We rejoin our investigators as they find themselves at a dead end. Ernest’s research grows more complicated as his specimens break out of containment, the professor’s daughter searches for answers, and Kurt tries out some noir monologues.
We are coming to the end of Chapter One of the original module. The annotated PDF is downloadable here for Patreon subscribers, but you can see a free preview below the cut. I hope you enjoy this episode and come back next month for an arrest and a revelation!
The young man stands slowly, rolling his shoulders, as though the somber temple of Ondir is a country park and he’s contemplating concluding his picnic and heading home. He walks unhurried to the end of the row and starts up the center aisle, his hands in the pockets of his fine trousers and his polished riding boots sending a slow rhythm to echo against the dome.
Berend stands, dragging Isabel up with him. His free hand goes first to his pistol—it’s empty, Isabel remembers, because he shot the animated corpse in the morgue and hasn’t had a chance to reload—and then to the hilt of his sword. His cloak hangs over his elbow, hiding the weapons from view.
She twists her wrist out of Berend’s grasp. “Don’t do anything stupid,” she whispers.
“If you’re looking to be healed, I’m afraid he is no longer here. He left for the north almost three years ago, and we yet await his return.”
Chapter XXIV: A Vast, Green Country
The latest chapter of Journey to the Water is available on Patreon! Subscribers get access to chapters a week early, plus exclusive projects like The Well Below the Valley. If you can’t/don’t want to subscribe, not to worry, this chapter will be up here next week.
Between my many, many projects, the holidays, and various personal complications, I’ve lost track of NaNoWriMo and I won’t be able to finish. It’s the proverbial plate I’ve chosen to let drop so I can fulfill my other obligations, including getting chapters out to you on time. Even though I won’t “win” this year, I made a ton of progress on The Book of the New Moon Door, and will be finishing Part Two this week! Like I’ve mentioned before, this has moved up the timeline, and it’s looking like I’ll be able to publish New Moon Door next year.
Also happening this week: a new chapter of Journey to the Water goes up on Patreon tomorrow, the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up here on Wednesday, and a new episode of The Well Below the Valley will also be on Patreon on Thursday.
Also also: the November edition of the newsletter will go out Wednesday! If you’re not signed up yet, put your email into the box at this link, and then check your inbox for a confirmation email. (You won’t get the newsletter if you don’t click the confirmation link.)
As always, I appreciate you. Have an excellent week, stay warm, and stop by again soon.
The Lady of Osona passed into the storm’s eye. Where there had been wailing wind and rain beating against my back, there was now an empty, yawning stillness. The ship rested lightly upon calm waters.
My hands had contorted into stiff, aching claws, and splinters dug into my palms and the exposed skin of my legs. I climbed down from the mast, forcing my limbs to stretch. My head spun; though the ship beneath me lay as if in a deep, dreamless sleep, I felt as though it would throw me into the sea. When my rope-burned feet reached the deck, I fell to my knees and shut my eyes, forcing myself to breathe evenly until rain brushed against my shoulders and the back of my neck once again.
“Bessa Kyne’s ghost showed me your face,” Berend says. “She wanted someone to know what you’d done.”
The Book of the New Moon Door
The newest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door is now available on Patreon! It includes a confrontation with a villain and, at last, a means of escape.
Also, as a side note, Part Two will be twenty-six or twenty-seven chapters, twenty-five of which are finished as of today. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you!
My heart goes out to the queer community of Colorado Springs today, and I find comfort in the thought that for every person who chooses to do evil, there are twice as many who choose courage, justice, and selflessness.
Not much to report this week; I’m behind on NaNo again, and I’m not sure I’m going to manage to complete the challenge this time, but I have managed to make a lot of progress on The Book of the New Moon Door. A new chapter will be up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be up here on Wednesday. I’m also working on the next episode of The Well Below the Valley, which will be published December 1st.
Have an excellent week and tell your friends you love them. As always, I appreciate you.
Berend marches Isabel out of Father Pereth’s office. His grip on her arm is immovable as a rusted iron hinge. Isabel struggles, twisting her elbow and pulling against him, but it’s no use. Fear restricts her vision to the end of the hall, where the dome allows in a few thin beams of sunlight. She expects the chapel will be filled with constables, but she might still be able to get away, to disappear into the back corridors and out into the graveyard—if she could only get herself free of Berend.
She trusted him. She’d thought he cared enough about the state of the world, about protecting the people of Mondirra, that he would help her. He saw the same terrible vision in the nether that she did. She’d even thought he supported her against the high priest’s accusations, until he’d smiled and acquiesced and grabbed her by the elbow.
“I’m not going to the temple of Isra,” she snarls through her teeth. She doesn’t want to hurt him, but if she has to, she’ll drive the heel of her boot straight into the soft leather instep of his. It’ll have to be quick, and then she’ll have to run. He’s still injured. That will slow him down.
Instead, Berend lets go. He holds both hands out, spreading his fingers to show they’re empty. “I know.”
I once had a traveler in my inn, years ago, who told a story like yours. He said he met a boy in the river valley who possessed a strange talent for magic.
Chapter XXIII: The Port of Charkand
There is a new chapter of Journey to the Water available on Patreon! Eske leaves the sea and his new friends behind as his quest continues. You can read this chapter RIGHT NOW by becoming a subscriber, or you can wait until next week, when it makes its appearance here on the blog.
Good morning! I hope you’re well on this chilly Monday.
I am slightly less behind on NaNo as of today, and I’m continuing to try to catch up. Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door is almost done. I think I’ll be able to start Part Three before the month is out. What this means for you, dear reader, is that I’ll have a lot fewer interruptions to the posting schedule going forward, and New Moon Door will be finished and ready to begin the publishing process (including many, many rounds of edits) around mid-2023, and (tentatively) published by the end of the year. This is very exciting for me, because I didn’t think I’d be able to get another book out next year, as both New Moon Door and Journey to the Water are looking to be much longer than Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.
So, for this week: a new chapter of Journey to the Water will be up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be here on the blog on Wednesday.
I think that’s all my updates for today! Take care and have an excellent week.
Space Whales Press 