《The Forgotten Angels》Chapter 12
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Although the next few days were tense, mostly, the city continued as it always had. A few noble families left the first night, and most positions of power changed hands, but for the common citizen. Especially those with young children, they relaxed more every day. Darnath even sent out a decree to clean up the slums, although rebuilding the slums will be an extensive project. The people have already seen teams moving the heaps of garbage outside the walls.
As for the small group of elves, The king ended up watching the twins during the day. While Freeden helped Darnath get the city in order and his own Guild business. Much to the amusement of his personal guards, who each took turns helping him out. Unfortunately, Fenis couldn't rely on the two fairies because they had lost too much essence. They merged with their bonded child, becoming a small leaf tattoo on the back of each girl's hand. On the plus side, now Fenis could tell the girls apart since Nalle had a red tattoo, while Amelia had a green tattoo.
It was the tenth day since Darnath had taken the city, as Fenis and the girls were napping in the sun. Fenis is lying on a sofa with both girls on his chest and a guard hovering nearby in case one should fall. The door to the room slammed open with a bang, startling both Fenis and the twins. When the guard saw this, she rushed forward, catching Nalle, as the king grabbed Amy.
Queens Listandra's furious expression softened as she rushed forward to take Amy from a still groggy Fenis. After she had Amy calmed down, she shot a glare at Fenis, "how could you leave in the middle of a banquet?"
In the guard's arm's, Nalle, with watery eyes, reached her tiny arms toward Amy. Listandra smiled, waved the guard over, and set both girls together on the sofa. Listandra noticed both girls looking past her, waving their arms, and making cheerful sounds. She turned her head to look over her shoulder, only to see her husband making silly faces at them. "How have you been feeding them," she asked Fenis.
He pointed at the guard and replied, "Melania takes care of that."
The queen turned and looked questioningly at Melania.
Melania is a tall High elf in the garb of the royal guard. The moment the queen looked her way, she straightened and stood at attention, giving a formal salute. "I am also nursing my child back home," she said to the Queen with a bow.
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Listandra turned to glare at her husband. "You made her go out on a mission while nursing?"
"No, your Majesty, I volunteered after being told the details of the mission." Melania rushed to explain.
Listandra turned back, surprised, "what about your own child?"
Melania smiled knowingly, "It's fine, your majesty. My eldest daughter is also nursing and has taken my child in for the next few weeks while I am away."
Listandra frowned while looking Melania over from head to toe. "Aren't you uncomfortable in all that tight, heavy armor," she asked while pointing at her chest.
"A little," replied a slightly blushing Melania.
The Queen shot another glare at Fenis, who seemed to want to leave the room. Turning back to Melania, she told her. "Go change into something more comfortable, and return as soon as possible with Aleana."
"Yes, your majesty."
"and stop calling me majesty. Lady is fine," she said with a smile.
Melania bowed and said, "yes, my lady," turned, and hurried out of the room, eliciting a laugh from husband and wife.
Has Arlean gotten their house in order, asked the King.
Listandra turned to her husband, ignoring his question, and said, "go get Freeden."
Fenis was about to send a guard to get him when Listandra stopped him with a wave of the hand.
"You snuck out during a banquet as Freeden's escort, so you can go get him personally."
The King gaped at his wife for a split second before hurrying out of the room, followed by half the guards.
The Queen turned back to watch the twins when a thought struck her, and she asked the nearest guard, "How do I tell the difference between the two?"
"Nalle has a red leaf-shaped birthmark on her right hand, While Amelia has a green one on her left, Your Majesty."
Listandra held both hands mentioned by the guard and focused her mind on the birthmarks, feeling the two slumbering fairy minds. She bent down, kissed both marks, and whispered, "we will protect them, so rest well dear's."
Around fifteen minutes later, when the girls were getting fussy. The door opened, and Melania walked in closely followed by Aleana. Melania, now dressed in a comfortable, loose-fitting silk dress, hurried over to the girls as soon as she noticed their fussing.
Looking at this, all the male guards left to guard outside the room.
Listandra called out, "don't let our husbands in until I call for them,"
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The last guard saluted, "understood," then closed the door.
Melania had already shrugged the straps off her shoulders, exposing her somewhat swollen breasts. Picked up Amelia placing her against one nipple. Aleana picked up Nalle, helping to get her on the other, then stood back with a longing look on her face.
Half an hour later, Melania had taken the children to an adjacent room, to burp and lay them down to sleep. Getting them situated to her liking, she yawned.
The Queen chuckled warmly, told her. You may as well lay down beside them and rest awhile.
Listandra assigned four Guards to watch the children, then left with Aleana. Just as the Queen got to the door, she turned to address the already dozing Melania. "What does your husband do, dear?"
"He is also a royal guard. He left earlier with His Majesty, My Lady."
Listandra Smiled, "excellent, I have something to discuss with both of you later."
Melania looked down at the girls then smiled, which slowly became a frown, "will we be able to bring our son, My Lady."
Queen Listandra smiled brightly, "I assume you agree?"
"I am, my lady, and I will discuss this with my husband later."
A few minutes later, the King and Queen of Eleneer sat across from their niece and nephew. "So what do you two think of the twins," asked Listandra directly. She observed their faces and soon smiled knowingly, although Freeden was a better actor than her husband. The Queen could still see the excitement in his eyes.
Aleana had a longing expression in her eyes, "they're both beautiful."
Fenis was more direct and bluntly asked, "do you want to adopt them as your own."
Freeden tried to keep a straight face, but his excitement was still obvious even to Fenis. Aleana was more extreme as she jumped to her feet, grabbing the Queen's hand with watery eyes. "Really, Auntie," was all she managed, foregoing propriety.
"Dear, do you think I would joke about something like that," she exclaimed with mock hurt in her voice. "Besides," she added, "this will probably be the closest we get to being a grandparent."
When Aleana calmed down a bit, she suddenly exclaimed. "I have too much to do. I'll take my leave, Aunty, Uncle." She ran off after pecking her husband on the lips. After she left, Freeden apologized for her manners, but the pair only waved it off.
While the three were chatting, a guard opened the door and reported. "Lord Darnath has arrived and is in the main hall."
When the Fenis opened his mouth to respond, a loud voice roared. "ah, there ye are. So did the couple agree to adopt the lasses?"
Before the guard could move, Darnath shoved him aside, "out o the way ya pointy-eared stick. Evening your Majesties, catch ya at a bad time?"
Listandra laughed, "your always welcome Tristan,"
Fenis waved him over, "have a seat, old friend."
The dwarf stomped over to a seat next to Freeden, "who are ye calling old? Ain't that the same as calling your own daughter old?"
Queen Listandra sat up straighter and asked. "When are you and Arlean going to give me grandkids?"
Darnath uncomfortable said, "Yed have to ask Arlean that. It's up to her."
With a huff, Listandra flung herself back into her seat and crossed her arms, glaring at the dwarf.
While the married couple whispered amongst themselves, occasionally shooting glances Darnath's way, making him shiver. Freeden asked Darnath, "what's your opinion on how things are going?"
Darnath shrugged, "things went smoother this time. Maybe I've done this too many times now. I'll stay here for a few more days to make sure everything is in order. But I will leave most of the heavy lifting to you, and the Guild ye rebuilding."
Freeden frowned, "where are you heading after that?"
"I'll be heading to horde territory, Gnarlack may think he can fight anything, but those winged lizards will destroy his lands when they wake up if they are unprepared," replied Darnath. "Before heading out, though, I plan to change the name of the city to Khuzdul. Dunno what kinda moron would name a city Darnath, probable a drunken fool."
The king and queen nodded, but Freeden looked confused. Darnath seeing his look, scoffed, "what Er they teach en kids nowadays?"
Fenis looked at Freeden. It's Beginning in ancient dwarfish.
Freeden, feeling irritated being called a kid when he was well into his second millennia, just nodded. He also added to get the last jab in. "you named the city last time you conquered it."
A week later, Darnath and The royal party from Eleneer walked out of Khuzdul and vanished. Construction on the massive building that will house the new Guild headquarters also began.
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Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. 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I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
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