Jennifer Jones
Stories
4
Chapters
1,292
Words
687.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 d, 9 h
-
The second day of the venture to Makinaven was much like the first, excepting crystal entities and arcanes and Archons dropping through. The guardsmen drove off more than a dozen arcanous creatures, varying from the quite common thunderbulls to a few massive reptiles. One of those seemed to have been stalking one of the thunderbull families and took exception to the guards having driven them off. Rane took care of a half-dozen more minor threats to their progress. Tala never left the wagon top. Instead…-
211 •
-
-
Tala trekked a circle through the light dusting of snow around the isolated wagons, anchored for a night in the wilds. Terry was nowhere to be seen and didn’t come when she called to him. She almost tossed out a bit of jerky, but since he hadn’t responded to her calls and wasn’t coming to her as she held the bit of meat, she was fairly certain he wasn’t watching. For a brief moment, as she stared towards the forest in the distance, she thought her mage-sight highlighted several humanoid shapes,…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala went to each cargo-slot and asked the head servant to do a headcount and compare it to their rosters. Something had her extra nervous, so she asked a secondary servant to watch the one she’d tasked for any odd behavior. Rane had been in the first cargo-slot she’d begun the process in, and she’d sent him to Mistress Odera. Less than ten minutes after she’d opened her eyes in the wilderness, inexplicably away from the caravan, Tala’s mage-sight screamed a warning. With a thought, Flow was…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala had no trouble finding the guard’s severed arm, nor the shield to which it was strapped. It lay near the center of a circle of crystalline grass and dust. That was silly, of course; he was only still alive because she’d cut his arm free. Even so, she’d saved his life. She grimaced, shaking off the notion, and examining the area. There had been a terrifying amount of power in those little creatures. Tala grabbed the shield up and turned back, jogging after the retreating wagons. A moment…
-
211 •
-
-
The Devourer of All had spent the entirety of her considerable existence reincarnating around the fringes of human civilization. The short-lived mammals were easy to fool at first. Their folly enabled Devourer to consume much of what they had tried to claim, along with quite a few of the silly creatures, themselves. This allowed her to grow in strength, building towards her goal–the fulfillment of her very name. Unfortunately, as time went on, humanity learned to look for telltale signs of Devourer’s…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala moved through the rest of the day in a state of deep contemplation. As a result, she focused her actions entirely on her role as Mage Protector. Lunch came and went, and she was barely able to summon up enough focus to thank the chef for the triple portion she brought to her. The cargo wagon driver chatted with Tala for a bit, and she did her best to at least passingly engage, but nothing that he said sank deeply enough to disrupt her contemplations. She did her duty, pointing out no fewer than…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala stood atop the cargo wagon, the light of early morning making the busy work-yard bright. Lyn had bid her goodbye before the woman headed to work, herself. Tala had paid her housemate/landlord thirty silver ounces before they’d parted ways: twenty for the next month’s rent and ten for the rug that she’d bled upon. Tala reveled in the autumn air, stretching slowly now that she’d finished charging the last of the fourteen cargo-slots. The passengers and off-duty guards were climbing in through…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala stood just inside of the out-of-the-way entrance to a restaurant that she’d never have come across on her own, without directions. It was the night before her departure for Makinaven, just a couple of hours after her trip to the library, and she was finally meeting her ‘minder,’ Mistress Odera. Before her, the establishment’s interior stretched out, filling the inside of a small rise in the landscape in a very similar manner to the Archon complex, if much smaller. The layout hid and…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala was pleased to find out that, not only was Ingrit available, she was the one to greet Tala when she entered. “Mistress Tala, welcome back.” “Mistress Ingrit, I’m glad to be back.” “I assume that you have more questions?” “Oh, yes.” Ingrit let out a bell-like laugh, smiling as she did so. “Well then, right this way. We can sit in an alcove.” The Archon led Tala to a small, secluded table with a cushioned seat on either side. Tala looked at the seating warily. “It will…
-
211 •
-
-
Tala spat out a mouthful of sand, vaulting back to her feet with a motion similar to a pushup. Rane was grinning at her, his massive sword held in a high guard. He wasn’t even sweating as he stood solidly upon the soft ground, barefoot and just in close-fitting, short pants. His spell-lines were on full display across his toned, tan flesh, ready to render her attacks meaningless…if she could ever land any. She growled and lunged at him again, her practice sword driving towards his heart. Force,…
-
211 •
-
- Previous 1 … 98 99 100 … 130 Next
