“Whether spontaneous Homo Metavariatus or the covert result of Project Iasis’ Type-VII incubators remains unverified; access to the birthing logs is still classified above Omega-Clearance. What is measurable is Apex’s capability profile: sustained flight, compressive strength sufficient to shear military-grade HEA or Hex-steel alloys, and a mental defence that nullifies nearly all Esp-active intrusions. Field Test 12-Delta further recorded dermal integrity...
2025-06-02 13:32:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Larynda looks cute.
2025-06-01 11:55:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 46 - The Easier Path You cannot cup the water hidden in the loam, nor warm your palms upon the secret ember in the oak; You cannot s
Chapter 46 - The Easier Path
You cannot cup the water hidden in the loam, nor warm your palms upon the secret ember in the oak; You cannot seize the tranquil wind that dreams upon the stone. Let them lie in quiet until they fill this world.
Seraphina sat facing the open sea, letting the salt...
2025-05-31 13:03:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Earth Dragon from Book 2 before Gilgamesh gets dragged down into the temple of Iasis.
2025-05-29 15:07:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
[This is the big chapter. Hope it isn't too on the nose!]
“Beware the man who learns the taste of power; the second draught is never as sweet, and he will drink until the cup runs dry and then runs red.”
- Fragment of the Obsidian Pillar, ruins of Karth Anu.
“That is the target? That is the bio-weapon you spoke of? It hardly looks like much,” I growled in disbelief. A man in a white coat, clutching his guts, crawled desperately a...
2025-05-29 14:19:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 45 - Late Fees A home without books is a body with no soul. - Marcus Tullius Cicero. Ferdiad Frest, former bandit and the least like
Chapter 45 - Late Fees
A home without books is a body with no soul.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Ferdiad Frest, former bandit and the least likely of Seraphina’s Knights, was leading what passed for physical education in Aranthia: self-defence for ladies. He had the girls practi...
2025-05-28 14:48:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
“To seek praise while neglecting your purpose is to polish a great bell that lacks a clapper—resplendent yet silent.”
- A Quassian aphorism.
Matir Molins, head of the underground research facility, stared grimly at the chaotic display unfolding on his screen. Near the main entrance on the surface, something akin to suicidal madness erupted, raw violence spilling out in vivid detail across security feeds.
He had heard stories...
2025-05-27 14:14:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Once & Future Queen by Tobascoa
2025-05-26 14:47:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 44 - Convalescence
"The Nex (Neural-Interface Exosuits) derive their name from the neural core that translates human thought into mechanical motion, seamlessly binding intention to cybernetic strength. Humanity discovered swiftly, and often painfully, that the Nex demands conformity; deviation from the familiar shape of our own bodies invites confusion and eventually madness, a flaw especially apparent in early experimental designs...
2025-05-26 14:45:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
The lads fighting (roflstomping) the Karilla in book 2.
2025-05-24 13:48:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
“When alloy first embraced living sinew, the makers discovered a mercy as cruel as any blade: a soldier that need not believe to obey. Spliced from the long-friends of man, canines, and the tireless calculus of the machine, the bio-drone knows only the command impulse that birthed it. For to question is a luxury reserved for those still wholly of the flesh.”
- Compiled by the GAI [General Artificial Intelligence] of the Archivists Guild, On the Doctr...
2025-05-24 13:44:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 43 - Bitter Truths “Fate is a game for fools, a pretty story the weak tell themselves when they surrender. I refuse. I have shattere
Chapter 43 - Bitter Truths
“Fate is a game for fools, a pretty story the weak tell themselves when they surrender. I refuse. I have shattered prophecy under my heel and carved my own path in its stead. Once, I was cast as a villainess destined to kneel; now I sharpen my smile like a blade and choos...
2025-05-23 08:35:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 42 - Writing If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself. - Anne Frank
Chapter 42 - Writing
If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.
- Anne Frank.
It did not take overly long to locate Rashana at one of her secondary residences nestled in the quieter quarter near the Academy gr...
2025-05-21 14:17:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
Before they fight the Church and the Children of the Tides.
2025-05-20 13:28:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Those who drink from the same poisoned well suffer the same sickness.
- The Warnings of Al’Jabbadi the Duwat of Ardent Sands.
A slab of obsidian-black alloy had been delivered, no, deposited, upon the table at the center of my chamber like an altar stone. The men who had brought it were giants swathed in matte-black armor, their visors opaque as obsidian, their movements disciplined and silent. They offered no words, and once ...
2025-05-20 13:24:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Love’s touch turns the simplest heart into a song.
- Attributed to the playwright Vlan di Panoli.
“So, Mister Gilgamesh…” Helena Voss’s words lanced across the room like black ice, every syllable clipped, precise, dangerous. “Tell me what it is you truly want.”
I shrugged my shoulders, removing the communications device from my ear. I let a smug grin bloom slow and poisonous. “Important does not even begin to cover...
2025-05-19 16:05:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 41 - Purity After the rains, do the skies become lapis and the clouds are broken by the touch of the sun. - Verses from the Flower Q
Chapter 41 - Purity
After the rains, do the skies become lapis and the clouds are broken by the touch of the sun.
- Verses from the Flower Quarter by Unknown.
The next few days stretched Seraphina’s patience to its very seams. Only one bright thread gleamed in all of the mes...
2025-05-18 10:33:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
The emergence of Esp-actives approximately 76 years ago coincides closely with the catastrophic Second and Third Impacts and the emergence of the dragons. Unlike Meta-human mutations, characterized by physically oriented enhancements, Esp-actives demonstrate pronounced cerebral augmentations. Observations indicate their powers primarily manifest in three categories: 1. telekinesis—manipulation of physical matter without direct interaction; 2. telepathy—ability to t...
2025-05-15 15:55:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Laes Harevor Caravan Master of the Ravens.
2025-05-15 02:13:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 40 - Information Control The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. - Edmund Burke. “Cornelia, wake up, you silly creature
Chapter 40 - Information Control
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
- Edmund Burke.
“Cornelia, wake up, you silly creature!” Seraphina cooed through the necklace at her throat, each syllable sparkling in the mind of the monster. “And do make yourself ...
2025-05-15 02:10:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Zelenko Arms Model 88 “Warden” Heavy Service Pistol—better known in the gutters as the “Slayer.” Initially issued to Military shock troops, the grav-coil sidearm weighed as much as a sub-gun but earned its keep by driving ferro-ceramic slabs clean through armor or ‘Vader scale. However, disputes over its design led to procurement departments shelving the line for lighter polymesh toys.
No smart-link, no biometric leash—just a metal anchor m...
2025-05-13 15:30:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 39 - The Messenger of the Gods Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous. - Chanakya. Hughes was still puzz
Chapter 39 - The Messenger of the Gods
Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
- Chanakya.
Hughes was still puzzling over what he’d witnessed in the gardens—a vulnerable moment between Lady Seraphina and the de Laney girl. The puzzle had gnawed ...
2025-05-12 09:13:53 +0000 UTC
View Post
In ships of stone, we sailed across the salt-sea waves of the Glassfire, seeking the ancient Skylords. Through mountains and jungles, across vales and swamps, over streams and beneath the timeless shadows of ancient woods, we journeyed. Our company beheld the regal splendor of the First Children—the elves—yet of the Dragons, no trace could be found.
- Valerie of the Vale from the Tales of Seven Lands circa 573 AC.
A large and forbid...
2025-05-10 12:55:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 38 - Human Relationships I can stand him not loving me; I can’t stand him loving her.” - Lang Leav. The world snapped back together
Chapter 38 - Human Relationships
I can stand him not loving me; I can’t stand him loving her.”
- Lang Leav.
The world snapped back together like a shattered mirror, making itself whole—fractals shimmering, flattening, and at last resolving into ordinary sp...
2025-05-09 12:59:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 2 - The Path to the End
We can rivet the hardest alloys into a femur and coax myomers to coil like predatory vines, multiplying a patient’s strength ten-fold; we can lace the prefrontal cortex with quantum filaments that let thought leap whole logical chasms in a single pulse. Yet every few hundred grafts, the augment reaches past tissue into temperament. The host awakens fluent in new reflexes—but speaks with a cadence their loved on...
2025-05-08 14:12:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 37 - The Lecher “Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.” - Mason Cooley. Head held high, back straight as a lance, Seraphi
Chapter 37 - The Lecher
“Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.”
- Mason Cooley.
Head held high, back straight as a lance, Seraphina was the very image of a captured noblewoman who still clung to her dignity like armor. Her expression, serene yet defiant, was...
2025-05-07 04:16:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
Formally known as the Communications Nexus, the Com-Net was originally devised as a fail-safe infrastructure to preserve information exchange during the late Collapse Era. In theory, it was to be decentralized, resilient, and self-correcting—a network to outlast nations.
Following the Fall, however, Com-Net devolved into something far less noble. It survived, yes—but only in fragments. Its towers and relay nodes, many buried beneath the bones of citi...
2025-05-05 09:17:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
Concept and composition sketches for book 2.
2025-05-05 04:18:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter 36 - The Dragon Turtle
Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.
- Sun Tzu.
Seraphina’s party ran at a light jog, it would do them no good to arrive to a potential fight tired. Only the blonde girl wore a full harness of brigandine and platemail, her ridiculous Strength and Constitution making the ensemble as cumbersome as an evening dress. However, without horses the men had ...
2025-05-04 10:58:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Epilogue
The lab was a cluttered shrine to forbidden science. Doctor Juno Rath ruled the mayhem from a cracked swivel chair, cradling a mug of scalding Calda. She sipped the syrupy brew, the sweetness punching through her fatigue like a stimulant. Let the other researchers sneer at her sugar habit; the commercial spots on her Screenfeed swore upon sugary goodness, and corporate science never lied—at least, that’s what she told herself.
Rath...
2025-05-01 23:51:12 +0000 UTC
View Post