Jennifer Jones
Stories
4
Chapters
1,292
Words
687.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 d, 9 h
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Tala and Thron finished their larger-than-usual meal, chatting about small things. As Tala finished up her portion and Thron nursed his third tankard of acid, they finally came back around to more serious topics. The dwarf started, “I did finally find an artificer who was able to give me more than platitudes and generalities about the white metal from that guild’s hold.” “So, you finally got an appointment with Cerdai?” Tala grinned. That was the artificer who’d helped combine the void-sword…-
211 •
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Tala accompanied Be-thric through the gate of the City Lord’s estate, Thron and Gallof each walking at a measured distance behind the one they served. The day had finally arrived, and they were to leave for Croi in just a few hours. It had been a week since their raid on the House of Ravens, and the city was abuzz with talk and rumors about the House of Blood. Some thought they had taken the Game of Houses too far, but most seemed to see the lack of casualties within the minor house as a sign of both…
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211 •
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Tala stretched, twisting to one side, then the other as she walked. She felt a series of oddly relieving pops with each twist. She smiled contentedly, then checked her gear. Three bloodstars rotated around her head and a fourth floated a bit behind the base of her skull. Between her neck and that fourth bloodstar, her tungsten rod was fixed, vertically in place, moving with her as if attached, though it never touched her or inhibited her movements in the least. The tungsten sphere, with a bloodstar…
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211 •
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Tala looked down at the inhuman body on the floor that still leaked the occasional drop of purple, glowing fluid. She stood within the sealed off vault, deep within Kit. The ground beneath her bare feet was the edge of reality of the pocket space. The look, texture, and sense of it was a bit nostalgic, reminding her of when she’d first gotten Kit. Tala knelt down and smiled, patting the ground. “Thank you, Kit.” The pouch did not respond.- Alat spoke in her head, clearly trying to distract Tala…
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211 •
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Tala sat and ate from an incredible spread of tasty food. When she got back home, she would have to seriously consider finding and hiring a cook… Thron sat on the other end of the table, regarding her critically. He’d mostly finished his own food, though he was still nursing a tankard of acid. “You know, I still find it very strange that there was almost no loot.” “From what?” She smiled innocently around the dumpling she’d just popped into her mouth. He gave her an unamused look. He’d…
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211 •
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Tala looked through the open archway at the utterly inhuman thing before her. It had two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head, but it wasn’t even biological. Tala huffed a laugh at that, but then refocused. The thing had just asked her what she offered to get past, and Tala had yet to answer. “What do I offer?” “Yes.” Its entire form was utterly, unnaturally still, except for its mouth, which moved as it spoke. Tala realized that she expected its torso to move at the same time, filling lungs…
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211 •
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Tala laid on the ground, surrounded by slowly leaking, broken constructs of metal and magic. The ten heavily armored automata had required her to get in close and hack through their defenses a little at a time, all while evading the ones she wasn’t currently assaulting. The stupid things had had wells of power that were entirely too deep, and had that power directly connected to their own integrity-defending magics, rendering her disintegration breath ineffective, at least not at its current…
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211 •
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Tala was finally ready, her preparations complete. She stood within a guild’s main hold, within the city of Platoiri. Around her lay the broken bodies of basic model automata. Before her stood the entrance into the next section of this dimensional pocket complex. Her tungsten sphere pairs were gravity amplified to lethal levels and awaiting her need in the pouch at her waist. Kit hung beside the lesser pouch, together balancing out Flow that hung on her opposite hip. She had contemplated holding…
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211 •
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Tala, unfortunately, couldn’t just go back to her sanctum and relax, despite the day with the City Lord being as trying as she’d expected. In planning out the day with Thron, Tala had elected to breach a renegade hold that evening, and she was to meet the dwarf at the entrance. Once she was clear of the City Lord’s estate, she found an out of the way wall and placed Kit upon it. She walked onto her dais and activated the reinscription magics. As she was still mostly painted, she chose to have…
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211 •
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Tala stood on the City Lord’s balcony, his voice traveling to her without effort, even as it seemed to shake the very air it moved through. She was looking down at the window-washer that the City Lord had briefly tried to convince her was an assassin. “I am, sadly, at an unstable place with my power, and so I am confined to this tower, unless at dire need.” Tala cocked her head, looking at the man who sat a good thirty feet from her. The man continued to talking, “As such, you will run errands…
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211 •
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