It took almost a week to make even a brief examination of the majority of the cores. After a day or so, each of the great chiefs sent down helpers, most of whom were males. When Rega taught the Bro...
2025-02-11 03:03:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe next two days were spent in a blur of lectures and books, all delivered by a Killian who was a far more terrible villain than he had ever been in the game. At least, if you discounted the peopl...
2025-02-10 06:05:38 +0000 UTC View PostKaz didn’t know where to begin, so Li shared the howl with Kyla instead. Li’s version was far more exciting than Kaz’s would have been, since he mostly remembered being frightened for Li and ...
2025-02-07 21:04:56 +0000 UTC View PostThey all made their way through the jumble of fallen shelves and shattered cores, and Kaz found that walking instead of flying didn’t help him resist the press of ki rising from those sad, scatte...
2025-02-06 22:36:41 +0000 UTC View PostEver since Kaz realized just how unusual his sense of direction was, he’d wondered how it came to be. Was it part of his ability to see ki? He had a Goldblade grandfather, so perhaps he’d inher...
2025-02-05 23:25:11 +0000 UTC View PostKaz explained quickly, and his cousin didn’t hesitate. She ran off toward Lianhua, who was already speaking with Ija. Certain that Kyla would do as he’d asked, Kaz allowed his focus to widen, s...
2025-02-04 22:55:29 +0000 UTC View PostKyla had never had a day so full of terror and triumph. She and Raff had run through the city more quickly than she’d realized it could be done. Of course, it helped when he scooped her up ...
2025-02-03 22:05:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt turned out that a hostage could, in fact, become quite untidy, especially when the Really Evil Pirate Drake shoved her into a large plant that might be a bougainvillea but probably wasn’t, bec...
2025-02-03 19:12:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe trail of toppled shelves and fallen cores continued for quite a ways, and Kaz felt more than a little sick at just how many cores there were. Nucai had had centuries to gather them, however, an...
2025-02-01 02:42:03 +0000 UTC View PostA monster crouched before him, ready to leap. Its fur was the color of golden flames, and red embers burned in its eyes. It would have stood shoulder to shoulder with Raff, and muscles rippled bene...
2025-01-30 23:49:48 +0000 UTC View Post“You want out,” Kaz managed, one hand behind him, still resting on the patch of blue scales on Li’s chest, waiting for a heartbeat that never came. “Qiangde trapped you here when he made it...
2025-01-30 01:32:03 +0000 UTC View PostKaz wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he had won. There was no way either Nucai or Dongwu had been crushed beneath the overwhelming mass of things that had poured out of the pou...
2025-01-29 03:15:35 +0000 UTC View Post“Uncle?” Dongwu said, her eyes downcast as she drew closer.
“Have you been speaking to the intruders?” Nucai asked, his eyes, which were so like Lianhua’s in color, were entirely ab...
2025-01-27 21:46:46 +0000 UTC View PostAll color drained from Geraldine’s cheeks, then returned as rapidly as it had left. Her eyes grew huge, and she stared up at her mother as if she’d just been given the best Christmas, birthday,...
2025-01-27 03:38:17 +0000 UTC View PostIdla actually laughed. “Later is good enough for you, pup.”
It looked like she would turn away, so Kaz said, “Is it good enough for you?”
She froze. “What do you mean?”
<... 2025-01-26 00:59:07 +0000 UTC View PostKaz turned his back on the core. Even if he could afford to continue giving it ki - and that thought made him shudder in revulsion - he had no time for anything unnecessary. Instead, he looked arou...
2025-01-24 22:16:49 +0000 UTC View PostI've written and deleted about five different versions of today's chapter, and none of them work. I know what needs to happen, but I'm not getting there. I'm very, very sorry to do this, but I need...
2025-01-24 05:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostEven as Li gathered herself to lift back into the air, Lianhua spoke to Kaz. “Do you think you can stop this without damaging the Tree any further?”
Kaz laid a hand on Li’s neck, and th...
2025-01-23 00:36:30 +0000 UTC View PostSome long-running battle had taken place between the city and the Tree. The guards who should have been protecting the gate were missing, and the gate itself was tilted in its place, blood spattere...
2025-01-22 04:22:07 +0000 UTC View PostRaff was standing in the midst of a pile of dead and dying Irondiggers, while Kyla appeared and disappeared around him, each time burying her knife in an attacker. Because she wasn’t using ki-bol...
2025-01-21 02:32:50 +0000 UTC View PostAnother week passed in hazy late summer days, filled with the hum of locusts and the scent of Lady Reedsley’s flowers blooming in wild abundance. Honestly, Pandy wasn’t even sure all of the flo...
2025-01-19 23:46:35 +0000 UTC View PostKaz and Li almost immediately ran into a group of gray-furred kobolds attacking a red-furred female. A male with deep orange fur lay on the ground at her feet, and she had her shield lifted to cove...
2025-01-18 01:34:42 +0000 UTC View PostSmall pink toes twitching,
Eyes yet closed to the new world,
A breath, calm and deep.
Chi Yincang swept his brush over thin rice paper, then stared down...
2025-01-17 04:11:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe sound of Kyla’s hands slapping the table as she stood made them all turn to stare at the pink-furred female. She, in turn, was staring at Dongwu. “You let this happen,” she said, not aski...
2025-01-15 21:55:39 +0000 UTC View PostThey were seated at a table that looked like it had been made from many small pieces of wood, each carved into shape and held together with some kind of glue before being polished to a high shine. ...
2025-01-14 23:25:35 +0000 UTC View PostDongwu’s brown, human eyes stared at Kaz, then through him, and she said, “What are you? You look like one of mine, but if you were, you would obey.” Tufts of fur reminiscent of eyeb...
2025-01-14 00:43:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe Reedsleys only had ten or so regular servants - though that seemed like a lot to Pandy and Thaniel - and all of them were apparently busy in the kitchen or serving guests. The halls were empty ...
2025-01-13 00:37:50 +0000 UTC View Post<Leave my friends alone!> Li howled, pressing against Kaz’s back as her own ki rose up to surround them, then flooded into the space ahead. The thing that was trying to overwhelm Kyla and L...
2025-01-11 05:44:56 +0000 UTC View PostDiushi
First emperor - Qiangde Long
Language is called Diushan. The civilization it replaced was the Sheng Empire, so the original language was Old Sheng.
Kobolds
Kaz had lost count of stairs at just over three thousand. His legs didn’t tire, but Li’s did, and the unchanging view ahead and behind them made them feel like they were trapped in an unending ...
2025-01-09 05:02:33 +0000 UTC View Post