Flameruner

Chapter 89 - Practice, practice, practice

Scarlett knitted her forehead as she compressed the two fire spheres in front of her further and further, trying to focus on, and grasp, the strands of mana that made the magic up. It was like trying to clasp a piece of clay in your hands. Forming and shaping it was as easy as clenching your fist, but trying to separate the clay into its differe...

Chapter 88 - A quaint meadow

Scarlett pushed aside a branch with annoyance as she sidestepped a root jutting out from the ground, avoiding the soggy pool of mud next to it. She hated wet forests.

It just had to rain the night before they were supposed to go out into the woods like this.

They had only been at this for about an hour, but she was already getting ti...

Memoirs 87 - The smaller things

“My Lady.” Garside lay on his bed, back prodded up against the wall behind him. “This servant is humbled that you would take time out of your day to come visit.”

“Think nothing of it,” Scarlett said after having entered the room, eyeing him for a moment. She’d been somewhat worried about his condition, which is why she decide...

Notice

Just a short notice that there won't be a chapter this sunday, as I'll be gone for a few days and won't have time to post and edit in time. So the next chapter will be a week from now.

Memoirs 86 - Noble decisions

Scarlett sipped a cup of warm tea as she waited in the east wing’s guest parlor. It was nearing late afternoon. She had spent much of the morning training, dealing with paperwork and reports sent over by Evelyne, and reviewing her current strategies after receiving new information from Mirage.

After that Cullen fellow had visited her two...

Memoirs 85 - Unwelcome drop-ins

Scarlett wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, looking out across the training grounds. Some of the items she used for her training were lined up next to the wooden shed towards the edge, but the grounds themselves had been mostly cleaned up since the Fynn incident. The shed’s roof still had to be replaced though, as well as some of the rui...

Memoirs 84 - A Gentleman's visit

“The Field of Broken Pacts.” The man’s voice drifted across the room as he regarded the painting in front of him. “That is its name.”

A brief silence hung over the room.

“It was a battle that ended the life of countless thousands, and decided the fate of untold more. Accounts say even the very skies tore open that day, wh...

Chapter 83 - Visits^2

The day after the Cabal’s attack, Scarlett was once more walking down the mansion’s hallways to receive another sudden guest.

There were a lot of them lately.

And while this wasn’t exactly the best time for receiving visitors, she couldn’t just ignore this person, either.

Things around the mansion were a comple...

Memoirs 82 - Cabalic visits

Scarlett stared down at the motionless bodies on the hallway floor. The Hallowed Cabal had made their move.

“There are more of them,” Fynn said, sniffing the air. He paused. “…They’re not guests, right?”

Scarlett shook her head. “They are not. There is no need to restrain yourself.”

It was them or her. She’d a...

Memoirs 81 - Visits all day long

Livvi Knottley and Raimond Abram—or rather, ‘Ray Abraham’—were waiting for them when they arrived in the parlor. The two were sitting opposite each other on the room’s couches, partaking in the refreshments and drinks arranged by the staff, and turned to look in unison as Scarlett and Rosa entered.

“Scarlett,” Livvi said, put...

Memoirs 80 - Paperwork and teachings

As was becoming more and more common when back in Freybrook, Scarlett was spending her afternoon in the office, looking over some documents Evelyne had sent over. Most of them were regarding the business they’d talked about acquiring back in Elystead. Evelyne had been in talks with the owner for a while now and, apparently, come to an agreemen...

Interlude - Smile

Rosa woke up skin clammy with sweat, breath caught in her throat. The air was pressing down on her chest, as if the room itself was closing in around her. The shadows lurking on the ceiling crawled out from beneath the beams, drawing her gaze to—

She shot up from the bed and sucked in a mouthful of air, palm pressed against her chest. 2022-08-21 21:22:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Memoirs 79 - Conspirators with potential

“My Lady. A Mister Smith is here.” Molly stood at the entrance of Scarlett’s office in the Freybrook mansion. “He said he had prior plans to meet with you?”

Scarlett put down the letter from Evelyne that she’d been reading. “Very well. Lead him to the small guest parlor. I will be there shortly.”

“As you wish, my La...

Memoirs 78 - A wizard's prospects

A woman sat by her lonesome behind an ornate, black wooden desk, peering down at an array of thick, text-laden papers. Bookshelves lined the room, lit up by the enchanted candles that hung from bronze chains connecting to the ceiling. Clothed in a long, white dress that reached the floor, the woman had sharp features and tanned skin, along with ...

Memoirs 77 - Blood ties

“You’re back!”

“Bro!!!”

A group of children came bolting towards Scarlett and the others, jumping at Fynn like a gaggle of monkeys. Scarlett watched as he tried to hold them back, placing the unconscious Shin down at the hallway’s entrance.

They’d just arrived at Fynn’s old home in the village of Dimfrost.

Memoirs 76 - The trek back

[Quest completed: Cleared The Howling Gale’s Haunt (1/3)]
{Skill points awarded: 7}

Scarlett skimmed over the quest completion window before her. It hadn’t appeared until after they’d exited the dungeon this time. She’d long since given up on figuring out the mechanics behind this particular facet of the system....

Memoirs 75 - Old dogs don't need new tricks

Like the mini-boss room, the true boss room looked more like a cave than a man-made construct, with uneven walls and sharp edges here and there. A shallow pool of water took up the center of the space, with a pedestal holding a large orb in its middle. The orb gave off a pale blue light that, coupled with several large braziers that hung off the...

Memoirs 74 - A deal once struck

An eerie smile covered Rosa’s face.

Scarlett stared at the woman. Some instincts hidden deep down were screaming to run away, but her gaze was locked inside Rosa’s pitch-black eye sockets. They were like a void of nothingness, yet it felt as if they were hiding something terrible just beneath the surface.

Scarlett pulled...

Memoirs 73 - Between a rock and a hard place

Scarlett’s eyes were locked on the wall of stone, blocking them off. A groan escaped from beside her, where Rosa was slowly raising herself from the ground.

“H-Hello?” the woman’s voice called out quietly.

Shin grunted in response. “I’m here. Anyone else?”

The sound of stone grinding against stone sounded out. Sca...

Memoirs 72 - Haunts & wolves

When she opened her eyes again, Scarlett found herself at the top of a platform on the side of a mountain. Spread out before her were countless white peaks continuing for miles, jutting up towards the skies with deep, snow-filled canyons between them.

To her right, gazing above some of the lower mountaintops, she saw hints of grey highland...

Memoirs 71 - Extreme mountaineering

Scarlett held the thick wool shawl close as she looked out across the water. She stood at the bow of a ship, traveling northeast, down a steady stream that stretched out miles before her.

The Three Streams river was wide. Wider than any river she’d seen. They were close to the western bank, and the other shore was far in the distance, ou...

Memoirs 70 - Perilous propositions

Allyssa swung her legs back and forth as she looked at the people working outside. She saw on the window ledge in Shin’s room, and the people outside were walking around, cleaning away uprooted bushes, dirt, and all the other things that’d been spread about during the chaos earlier in the day.

“Do you think she’ll tell us what’s ...

Empire map

Here is a basic map of what the empire that the story takes place in looks like. While it is lacking in details, and I am far from an expert map-maker, it depicts several—though not all—of the important locations from the game.

In the future, more details might be added, as well as more maps when they become relevant.

Memoirs 69 - Tough decisions

This was too early. Far too early. Scarlett never imagined Fynn would awaken this soon.

This scene was similar to the game, but seeing it like this gave a whole new weightiness to the situation. The powerful winds stemming from Fynn were almost enough to force her off her feet, tearing at her hair and clothes. She’d activated [L...

Memoirs 68 - Foreboding winds

Scarlett walked through the mansion, absentmindedly taking in the various expensive decors spread throughout the hallways as she passed by. A few days had gone by since her meeting with Gaven, but not much of note had happened since. She was still clearing the surrounding area’s low-level dungeons—collecting skill points and valuable items�...

Memoirs 67 - Budding schemes

Scarlett gaped at the scene before her. A gust of wind swirled across the courtyard as Fynn jumped out of the broken window, touching down next to the person who’d flown out the window.

“What is the meaning of this?” she cried out, rising from her seat as she looked towards the person lying on the ground. A large patch of flowers had...

Memoirs 66 - A bard never tells

Later that day, after spending some surprisingly enjoyable time catching up with Kat, Scarlett returned to the mansion by herself.

Shin and Allyssa were at the Guild branch. She wasn’t about to come between their first real meeting with Kat for what appeared to be quite some time. She also didn’t have much in the city to do at the mome...

Memoirs 65 - Reunions

“My Lady,” Garside’s voice called out from the other side of her office door. “We have received a notice from the Shields Guild branch.”

“Enter,” Scarlett said calmly as she flipped a page in the book she was reading on old legends and fairytales here in the empire. A few days had passed since she started experimenting more w...

Memoirs 64 - Facile hydrodynamics

"Welcome back, my Lady," Garside's raspy voice sounded out. The old butler bowed in greeting as Scarlett exited the carriage in front of the Freybrook mansion's courtyard. "I presume the latest excursion fared well, judging from your early return?"

"It did," Scarlett said, glancing over the two other servants behind him. Marlon and Harriet...

Memoirs 63 - Returning

"Now that the Light Fest has ended, I will soon be returning to Freybrook," Scarlett said, looking across the table to where Allyssa, Shin, Fynn, and Rosa sat. They were still in the dining hall, but Evelyne had recently left because she had wanted to check deeper into which places had been attacked by the Tribe of Sin.

The news reported b...