ArcaneCadence

68 - Carve

Vivi watched as, for the second time, the assassin’s face went slack with shock.

The assassin whose Title she finally knew, based on the skill he’d activated. She couldn’t always rememb...

67 - Tithe

Vivi woke to banging on her door.

“Lady Vivi?” came Saffra’s muffled, distressed voice. “Lady Vivi, are you awake?”

Distressed?

It was embarrassing how much adrenaline d...

66 - Help

The halting, mumbling explanation Saffra received wasn’t easy to follow—bordering on incoherent. Clearly not rehearsed, either aloud or in Isabella’s head. Still, Saffra pieced together the b...

65 - Family

Eight Months Earlier

Isabella Caldimore had a plan. Or more specifically, she had a goal, and any goal worth pursuing deserved a sufficiently foolproof plan. Working toward s...

64 - Garden

Saffra was too frazzled to practice.

And that was saying something. Practicing magic had become her solution to dealing with bad feelings. It was like saying she was too hungry to ea...

63 - Apostate

Unfortunately, Damon’s plans primarily hinged upon another’s work and not his own. Whether or not they could be accelerated depended on the mage preparing the ritual.

Thus, carry...

62 - Keresi

Damon came away from the brief meeting with Nysari Keresi not nearly as pleased as he’d expected.

It should have been satisfying for once not bending to the whims of men and women ...

61 - Niceties

Distracted by the incident with the strange man Tobin—and more importantly, his dagger—Vivi took a second longer to respond than she should have. She forcefully shook away the uneasy feelings a...

60 - The Duke

“You learned something concerning about the Caldimores?” Vivi asked, shifting in surprise. “What?”

“We’ll get there,” Rafael said. “What do you know of that house and its hist...

59 - Isabella

Vivi’s conversation with Osmian turned out far less productive than she’d hoped. Though a fiercely educated man, he was an academic belonging to a period of history long past, and immense magic...

58 - Ritualism

Draw the necessary energy from the island itself.

She could maybe manage that. But of the major magical disciplines, ritualism was by far her weakest—and certainly her worst among ...

57 - Fly

Several arcane workings activated at once.

First and foremost, a teleportation spell reached out and tried to grab Saffra—no doubt Osmian’s attempt to send her away. Vivi was near certain...

56 - Osmian's Door

“Osmian? The archmage?”

“Yes, the archmage! The founder of the Institute!”

“This is his door?” Vivi raised an eyebrow at the cracked-open entrance. “How so? And what’s t...

55 - The Library

The loss of the Zone Boss’s loot didn’t bother Vivi, obviously. There were a dozen higher-rank hunting grounds she could fly over to and clear out in an afternoon if she actually needed coin. S...

54 - Borrowed Power

An artifact that allowed the sharing of mana. Saffra hadn’t known such a thing existed. Could exist. A person shouldn’t be able to share mana. Rituals and enchantments came close, she ...

53 - Class Evolution

People could adapt to anything. Saffra knew that on a personal level, not as some truism. Her life had veered off course wildly on two occasions now, and she’d settled into a routine both times, ...

52 - Feather

The expression on Saffra’s face was rather comical. She at least didn’t look panicked at being presented another gift—though Vivi predicted that was only thanks to superseding emotions. Wide ...

51 - Gifts

Vivi had [Blinked] Saffra around a few times now, so the girl had developed resilience to spatially-induced nausea. Nevertheless, [Greater Warp] was an order of magnitude more powerful, so when the...

50 - Misinterpreting

Saffra had traced this arrangement of runes so many times that she was sick of it. She could go the rest of her life without sketching that sequence, mentally or physically, a single instance more....

49 - Sinew-Stitcher

The project began in earnest.

Rhek barked commands, and, somewhat to his surprise, the Sorceress’s daughter obeyed without question—once more raising his estimation of her. Climbing the h...

48 - Reaping Shades

With the outrageous list of materials Rhek gave to Stellan—a list he almost felt guilty for handing over—he had expected not to hear back for weeks if not longer, except perhaps a revision insi...

47 - Leatherworker

The light of dawn spilled across wooden floorboards, painting Rhek’s bedroom in muted hues of orange and yellow. A long groan broke the quiet of the morning. Wood creaked as he rolled out of his ...

46 - The Vault

While the Codex of the Hollowed Sun had occupied their initial attention, the rest of the vault had plenty of lesser—if still astounding—treasures to sift through. Mae especially lost herself i...

45 - Reinduction

Vivi appreciated Rafael’s interruption, not because she was interested in the quest’s payout, but because she had no idea how to deal with a starstruck, emotional old friend who wasn�...