Daniel Newwyn

Chapter 27

To Fabrisse’s shock, it took them less than seven minutes to contain all the remaining Clucklebeaks. They couldn’t fly for very far nor for very long, and they always stopped after a while to p...

Chapter 26

Fabrisse tried again.

This time, his arm moved slower, more precise. He focused on the breath before the embarrassment hit full bloom—the dip, not the spike. Just like Liene said. The stone...

Chapter 25

“I’m heading out,” Fabrisse said, slinging his satchel over one shoulder and trying to sound casual about it. 

The clock struck eight. Outside, the stars had begun their slow revea...

Chapter 24

Cuman’s smirk faltered. His eyes turned from Miro to the radiating scorch mark between them, then to the woman striding calmly forward. His posture didn’t change, but Fabrisse could feel that C...

Chapter 23

Some time had passed since the vault. Probably around forty-seven minutes.

Fabrisse had left Severa’s presence before she could ask more questions he didn’t have the answers for. She hadn...

Chapter 22

Fabrisse lingered by the pedestal a little longer than necessary. He cradled the Stupenstone like it might protest being returned, turning it one last time in his palm.

The System’s glyph f...

Chapter 21

The wards around the containment ring didn’t shatter, but unraveled like silk threads loosening under a sudden draft.

The stone was oddly warm. Fabrisse didn’t think it was any magical, b...

Chapter 20

The Lower Containment Annex sat beneath the older wings of the Synod, accessed through a narrow stairwell hidden behind a tapestry depicting the Grand Binding of Witherwyrm Baruchel. It was a drama...

Chapter 19

Fabrisse closed the door behind him and immediately turned to Greg, who was sitting on the floor in front of his bookshelf, carefully re-alphabetizing their emergency snack inventory by expiry date...

Chapter 18

They reached a tall set of opaline doors etched with celestial runes. Lorvan didn’t knock. The doors opened on their own, soundlessly, like they had been expecting him.

Inside, the air was ...

Chapter 17

By the time Fabrisse returned to class, he was exactly one hour and twelve minutes late. His robes were damp, his knees were muddy, and he still had a faint duck-feather stuck in his hair, which re...

Chapter 16

The lower channel ponds weren’t far, but Fabrisse felt like they were venturing into a different ecosystem entirely.

Past the eastern greenhouses and the old chalk tower, the land sloped to...

Chapter 15

The next morning, Fabrisse did the responsible thing: he went back to the Synod.

The world had not ended. The Eidralith had not incinerated him in righteous flame. No magi in crimson robes ca...

Chapter 14

It took Lorvan and Fabrisse another three tries to get the correct invocation to access [Skills], which turned out to be a mimicry of the old mnemonic for self-knowledge rites.

As the motion ...

Chapter 13

The stairs creaked under Fabrisse’s feet as he descended. Their cottage was small and sun-softened, and it looked even more cluttered since the lower floor doubled as kitchen, living room, and in...

Chapter 12

Fabrisse’s room resembled a secondhand bookshop crossbred with a nostalgic attic. It overflowed with annotated journals, old field guides, rejected thesis scrolls, and sentimental clutter no sane...

Chapter 11

He tapped his fingers against the side of his knee, glancing again at the fire, then to the glyph logs he’d recorded from his earlier invocations. All four had one thing in common. They could man...

Chapter 10

Some minutes later, Fabrisse was crouched near the base of a leafless tree, both hands shielding a shallow indentation he’d cleared in the dirt. A few brittle twigs and shaved bark curls lay crad...

Chapter 9

“Invocation for Gentle Currents, Mark II,” Fabrisse announced with all the pomp of a court herald and none of the authority.

“You didn’t bring any scrolls.” Dubbie looked up at him ...

Chapter 8

Tufted with scraggly grass and wind-battered shrubs, the hill rose like a bump on the landscape’s forehead. Fabrisse had named it Reflection Knoll years ago, back when he was ten and decided all ...

Chapter 7

He muttered a string of silent curses and tried to open the skill repository, but nothing happened. He focused harder, willing the system to respond. Open ‘Skill’, he thought. Gain...