SakeTami
TMarkos

TMarkos

patreon


TMarkos posts

Chapter 108 - Negative Space

Each living thing is engaged in a cycle of give and take with those around it.  When the balance suffers, we name it strife.  This is no more or less than the reestablishment of lost bala...

View Post

Schedule Post & Updates

Hello!  Sorry for the slightly-delayed chapter this week; things have been busy!  And they're going to remain busy for the next bit, which is why I'm making this post.  I hope to mak...

View Post

Chapter 107 - The Beachhead

And each of them will stand, because they cannot conceive of a life such as mine, a bent and cowering life.  They will stand and soak the world in their blood.  And then they will die, Mi...

View Post

Chapter 106 - How Far We've Come

Saf is a country forged in struggle.  It is a product of countless exigencies and torments pressing upon it from all borders.  Our conflicts with the Bulu and the Ardans have done more to...

View Post

Chapter 105 - A Compelling Reason

The mockingbird alit upon a branch beside the raven and bade him good morning.  The raven replied that it was evening already, and bade the mockingbird good evening.

The mockingbird laug...

View Post

104 - Ghar's Bones

No man ever turns against another in truth.  In the uttermost depths of their heart, the divine whispers to them.  It says: he is like you, this man you hate.  He holds the divine wi...

View Post

Chapter 103 - Ghar's Ashes

I consider Saf’s defeat at Gharon in 442 to be a great tragedy.  Militarily, it was a setback of minor importance.  Indeed, by elevating Khalid the Blade to prominence, the aftereffects...

View Post

Chapter 102 - Suspicion

One day the black hound saw the raven sitting on a branch, and came to ask it a question.  It told of how it had noticed that every force in nature had its opposite, and that the balance of th...

View Post

Chapter 101 - Choices

It was then, waking up in Unai’s quarters, that I realized the horrible truth: that I did not matter.  None of us did.  In the conflict that follows you, one small person’s desire to ...

View Post

Chapter 100 - 694 PD

Gharic culture has a curious obsession with time.  To them time is a coin that must be measured, weighed, and spent with care.  They live as misers, shaving precious scraps from the sides...

View Post

Grand Design Audiobook Release

Hello, everyone!  I'm excited to share that an audio version of my first story, Grand Design, is shortly releasing on Audible.  It's narrated by the talented Vivienne Leheny, and is avail...

View Post

Chapter 99 - Fall With Purpose

The Caller and the Seer chanced upon a camp as night fell, and begged a spot by their fire.  The men of the camp agreed, and shared of their food.

“Friend travelers,” one of the men ...

View Post

98 - No Good Men Shall Die

It surprised me, because I had never thought I would make that mistake - I, who have always been small enough to scramble under the machine.  Having touched real power I was unprepared for its...

View Post

Chapter 97 - Trading Favors

Ardalt has a curious form of government, unique among the post-Gharic states.  On its surface it follows the Gharic tradition precisely, giving voice to a very few wealthy men who use the gove...

View Post

Chapter 96 - The Prodigal Son

I met Liesl at a charity ball for the dockworkers’ hospital.  She was beautiful, so radiant that I thought she must be there representing the fishers’ guild.  I knew in that moment th...

View Post

Chapter 95 - Dulled and Chipped

I did not choose this path out of desire.  I would have done anything else before I took a life, but the doctor robbed me of that choice when he affixed your hand on my arm.  It binds me ...

View Post

Chapter 94 - The Path Ahead

There has been much written on the divide between the Seer and the Seeker, with each scribe attempting to find a clear demarcation.  Naturally, none of these lines have been drawn in the same ...

View Post

Chapter 93 - Parental Interactions

Look at the lamp’s flame.  All men will agree that there is light as it burns, but when standing in night with thoughts of day, a single lamp is little different from darkness.

Feel th...

View Post

Chapter 92 - Cold Front

One day the black hound came to the white wolf, complaining that the raven had been taking its fill from the fields.  He said that he had been tasked with guarding the grain from the raven, bu...

View Post

Chapter 91 - Give and Take

I know that writing is a tradition, one in which she put great stock.  Unai told me.  In the evenings she would write for hours to put down her thoughts.  But then he said that the A...

View Post

Late Chapter!

Hello, and I hope everyone is having a good final week of 2022.  My own holidays were very nice, but not as conducive to writing as I had hoped.  I had wondered if I might experience a la...

View Post

Chapter 90 - Borrowed Sight

Gentlemen, I will be direct.  Our sources on the continent have informed us of the death of Stellar’s bearer, thought to have happened some time yesterday.  We do not - order, please. &...

View Post

Chapter 89 - Joint Operations

There is a tendency among the politically-inclined to be mercenary in matters of friendship and alliance, coldly-calculating where other men would feel the bond of fellowship.  I maintain that...

View Post

Chapter 88 - Catching Up

And the Speaker saw that the man’s heart had turned against his family in the time since they had last spoken, struck through with pain from their perfidy.  To this he said nothing, since a ...

View Post

Chapter 87 - Solifuge

Despite my best aims as a reformer, as a politician, as a champion of rights and the rule of law, the inescapable truth of my relevance is that people heed my words because I am capable of an immen...

View Post

Chapter 86 - Limits

A/N - Reuploading this because Patreon's mobile app apparently bungles all sorts of things!  Sorry for the double ping.

Medical Group 1-5: West Tents
Medical Group 6-10: Nor...

View Post

Chapter 85 - Tyranny

One day the white wolf came to the black hound with a question.  He said that among wolves it was easy to know who your enemies were, and who were friends.  Among men it seemed less clear...

View Post

Chapter 84 - Familiar Faces

When speaking of the Gharic lands, it is common to hear men cite the extreme difficulty in governing a conquered populace.  A people are naturally inclined to chafe under foreign rule; indeed,...

View Post

Chapter 83 - You Can't Go Home Again

“What, then, is a path?” the priest cried.  “If every creation bends towards destruction in the end, what is the result save for despair?”

“To destroy is to create,” replied...

View Post

Chapter 82 - The Turning Path

All Redoubt personnel are to fall back to 0-X-Hold until advised otherwise.  No disruption to the transfer ceremony on 1 Waning will be attempted.  An emergency meeting of all Redoubt and...

View Post