tobiasbegley

PSTH2: Chapter Six

What’s up with the Terrible Three? After their sleepy winter break, Laurel has been spotted in the swamp north of Silica City, presumably hunting for a Primal, or perhaps on the search for the el...

PSTH2: Chapter Five

The Glade Leafwing Butterfly was a species found locally in the southern areas of Oceanseed, usually around Silica City, and it presents a fascinating case in Primal existence. Though the continued...

PSTH2: Chapter Four

Allergies are a frustratingly complex thing for magic to deal with. It’s distinctly possible to narrow the scope of an allergy with spellcraft, such as turning an allergy to tree nuts into an all...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Twenty

The fifteen minutes of rest, healing, and planning went by in a flash, and when Dusk and I were pulled into the arena a second time, I felt much more uncertain. I had shifted a few things around wi...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Nineteen

I reached into my spirit and opened a path to Combat Echo. Within the spell there was a second version of myself, with all of my physical strength, and enough raw mana to match mine. It didn’t ha...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Eighteen

“Welcome, one and all, to the next round of the spellbinder division of the Elysian Mastery Tournament. Today, the sixteen greatest fighters of the upcoming generation will compete for the top ei...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Seventeen

Bonus Chapter Today

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The rest of the day, as well as the next two days, were a complete blur. I was in a constant state of training, rotating between ...

PSTH2: Chapter Three

Attempts to create magian classes, certification levels, or other measurements of magian’s skill have been attempted for as long as humans have had magic, and they all have flaws. Levels might in...

PSTH2: Chapter Two

Spell design is an interesting topic. Tracking the development is difficult, as the records from the era where magic first arrived are often lost or corrupted, but it’s believed the first spells ...

PSTH2: Chapter One

Something people don’t realize about the end of the world is that it never comes. Even when the sky rains flame and magic detonates one in ten micro-transistors, people put their lives back toget...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Sixteen

“The Ghostmind spell was only consolidated into a singular spellform roughly forty years ago,” Orykson began, and I leaned back, plopping down to sit in the dirt and listen. It seemed like I wo...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Fifteen

“Alright, out, out,” I said, waving each of them out of the way, even as I started unbuttoning my shirt. I wasn’t near as self-conscious about my body as I had been a few years ago, not with ...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Fourteen

Satya’s form flowed back into the necklace, and I looked at Kiran. 

“I hope that if we meet in the arena, you can at least hold back my name, at least somewhat. I wear a mask not jus...

PSTH: Epilogue

The Woolworthy Corporation is one that needs to be watched. I believe that there is something else going on, something deeper that we aren’t seeing. Have you reviewed their quarterly tax audits a...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Five

Perhaps one of the largest effects of magic on the world was the battery. Where pre-magical batteries required rare metals dredged up from the earth via damaging processes, the magical battery can ...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Four

All the world's a stage, / And all the People and Primals merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances; / And one Primal in their time plays many parts / Their acts being three stage...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Thirteen

As I stepped into the apartment, Kiran shut the door behind me. It sealed with a chunking sound, and the wards hummed to life, powerful and deeply complex. They were primarily intended to keep peop...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Twelve

Even with all the plans laid out, and a laundry list of things that I needed to do, I still had to take my best shot at fulfilling another promise: the earring. Ikki had told me my best chance to e...

The Fourth Gate: Chapter Eleven

If Number One had offered me just about anything else, I would have told him to get lost. One was notorious, and the more I thought about him, the more sure I was that it was the right choice. I di...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Three

The world is full of wonders. There were more than four thousand breeds of potato that existed in the pre-arrival world, and yet, most pre-arrival peoples within a thousand miles of here only ever ...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-Two

The development of an artificial essence stone is the kind of thing that must be handled very carefully, especially if it can be done at a moderately high price. Oh, why a moderately high price? We...

PSTH: Chapter Sixty-One

Average rates of progression are a difficult thing to both track and measure. Even in studies where people logged time spent in training, time spent in cultivation, ambient essence levels, the best...