“Relaxing already?” Imas said in Valgan. “Where is Qorvass?”
“With Hector and Garovel,” said Asad.
‘They seem to have become fast friends,’ said Orjand. Her little scorpionfly wings buzzed silently as she hovered there in midair. ‘Qorvass is usually the last of us to warm up to new people.’
She wasn’t wrong, Asad knew. It had taken Qorvass years to finally accept his friendship with Zeff. “I think he senses an opportunity for an alliance,” said Asad. “Or maybe he just wants me to stop calling him a surly bastard.”
“An alliance?” said Imas. “With the young Atreyan lord? Why? Not to knock the boy, but his strength is not his own.”
“So you noticed it, too,” said Asad.
“Of course. And I am a little annoyed that Haqq did not give that shield to me. Or something like it, at least.”
“Be sure to chew him out when we get back to Kuros.”
“Oh, I will.”
Orjand hovered closer. ‘By the way, have you heard the news? We just heard about it downstairs.’
“Which news would that be?” Asad scratched his cheek absently.
‘The war between Jesbol and Horsht. It’s over.’
Asad blinked and sat up straighter. “What? Since when?”
‘Since earlier today. Jesbol won. They’re already talking about dissolving Horsht completely. It seems Jesbol will have territory on the mainland now.’
“So sudden,” said Asad. “How long has that war been going? It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten.”
‘Oh, it’s been a collection of wars, really,’ said Orjand. ‘The one you’re familiar with started about thirty years ago, but it’s been on and off for more than than a hundred now. I’m still not sure whether to believe it. If it were merely news of another “cease in hostilities,” I wouldn’t buy it for a moment, but this is the first time that one of them has been reported of conquering the other.’
“And there’s more to it,” said Imas. “The victory is being attributed to Field Marshal Jackson. They’re saying he cut through Abolish like a knife and killed Gunther and Dunhouser both.”
Asad’s eyes widened. “By himself?”
She nodded. “And in order to pull something like that off, the smart money says he achieved emergence.”
‘If it’s all true, then this means a major victory for the Vanguard.’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
"They seem have become fast friends "
ReplyDeleteneeds to be a "to" in there. EXCELLENT story!
I want to be happy that a bunch of abolish are dead, but I don't like the Vanguard right now. All of them we've met so far have been dicks. Not serial killer dicks like the abolish, but still dicks.
ReplyDeleteGot it, thank you.
ReplyDeleteTy for the pages!
ReplyDeleteI think ima take a break from the story for a while, if I can. It's hard reading a story only a few pages a week, especially for me, binge reader that I am :P
ReplyDeleteGreat story, see you in a few months.
Make hector stronger george!
ReplyDeleteIt just feels slightly sad when they think of him as weak :(
Because he's weak.
ReplyDeleteBy the way guys, don't forget to vote.
ReplyDeleteHey, Mr. Frost, can we have a list of names and titles of the major players? I just want to confirm the west star, iceheart... and everyone else :)
ReplyDeleteI'll make something more formal eventually, after more have been revealed, but for now, these are the ones that have been mentioned so far:
ReplyDeleteSai-hee (unrevealed title)
Sermung -- the Crystal Titan
Jackson -- the Radiant Sentinel, the Star of the West
Sanko -- the Gargoyle
Lamont -- Iceheart
Morgunov -- the Mad Demon
Dozer -- the Living Void
Gohvis -- the Black Scourge, the Monster of the East
Ivan (unrevealed title)
Jercash (unrevealed title)
Dunhouser (now dead)
Gunther (now dead)
and one unaffiliated title "the Salesman of Death"
Also:
ReplyDeleteLawrence -- the Blue Bear
Melchor -- Darktide
Octavia -- the Red Lady
Rayen (unrevealed title)
Xuan -- the Seadevil
Asad -- the Lion of the Desert
Zeff (unrevealed title)
Hector -- the Darksteel Soldier
Lynnette -- the White Sword
Harper will be sad to hear that.
ReplyDeleteOkay OTHER than Harper. But he's just basically freeroam, he was the only one who's helped anyone the story focuses on so far.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that the salesman is Damien, since his name sounds like an evil but unaffiliated character.
ReplyDeleteSo far we've met only 2 actual members, Harper and Sanko. Harper is nice, and Sanko probably would be if she wasn't dealing with those she thought were traitors. Of course, we also know that the ones that Lynn and Roman stole from were also jerks, but then we also know that Sermung himself is a decent guy.
ReplyDeleteI assume you meant "only two members who weren't part of a subversive cell."
ReplyDelete