Chapter One Hundred Nineteen: ‘Shadows in space...’
Click to display entire chapter at once -- (mobile link)
It had been nearly half an hour, and Hector was starting to feel rather uncomfortable about this whole waiting-outside-a-family’s-house thing. Garovel had stopped talking as well, which indicated to Hector that the reaper wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable in these strange circumstances, either.
‘Are you sure they’re still in there?’ Hector asked, not for the first time.
‘Yes. They’re watching television.’
‘You can sense that much detail?’
‘The way their souls are positioned together, all looking the same way. That, and if you listen, you can hear it through the wall.’
So he could. Hector took a breath and tried to settle himself again. He scratched his neck. It had been itching like crazy in the same spot for a while now, and the added nuisance of it wasn’t doing anything to calm him down. Really, though, it was all the unanswered questions that were bothering him.
The bushes along the side of the house rustled.
Hector and Garovel both looked.
There was nothing there.
He supposed it could’ve been an animal small enough to be completely concealed by the leaves. But Hector’s gaze lingered, and his ears worked overtime, listening for any other noises.
And a noise indeed arrived, this time above. Deep creaks from the roof, slow and repeating.
‘Footsteps?’ Hector asked.
‘I don’t sense anyone there,’ said Garovel.
Then came a hushed sound, too quiet to make out but distinct in its own way. A breath? A whisper? Or just the wind?
Hector placed his back to the wall and armored up. There was a very good chance he was just being paranoid, but there was no harm in playing it safe.
‘Garovel, am I going crazy?’
‘No, I don’t think so... unless I’m going crazy along with you.’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Right at the beginning, Frost. "...and Hector was starting feel rather..."
ReplyDeleteEnjoying the current pages.
ReplyDelete"Could’ve been an animal that was small enough for the leaves to conceal completely."
This sentence came across as odd to me considering it is being spoken by the narrator rather than as dialogue (thus I don't expect the lack of formality).
Fixed, thank you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can agree with that. Edited now, thank you.
ReplyDelete‘Are you sure they’re still in there?’ Hector asked, not for the[?]
ReplyDeleteOf course, if it was just an animal, He could have asked Garovel about it. I'm getting a stronger and stronger sense that this is the same thing that killed Faud, given that it is showing signs of existing and yet not appearing on reaper souldar. My first guess: an aberration with some kind of physical projection power. A body, possibly invisible, that doesn't appear to reapers and can move stealthily. The feeding mechanism is fairly simple. As it kills people, it collects their souls, which return either immediately or when the projection returns, and it becomes stronger, tougher and possibly other things, maybe even more intelligent or more numerous as it grows. The random, mysterious disappearances would fit with Abolish's style of trying to keep their aberrations secret until they get fattened up enough to make a big splash.
ReplyDeleteNice. I didn't even see that one when I read it.
ReplyDeleteAh, weird. Fixed now, thank you.
ReplyDeleteFrost, the "Full Chapter Links" table at the right doesn't show the link for this chapter, just so you know. perhaps you are waiting for a second page to be added to avoid hassle? Just wanted to be sure in any case.
ReplyDeleteNot on the subject of TZK, but is there anyone here who wants to write a story but is having trouble with the world-building? I have the opposite problem, and I would be happy to open a few of my worlds to someone with an idea of something to do with them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the Page Links sidebar, on the Abilities page for some reason January is the expanded month
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like Geoffrey Rofal's Domination power. Remember that? Taking over human corpses and making them do his bidding? I don't recall if they were detectable by Reapers. If so, maybe this guy's Domination ability is more advanced than Geoffrey's was.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this entry I proceeded to absentmindedly click on the area where the next button should be, as was standard procedure for the past- four days, three hours and seven minutes. Only to find myself bereaved of such a button, only to be replaced with patience and dismay.
ReplyDeleteLadies and gents, I'm caught up.
And I fucking hate that.
Frost, I'm very suspicious of you about that little itching bit. It just seems to trivial. It could be something you put in for a little detail or to reach a word count, OR IT COULD BE SOMETHING IMPORTANT LIKE HE WAS SHOT WITH A HALLUCINOGENIC NEEDLE OR SOMETHING. I doubt that's it though, because Garovel is hearing it too... Unless there's some way to poison a reaper?
ReplyDeleteNah, it said that dominated humans not only still had visible souls, they could actually be mistaken for human by an untrained reaper. It sounds like specific abilities are fairly uniform across all aberrations, and have more difference is scale than difference in kind. hiding the soul is definitely not something that they could do with that power.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the name "Inertia of Sloth" is in agreement or not with statement.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think that's fucking interesting.
Haven't been signed in for a while and am doing a quick run-through of the current pages for any leftover typos.
ReplyDelete"Then came a hushed sound, too quiet to make [out] but distinct in its own way."
Got it, thank you.
ReplyDelete