eligos

Double-Blind CH107

<01:03:56>

It was aggravating that the advancement had come so late. I was positive I’d received more than enough experience from Ebryli’s Trial to push me well into the ninth level, if not enough to eclipse it ent...

Double-Blind CH106

The biggest advantage of a knife is concealment and surprise. Take those two elements away, and the prospect of fighting with one becomes far more precarious. My father told me something once, on one of those days, where he came home ...

Double-Blind CH105

Golden light shined down through gray clouds. I squinted upwards, shielding my vision with a half-cupped hand. Synthesized pop blasted over a light-grey wireless speaker on the patio table, a kitschy, catchy beat perfectly engineered ...

Double-Blind CH104

My ears popped from the sudden change in pressure, the semi-sterile scent of the church mingled with burning fuel and blood. A chunk of something impacted my head and sent me reeling, stumbling backwards until I caught myself on a wall, blinking ...

2022-06-02 18:25:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH103

Kinsley hadn’t said anything else after my last message. In and of itself, that was surprising. She almost always had some snarky remark when my suggestions and requests were more commands than suggestions. Maybe her experience with...

Double-Blind CH102

For a few scant seconds, the neon hexagonal red square of a stop sign held my full attention. There was nothing significant about the sign itself. What was curious was my reaction to it. I’d squeezed my brakes tightly to avoid going over the whi...

Double-Blind CH101

Thunk

Thunk

Thunk

Miles burst through the door of the necromancer’s lair, his eyes wild. His bow was at the ready, the glinting arrowhead reflecting the sterile lights above. He aimed at me for just...

Double-Blind CH100

“Kinsley. And my name is Vernon Fields. Not that it matters. In a court of law, I would have just given you motive alongside the smoking gun, and the assertion that I cannot stop my work. But there is no court of law anymore.” Ver...

Double-Blind CH99

Chapter 99

I positioned myself five feet away and held my crossbow to his head. Some part of me itched to pull the trigger. Necromancer, kidnapping and killing people by the dozen. It should have been clearcut, entirely justified. And I re...

Double-Blind CH98

When I returned, Miles didn’t ask any questions. That felt significant somehow. Either he was committed to his own plausible deniability, or he already knew. Normally, I’d say I was confident he hadn’t been watching me, but cons...

Chapter 97

Astrid flinched backwards like she’d been punched in the gut. It was the first time I’d seen her act anything other than stoic or borderline hostile. That was good. The volatile reaction cemented the plausibility that she wasn’t doing this ...

2022-05-20 19:02:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH96

A never-ending stream of profanity ran through my mind as I watched the fleeing man gain ground. He was out of the effective range for <Page’s Quickdraw> and with this distance, it was unlikely I’d hit him. If the mages ...

Double-Blind CH95

There was a moment of shock as the crossbow bolt pierced Pat’s back. <Awareness> was so common, I’d half expected the shot would miss. Instead, he whirled to face me, surprise undercutting the clear pain written across ...

2022-05-18 23:35:26 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH94

Emil didn’t know much, but what he did know was useful. His group’s name was Fidelis. Cutting through the heavily romanticized and editorialized description, and they were fringe paramilitaries with a viagra-assisted erection for the Second A...

2022-05-18 02:42:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH93

“This is fucked. It’s a bloody war zone out there. The whole point of agreeing to do this, was that they promised we wouldn’t be bothered.”

“That right, big guy? You know where “Pat,” is. Why don’t you go tell hi...

Double-Blind CH92

Miles removed his bow from his shoulder and drew a coated arrow, nocking it and drawing the string taut, pressing the back door open slowly, as if a gust of wind or explosion had edged it open. Judging from his focus and the look in his eye, he w...

2022-05-12 22:57:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH91

The throbbing rumble of explosions rattled in my ears like an overactive bass line. <Persuasion> didn’t go smoothly this time. Miles was right that the man was disciplined, but he looked anxious, and any visible emotional...

2022-05-12 00:59:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH90

Max glanced around the back grimly, as if worried everyone would disappear the moment he answered. “Seven.”

Muttering rose to a fever pitch as the others discussed the evaluation. From what Max had said, his evaluation scale...

Double-Blind CH89

There was an uncommon confidence to the voice. The sort of conviction charlatans and con-artists can only dream of. Like he was speaking his own will into existence, and he knew it.

I turned from Grayscale to study the newcomer.

Gold...

Double-Blind CH88

Even as I prepared to leave the rooftop, a million warring thoughts about Ellison battled for attention in my mind. They dulled to a distant siren as I replaced the mask, and felt the chaos in my mind dissolve to almost nothing.

Chapter 87

Kinsley led me into the crackhouse. Black graffiti covered the walls, and it stank of stale piss and cigarettes. Not exactly a sterile environment. There weren’t many healthy members of Roderick’s lodge around, and those present too busy tend...

2022-05-05 01:32:06 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH86

A good bluff doesn’t stop after the bluff is spoken. You can’t just stand around, waiting to see if the mark will buy it. People are by and large more sensitive to desperation than any other emotion. It’s why it's so easy to pick out a panh...

2022-04-29 23:22:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH85

It was a peculiar scene. There were dark-green plastic loungers scattered around the backyard, which was mostly dirt. The slab of cement that had once been a porch was cracked from years of neglect and shifting earth. Further back, there was a gr...

2022-04-29 04:17:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Double-Blind CH84

There were too many people around, and I was moving too quickly to see how full the receptacle was. Civilians, both neighbors I’d known for years and a some I didn’t, were lingering in a cluster around the receptacle.

I pulled the fron...

Double-Blind CH83

That was it.

There was nothing more to say, no other discussions or negotiations to be had. I’d consulted both Kinsley, and afterwards Talia. Talia hadn’t known anything of the Eldritch, her advice remarkably neutral, as Kinsley’s ha...

Double-Blind CH82

“Myrrdin? What happened? Are you—“

I ended the call with Sara.

There were no easy answers to the questions.

Only suspicions, all of them too horrible to voice. The underside of my jaw tingled as I struggled to keep myself...

Double-Blind CH81

It took more than a few uses of <Suggestion> to get Jacob to the point where he wasn’t going to try to kill me as soon as my back was turned. Subsequently, he was amenable enough. Even helpful.

One of the big probl...