Berend scowls. “Tell him I don’t care what he thinks. He thought that hacking people apart would make the gods notice him, and where did that get him?”
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel’s very brief respite comes to an end as they receive strange news. There’s also the ghost of a serial killer hanging around. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon!
Also, in case you missed it (or I am misremembering mentioning it, which is possible): Part Two has twenty-six chapters, and I’ll be starting work on the third and final part after the new year.
Not very seasonal, but I worked retail so long that I can’t stand most holiday music.
Happy Monday! The sun is out here for the first time in almost a month. I hope you have literal or metaphorical sunshine in your life this week.
I’m keeping up with normal chapter posting: The Book of the New Moon Door will be on Patreon tomorrow, and Journey to the Water will be here on Wednesday. Because of the holidays (and all the baking I will be doing this week), I probably won’t post a new episode of The Well Below the Valley on January 1, but I’ll keep you posted.
As always, thanks for being here, and have an excellent week. May your winter holidays be stress-free and cozy.
Emryn Marner’s address leads to a narrow, three-story house in the University quarter. The first level is red brick, stained with soot, while the upper two are panels of gray plaster between wooden beams. Someone, not too long ago based on the degree of grime, had painted the door red in a spasm of artistic fervor. Upon closer inspection, its original wood color shows through between brush strokes.
It’s early afternoon, and the street is quiet, its occupants away at their classes. From what Berend can see from below, this house is empty as well. He knocks anyway, one fist on the poorly-painted door, and waits.
“I am Eske, son of Ivor, of the Clan of the Bear,” I said. “I met your son in the great city of the desert.”
Chapter XXV: The House of the Weaver-Woman
The latest chapter of Journey to the Water is now available on Patreon! You can subscribe to read it now and help support an independent creator, or you can wait until next week to read it for free here on the blog, which is another great way to support me. I appreciate all my readers.
I still have a few more chapters to post before the end of the year, so we’ll have a new chapter of Journey to the Water on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up here on Wednesday.
Stay warm, eat some good food, and have an excellent week. I appreciate you.
For four weeks I journeyed through those mountains, in the shadow of the sacred peak of Abora. At its top, the villagers among the cliffs told me, was the shrine of the great serpent-god, the wisest and craftiest of all the ancient beings that had once built cities in the highest reaches, whose eyes were like rubies and whose feathered wings could blot out the sun. Each morning, sunlight blazed from behind the mountain, and I thought again of climbing it; by the time I had packed up my camp and saddled Bran again, the desire had burned away like fog. I returned to the road north and did not stop again until nightfall.
The sun set a little earlier each evening, and as I followed the pilgrim’s road, the forest turned from deep emerald to the yellow-brown of the kelp that grew in the warm waters of the south. From the highest places of the world to the bottom of the ocean, the turn of the seasons followed me. I had allowed my quest to stretch on for two years, and I was determined not to let another pass without Khalim by my side.
Fate, however, had other plans for me. Perhaps if I had sought the aid of the winged serpent of Mount Abora, my journey would have proceeded differently.
And now here he is, hiding out in a student’s apartment, having angered one of the most powerful families in Mondirra, while the dead threaten to outnumber the living.
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel seek sanctuary and find it in an unlikely place in the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door. You can read this chapter right now by subscribing to my Patreon, or you can wait until next week when it’ll be available for free here.
Not much to report this week; there will be a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be up here on Wednesday.
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.
Space Whales Press 