《Known World Series》Episode 6: Shatterspike
Advertisement
Once outside and clear of the du’Vaul tent, Tosh saw Azal returning on his horse. He waved to his bodyguard, who had stopped and was staring upwards above them.
“What is he looking at?” Tosh asked.
“He’s been yanked around through time and space. He can see things others can’t,” Tessa said.
“I have as well,” Tosh said.
“Not like him. You got a Gate to buffer you. He’s a bit different.”
“How do you know this?” Tosh asked, looking at Tessa with a bit of concern. “Is he a danger to me? The mission?”
“Neither. He is a victim of his own deeds. He is your protector. Let him be concerned.”
“Very well.” Tosh said as he watched Tessa lifted her hand up and snap her fingers, which made the large hoop of stone of her Gate appeared in the sky above their heads.
“She’s not going to be happy to deal with Ironmonger robots. She doesn’t like them very much,” Tessa said to Renard and Tosh. “Or at all, really.”
Tosh shrugged and then turned to Azal and saw that the one time bandit’s face was turned upward to see the stone ring of the Gate slowly spinning above them, a look of absolute awe on his face.
“Never traveled by one of these?” Tosh asked.
“No. They were always closed to me. But I have been ripped from one end of the galaxy to the other, and tossed about in time like a cork in a storm. It is still something of beauty, sahib.”
“Keep your weapons loose,” Tosh whispered to Azal. “The ring can spit us out in any of a dozen places before we reach our destination.”
“It doesn’t take us directly there?” Azal asked. “That is the reason for—“
Advertisement
“This particular Gate has a strange sense of what is ‘needed’ for those who use its power to travel,” Tosh said.
“I am ready,” Azal said. He gripped his dagger at his hip and then touched the shoulder strap of his rifle, pulling the weapon tighter to his back.
“Next stop, Shatterspike. Well, pretty sure, at least,” Tessa said as the Gate lowered itself, growing larger enough to fit around all six passengers.
Traveling through the Gate was as strange as Tosh remembered. His stomach quailed, his vision warped and twisted, blurring into a kaleidoscope of colors and felt smells, tasted the very power of the Gate as a hard toffee with an electrical current running through it, with an aftertaste of absinthe licorice. However, he thought it was a good thing that he could land on his feet this time when the Gate expelled them onto a plain of black grass, stiff and brittle looking.
At first, when he felt the grass crackle under his feet, Tosh thought it was from a fire. Yet, when he looked up, he saw in the sky a glowing ember of light, a disk a handspan across when he put his hand up to it. The light was feeble, not bright enough to be a star, but it gave off illumination. A little better than a full moon on Earth. The sky itself was dotted with two to three dozen bright stars, competing with the light of what he thought to be a dying star.
“Is this Shatterspike?” Tosh asked, looking up at the ember circle in the sky.
The air had a strange rotten stench, as if they’d landed near a refuse heap. He was about to say something when Renard let out a gasp behind him. When Tosh saw Renard and the robots appear, Renard went ass-over-tea-kettle into the dirt. Then watched as Renard’s two Ironmonger robots helped pick him up, standing him up. Renard was laughing as he stood, then cackling. He pointed to something behind Tosh.
Advertisement
Tosh turned around, stunned that he had missed the massive structure behind him.
Before them, a dozen paces from the where they’d landed was the brittle, broken half mile tall and wide steel and shattered glass dome of Shatterspike.
“I didn’t think that Shatterspike existed on such a planet with a dying star,” Tosh said.
“Not a dying star,” Tessa said. “That’s a brown dwarf. Not enough mass to make it to be a real ‘star,’ but more than enough mass to start the first fusion reactions.”
“Oh, like the Eye of Jove?” Azal said.
“Yes, very much so,” Tessa said.
“We will return,” Renard said to the Guildie. He then pinned Tosh with a look. “Time to earn your cousin’s debt.”
“Be careful out here,” Tosh said to Tessa. Though, he was sure that whatever tried to attack her would regret its own existence.
“No problem, Nix has my back, don’t you, sweetie?”
The serpent head emerged again and gave a strange soft purr as Tessa stroked his head again.
“You be careful too,” Tessa whispered to Tosh. “I don’t like them.”
“Same,” Tosh whispered back.
Advertisement
Mortal Cultivation Biography
A poor and ordinary boy from a village joins a minor sect in Jiang Hu and becomes an Unofficial Disciple by chance. How will Han Li, a commoner by birth, establish a foothold for himself in in his sect? With his mediocre aptitude, he must successfully traverse the treacherous path of cultivation and avoid the notice of those who may do him harm. This is a story of an ordinary mortal who, against all odds, clashes with devilish demons and ancient celestials in order to find his own path towards immortality.
8 1050The Tower
Thousands signed up to be part of The Tower. The game was simple: climbs all 100 levels of The Tower. But once all the players were inside, the game trapped them. Ethan and his friends must work with other players if they ever want to go home. Death means starting back at level 1. Volume 2 After recovering from their wipe on the 26th Floor, Ethan and his friends have left the town of Startesgarde to finish their own, unique class quests. Little do they know, one of their own never made it to his destination. An unknown threat stalks them, even as a new recruit changes the dynamic of the Disorder guild. Volume 3 Following the events of Volume 2, Ethan Holliwell is in an absolutely terrible place. Kim Tae-Won is still missing, the woman he had fallen hard for abandoned him, everything that he had been working towards the entire time he has been trapped in the game was taken from him. His remaining friends, David, Miguel and Leah, want to help him, but they don't even know where he actually is. War is coming, can they find and help Ethan in time?
8 164The Legend Of Michael
This story is about a 15 year old named Michael. Michael is a prince of a great kingdom and also he is part of a Meta-human family. Meta-humans make up 37 percent of the world populations and most of the world. Majority of Meta-humans are female and also females are the leaders of the world, while the majority, of males, are slaves. Michael lives with his family in a palace. His kingdom run by his mother the true ruler of the country while his dad is just a figurehead to the country. Mostly everybody in Michael family is Meta-humans except his father. And Michael has nine siblings and out of those siblings only six are candidates to have become the new ruler of the country and Michael is not one of them. Michael wasn't upset at first but when he heard that he would make a terrible ruler for the country by his brothers and sisters. Michael becomes upset and demanded to be a candidate just like his brothers and sisters. *Author Note This fiction is a participant of the WriTEr's pledge. https://www.royalroadl.com/forums/thread/97007?page=1#pid819235 Author Note* Chapter releases are Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
8 485Spiritual Taoist
Is the fate of man really scheduled from the beginning? Even deep in despair I am looking for the meaning of my existence, and I have not stopped for a moment.
8 72CATastrophe
After a bunch of nuclear power-plants all around the world exploded due to some dumb mistakes, radiation caused mutations in just about all the animals and some plants on planet earth. Especially cats. Now cats are the lifeform above all lifeforms, because for some strange reason, radiation had a veryyy pronounced effect on cats. Now dead-set on vengance, cats are out to get humans for making embarassing dank memes of cats and overall setting dogs as the superior species. This will be really endangering the humankind. Plus the fact that now every single animal on earth is sentient, stronger, and sometimes smarter than humans, humans are now on the bottom of the food-chain. Follow Dave the cat-hating prick, on his journey to put humanity back on top, and to pacify as many prideful cats as possible. But first he will have to deal with his girlfriend's cat Holly and her shenanigans. Authors note: Don't expect a lot for this series, this is like my first proper story.
8 103'The sheet filled, multicolored pen marks on each name, the more talkative students in class came more often, the quieter ones had more to talk about. Even if in the meetings, it was just a few words, a cup of tea, and a nice setting in his dorm office, the students seemed to appreciate it just about as much as Aizawa did.'OrTodoroki isn't sure he knows how to survive anymore, and Aizawa wants to help his students.CW⚠️: Suicidal themesSelf harmReferences to child abuseGraphic Violence
8 108