Jennifer Jones
Stories
4
Chapters
1,292
Words
687.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 d, 9 h
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Tala stood to one side as Sanguis, Be-thric, and Cuan talked. The two pillars were acting surprisingly cordial with the former candidate Eskau. They’d even ordered a late morning spread of food to be brought to share. Pallaun had briefly walked by and told her they needed to talk soon, but he was off to fulfill some city-mandated duty. She did not participate in the discussion between the three, though it was happening close by. She wasn’t excluded from the conversation, in fact they’d asked her…-
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Tala and Thron talked for a little while about small things. But soon, it was just about time for Tala to leave so that she could attend Be-thric at the meeting. As she stood to go, she noticed that, through her mage-sight, Thron was looking a bit…weak. “Thorn, why are you running low on magic?” He gave her an odd look. “Where would I be getting magic, in here?” Tala looked around and realized that Kit was, indeed, devouring all the magic that she output, sequestering it away in a new,…
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211 •
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Tala groused. “No. I don’t want coffee.” Her aura pushed out, somehow exerting enough pressure to force Thorn to step back. She was still feeling off and, if she were being honest, a bit childish. The dwarf steadied himself, keeping the cup in his hand from spilling. “Tali. You need to focus. Coffee helps many people to do just that. You’ve been putting yourself through the sparselands for weeks now. Your mind is frayed. You need to recover, and you don’t have much time.” Tala glared.…
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211 •
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Tala and Thorn tried not to stare up at the new fake star in the sanctum’s sky. Thorn cleared his throat. “As fascinating as all of this is, we should get to our training.” Terry glanced at Tala from her shoulder, then hopped down and ran off to do Terry things. Tala decided to ignore the hints of sarcasm in Alat’s voice and trust Terry’s discretion, regardless of his chosen tasks. Be-thric gave a nod to Thorn. “Very well. But one more thing before that.” He walked over to Tala and…
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211 •
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Tala watched as Sanguis and Be-thric examined the items that she and her strike-team had pulled off of their fallen enemies. She surreptitiously took a bite of a pastry. The wrapped boxes of baked goods sat on a nearby table. Only one had been opened, and the various members of the strike team were enjoying the treats as unobtrusively as they could. Tala had fed one to Terry, and while he’d seemed to like it, he hadn’t wanted another. The two Pillars seemed quite pleased with the haul, though…
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211 •
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Tala walked through the streets of Platoiri alone. Well, Terry was on her shoulder, but the rest of her strike group were already moving into position. Kit was back in the House of Blood’s hold, being outfitted by a host of servants and craftsmen. It had been nearly a week since Tala had placed Kit within the captured hold, and her dimensional storage had long since finished melding with it. She was still marginally uncomfortable with the realization that Kit was actually a creature of some kind, but…
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211 •
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Tala dumped all the power that she could into her chair via as many large void-channels as she could sustain. She felt that power expand through the pocket dimension like a wave. Like a very slow wave…of some incredibly viscous fluid. She grimaced. “They cut more corners than I think we realized.” Gallof cocked an eyebrow. “Oh?” “The hold ends a bare two inches below the ground. The rolling hills are faked with a non-uniform dimensional space. It’s no wonder there are no trees in…
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Tala only sat with Terry for a short while before she stood. “We have to get back.” Terry squawked questioningly at her. “I’ll tell you on the way.” - As they walked, Tala explained the situation to Terry in a quiet whisper. She included what would likely be needed from him to allow them to stay together. Be-thric had suppressed Terry before, even if he hadn’t really taken note of him, that Tala had seen. The arcane hadn’t fought Terry, so at most, he’d know that a magical terror…
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Tala was about to continue her conversation with Thorn, when a bevy of servants came into view bearing trays piled high with various foods. - Alat scoffed. There were two distinct groupings of breakfast, one much larger than the other. Thorn’s food was a reasonable, if oversized, portion for a single person’s breakfast. There were three massive sausages, a miniature mound of bacon, a generous bowl of fruit, some pan-fried potatoes, and a few slices of hearty, buttered bread. It was all placed on…
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Tali swayed slightly, reeling as she processed her Master’s request to go to the wild human cities, just to find a way for her to advance. Tali was floored by her Master’s generosity. She knew that he needed her, but he didn’t have to go this far. Wild humans had odd ways of advancing, and Tali knew that, since she had a gate, she was more like them than she was like most of those she interacted with on a day-to-day basis. She didn’t like that very much, except that it was only that feature,…
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