“Whatever you’re about to try, make it quick,” Draga insists, shielding his eyes as he watches the sun rise. “It’s time to go.”
Talla nods and turns back to me as I stand and brush myself off. “This shouldn’t take too long. I’ve already adjusted the carriage’s mana crystals back to their original settings...I think. It...
2025-06-23 18:33:49 +0000 UTC View PostDraga begrudgingly agrees to give Talla until the sun has fully risen to give me a crash course on basic thaumaturgy.
“Normally you’d have at least a few years of tutoring to prepare you for your first thaumaturgy skill,” Talla explains.
“‘Normally,’” Draga scoffs from nearby, keeping busy by sweeping dust out of the ve...
2025-06-20 17:46:48 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Talla is busy starting the car or whatever she’s up to, I practice heating up and cooling down a little ball of fire. I don’t have a specific goal in mind—I’m just cooling it down until it feels hard to go any further without pulling on other aspects, then go back the other way until the same thing happens, trying to push just a li...
2025-06-18 17:26:41 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s still dark out when I groggily emerge from the tent with Nipper and begin the now-familiar work of disassembling it. It’s earlier than the rangers usually make me get up, but I suspect it’s later than they usually do on their own. As evidence of that, Talla and Draga are both already up and active, loading the last few things into the...
2025-06-16 18:35:04 +0000 UTC View PostI lie awake at night, staring up at the tent of a dead woman, lying in her bedding, wearing her clothes, and inhabiting the body of the ones who murdered her. Kiera Gaa Baanu—a priestess like me, and a noble—not like me at all. She was the kind of person I looked up to in my previous life—tried to model myself after. Then I was forced to w...
2025-06-13 17:19:36 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright Evie, let’s try this—let’s say the river is twenty five paces wide and twice as long. How many paces would it take to walk its entire length?”
It’s about as simple an algebra question as I can come up with. Now that we’ve put that awful dungeon and the mountain it’s hidden in behind us, I’ve decided to start catc...
2025-06-11 16:35:23 +0000 UTC View PostHello again! Did you miss me? Welcome back to my world of maybes. The girls have made it through the first chapter of their trials, and now their suffering is over.
Pfft! Hahahaha! Nope, I couldn’t say it with a straight face. They’ve unlocked a whole new world of suffering, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what the fires o...
2025-06-09 16:40:04 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s a little crazy how quickly everything went from bone dry and stiflingly hot to almost jungle-like. The riverbank is covered in tall grasses, shrubbery, and unfamiliar trees taking advantage of the local moisture. The ground is also a lot softer, and while there are still rocks and twigs to contend with, it's a welcome break for my poor ab...
2025-06-06 17:06:12 +0000 UTC View PostWith every moment I spend in this body, I discover something new to hate about it. The lack of fur makes me feel exposed, and offers no protection from the hot summer sun. At the same time, fur grows selectively in strange places that seems to exist for the sole purpose of rubbing up against this bizarrely tight clothing and constantly itching. ...
2025-06-04 18:19:46 +0000 UTC View PostTwo hundred years. That’s a long time. It doesn’t sound like much, but empires have risen and fallen in far shorter spans. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the world now is not the same world as the one from two hundred years ago. It’s a long enough time that on that scale, two hundred years is actually a very suspi...
2025-06-02 16:53:42 +0000 UTC View PostTalla watches as I pace in a small circle around the spacious tent. The fact that fa’aun are so tall works out in my favor here, but I’m still a little dizzy from the magical strain, so I take it slow. I asked her to come back in to help us choose classes now that we’re done fighting.
...
Done actively fighting. Ugh. T...
2025-05-30 16:57:47 +0000 UTC View PostAs tempting as it may be to simply ignore these new options and pick Human, it does bear some consideration. Besides, it would be a huge betrayal to make a unilateral decision like that.
“There’s more than one option,” I admit. “Demi-human and Demi-fa’aun.”
“Really?!” Talla exclaims. “That’s incredibly rare!” 2025-05-28 18:10:52 +0000 UTC View Post
“Here, you can use Kiera’s tent,” Talla says, ushering me inside.
The inside of the large canvas tent is...maybe not quite luxurious, but it’s clearly making an effort to be. A plush futon in the center is surrounded by colorful pillows, cushions, and silk sheets. It’s also got a lived-in quality, with bits of discarded ...
2025-05-26 18:30:36 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t understand,” I say, frowning. “Why can I control our main class now?”
“Isn’t that a good thing, though?” Allie asks.
“Well, yes,” I concede. “I’m not complaining, but I don’t like it when the rules we’ve discovered change.”
“Usually, that just means that you need to reconsider y...
2025-05-23 16:33:41 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, now that we can all hear each other, let’s talk about how to progress,” I suggest.
Talla blinks and cocks her head at me. “Wait, did you just switch?”
“I—did we?” I ask, surprised by the question.
“That happens sometimes,” Allie giggles. “You get used to it.”
“How coul...
2025-05-21 18:18:49 +0000 UTC View PostFew things are certain in life. Death? High level individuals have been known to enjoy increased longevity, and with the right class, immortality isn’t out of the question. Sunrise? It’s shaded by the great wheel for a third of every year. Taxes? Some nations don’t even have currency.
But the [World Engine]?...
2025-05-19 17:50:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe world is a confusing, chaotic jumble of nonsense. I lie in my bed, surrounded by hooded cultists that all look like Saban. One steps forward and lowers her hood to reveal Violet, who plunges her knife into the neck of a laser gecko. Its lifeless body flops over and the dead eyes of the priestess Kiera stare back at me. A gunshot echoes t...
2025-05-16 16:30:20 +0000 UTC View Post[Level Up!]
Savior is now level 6.
Firecaster is now level 10.
+6 Power.
+4 Resilience (Violet).
+6 Awareness.
+4 Ego (Violet).
Firecaster has reached its maximum threshold. [Upg...
2025-05-14 16:15:33 +0000 UTC View Post“What the heck do you mean she’s not coming?!” I hiss. “What did you do to Maggie?”
“I didn’t do anything,” the strange voice replies. “But I can feel that my presence suppresses hers. Her will is strong, but my faith is stronger.”
Another explosion shakes our tunnel, a bit closer this time. The ...
2025-05-12 18:25:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Blood and acid Allie, really?” Talla sighs with exasperation. “You do realize that we’re going to have to descend a mountain after this, right?”
“I’ve been trying not to think about it!” I whine, pressing my back firmly against the wall and squinting my eyes shut. “Stupid fricking chasm...”
I totally for...
2025-05-09 17:16:38 +0000 UTC View PostWhat does it say about me that having my life directly threatened by a seven foot tall goat man who could draw his sword and lop off my head faster than I can blink doesn’t faze me? I know he means it, but I also know he doesn’t want to do it. Draga is intimidating, but he’s a good person. I can’t find it in myself to be afraid of him. 2025-05-07 16:59:40 +0000 UTC View Post
I reel back from Talla’s headbutt, clutching my head.
“Ow! Frick!” I whine. “What the heck was that for?!”
She jumps to her feet and grabs me by the collar, looming over me and glaring like I’ve never seen her do before.
“You idiot!” she shouts. “You could have gotten us all killed!”
...
2025-05-05 20:28:42 +0000 UTC View Post[Level up!]
Unified Wanderers is now level 10.
Savior is now level 4.
Firecaster is now level 7.
+6 Power (Magdalena).
+2 Resilience.
+2 Resilience (Violet).
+6 Awareness (Magdal...
2025-05-02 19:40:16 +0000 UTC View PostEverything happens at once. I collapse to the ground as Draga cuts the stalker’s limb free, my lifeblood spilling out onto the stone at an alarming rate. Bright lights flash around me as Talla rushes to my aid, only to be cut off by another fluorescent limb lancing out before her. Her floating light fires a sustained beam of radiance at the de...
2025-05-01 18:07:43 +0000 UTC View PostDraga frowns down at the faintly glowing threads scattered across the labyrinth. “[How did you say this works again?]”
“[It’s um...invisible light,]” Talla answers awkwardly. “[Which can...reveal invisible things?]
He turns to give her a doubtful look. “[How does that work, exactly?]”
Talla’s eyes nervously fl...
2025-04-30 17:48:25 +0000 UTC View PostDraga’s plan is actually pretty simple, but also completely terrifying. Instead of trying to predict when or where the Stalker will show up, we reduce its options as much as possible and prepare for each one. To that end, he has us move back to the entrance of the labyrinth. While that gives us fewer escape routes, it also means that the Stalk...
2025-04-29 17:30:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe severed remains of the Stalker are super weird. Despite being hard enough to pierce stone when they were attached, the pale flesh is uncomfortably soft and squishy. Instead of the smooth chitin I expected, it has soft silky skin and dense black flesh that oozes thick ichor. There are no bones or joints as far as I can tell and the “claws...
2025-04-28 18:31:07 +0000 UTC View Post“[Allie, your feet aren’t even a meter off the ground,]” Talla sighs. “[Just let go!]”
I dangle from the ledge, my eyes squinted shut as I hang on for dear life and shake my head. “I can’t!”
When we came back here I failed to consider the fact that I’d never actually climbed down this ledge before. Maggie made it lo...
2025-04-27 17:57:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe rangers are tense as we prepare for what they call a “delve.” Talla tried to explain it to me, but the long and short of it is that we’re going to be exploring the convergence point. I guess in my case it’ll be more like giving the rangers a guided tour. Although most tours don’t involve risk of death by invisible spider demons. 2025-04-26 17:55:35 +0000 UTC View Post
The rangers are surprisingly cool about giving us time to recover from the bomb gecko incident. Talla insists that I need to rest, and recover my strength, practically stuffing me with lizard stew at every opportunity.
“[That skill of yours is hard on the body,]” she explains once again. “[Think of it like its redirecting he...
2025-04-25 17:26:52 +0000 UTC View Post