Alex looked all around, his heart hammering.
Students were walking near, near enough to be within earshot, but Baelin’s deep voice was rising.
‘Why?’
‘What was he doing?’ Alex began to panic, frantically looking every which way, until…his brain turned back on. His mentor and chancellor had cast a spell just before h...
2022-05-03 23:30:11 +0000 UTC View Post“Baelin? W-what are you doing here?” Alex asked, suddenly very aware that he must look like…well someone who’d been drinking until he passed out.
“I had a free morning, for once,” the chancellor took another long, amused sip of his tea. “And when I arrived in my office, the strangest thing was waiting for me. Roughly fifteen ...
2022-04-30 21:10:08 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Fan-Dor squinted across the square, his black eyes searching the crowd, but missing the strapping young man waving at them from a table near a line of food stalls. Gel-Dor's attention fell on Alex. Confusion lined the first mate’s forehead while he pointed in Alex’s direction. The young wizard noted their body language shifting from ...
2022-04-29 21:31:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Demons, Third Apostle. Demons have come to Thameland.”
“What?” Izas asked. “This is not time for poetic language, Eldin.”
“I’m not exaggerating, Third Apostle. Were that I was.” The squat man launched into a story of demons, summoners, and cultists.
Izas’ mood fell further and further with every word.
“I wonder how Gwyllain’s doing,” Alex muttered, considering ideas for his staff. As he learned more summoning spells, he’d been making a list of which ones could enhance the staff’s power.
“Hope the little guy’s alright. It isn’t exactly safe out there,” he said, referring to the dangers in Thameland’s wilderness, and t...
2022-04-27 13:08:07 +0000 UTC View PostSilence-spiders crept across the hills, approaching the encampment’s walls. Three moved across the landscape as one, low numbers decreasing their visibility under the new moon.
Their leader—the Ravener’s Hunter—had waited for a night such as this: the blackest of nights when mortals would be near sightless and vulnerable. It had se...
2022-04-26 14:12:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Nooooooooooo!” Alex screamed internally, shoving down the urge to scream out loud.
But, instead of doing what he really wanted to, he put on his most sincere smile and nodded at her. “It’ll be good to have an alchemist of your calibre with us, Carey. Welcome aboard.”
“Oh, pshah!” She waved a hand like he’d said the s...
2022-04-23 23:53:32 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time the Fool returned to Thameland, the encampment was in a flurry of new activity.
At long last, the surveyors had finally mapped Greymoor. With the edges of the university’s land completely explored, dangerous wild monsters and remaining Ravener-spawn driven from hill and bog, Generasi had mastered the entirety of its domain. T...
2022-04-22 22:12:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Normally, this would take months to teach.” Val’Rok gestured to a chair by the fire for Alex to sit in, then scuttled over to some shelves and began rifling through various devices. “But with your level of experience in mana manipulation and alchemy, let's see if we can’t crash you through the basics. If you do well enough, I'll get y...
2022-04-21 23:57:37 +0000 UTC View PostSir Alexander Roth, first of his name, quested up the tower to meet the evil sorcerer Val’Rok. Well actually, he simply climbed the stairs to go see his former professor.
Who, to be truthful, was probably at least a little evil.
And come to think of it, a vague memory of a great uncle also named Ale—
“Aaaaaargh!”
...
2022-04-21 00:29:54 +0000 UTC View Post“Why do you do that?” Selina frowned, looking down at the heading circled in Alex’s notebook.
“Do what?”
“Give everything big, dramatic names?”
“Because I’m also big—” He flexed a muscular arm. “—and dramatic.”
“Ugh,” she groaned, much to his amusement.
He fought the urge to ...
2022-04-19 19:51:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe monster crouched at the edge of a copse of trees as something stirred in the distant landscape.
Something that gave the Ravener’s Hunter concern.
There were few mortals in this land who could call upon mana to wield like a weapon. Yet, the ones it was sensing, blazing so brightly with magic, were far from ‘few’. This was tr...
2022-04-16 16:59:22 +0000 UTC View Post“Could you be any more vague, man?” Hart raked his fingers through his long brown hair. “Come on, this isn’t some bard’s tale where everything’s gotta be all mysterious and told by candle and campfire, Cedric.”
“Well—” the Chosen began.
“Can we talk while we ride?” Drestra interrupted, scanning the surrounding...
2022-04-15 22:01:38 +0000 UTC View PostHere's a table of contents for Fool, by popular request! It is now COMPLETE! Welcome new patrons!
Chapter 907: Generals and Legacy (Final Chapter of Mark of the Fool + Afterward)
2022-04-15 01:38:40 +0000 UTC
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“Well, there’s no sense in us standin’ about now that we know what’s goin’ on,” Cedric picked up one of the drawings. “Can we keep some o’ these ‘til we get the ones with more details from ya?”
“By all means, copies are available for that very reason,” Baelin said.
“Thanks,” Hart grabbed loads of drawings ...
2022-04-14 23:05:24 +0000 UTC View Post“Oh by all the bloody Ravener-spawn! Tell me if I got any o’ this wrong.” Cedric said, his face flushed and his jaw tight. “So there was…this bloody demon conjurer, or summoner or somethin’ o’ that sort in yer city. An’ he went on a bloody rampage before you caught him. But the strongest, rotting, bastard of a demon he summoned g...
2022-04-13 22:19:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe night passed like a fleeting shadow.
Everyone was relaxed, enjoying each other’s company as Theresa returned with two cups of wine in hand. Drestra seemed lost in thought for the rest of the night. Cedric and Isolde returned a little—well, actually, a lot later—with a couple of trays of meat and vegetable skewers to pass around. ...
2022-04-12 20:58:38 +0000 UTC View PostConfiding in strangers was a surprisingly common thing.
He’d experienced it a lot back in Alric, especially working behind the counter at McHarris’, and on a few occasions since he’d been in Generasi. A bad day. A hard time in school. A tough relationship, or a lost job. All of that boiled up inside a person, pressing down on them, s...
2022-04-09 22:26:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe bonfire crackled.
The expedition members were celebrating.
And the Fool watched.
Alex nursed his wine, sitting cross legged by the fire with Claygon standing nearby. Idly—out of affection and a need for support—he rubbed the golem’s leg, feeling the filigree against his palm. All around, quiet festivities were taking ...
2022-04-08 22:08:27 +0000 UTC View PostVictory had the whole group itching for a blow-out party that would’ve left them in a pool of suffering the next morning, unfortunately, reality hit hard after they’d cleared out the dungeons.
Victory was theirs, but there was still a lot of work left to do.
Professor Jules arrived shortly after word of their success made it back...
2022-04-07 22:33:57 +0000 UTC View PostAlex spun through the air toward the gibbering legion, using the remnants of Haste potion burning through his body and the creature’s sluggishness. Its weapons stabbed upward, clumsily driving at him: a thicket of jabbing spears, blades and spinning axes.
They cut the air, but the Fool sailed higher as his forceshield rushed down, blocki...
2022-04-06 23:45:18 +0000 UTC View PostWhoooosh!
The monsters plummeted down from the high ceiling, aiming dozens of weapons at everyone below. It was as if the spectre of death was falling to either crush Alex’s team, cleave them apart, or both. He doubted that how they died really mattered to the plunging horrors dropping from above, just so long as they died. With...
2022-04-05 23:30:05 +0000 UTC View PostRmmmmble!
The entire dungeon trembled as the group sped down the passageway.
Stone dust rained from the ceiling, spreading through the air around them. The dungeon core’s dark mana ebbed and flowed, trying to concentrate the might of its raw power in one spot and bring the full weight of the rock down on them. But they wer...
2022-04-03 00:51:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe usurper was there. Right in its lair.
Of all possible scenarios, the worst had arrived.
Within its chamber, the dungeon core’s mana shuddered as its alien mind worked, gathering its thoughts, ordering them. This was not the time for disorganised thinking, but it was difficult to process all that had happened.
Recent times...
2022-04-02 00:23:16 +0000 UTC View PostTheresa put her ear to the wall on the right side of the tunnel. She swore.
“It sounds like they’re massing,” the huntress warned, quickly moving to the left side and pressing her ear to the wall’s surface. Frenzied voices were increasing behind the thin rock. “Here too!”
“How many?” Alex asked, listening to the echo ...
2022-04-01 01:03:58 +0000 UTC View PostAlex focused his mind, pouring his mana into Summon Small Water Elemental spells while the expedition readied themselves at the bases of the dungeons’ hills.
He’d already summoned Bubbles—conjuring the little creature by using the elemental’s name—then kept summoning more water elementals until he’d called four in total. Next, ...
2022-03-31 02:21:56 +0000 UTC View PostAlex sat on the edge of the hill, chewing his bottom lip while his mind chewed over the Chosen of Uldar. Before too long, Cedric would be heading down into the depths of a Ravener dungeon with him and the rest of his team.
But first, the Wizard’s Eyes would have to explore the underground, inspecting every nook and cranny concealed in th...
2022-03-29 23:47:10 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Alex was stooped over, drawing a diagram on the granite. He’d drawn little hills to represent both dungeons and a few blobs to stand-in for the expedition’s forces. “So, this is the enemy. And this is us…and speaking of us—”
He looked up at the Heroes. “—mind if I include you ...
2022-03-26 21:45:41 +0000 UTC View PostAlex finished casting Call through Ice, not resisting the strange power’s help with the spell. The monster’s nine pairs of jaws were snapping, blood flowed freely onto its chest wound, cooling it. Cedric sped toward the massive creature, looking to press his advantage.
A portal was open in front of Alex’s Hands, ready to receive his ...
2022-03-26 00:21:32 +0000 UTC View PostA horror of a monster was emerging from the mound. It looked even more nightmarish than its pictures in the bestiaries. If a hive-queen was the commander for a horde of silence-spiders, then this abomination was a commander for a swarm of blood-draks.
“Damn it! Everyone back! It’s a bloody blood-hydra!” Cedric roared.
Drestra s...
2022-03-25 00:14:12 +0000 UTC View Post