Hello all! Worldcon is in town, so this week I've been listening to panels about SFF and craft from a lot of wise authors. Hopefully, the advice and tricks they've been talking about find their way into my writing to make it better. Doing that in addition to writing has been pretty exhausting, but definitely worth it. It's be...
2025-08-17 14:39:11 +0000 UTC View PostOne by one, the souls in the underground winked out, until those that remained were running for the surface through the entrance north of town. There, they seemed to realize the rest of the Akanan army wasn’t there anymore, and joined the retreat.
By then, Mirian had organized Professor Cassius and a handful of profes...
2025-08-17 14:07:07 +0000 UTC View PostMirian refined her early route, practicing both her efficient conversion of soul energy into mana and efficiency in binding myrvite souls for use. With greater efficiencies, she could speed up her accelerated levitation, cutting hours off her travel. She now retrieved supplies from Mahatan, deposited them in Torrviol...
2025-08-13 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThanks for all the wonderful responses to last week's question! It's helpful to see how audience expectations are matching up to the story. Also at this point, there's a lot to keep track of... who's idea was it to make this story this complicated???
And as always, thanks for the support that's made this story possible ...
2025-08-10 19:35:17 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Mirian reached the surface, the world seemed too bright at first, and too calm. Down in the Labyrinth, a moment’s hesitation could be death. She’d needed to stay perfectly alert, or an ambush like the one she’d just survived would be lethal.
She checked in on her professors, redirecting them or adding instruc...
2025-08-10 19:22:45 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Xecatl next saw her, she froze. “I sensed your communion with Ceiba Yan… but I almost didn’t believe it. Your fourth soul ascension?”
Mirian nodded.
“Congratulations are in order, then. Some days, I envy you, able to steer your own soul.” She looked at the sacred tree. “But I also know I wouldn...
2025-08-06 18:38:41 +0000 UTC View PostI sent out Chapter 235 with a title that said it was 236, but it's not 236 because 236 isn't done and I will be madly pounding away at the keyboard to change that later today.
Several old chapters seem to have had a chunk of text at the start of the chapter duplicated, sometimes once, sometimes several times. Since the ...
2025-08-03 16:49:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe descent down the stairs started as a solemn one, the drama of it only slightly ruined by Jherica’s heavy breathing.
“Teaching and research never involved much exercise, I’m afraid,” they said apologetically. “My knees are killing me.”
Mirian cast a quick healing spell on them. “If you progress en...
2025-08-03 16:22:50 +0000 UTC View PostEventually, a bulky carduk turtle arrived pulling an ornate carriage. The carriage was nothing like the steel-framed spellcarts of Baracuel or Akana. Instead, it had a nest of living vines on the roof. They had draped themselves over the sides, forming leafy doors. The nagual driver—an honor only an Emperor could have—tou...
2025-07-30 16:03:57 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the chapters that got released this week:
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 232
Chapter 233
Liuan disembarked with her usual retinue: several Church priests, who Mirian recognized, but didn’t know the names of, and several RID agents. Each ship had a full crew of Akanan army personnel. They spent around ten minutes doing a formal dance of niceties and ritual. No one called Liuan ‘Prophet,’ but Mirian could tel...
2025-07-27 16:02:44 +0000 UTC View PostThey progressed to more advanced spirits quickly. It didn’t take long before Mirian’s head was spinning with the complexity of it. When she finally was having trouble keeping it all in her head, that was when Xecatl introduced her to weaving diagrams. The simple ones were made of two sticks with colored yarn tied to each ...
2025-07-23 14:53:34 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! I'm visiting family, so am away from my home computer. My old writing laptop is old enough that I can write on it (the words must flow!), but can't use Patreon, so this post is being lovingly crafted from a phone just as they've introduced a new publishing interface! Hopefully nothing goes wrong (ominous music). As us...
2025-07-20 15:26:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe next few days were a whirlwind of planning and talking. Mirian mapped out a curriculum on glyph magic. “Xipuatl might be able to assist, given he’s seen both the Baracueli and Tlaxhuacan schools of magic,” she mentioned.
Within the hour, her former classmate was in the room with her, only looking a little hagg...
2025-07-20 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostMirian contemplated her first question for Xecatl. She had a feeling she knew what the other woman would ask her, and she wanted to get a good sense of what she already knew. She looked up and down Ceiba Yan. There were strange flows in the soul. Discolored threads she thought she recognized.
‘Absolute truths,’ ...
2025-07-16 17:04:59 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the chapters that were published this week:
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 228
Chapter 229
Ad...
2025-07-13 18:27:26 +0000 UTC View PostAs Mirian ascended the steps towards the Tlaxhuacan Prophet, she felt the thousands of eyes staring at her. It wasn’t just the battalion watching, nor the nagual. A huge crowd had gathered. They watched in silence; there was only the sound of the city’s waterfalls.
Mirian glanced behind her. The woman who she’d fi...
2025-07-13 18:16:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt was on the fifth island that Xipuatl caught on to what Mirian was doing. He looked around as she prepared to levitate again and noticed a skypiper bird fall from the sky, then seemed to realize most of the creatures in the tidepools were dead too.
His eyes widened. “Wait… Mirian… are you using necromancy?” 2025-07-09 18:21:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Emails going out to the wrong tiers should be fixed. If it isn't let me know.
I've updated the Glossary. There's spoilers for chapter 195 and later, but... presumably if you're here and reading this, that shouldn't be a probl...
2025-07-06 18:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostAs soon as the leviathan surfaced, the crew started moving into action.
“Leviathan off the port bow!” one of the lookouts shouted.
Baracueli cutters were designed for speed, but the archipelago was full of barely-submerged rocks and small islands, so the ship had been forced to slow down. Still, despite Xipuat...
2025-07-06 17:50:11 +0000 UTC View PostMirian arrived in Alkazaria and gathered the high priests. This time, the High Priest of Carkavakom accepted her claim as easily as the others. He didn’t smile so much. It was like he was a different person.
Her best guess was an Elder creature was involved. Some of them had been assigned by the Gods to guard t...
2025-07-02 18:20:40 +0000 UTC View PostThere's a new issue I've found this week (though it might have started earlier and I didn't catch it) where readers in the second tier aren't getting email updates on a chapter as I unlock it for them. Previously, I would uncheck the 1st tier, check the 2nd tier, check 'notify members of the edit', then save it, and only 2nd ...
2025-06-29 16:49:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe High Priest of Carkavakom was waiting for Mirian by the altar. The rest of the main area of the Great Temple was empty. Gaius turned and watched the entrance of the temple, ready to renew the fight at any moment.
“Ask,” the priest said, as if he’d been expecting her. His rictus grin had faded, and now h...
2025-06-29 16:27:51 +0000 UTC View PostMirian’s levitation spell was countered as soon as she began to cast it. She was badly outnumbered, facing down at least two full squads of Praetorians, which meant they could dedicate specialists to countering any of her common spells. A second group would maintain shields while a third group pressed the at...
2025-06-25 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostI tried to get Eyeball and Conductor to let me post things at different points in the timeline, but they refused. Such sticklers for rules.
So, really, I'm going to be away from my computer for a few days. While I can schedule posts ahead of time, I can't schedule edits (which is what I use to distribute chapters to the...
2025-06-22 05:46:28 +0000 UTC View PostIt was easy enough, with a delegation of high priests at her back, to convince the Council of Five to recognize her as a new Prophet. It was only three days later that they retroactively clarified that they had ‘tentatively’ recognized her, with certain privileges withheld until official recognition from the Pontif...
2025-06-22 05:32:48 +0000 UTC View PostMirian opened the Mahatan Gate, sent a zephyr falcon to Gabriel, stole Prince Rehiz’s jeweled lotuses, then headed down to Urubandar.
A few days later, she found Gabriel in one of the palaces he liked to buy, surrounded by prostitutes and servants. The place reeked of alcohol, and Gabriel was swinging about a bottle o...
2025-06-18 18:22:05 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the chapters that got posted this week. Hope everyone is doing well!
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 220
2025-06-15 18:29:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jherica screamed the first time they went through the Elder Gate. However, at the same time, they found it fascinating enough that they subsequently took ten trips through the teleportation device in quick succession.
“Amazing!” they said, beaming.
“Are you quite done?” Mirian asked after the tenth ...
2025-06-15 18:18:57 +0000 UTC View PostThey were lounging in the Starcrest tower penthouse when Gabriel finally arrived. Ibrahim had his shirt off and was doing some sort of martial exercise where he moved around slowly. Rostal had mentioned it, but Mirian had forgotten the name of it. Liuan Var was sitting primly in a chair sipping tea. Jherica had become fascina...
2025-06-11 16:06:45 +0000 UTC View Post
