This cloak is in the way. I can’t fight correctly while wearing it.
Since my blood-qi is sealed, I can’t even open my space ring, so I just undo the clasp holding it in place and let it fall off my shoulders. It drops to the ground, bunching up around my feet.
I step over it and walk slowly toward Jodene and Shen Lei.
Shen Lei takes a few steps back and to the side, spreading out so that, if I attack one of them, the other will be able to strike me in the back in an instant.Continue reading
“This is it,” Jodene says, handing the small glass sphere to me.
This… is a key?
That makes no sense.
In the first place, it’s strange that there would be a lock on a teleport formation. Space magic is quite an arcane discipline. Adding extraneous elements to a teleport spell could easily make it malfunction. In a teleport, the destination coordinates are decided by the frequency of the qi used to power the spell. Normally, the frequency is fixed upon creating the formation, so that all the user has to do is input energy into the formation, but if the frequency somehow changes – for example, if the formation is damaged, or if some random idiot tries to append crude security systems to the formation upon its creation – then the coordinates will also change unpredictably.Continue reading
My image of Akasha as a steely, stoic engine of destruction is steadily crumbling.
She’s sprawled on top of the bed again, and even though her face still doesn’t show any kind of emotion, I can’t help but get the feeling that she’s enjoying it a lot more than she’s letting on.
Who knew a devil could be lazy.
And a drunkard, too.Continue reading
Shen Lei knocked quietly on the door before him.
“Shen Lei, responding to your summons, my Lady.”
A voice, deep and low but obviously female, answered from the room beyond. “Enter.”
Keeping his gaze down in respect, Shen Lei opened the door and stepped inside the lavishly decorated chamber. He closed the door again behind himself.
Night.
Sif, along with most of the riders, except for those on guard duty, are asleep. Shen Lei is sitting cross-legged in meditation near a campfire.
As for me, I’m sitting against a tree, about a hundred meters away from the camp – far enough that no one will easily witness my actions, but close enough that I can rush back there almost instantly if something unexpected happens.
Sanae is sitting atop my palm, nibbling on my fingers as a way to beg for the food I promised her when she woke up this afternoon.Continue reading
The riders are approaching.
Their voices are almost drowned out by the thunder of their horses’ hooves striking the ground, but I can still make out that of the old man from the stall, speaking to the others.
“Remember my instructions,” he says. “Do not draw your weapons. Whatever happens, do not draw your weapons. If you do, you will die.”
“Yes!” thirty-five other voices shout back at the same time.Continue reading
Habit is a scary thing…
I remember that, in the first hours after meeting Akasha, I was scared out of my mind.
Then, I calmed down a bit, and for the next few days, while I resolved to maintain a certain distance between us, we managed to cooperate and communicate rather effectively.
But then, I started flirting with her more and more blatantly.Continue reading
Sif was right.
Islandis Fortress is even noisier during daytime.
Annoying, annoying, annoying.
Should I just kill everyone in here and be done with it? That would reestablish silence, would it not?Continue reading
After several days of travel, the fortress finally comes into sight.
Not Jodene Fortress.
Islandis Fortress.
Sif decided to go there first, because she’s run out of her strange food.Continue reading
The monster – no, Akasha – has fallen silent, seemingly lost deep in thought, head down, looking absently at the ground.
I’m not sure if it’s safe to interrupt her. She doesn’t seem to be as temperamental as I would have expected from a devil – if devil she is – but I still prefer not to take any chances. She’s sitting too close to me. If she suddenly decides to attack, I won’t be able to react at all.
Of course, even if she were sitting 50 meters away from me, I wouldn’t be able to react, but it’s the principle of the thing. I would prefer to keep a proper distance between us.
Also, the air around her is chilly, like she’s a small pocket of winter in this late-spring forest.Continue reading