David Niemitz posts
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Guild Mage 149
Chapter 149: The AiraduinëJust north of Calder’s Landing, where it met the ocean, the long river that ran east out of the interior jungles was broad, splitting into a delta that covered miles of the coast. The further inland you travelled, however, the narrower the Airaduinë River became, fed as it was by scores of smaller streams along its course.Keri paddled from the back of one of the strange, dugout river boats that Soaring Eagle and his people had crafted for the Eld. Once an agreement had been made to guide their forces to the great b...
Guild Mage 148
Chapter 148: An Eel-Bone ButtonBy the time market day arrived, Liv had run her students through two days of duels, along with a few other choice ideas she’d had. She conjured soldiers of ice, like she had for Matthew years ago, and sent them charging. Tephenia, Alan, Milo, the girl with the frizzy blonde hair – whose name, it turned out, was Gratia – and all the others had to scramble away from Liv’s creations, flinging blades of mana back at their attackers using the class wands.A different morning, Liv tasked half the class with tryin...
Faerie Knight 168
168 - EmbersI understand the words in my dreams, now. They are an offer. A bargain, to reclaim my birthright.The Journal of Decimus Avitus☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297Awash in warm sunlight, Trist lay across a slab of ancient marble in the ruins of Vellatesia. The warm breeze raised the fine hairs on his arms and chest, and his wounds stung, but those things were both very far away. He looked at the world, and at his own wounded body, at the same distance from which one might view a tapestry or a window of stained glass.His connec...
Guild Mage 147
Chapter 147: A Shared Secret“Are you sure about that?” Liv asked Sidonie. “Isabel died when she went with me.”“My mind has been made up since you told me what you found down there,” Sidonie said. “The corpse of a goddess? An ancient spear? A spell that’s lasted over a thousand years? I could spend years studying any one of those things, Liv, never mind all three.”“We won’t have years,” Liv said. “Things tend to get pretty desperate, pretty quick in the depths of a rift.” She thought about not only the Well of Bones, ...
Guild Mage 146
Chapter 146: Wands and InscriptionsThat afternoon, rumors spread from the town below the bluff that the sheriff of Coral Bay would conduct a public hanging on the next market day. Liv and Wren, on their way to Professor Norris’ enchanting workshops from a session of Authority training with Celestria Ward, caught fragments of it from passing knots of students moving between classes.“Do you know anything about this?” Liv asked Wren, as they turned around the back of Blackstone Hall. The smells of woodsmoke, metal, leather, dye, and a hundre...
Faerie Knight 167
167 - The Battle of Lutetia IV: DawnIt is a hateful thing, to wait for news of the battle.Elantia, first Queen of Narvonne☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297Clarisant set her feet, bracing herself as the ground shook and the ocean crashed down upon the walls of Lutetia with a deafening roar. Nearly everything was going according to the king’s plan - Loray was entirely distracted and focused on her, and they had managed to keep the daemon occupied long enough for Dame Margaret to do her work.The only problem was that Dame Etoile had be...
Guild Mage 145
Chapter 145: A Steep PriceLiv inhaled and opened her eyes to the low murmur of voices. To her surprise, her head was still in Rosamund’s lap, while Wren, Arjun, Tephania and Sidonie were clustered about the room in the chairs they’d brought in. Archmagus Jurian was slumped back in a final chair, motionless, his staff cradled against his chest and tucked into the crook of his elbow.“-how long it will take?” Teph was asking. “It doesn’t hurt, does it?”Wren shrugged. “It didn’t hurt when they did it to me at Whitehill. But you do...
Guild Mage 144
Chapter 144: Dreams of the Past“I’m not certain I know enough about Lucanian politics to really understand what this means,” Arjun admitted that evening, once they were all gathered around the second floor landing at High Hall.Liv had spent the afternoon tracking down Celestria Ward, and giving the girl tips on casting silently. After that, she’d taken a run with Wren to begin building her stamina back up again. They’d both made an experiment of the new enchanted boots from Lendh ka Dakruim, waiting until they were outside of the town...
Faerie Knight 166
166 - The Battle of Lutetia III: Loray the ArcherThrowing men at a daemon is like throwing dry wood on the fire.The Life and Times of Legionary Titus Nasica☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297At Lady Clarisant’s words, Henry drew an arrow and fitted it to the string of his black Iebara-wood longbow. A few moons ago, if someone had told him that he’d be facing down a daemon, he would have called them a drunk, or dismissed them as a fool. But somehow, since leaving the village that first time with the young lord, he’d had to follow h...
Guild Mage 143
Chapter 143: Wisps Left Behind“Now,” Jurian said, “show me your progress with silent casting.”Wren drew a dagger and swiped it at Liv’s neck in a single, swift motion, but Liv was ready for her, and parried with a blade of ice that formed instantly in her hand. Once the block was made, Wren immediately withdrew her dagger and sheathed it. Liv, on the other hand, presented her conjured sword for inspection.“You’ll forgive me if I don’t touch that,” Archmagus Jurian remarked. “I have no desire to get my finger stuck to it this...
Guild Mage 142
Chapter 142: Forgotten StudentsAfter saying goodnight to Sidonie, Liv sat at the small desk in her bedchamber and unfolded the letters from Whitehill. There was one from Beatrice, and another from Julianne, which was sealed with wax.“What’s the news, m’lady?” Thora asked, as she brushed out Liv’s hair for the night.“Triss says that Gretta was very sick this winter,” Liv said, with a frown. “Water in the lungs. We’re lucky she still lives at the castle, because Mistress Trafford was able to care for her.”“Not many people ha...
Guild Mage 141
Chapter 141: ReunionsBy the time Liv managed to finally make it up to the second floor of High Hall, it was well into the afternoon, and the students who had only a single class after luncheon were milling around the courtyard at the center of the campus. After a long, rainy winter, the heart of flood season at Coral Bay had quickly brought heat and sun, and the students seemed determined to enjoy it.The air wasn’t nearly as thick with moisture as Liv had experienced in Lendh ka Dakruim, but compared to the dry mountain air she’d grown up w...
Map Options for Print/Ebook
What do you all think, border or no border?
Faerie Knight 165
165 - The Battle of Lutetia II: The Lion RampantThe fact that Narvonne’s first king was a general - the most successful commander of the age, by any reckoning - has shaped the character of our royal family ever since.François du Lutetia, A History of Narvonne☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297Lionel Aurelianus, King of Narvonne, stepped his destrier to the left, shifting his position to put a bit of extra room around Lady Clarisant and her guards. He needed to not only give his people room to fight, but also to present a tempting tar...
Guild Mage 140
Chapter 140: RepercussionsBy the time Liv, Wren and Arjun had walked as far as the training grounds and the stables, having passed the inns and shops of Coral Bay along their way, they were noticed by students moving in between their classes for the day.The college had been nearly empty when Liv left it a month ago, at the very beginning of spring, but with the return of the noble-born students who had gone to King Benedict’s coronation, the campus was now bustling again. Liv brought the disc up to the entrance to the East Hall first, so that...
Guild Mage 139
Chapter 139: SharesIf she’d been at Whitehill or Coral Bay, Liv would have gotten back to running as a way to rebuild her stamina. Three weeks lying in a bed had left her weak, and it was frustrating how years of training could vanish between the moment she’d closed her eyes at the bottom of the Well, and when she’d woken on a bed in the upper levels of Akela Kila.Since she didn’t know the city, Liv pushed herself up and down the great stone stairwells of the fortress, instead, or walked along the parapets of the outer walls, where at l...
Guild Mage 138
Chapter 138: The TrapAnother evening of circulating mana, a morning meal, and a wash with a wet cloth all left Liv feeling marginally more prepared to play at politics. She would much have preferred to have Duchess Julianne there to handle something like this, but like anything else, sometimes you had to do things yourself. There was a reason the noblewoman had kept Liv with her so often during those years at Castle Whitehill, and she’d truly have been an idiot if she’d learned absolutely nothing from the experience.By the time Thora was br...
Faerie Knight 164
164 - The Battle of Maʿīn II: The Shaking EarthIt remains a question open for debate as to which was responsible for more death: The Sun Eater, who caused a famine by stealing the light from the world; or the Plague Dancer, who spread sickness from province to province.The Commentaries of Aram ibn Bashear☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297Ismet lowered her center of gravity, spreading her feet to about the distance of her shoulders, and kept her sword between Valeria and her own body. Beneath her armor, the bandages on the wound she h...
Guild Mage 137
Chapter 137: InscriptionsLiv drifted in and out of dreams, and in and out of pain.When the pain grew too great, so that she writhed on the mattress and tore at her bandages, hands held her down and opened her mouth. The taste of whatever they put between her lips was bitter, and she tried to spit it out. Afterward, however, the pain would be washed away, replaced by stupendous waves of rolling pleasure that were nearly orgasmic.When the euphoria came, it carried her back into dreams, until the pain returned.The best of the dreams, the ones that...
Guild Mage 136
Chapter 136: The CenoteIt had taken weeks to make their way north through the jungles of Varuna, using short, chopping swords to hack a path as they went. Keri had almost immediately grown to detest the heat, the heavy moisture of the air, and the constant annoyance of buzzing insects.Airis Ka Reimis and his young son, Livari had proven surprisingly vital during the march. Both men had used the ancient word of their house, Ker, to cast their awareness out over the growing things of the land. The guidance of the merchants from Al’Fenthia had a...
Faerie Knight 163
163 - The Knight and the DragonI hear voices, in the night. They speak to me of the gate, and how to open it, and what lies beyond.I hope my sister returns soon.The Journal of Decimus Avitus☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297Trist sucked in a breath and tried to open his eyes, but found only darkness.There was a ringing dullness in his ears that muffled sound, dust in his lungs, and for a moment he panicked, forgetting that his eyes had been ripped out weeks before. When the memory returned, he made the mental shift required to see the ...
Guild Mage 135
Chapter 135: TorrentLiv met Commander Jagan’s eyes without looking away. She had the sense that the slightest show of weakness, of hesitation, would invite an immediate attack. Silently, she pled with the man to just go away. The only person she’d ever deliberately killed was Karis, the Antrian, but he’d been a willing servant of Ractia. This wasn’t a line that she wanted to cross.With a deep breath, and then a deliberate exhalation, Liv deliberately stirred Cel to wakefulness. Puffs of breath steamed from the mouths of everyone around ...
Guild Mage 134
Chapter 134: One Frozen Moment“A second waystone?” Commander Jagan scoffed. “Impossible. Why would there be two at the same rift?”“I can think of at least one good reason,” Liv said. “If I were a goddess, doing – well, whatever it is she was doing, down here – I wouldn’t want to walk up and down those stairs every time I moved between the surface and here. That might be fine for marching your army of corpses, but I’d get sick of it pretty quickly.”“So she built something to solve the problem,” Arjun concluded, noddin...
Guild Mage 133
Chapter 133: At the Bottom of the WellThe soldiers at Jagan’s side stiffened; Liv knew they couldn’t understand her words, but she hadn’t bothered to hide the anger in her tone. For the first time, she wondered whether the commander had deliberately chosen to bring men with no knowledge of Lucanian. He, General Mishra, Vivek Sharma - all of them had learned the language. Surely there were ksatriya at Akela Kila who had learned even a few phrases? Wouldn’t they have been a better choice?Unless, of course, you didn’t want your men to be...
Faerie Knight 162
162 - The Battle of Lutetia I: LureThere’s nothing I like more than to catch some poor bastard with his pants down.The Life and Times of Legionary Titus Nasica☀17th Day of High Summer’s Moon, AC 297It was a comfort to be cared for again by Anais, who had not only accompanied the army to Rocher de la Garde after Clarisant and Trist rode ahead, but then continued on to Lutetia in order to meet again with her mistress.“My mother said that first time mothers don’t show until later,” the girl commented, as Claire ran her hands over the s...
Cover Progress
Still lots to do, of course, but you can get a sense of the broad strokes of color now!
Guild Mage 132
Chapter 132: DescentThe next morning, after a quick meal, Liv and the rest of her team assembled in the corridor in front of the repaired fourth gate. A crew of labourers must have labored through the night, she realized, but a new portcullis was in place, and a set of stout doors hung on new hinges. Half a dozen armored guards stood watch there, but they must have been given orders, for they paid no more attention to Liv and her friends than they did to the stone beneath their feet.Wren, Arjun and Isabel walked down with Liv. Thora, who it see...
Guild Mage 131
Chapter 131: A Light in the Darkness“Aluthet Aiveh Avia!” Liv shouted, dashing for the lip of the abyss. A shining gyrfalcon of brilliant blue mana, veined with gold, formed to her intent, and she jumped onto its back, throwing her arms around the construct’s neck.The conjured raptor tucked its wings and dove down into the shaft. Thick, overwhelming mana pressed in upon Liv from every side, crushing against her. The sounds of the fighting above faded, and there was only darkness, save for the light cast by the bird of coherent mana itself...
Sketch Art for Publication
Was just sent this from the publisher (yes, I asked permission to share!)Very much looking forward to seeing the final set!
Guild Mage 130
Chapter 130: The AbyssBy the time Liv made it back to the barracks where the journeymen had been housed — delivered first to the gates of the fortress by Vivek Sharma, and then led through the halls by a helpful guard — it was growing late. When she stepped into the room, she saw that everyone was engaged in their own preparations.Wren sat cross legged on the floor, a bottle of oil, a rag, and a whetstone all to hand, caring for her knives. Brom and Wyman sat near her, Brom caring for his hammer and the shield he’d brought from Coral Bay,...
