《Black Cloak, White Art》The Stones of Arcory - Chapter 1 - A Land Of Dust And Decay
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Missive to Council
Season of the Hot Sun, Second Quarter, Second Wheel Day
Magister Lightreave Grey, I have finished convening my chronicle receiving from Evan Sandstar and shall be leaving Tower Karlrock on the morrow. So far my journey east from Council purview has passed as requested, efficiently and quietly. I would point out a flock of striga has stubbornly followed me through the moors all almost to the source of The Kentash. Of course, if they knew my old blood would barely feed a hatchling, they might not have wasted the effort. Is there any request as to what to do with them should they pursue me beyond the hills?
Fellow Sandstar’s accounts appear to be in order, matching the purview’s Arbiter’s chronicling, and he also provided some compelling thoughts on expanding the use of apothecaries under his tutelage. I agree they are underused, not to mention undervalued where it comes to the value of their sphere of work. I must also issue a complaint about the new steed I have been provided for the journey east. Once out on the road it has transformed into a recalcitrant beast on which even my spells of charming have little effect. Perhaps you can send a missive ahead in request for a more suitable replacement, perhaps a horse of Midland breeding if at all possible.
The wind was ill, dusty; carrying with it the faint scent of rot, coupled with a whiff of smoke. I had ridden across the bleak and dry terrain on my disagreeable mount for close to three days and had seen little life or activity, to now find myself at King’s Ford on The River Trakse. Its dark waters flowed beneath my steed’s hooves at a weak ebb. Much of the ford was unexpectedly and exposed for even the hot season’s second quarter. I prodded my reluctant mount across, then encouraged it up the nearest rise to get a good look at the march’s full expanse. It snorted unhappily, but made it up the rise as directed by my heels. What I saw when I reached the top was not at all pleasing. The hillocks surrounding should have been covered in a sea of hot sun burnished and golden grasses. Instead they were a withered and patchy brown and grey, a further sign of both drought and pestilence.
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I only encountered one man on the road to the margrave’s keep, a tall willowy and figure leading his ragged line of well burdened, but equally skin and bone donkeys, laden with what I suspected was the sum total of what his life had earned him. And he was leaving what life he must have had in the march as I was arriving. I stopped my weary steed and regarded this miserable man hobbling along the west running road cut into the rolling moors.
“What can you say of the land you are leaving,” I said to him.
He looked up at me, squinting through the dusty haze. His likely brown and straggly beard was well coated in a coating of grey dust as was his threadbare clothing.
“That you would be a fool to enter it,” he told me in his gravelly and knowing tone as he squinted up. “And old fool at that.”
I chuckled, rubbed some of the airborne dirt from my whitening beard and bade him well. He clearly cared not I wore the black cloak and robes of a wizard, and asked for nothing as he passed. As for my foolishness at entering this land, he may well have been quite accurate in his assessment.
A cry came from the sky behind me as the man passed. I looked up to see the round bodied striga wheeling around in the sky. With another collection of squawks they turned on their leathery wings back whence they came. I probably should have known well enough to change my route as well.
Despite the donkey driver’s wise words, I continued into the miasma.
Even though the hillock’s rise was not particularly notable, it still offered me an expansive view of the re-corrupted march from atop my reluctant horse, a gelding rather more ornery than most I’ve encountered in my experience. Still, any view is always better from atop a mount, if you didn’t have a tower handy, and they have rarely been less portable than a steed of the four or even two legged variety. I ceased my urging for a moment, thought of the portable towers I had made use of, with pleasant longing I must admit, as the beast slowly trotted its way down the rise. It had been some time since I’d set eyes on a functional and fully enchanted portable tower, longer since I had made use of one. Few constructs such as those from the Riven War still survived the last battles, and even fewer were seen these days, at least north of the Vaeranshi borderlands. But then, too much convenience has been held by Council as a failing that encouraged working against the Tenet’s of Balance. Costly indulgences, in this era of relative peace, are therefore, frowned upon. Even I knew better than to bother them about such things.
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I made a note to visit the one still on exhibit at the Library of Procol at Evenside. It would bring back memories, I was sure. Whether they would tip to good or bad, however, I could not be certain. I could not remember who had enchanted that particular construct, or even in what use in battle it had seen. There had been so many battles.
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ALL HOLLOW
The Teir, a tiny machine powered by long-lost magic, has predicted the end of the world. Only two students from a prestigious university can stop it by mastering that same magic. Malou Lamaire’s biggest secret is that she can use what little magic is left in the world, but then she uncovers a plot to steal the Teir. So she steals it first and goes on the run to protect it from those who wish to use its power for their own gain. Gavriel Eng, her willing accomplice, is accustomed to running from his secrets, but he can’t run from his true identity any longer. Not when it requires him to seek an ancient, dangerous magic to make his own—and he’s not the only one on the hunt for it, either. Their combined power is the key to rooting out an evil that defies the laws of life and death—and their failure means the end of everything.
8 192The Chimera's Dungeon
Reborn in a fantasy world as a Dungeon Core. This story follows the protagonist as finds himself thrown into a new word. A world filled with magic and monsters. Now, normally, this would fill our protagonist with a lot of excitement and, admittedly, a little bit of fear - if it weren't for that fact that he is one of the monsters. A dungeon core, harbingers of death and fortune. And so, his current circumstances instead fill him with a lot of fear and maybe just a little bit of excitement. Join the adventure to watch that fear fade away as he realises just how limitless the power at his ‘fingertips’ is. The power of creation and destruction. Of life and death. Additional Tag(s): OP Main Character - The MC is definitely stronger than other Dungeons of the same age, however, he is by no means the strongest in the world. Yet.
8 231Persona Non Grata
After the events of Dr. Jose Rizal's second novel "El Filibusterismo", the story follows the tale of the former students Basilio and Isagani in the aftermath of the failed assassination plot against the most powerful governing political figures in the Delos Santos residence. Now a licensed doctor and a tenured businessman, Basilio and Isagani returns to the Philippines after their 10-year venture in Spain and in the United States to spearhead a large-scale project for the Spanish crown. For the first time in the history of the country, the Spanish government has allowed Indios to pioneer major public works, and the Filipinos, seeing this as major milestone of their race, welcomed it cheering and with open arms. It was also during that same year when the new Captain-General was appointed to the Philippines following the scandal involving the outgoing Captain-General, who sent an entire battalion of Indio conscripts to be deliberately slaughtered by a gang of tulisanes led by a man going by the name 'Matanglawin' (Falcon-eye). Leonardo Montes, the incoming Captain-General, was both feared and loved by his subjects. A close friend of the king and reputed for upholding honor, discipline and goodwill among his subjects, he won the confidence of the Cortes and of the Filipino people when political unrest arose during the tenure of his predecessor when he represented the Philippines in the high courts and won the case. However, Montes, now at the early days of his tenure, is faced with a huge and pressing problem: the widespread opium trade in the Philippines. Chinese immigration to the Philippines has increased at an exponential rate since his predecessor came to power and so is the circulation of the substance within the country. And to make matters worse, strange cases of killings and abductions began to terrorize the country, with the motives of the culprit unknown...
8 216Life of Two
Within two separate worlds, Two unique children were born. They weren't calm and always seemed to be in constant pain. One had the fate to be a God-Class being, while the other had a less fortunate start as a Mortal within confines. They saw through each other's eyes, witnessing two lives in constant and thought separate thoughts in their connected single mind. Of different status, of different passage of time, of different mental fortitude, and of different lifestyles, nothing matched for the two as they lived twice at once. In the end, all they wish for is a constant of peace. A dream that was rather difficult, but was better to at least think to. The Mortal who hid his exhaustion and kept away his darkened corruption, and the God who lead a healthy yet dutiful life. This is the Life of Two.______
8 219crime-free murder
最全人聽聞的兇殺案,最離奇的追蹤!食人晚餐、情人冰雕、人皮祭祀畫面、鏡中鬼魂……用普通人的心智,你永遠無法理解離奇的兇殺案的真正目的。催人淚下的休憩之景,以你的能力,為你的家人帶來了令人敬畏的生機。 聲明:有最后的歷史能力請放棄,智商心理負擔差的請放棄。直到片刻才猜出真相。
8 145RELINQUISH
Sometimes I wonder why the world isn't decorated with something as cool as magic... Why can't we manipulate the laws of the world? Why does the story about God sound too fake to be believed? Why the hope for this world to be saved from the bottom of everyone's heart can never be fulfilled... Then I landed on each conclusion from each of those questions... That humans are the most cunning, meanest and stupidest creatures who are most desperately expected to not have any power including magic itself. That it is not God that we should believe in, because they themselves do not believe in how disgusting human nature really is. That everyone's hope is not for the world to be saved, but for the world to be destroyed in order to save their own selves. That the world from the beginning, was not meant to be saved... (I frequently revise and update the use of sentences in the previous chapters without disturbing the original storyline. so sometimes it takes me a little longer to publish a new chapter.) I have the same novel posted on another website (Webnovel.com , creativenovels.com) with the same name (RELINQUISH)
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