It was getting late; the sun had long set, and on moonless nights like these Marcus’ study grew dreadful. He had at his desk just one lamp—bright enough, perhaps, but his study was cavernous, r...
2023-11-10 17:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe first week Aelia fought Ruyi, it was like fighting a child. Ruyi didn’t know how to move her legs, or her arms, and she pounced around clumsily in her demonform—a child in a big suit. Aelia...
2023-11-09 17:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Cut out the last part of last chapter about seeing how the food’s made. Also added to last chapter:
“It was such an annoying screw-up, too. She thought she’d gotte...
2023-11-08 17:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Art was neatly written, but by hand; it had little splotches and loops you wouldn’t see in an issue of the Herald, and the lines didn’t run perfectly even. It took her less than te...
2023-11-07 17:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was late at night, and Ruyi was laying outside, staring at the moon, painfully sober. It took her a while to fall asleep these days; she couldn’t manage it, so now she was here. Ever since she...
2023-11-06 17:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was too quiet on the way to the palace. There was no-one on the road. Thick gray clouds hid the sky, sagging ominously. Jin kept expecting a squadron of the king’s guard to pop out of the sunf...
2023-11-05 17:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt was getting late, and the hearth was nearly burnt out. The watery orange sun poured in through the great windows in Tingting’s bedroom, casting half the room in a flat rectangle of harsh light...
2023-11-04 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe elite warriors held their morning practice at the break of dawn. Ruyi thought this was a most heinous practice, since she usually woke up around noon, or possibly later depending on how much sh...
2023-11-03 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post// slightly changed Claudia’s appearance at end of last chapter
“This is what we’ll do. Drusila wants you to do to our warriors what you did to your Lower City,” said Claudia. “I’...
2023-11-02 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: To Demon Tier members: y'all get 13 chapters ahead now! I'm trying 2x/day chapters, which means this tier will expand proportionally
//
She woke up to the sm...
2023-11-01 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: just a checkup—please give me your honest opinion on how the story’s going in comments!
Happy Halloween!
//
“Rufus?” said Sabina.
For a while t...
2023-10-31 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Postsorry for late chap! schoolwork ran over
//
Later that afternoon, she was woken up from her nap by the blast of a horn.
“Ahh!” She half-clawed, half-stumbled he...
2023-10-30 16:47:57 +0000 UTC View PostFrom her second cup on Ruyi was a different person. Her head felt tingly warm, and the tightness in her chest didn’t hurt as much anymore and breathing felt easy again. She laughed and said thing...
2023-10-28 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostRuyi wondered how bad he’d have to hurt her before Sabina stepped in. Was this how these folk treated a guest? Beating them up? She felt a little resentful. But she’d agreed to it, because of c...
2023-10-27 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostRuyi thought as she chewed off another chunk of meat—a tough one, rough in her mouth, and stringy and turgid with blood; it didn’t go down easy. It was a part of the frost drake’s heart.
<... 2023-10-26 16:43:39 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Livia came the next morning Ruyi was waiting for her. She’d been waiting outside her tent since before dawn, watching the sun creep up the horizon and the stale, dull snows come to life, flu...
2023-10-25 16:25:19 +0000 UTC View PostSo this was their version of a library!
It was cozy here; a single shaft of sunlight lit a cylinder down the middle, pouring sunlight on a cackling hearth heaped high with coal. A short, stic...
2023-10-24 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostTo human tier members--y'all get 6 advance chapters instead of 4 now! I'm writing 2x chapters a day now, so as the backlog expands this tier's chapters will expand as well proportionally
// 2023-10-23 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
“You!” gasped Ruyi.
“Hello again,” said Livia. She smiled softly in a way that must’ve been genial, but the scars on her face twisted grotesquely and Ruyi only felt a little sickene...
2023-10-21 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThose were men’s voices. No-one she knew. She remembered the lights she saw twinkling at the bottom of the range as she went in—Father’s men, pursuing her…
They caught up.
Dread...
2023-10-20 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostShe demonformed in a panic and the claws were forced open. She fell all of a stride, lashing at air, tail thrashing, before the claws closed around her neck again. Harsh winds flushed down her face...
2023-10-19 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAt first Ruyi thought she was just lucky. As she crept up the excuse for a road trickling between the mountains, she met no-one. No squadrons of angry men coming to fight her, no assassins, not eve...
2023-10-18 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Where’re you going?” sniveled the girl. “Can you take me with you? Please? What’s your name?”
It was rather hard to think with the girl all over her, staring at her, pouring hers...
2023-10-16 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“You look like you could use some help.”
She hugged herself tighter.
“Are you here to kill me?” she mumbled.
“Probably not,” said the boy, shrugging. He invited himsel...
2023-10-14 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostShe bounded through the forest, panting hard, straining to hear her pursuers. But there was only the soft chirping of insects, the shriek of the wind, the crackling as leaves and branches shattered...
2023-10-13 18:35:44 +0000 UTC View PostFighting felt like drowning. She threw back the tide of white cloaks but more rushed to take their place like so much water. They came at her in bunches, keeping swords between them. They drove spe...
2023-10-12 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Ready!”
Chen’s voice blew through the alley like a cold wind. Already Ruyi was running—running where she saw the cannon aiming, tracking the clump of stragglers rushing for the side ...
2023-10-11 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostJin threw open the front doors. “Rue!”
She was finishing up the last of her morning blood soup. “I’m right here,” she said mildly. “No need to yell.”
Then she saw the colo...
2023-10-10 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for late >.> traveling with fam
Will try to get a chapter out tomorrow as well but not 100% sure I'll be able to
May start taking 1 day/week off to pla...
2023-10-08 18:59:19 +0000 UTC View PostRuyi had rocked there on the rooftop all day, staring at the mountains so long she could see their outlines even when she closed her eyes. The last wink of the sunlight was passing beyond the peaks...
2023-10-07 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post