This whole time, I’d been thinking of the barrier as something of a myth. The village obviously functioned fine without a barrier and had been for years. Based on Father’s story, I’d made some assumptions about local history that it seemed w...
2023-12-07 12:42:50 +0000 UTC View PostI started by doing a quick lap around the manor. There were six alarm wards and two more trapped doors, both of which I marked for further investigation. I’d come back and see what was behind them as soon as I finished my initial circuit.
...
2023-12-06 12:45:27 +0000 UTC View PostIt was the moment of truth. I’d snuck down the hallway, made sure my mana core was topped off, checked every single doorway for wards and traps, removed yet another paralysis trap on the handle, and now was standing on my toes with a finger hook...
2023-12-06 02:13:14 +0000 UTC View PostI did not have the luxury to explore all night. If nothing else, it was significantly darker inside the manor than it had been outside, requiring me to expend a steady stream of mana to maintain sharpened senses just so I could see. I had a decent...
2023-12-05 12:38:44 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Keiran is currently number 1 on Rising Stars! I don't know how long I'll hold it, but we're celebrating while we can. Bonus chapter!
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I ha...
2023-12-04 17:29:38 +0000 UTC View PostWe were about a mile from the village when Mother abruptly stopped in place. Father, who’d been walking next to her, glanced over and halted as well. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Dusk was upon us and our shadows stretched out before us,...
2023-12-04 12:32:14 +0000 UTC View PostMy first impression of a dust jackal was that it looked like a dog with stork legs that were far too long for its body. It had dark brown earthy-colored fur on its back, and lighter dusty brown, almost yellow patterns on its legs and face. Everyth...
2023-12-04 03:05:14 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t want to do this,” Father said.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Mother told him.
“You can do it, Dad. You practiced a lot,” Senica added.
He turned to look at me. I shrugged and gestured for him to get going....
2023-12-03 13:12:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Raro aevinta temin,” Father said in time with the mana swirling through him.
“No. Not temin. Temun,” I corrected.
“Does it matter? You said the words were just for the tempo?”
“Not just f...
2023-12-02 15:57:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt took me a second to get back into the rhythm of things, and even though I’d given this speech many, many times in my past life, it suddenly felt awkward to be doing it again now. But I’d given magical lectures under worse conditions, and I ...
2023-12-02 12:53:51 +0000 UTC View PostI waited for Father to finish congratulating Senica on her new bracelet before I stood up. None of us were exactly getting any privacy here, but then again, it wasn’t like we’d had a lot back home either. It was a miracle I’d managed to be b...
2023-12-02 00:22:05 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: This is a bonus chapter for hitting the 250 new patrons milestone! This one seriously couldn't have happened without all of you guys directly. Thank you so much for your support.
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T...
2023-12-01 13:37:38 +0000 UTC View PostIskara stared at my father, waiting for an answer. I could practically see the gears turning in her head, measuring, cataloguing, and assessing him. She took a step forward, then another.
“That’s far enough,” Father said, snapping her ...
2023-12-01 13:37:14 +0000 UTC View PostWhoever the person walking across the dry, dead earth was, they could obviously sense mana from a distance. It was impressive, in a way. Almost no one I’d met since awakening had that kind of skill at even the most basic level. From what I could...
2023-12-01 13:36:58 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: This is a bonus chapter for hitting the 2500 follower milestone on Royal Road.
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The procedure to transfer control of Nermet to Father went surprisingly smoothly. I kept expecting so...
2023-12-01 13:36:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe mana sniffer slowly picked its way up the face of the cliff. Considering just how bulky and thick-limbed it was, I was a bit surprised by how much agility it had on display. I wasn’t convinced that it was going to make it to the top, but if ...
2023-12-01 13:36:20 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Father’s mana was spinning as fast as he could get it to go, I started pulling mana through my own core and releasing it into the air. A basic storage crystal would have been better here since I could have shunted the mana directly into a c...
2023-12-01 13:35:11 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: This is a bonus chapter for reaching the front page of Rising Stars. Boy, there are some harsh critics up there. Lots of bad ratings in the last day!
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“I don’t understand,” Fa...
2023-12-01 13:34:47 +0000 UTC View PostBreaking the sleeping enchantment on my father took about a minute and a half. Noctra had poured far more mana than was necessary into it, and that ended up working against me as it had been used almost like a layer of blubber wrapped round the en...
2023-12-01 13:34:14 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: This is a bonus milestone chapter for reaching 1000 followers on Royal Road.
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It took a bit more scrying to pinpoint exactly where the cart hauling my Father’s comatose body was a...
2023-12-01 13:33:56 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Keiran is doing fantastic right now, but it is starting to stagnate on the Rising Stars list. If you haven't already I would appreciate if you took the time to visit the RR page (2023-12-01 13:33:37 +0000 UTC View Post
The hardest part of cleaning out the storage room was reaching the draw stones on the top shelves. There was a chair, but even standing on that, it was a struggle to get to the top two rows. I ended up climbing the shelf to sit on the top while I ...
2023-11-30 12:50:30 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: This is a bonus milestone chapter released because 100 people have subscribed to my Patreon since Keiran went live on Friday.
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I had less ...
2023-11-29 12:45:54 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Keiran broke into the top 1000 ranked stories on Royal Road. I'm posting a bonus chapter to celebrate the milestone!
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First things first, ...
2023-11-28 12:41:06 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: This is a bonus milestone chapter for reaching 1000 followers on Royal Road.
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The village didn’t really have a problem with theft despite the fact that none of the homes even had ...
2023-11-27 12:50:10 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Keiran is doing fantastic right now, but it is starting to stagnate on the Rising Stars list. If you haven't already I would appreciate if you took the time to visit the RR page (2023-11-25 16:16:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Author's Note: Keiran has reached the top 500 ranked stories on Royal Road. I've posted a bonus chapter to celebrate the milestone.
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Of all the things Fa...
2023-11-24 13:04:08 +0000 UTC View PostDivination was a challenging field of magic. It wasn’t just about casting the spell. There was also the result to consider. Good divination spells parsed the information in a way that allowed a mage to experience it the same way we did everythin...
2023-11-23 13:07:34 +0000 UTC View PostMages had a lot of tools, which could make it hard to know which one was best used to solve the problem at hand. There were a lot of factors to consider too, things like who and what the target is, whether it mattered if anyone knew they’d used ...
2023-11-22 12:31:34 +0000 UTC View PostMy parents gave each other uneasy glances, but neither looked over in my direction. I was sure that was what they were thinking though, that my interference had drawn someone’s attention and it had gotten back to the governor himself. It was pos...
2023-11-21 12:38:55 +0000 UTC View Post