. As this is his twenty-fifth birthday, your absence will be noted. We will be leaving the Dukedom as a group on the 17th of the Silver Moon; if you are not available at that time, you will need to meet us at the Ca...
2022-07-13 23:11:09 +0000 UTC View PostI've been meaning to rewrite part of Chapter 15 for a long time; it was my most controversial early chapter, and I was never quite happy with it. There's a lot going on there, and much of it is stuff Serenity doesn't know.
When I wrote chapter 15, I was trying to keep it to Serenity's POV only. I have clearly long since given up on it.
... 2022-07-13 00:04:00 +0000 UTC View PostPulled from a hopeless (if powerful) future back to the moment of Earth’s integration to try to improve the outcome, Serenity has met unexpected threats and unexpected allies - even friends. Everything is different this time.
It’s been a bit over five months since the first Tutorial.
It’s been one success after another; humans ...
2022-07-12 23:38:38 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor’s Commentary on Lost Secrets
After the absolute paperweight that was Arc 5, Arc 6 feels positively short - but when I go back and compare it to what came before, it’s similar in length to Arcs 3 and 4, or to Arcs 1 and 2 combined. It’s simply that Arc 5 was an Arc and a half or more in length.
I think I’m happ...
2022-07-12 23:36:56 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Current To-Do List
Building the dungeon into a home - Raz, Aki; input only
Rissa’s pregnant - what the heck do I do about that? Is there stuff I should do for a kid?
Decay creatures - Russ is handling, but needs my help?
Finding the Lost Quest from Althyr - how to save the ...
2022-07-12 23:35:03 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
As always, if I've missed someone, please let me know!
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Character List of Lost Secrets
This list includes people mentioned in all Arcs to date.
It does not include people with only a single mention or the “people” from the Story Dungeon; they are specifica...
2022-07-12 23:19:09 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“Please tell me you didn’t just say what I think you just said.” The inspector looked at Agent Price as though she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
“If you think I just said that the second attempted assassination of Serenity in New York City nearly ended up also killing an FBI agent an...
2022-07-11 22:56:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity was still trying to wrap his head around the Voice enforcing Quest terms by killing someone who had probably once been a deity when Red gasped. “You have a hole in your chest. How are you still standing?”
Serenity looked down and saw that Red was if anything understating things. A six-inch-wid...
2022-07-10 23:01:17 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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With more than a little help from Serenity’s built-in GPS, they found Red’s residence. It was a surprisingly normal-looking suburban house. Serenity had expected it to be done in the stereotypical “southwestern” style since it was in Nevada, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was an ordinary one-story building; th...
2022-07-09 23:16:42 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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[Failure Consequences: Required to cease all attacks on Rissa Latimer and permit her to enjoy the sunlight once more. Required to remove the blessing/curse applied to ALL of her relatives. Required to remove/heal effects caused by the curse. Not permitted to act against Rissa Latimer, her family, or her ...
2022-07-09 23:13:35 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Helios was running out of time.
Well, really, he’d already run out of time. There were only four portals left, and four portals was unlikely to make a difference. He wished he knew if he were winning or losing. He kept reassuring himself that he was winning, but it all came down to “the individual currentl...
2022-07-08 22:52:51 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity had underestimated how long it would take to close the last portal: it took closer to two weeks than one. The problem with the last few portals wasn’t closing them; the armies and other obvious problems had already been dealt with. No, the problem was finding them. Serenity and his team had a map, and the...
2022-07-07 23:00:40 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Twenty-seven portals was a good number. Helios was certain he was ahead or at least catching up; there was no way his challenger could be keeping up that kind of pace. Most of the ones he’d taken care of were in the southern hemisphere, since that was where the Sun saw the most at this time of year, but t...
2022-07-06 22:58:18 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity, Rissa, and Russ were met at the small airport by two policemen and a man in a black suit. “Mr. Rothmer?”
Serenity turned towards the speaker, who turned out to be the man in a suit. “Yes?”
“Can you spare a few minutes? I need to talk to you, and I’d rather keep this polite.” T...
2022-07-05 23:05:53 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity stopped and changed the Affinities he was using. Liminality would make a better wall. That was what it meant, after all, and it was a far better Affinity for him. He’d made shields from Energy once upon a time with a comparison to science fiction force fields, but he had the feeling that Liminality would ...
2022-07-04 22:51:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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:Why is it called a Mind Thief?: Rissa pulled out her own flashlight and started playing it across the creature.
:All of those people in there? And whatever wildlike it managed to trap? A lot of them are still alive. Probably all of the people are, it would want to keep them. Well, sort of alive. Their animating...
2022-07-03 23:10:08 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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It was a long walk in the snow, more of a trudge than a walk. Since Serenity was both the strongest and the only one of the three who wouldn’t tire, he was out front pulling a small, individual sled; either Rissa or Russ was usually on it, conserving their stamina. Two other sleds were pulled along behind it; st...
2022-07-02 23:05:19 +0000 UTC View PostToday is the 1-year anniversary of my first post of this story. Hard to believe it's been that long - and also hard to believe I've somehow managed to put out a chapter every day since then (plus another almost-fifty for a Patreon)!
Enjoy!
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Serenity’s mind raced. What did asking him to do something have to do with ...
2022-07-02 23:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Fortunately, the urgent need for a shower delayed Serenity enough for Rissa to organize the reporters into a miniature press conference; he only had to go through the questions once instead of once per reporter. Once that small slice of pain was over, he was actually able to get with Ita and Azav and find out what h...
2022-07-01 23:02:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“The options you’re offering are for the people who live in the city to leave or die?” Serenity moved his hand to his side, where his Crystal Hilt hung by his side. It’d taken a good bit of effort to get his armor to form a holster where he could quickly pull the hilt, but if this went the way he thought it...
2022-06-30 22:57:55 +0000 UTC View PostPathed has reached 20 chapters as of this month, so they will be getting one chapter a day.
Chimera is only at 47 chapters ahead, so I'm planning 3 more advance chapters in July. That will bring us to 50, which is my goal.
Since I'm finally reaching my goal, only writing 7 a week instead of 8 should help a lot. Maybe I'll even be abl...
2022-06-29 23:05:17 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Blue Claw fed another monster core to his greedy Totem as he drug himself the rest of the way out of the Hungry Ground. He’d come so close; why had the Spirits decided to turn his Storm of Life into Hungry Ground? Hadn’t they said that the power would grow until he reached the Blighted Peaks?
What was the...
2022-06-29 22:54:35 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Nothing happened.
The wall of lightning simply split around Serenity, as if it weren’t even there in the area he was passing through. There was a minor change in the charge levels in the air, but not enough to require adjusting the spell. He’d expected more.
Now that he was in it, Serenity could ...
2022-06-28 22:59:33 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“So, we just need to deal with the person at the center of the lightning storm?” Rissa fidgeted with her armor, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.
“Yes, but you can’t come with me.” Serenity noticed Rissa avoiding the word “kill”, but didn’t comment. “Any of you. I don...
2022-06-27 22:55:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The camera wasn’t the sort of threat he was worried about, except that it increased the man’s exposure to any dangers Serenity missed. The fact that the man was outside the trailer said good things about his bravery, but perhaps not good things about his common sense.
“Have we heard anything about what...
2022-06-26 22:46:47 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Strangely, none of the reporters asked Serenity for an interview; instead, they each wanted to record a short introduction about who they were and why they were there, along with Serenity introducing himself and his team so that they could use it later.
Serenity was very tired of introductions by the time he ...
2022-06-25 23:44:50 +0000 UTC View PostToday's second chapter should be out in the next half hour or so; I don't like the current cut off point so I'm trying to fix it up to be a better one.
Enjoy!
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It wasn’t on the way, but Serenity visited Serenity Settlement on the way to Denver. His father had asked him to close the portal; apparently, they’d le...
2022-06-25 23:09:06 +0000 UTC View Post