The Dead Dove Locker -- "I don't know what I expected."

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family.

What is Paula's solution to the Zander-Lance-Heather situation?

What is the next move in Mina's bid to get Marcus on board?

What are the next steps in Raven's plan, and what part do her family still have to play?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/25

[Mamorien]

In most cases, if I discovered that a fic had wrapped up and spawned a one-shot epilogical sequel while we weren't looking, I'd announce the thing in Completed Fanfic Recommendations, but when the foma in question is When Harry met Wednesday, this seemed somehow more appropriate.

Sirius is dead, and Harry has reached his breaking point. A chance meeting with a pale girl and her family moves Harry's life in a new direction. Rated M for macabre themes, and later on for suggestive adult content.

Start from the beginning if you dare: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11674317/1/...-Wednesday

And then proceed to that sequel/epilogue: Nightshade.

Ophiuchus Atropa Black is turning eleven. Sit back, and enjoy a wholesome Addams birthday party. Complete with party games, cake, and of course presents.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14525403/1/Nightshade

[Jinx999]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/538299.../219396191

Gushing Succubus: In The Shadow Of Her Wings

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family.

It's time to put Paula's idea of pairing off Zander and Heather into practice. Will it turn out to be the magic pairing that she hopes for? And will pairing them in a double date with her and Lance equal two and two?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/26

[Mamorien]

Another week, another The Greenfield Family.

Mina's games with Marcus are coming to an end, and it's time for her to admit straight up what she wants with him. Will Marcus accept and give in, or will he continue to resist her? Can he resist her anymore?

For that matter, can Kenneth continue to resist Heather and Andie? With his stepdaughters throwing their sexuality in his face, can he continue to keep himself away?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/27

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family.

Here we witness the morning after for Marcus and Mina. How is Marcus going to deal with what he and his cousin have done?

Then, it's time for one small part of the truth to come out. Carlos and Srishti are about to reveal to Rick and Krista the real circumstances of how they met them in St. Martin, and the relation they have to someone Rick knows. How will they take the reveal?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/28

[Mamorien]

Not exactly an update, but worth sharing in case anyone's interested.

Hello, folks! It's May, so my hope is that Princess of the Void returns from its hiatus this month. However, April has been tricky for a couple of reasons that have prevented me from putting as much work into Princess of the Void as it deserves. The first is that I am in the middle of a long and sad goodbye to a family member, an aunt, who is in hospice with late-stage dementia.

The other is that I am being sued, lmao.

The other is that I am being sued, lmao.

There is very little I can say about this right now, except that me and my fellow defendants (a number of other web series authors) firmly disagree with the lawsuit's allegations. We have retained counsel and feel that we have a robust defense.

Writing started as a silly little hobby for me and accidentally became the most important thing I do in my spare time, thanks to my enthusiastic and wonderful audience. The great gift I've been given, besides all of you, is that–contrary to the old chestnuts about how bad it is to make your hobby your job–the joy of writing has never gone away. This past month, I have been much more productive than I thought I would be, getting about seven chapters into PotV on Patreon, because writing these silly little stories has proven to be a wonderful escape from the difficulties I currently face.

Because of the legal action currently happening around it, that is not true of Princess of the Void at the moment. And so, despite my great love for the story and high excitement about where it is going in Volume 6, working on it continues to be very difficult. It's not impossible, and I'm still doing it. But it's slower than I want it to be, and until the legal path forward for the story has cleared up, I can't update it here on ($website). I hope to do so as soon as possible, ideally this month, but that depends on a few factors (including legal ones) beyond my control. Volume 6 is ongoing on Patreon but somewhat slow going. My backup plan, if this legal stuff continues further than May, is to return to updates at the reduced rate of one chapter a week. Ideally the legal stuff is finished quickly and I can return in full force to the 6th and most exciting (in my opinion) volume of the story.

I don't really know how to conclude this update except to thank you for your continuing support during this period. I am optimistic that I'll have good news for you, and chapter 6.1 of Princess of the Void, very soon.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2323944/
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617...tus-update

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family marches on like the Emperor's naked army.

It's time for some more confessions. Lily decides she's finally ready to tell Marcus her secret...

...ironically on the same day that Raven and Mina decide (to) let him know theirs.

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/29

Warning.

Warning: explicit defloration of a consenting (or at least willing) daughter by her father.

[Mamorien]

There's still more to the story of The Greenfield Family.

Paula and Zander's birthday is coming up, and their nearest and dearest are planning a very special celebration for them. And given their new relationships, and with devious minds like Raven and Bobbi behind the scenes, you can bet this is going to be a night to remember.

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/30

[Jinx999]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/538299...adult=true

Gushing Succubus: In The Shadow Of Her Wings. Nothing sexual, but seriously harsh. Because Loco and Leber have murdered.

[Mamorien]

The Greenfield Family.

It's Prom night! Zander, Paula, Heather and Lance are headed out for their senior year rite of passage. Including a special celebration afterward in their own style.

A few surprises are in store for them tonight. Some of them pleasant...

...some of them... not so much.

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/31

[Mamorien]

Princess of the Void!

Hey, it's still May! This counts!

Welcome to Volume 6 of Princess of the Void.

The situation I described in my previous update is still in effect. The legal issues continue, and while they are ongoing, I need to split my attention between this story and others that I have full legal ownership of. However, it's unfair to you, my readers, to stop entirely. Instead I am updating Princess of the Void once a week. We'll be doing Fridays only going forward for a time.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617.../61-booger
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2364290/

And, if it's Friday, it's The Greenfield Family.

Marcus has completed his classes and is headed home to the circus that the Greenfield house has become. Is he ready to join in with his siblings' new lifestyle?

If Bobbi has anything to say about it, he might find it hard to say no.

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/32

[Jinx999]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/538299.../227257746

Gushing Succubus: In The Shadow Of Her Wings. It's an update, but it's a harsh and rather unlikeable chapter.

[ECSNorway]

Harsh, yes, unlikeable, I'll argue.

The whole trial arc is a very important part of the character arc not just for Vox and Leber, but for Randa as well, for catharsis, reconciliation, and healing for all three.

[Mamorien]

Maybe The Greenfield Family should be asking themselves "Who are you?" first. Or "Why are you here?" Or "Where are you going?" Or even "Whom do you serve, and whom do you trust?"

What do you want? Such a simple, yet complicated question.

What does Paula want? Now that Marcus is home and wading into the waters of his siblings' new lifestyle, does Paula want to partake with him too? Is Zander the only brother she wants to cross that line with, or is she open to sharing that with more of her family as Bobbi has?

What does Keiko want? Is she tempted to cross that line with Marcus too? Would doing something like that with her son be better or worse than what she's been doing with Barry?

What does Lily want? Does she want to keep running from her past? Is she ready to face her family again?

What are each of them going to do?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/33

Also, Princess of the Void continues to update.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617...2-conquest
UPDATE: https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2378202/

And its author has news not related to Grantyde's reunion with his fresh man room mate.

Hello, folks!

I have some news for you up top here. You might remember that I've mentioned a few times another story I'm working on while Princess of the Void's legal future remains in question. That story is called Headless Over Heels and its first 100k word volume is already complete over on Patreon, but I am happy to announce that it will be launching on Royal Road this month! Once it does, I will post an update (and a bonus chapter in all likelihood) here to let you all know that it's here and where to find it. As an early preview, the below spoiler is its cover drawn by Cromsferatu, portraying its heroine: Annalise al Ydris. Dullahan, executioner, and mother of two.

Spoiler

[Mamorien]

Genties and ladlemen of the audio radience, due to welcome circumstances beyond my control, Headless Over Heels (A Dark Fantasy Dullahan Romance) is live.

Love can make you lose your head.

Seth il Gutierre is a thief with bad habits and worse luck. He has one chance to clear his debt: steal from a deadly warrior with black eyes and a soul-drinking sword.

Annalise al Ydris is a Verdugo, a traveling executioner of the Sorcerer General’s legion who must spill enough blood to fuel the ancient necromancy holding the seraph hordes at bay. When she catches Seth, he’s sure his head is forfeit and his soul will be fuel for the deathspell.

Instead, she gives him a job.

Now he’s Annalise’s personal thief, helping her carve her tithe from the enemies plaguing the last surviving continent. Seth must survive monsters, madmen, and the strange, simmering desire building between him and the cheerful headtaker he serves.

Headless Over Heels is a romance in a 1920s-inflected dark fantasy setting, about the healing power of love and the harming power of massive necromantic greatswords.

---

This story contains mature themes, explicit sexual content (though scenes have been censored for the RR release, with links provided to the full versions) and graphic violence. It’s not suitable for readers under 18.

What to expect:

- A slow-burn monogamous romance between a down-on-his-luck thief and a sword-swinging murder MILF

- Monsters, mayhem, and magic

- An unorthodox found family carving a cozy niche in a darkening world

- No litRPG or system elements, light progression. No harem (though Annalise has different heads with different personalities).

Cover by Crom Carpenter. First volume already completed on Patreon.

Join us on Discord for discussion, character art, and more!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...over-heels
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/23850...y-romance/

I'll be posting seven chapters today, with a new one every two hours. After that, we'll be posting daily for a couple of weeks, and then dropping to a 3x/week cadence.

I am overjoyed to introduce you to Seth il Gutierre and the strange, deadly family that's about to change his life.

[Mamorien]

I know I said 7 chapters, but in recognition of how many followers we've already gained, I'm doing one more in an hour so as not to leave you on a cliffhanger, and to show off what a fight scene with Annalise al Ydris looks like.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313.../18-on-her
(This space reserved for the SH link.) https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2386905/

[Mamorien]

Headless Over Heels.

Welcome to day 2! For the next couple weeks, it’ll be one chapter a day for HoH while I chase that Rising Star dragon.

---

(...)

“Couldn’t expect you to swing the headtaker around in a pinch. Only reason I do it is so it can harvest hexis, and I’m stingy about letting the stuff go to waste. If it’s not the Verdugo sword it doesn’t count, y’see. Otherwise, I’d keep the fuckin’ thing in the carriage. Or an attic.”

“It does seem cumbersome.”

“Now this little beauty.” She plucked her side sword from the ground. “This is a sword. Got it forged custom in—hmm.” She took it by the blade and squinted at its handle. “That a tooth, you think?”

Seth squinted. “Maybe a piece of one.”

Annalise flicked one of her knives from her baldrick and set about prying the sliver from her sidesword’s handle. “I talked with Charlie about reforging the two-hander into something less stupid a few times. I mean, wouldn’t a nice hand-and-a-half suit better than a fuckoff bluntheaded fucker? Takes a head just as clean if you know what you’re doing.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Anyway he said awh well ya know Annalise ‘tis a relic from a Promethean age of yadda yadda. And they’re afraid to touch it.” Annalise replaced her dagger and dug the splinter the rest of the way out with two fingers. “Definitely a tooth.”

“Charlie?”

She buckled her sidesword back on. “Charles il Nekropoli, Fifth Sorcerer-General of the United Legion Territories.”

“You call the Sorcerer General Charlie?”

“When I wanna impress muddy little cutpurses, I do.”

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...62/19-crud
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2387841/

[Mamorien]

I have just submitted chapter 34 of THE GREENFIELD FAMILY.

A Taste of Someone New

The Greenfield siblings are headed on a little outing, away from anyone else and free to explore their unique relationship, especially Paula who is ready to expand her horizons and give incest with her other brother a try.

And Paula is not the only one who is about to get a taste of someone new. Rick and Krista are arriving for their usual playtime with Carlos and Srishti, unaware of the special surprise guests they have planned to join them.

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/34

Headless Over Heels.

Rohan exuded mindfulness and control over every monitored step. Even as the right heel of his white captoe tracked Fits’ blood into his manor. “We’ll figure this out, us two. Two Syndicate men. Men of expertise. The Verdugo out there, she’s a hard nut. But all we need is a moment.” He paused at the top of the stairs. “We do for her, and her little assistants, and then I’m in your debt for a change, how’s that? And I have some friends who can ensure the story is whatever it needs to be.”

Seth shook his head. “It’s gone beyond that, Rohan. Prossimo’s watching.”

“That woman out there has killed half a dozen of Prossimo’s sons. Means to kill more. A little bit of lingering in the right doorways, a few braces spread around. And the replacement is someone who respects the peace we work for and maintain. And all we need is a moment.”

“All you need is a moment, Rohan.” Seth indicated the stairs with the barrel of the gun. “And if you try for it, I’ll shoot you.”

“You wouldn’t shoot me, Seth. I couldn’t bear to shoot you and I’m a flinty bastard. Had to get someone to do it for me, just like you are.”

“You saw what I did to Fits?” Seth’s fingers flexed on the wheelgun’s knurled handle. “I killed Prichard, too.”

“Prichard was an asshole and Fits was an idiot,” Rohan said. “Me, I’m you. You’re me, son. Looking out through time.”

And he was right. Seth saw it in him. Sudden and gut-wrenching. The same beady desperation, the same preoccupation with corners and contingencies. Rohan was the same sick, feral animal Seth was, and the revulsion stuck a stone in his throat. Being a patre of the syndicates, that was the dream of every cutpurse. This was the best that Seth could hope for. The same exact rotten thing he’d been doing all his miserable life, with a nicer chair.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...-me-im-you
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2389699/

Princess of the Void.

Grant lets out a long, wary sigh, getting enough air that Ziavra lifts slightly up and back down again at his chest.

“We don’t have to do it right away, dove,” Sykora says. “You’ve already had such a day.”

“No, no. I need to rip the bandage on it. The researchers are already halfway to panic.” Grant strokes his thumb across Ziavra’s cheek and looks into her big staring red eyes. This is your daughter. These are your people. This is your life. You belong here, with the Taiikari.

No matter what they say to you next.

Crew of the Black Pike. This is your Prince speaking.

(...)

An undisguised look of concern settles on Vora. “Do you have it written down anywhere? Would you like another set of eyes?”

Grant shakes his head. “I think I’m just gonna get it started. Wish me luck.”

Vora hugs him around the waist. “Good luck, Grant.”

A hush falls across the deck as he moves to the banister. The camera blinks blue in the dim. Its maximum height has been raised to accommodate his height.

“Crew of the Black Pike. This is your Prince speaking.”

Breathe in on a four-count, and out on a four-count. They care about you, Grant. You care about them. Give them honesty, give them love, let them give it back.

“By now,” he says, “I imagine word is spreading among you of the uniqueness of my people. You have many questions. I am here to answer the chiefest one. And the answer is yes.”

Behind his back his right fist wraps around his left thumb, and squeezes hard to keep from shaking.

“I am immune to compulsion,” he says.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617...nouncement
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2389293/

(There was a duplicate set of links here. It's GONE now!)

[ECSNorway]

For Love's Last Measure, by Tabac_Iberez, just updated after a lengthy hiatus. 

This one is a crossover of Sword Art Online with Gushing Over Magical Girls. Asuna wakes up from SAO... but Kirito doesn't. He's one of the 300 randoms trapped in Sugou's Chamber of Horrors, and Asuna has no trace to follow to find him. So she turns to the last resort: Magical Girls.

Unfortunately, Tres Magia seem like they can't help her. Enormita has a tempting offer, however...

Moments later, my phone was full of the faint sound of tinkling dust, and Leopard's exaggerated, throaty voice. She'd been clearly working hard, and sounded quite full of herself. "Leopard's Wrecking Crew, you call it in we send it to the bin!"

"Ah, good, an explosives expert!" I joked. "Great, so there's a single-family residence I need vaporized in Ginza…"

Trailing off, I waited for Leopard to cut it out with the joke, but she seemed to be writing it down. "Single family home in Ginza… can you get me a street address?"

"762 White Spring Lane," I answered by default, giving one of the properties that Sugou, a friend of the family and no longer a friend to me, owned. Even if he was still fairly charming and a frequent guest to dinner, I had my suspicions of him for a while given how tightly he was wrapped up in the development of SAO– and more critically, the fact he wanted my hand in marriage. "Make sure it doesn't look like an accident."

[Mamorien]

When he said Headless Over Heels would be updating every day for "the next couple weeks," I guess he really did mean every day.

“Look at that,” she said, softly. “Three rings. You could only afford one hexentat, but you got space enough for a dozen. Know what I call that?”

“Stupid.”

She laughed. “Promise, Seth. I think you show a great deal of promise.” Her finger poked his midsection. “Also a great deal of ribcage. And if you’d let me, on our journey up to get my head, I’d like to bring one out and bulk away the other.”

Never Trust a Skinny Chef

He lowered his shirt and accepted his stogie back from her. “That’s a suspiciously kind offer.”

She sighed out a cloud of savory smoke. “You strike me,” she said, “as a boy who’s been kicked and kicked all your life, and nobody has stopped it. And what you need’s a big angry bitch with a sword to stand in front of the world for a while until you can stand up and dust off. Nobody ever comes for the hurting people in this world, y’know? Even if they see what’s coming, they just keep their heads down and say not my business. Nobody ever makes it stop before it goes all the way bad.”

Seth wanted to ask what that meant, but she was looking past him now, down the road they’d come from as if examining some dark edifice only she could see.

She snapped out of it and smiled again. “You’re a cook, right?”

“Never trust a skinny chef, I know.” He put a hand on his concave stomach. “I haven’t had so many chances lately.”

“Not what I’m saying,” she said. “You ever see a cast-iron skillet that’s been left with someone who doesn’t know how to take care of it? And it’s all dingy and rusted, and if you don’t know what you’re looking at, it’s garbage. But if you have an eye for these things you see what it could be. What it should be, if it’s in the hands of someone who recognizes its value.”

He didn’t have a response he trusted, yet, for that; he busied himself with another inhale.

“I can swing a sword, I can sling a spell. But in matters of padding about, like you can, I am unfortunately befucked. That was pretty work you did, taking the box from me. And pretty work again breaking into Rohan’s house. And you’ve notched your second corpse, now, and you seem steady.”

He seemed steady. He looked at his hands and remembered them spattered with Pritchard’s blood. Like testing a sore tooth with his tongue. Still didn’t hurt as bad as he’d expected.

“What do you think, il Gutierre?” Annalise leaned back on the hood of the car and crossed her legs. Her pale knee showed through the hole in her riding breeches. “Do you want to keep trying at whatever that was back there, or you want to take a chance and throw in with your Verdugo for the rest of the year? Won’t pay much at first, but there’ll be a big ol’ bonus at the end of the year, and you won’t be sleeping in stables before then.”

“I wasn’t sleeping in stables. I had—”

She smiled gently. “You had straw on you, kiddo. Second day I saw you.”

“Uh…”

“I promise you that’s over with, if you sign with me.” Her cigar flared brighter as she paused for another pull. “It’s nasty feckin’ work. A lot of it. We’ll be killing plenty of people. We’ll be hunting monsters and madmen. Or I will, but you’ll help me. You could call it an end-of-your-rope kind of job and I wouldn’t say you’re wrong.”

She leaned forward. Her chest pressed softly against the pommel of her sword.

“But I think there’s something fucking excellent waiting to come out of you, Seth il Gutierre,” she whispered, like she was telling a secret. “And I swear to you. I’ll see your value and use you right. I’ll season you. I’ll take care of you.”

And there was such a look of—of something on her face. Something so earnest Seth had to avert his eyes. Something Seth didn’t have the word for, but if he’d ever known his mother, he might have.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...kinny-chef
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2391175/

[Mamorien]

In today's Headless Over Heels chapter, Seth il Gutierre and his new employer have a really good wash, while her children do the laundry.

Seth followed the al Ydrises down a grassy hillock, toward the bubbling churn of the River of St. Hanimak. A mist rose from its surface, suffusing an end-of-summer chill into the air. Annalise, unbothered, plopped down on a protruding chunk of eroded limestone and unlaced her tall boots. The sun was an emerald thumbnail across the water. It sent reflections playing across the paperwhite skin of her calves as she tugged them free. “I’ve been fantasizing about this.” She ran a hand through her black bob. “My hair is unspeakably manky.”

The younger al Ydrises strolled to the water’s edge with their baskets and basins. Seth dawdled. “Should, uh—should we take turns, then?”

“Look at that. A chivalrous thief.” Annalise chuckled dryly as she undid her tunic. “I’ll go on in first and submerge all my bits so you don’t get scandalized.” Her tunic’s topmost button flicked out of its hole with the eagerness of a long-suffering warrior relieved from duty. “If the gentleman would care to turn away, the lady is getting her ladies out.”

Seth cleared his throat and turned away. Behind him were the silky sound of clothes being shucked, and then the splish-splash of a body wading into the water.

“Bring the soap out with ya,” Annalise called. Tiago held up an ashtallow bar and tossed it underhand to Seth. He caught it, stripped down to his linens, and hustled into the river.

He hissed through his teeth as its dark water encompassed his stomach. “St. Borac’s balls, that is cold.”

“Is it?” Annalise’s silhouette turned to him. He caught the curve of her lower back, wide and smooth and lethally honed as a scythe blade, before he turned away. “I think when I went unlit, I got a little less sensitive to it.”

“I think you’re just a tough nut.” Ofelia adjusted her blanket further around her shoulders and huddled over her basin.

“Do you mind if I ask?” Seth scrubbed the muck from his arms. “How you all ended up going unlit, I mean.”

Farm-to-Table Unlit

“It’s not a dark secret or nothing.” Annalise sloshed around behind Seth. He remained facing away from her with some determination. “I was part of a penal legion up north. Winter War of ‘32.”

Seth’s washcloth slowed. “What were you doing in a penal legion?”

“Killing seraphs, of course.”

“What’d you do to get put there, I’m asking.”

“What I was accused of,” Annalise said, “was killing my husband.”

“Did you kill your husband? Is that an untoward question?”

Another husky laugh. “No, I didn’t. And yes, it is. But I did set you up for it.”

“Why’d they put the blame on you?”

“Well, I told him in the middle of a crowded market square that if he ever hit either of our children again, I’d kill him. And then he did it, and then he died.”

“Oh,” Seth said. “That’d do it.”

“But it really wasn’t me,” Annalise said. “Not even being funny. A bottle of Maskayan garnacha pushed that daft bastard down the stairs before I had the pleasure.”

“Father died as he lived,” Ofelia said as she wrung a shirt out. “Drunk and confused.”

Tiago nodded. “Yelling and getting in the way.”

“So up north to the Winter War I went.” More splashes behind Seth as Annalise scrubbed herself. “I served as a hand-and-a-halfer. First into seraph dens and all that. Got a pretty good number of the bastards, too, but eventually one of them got me. Big, black-feather bastard banjaxed me pretty good. And by the time they’d stitched me back together, I was unlit. That’s what a deep enough wound from a seraph can do.”

“One of the rare unlit who got it right from the source.” Tiago put his shoulder into scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain of what was either rusty mud or old blood. “Pure and unfiltered.”

“Yessir,” Annalise said. “Real organic farm-to-table unlit.”

“Farm-to-table?” Seth asked.

“Necropolitan phrase,” Annalise said. “Means overpriced.”

“How did your kids get that way, then?”

“She kissed Tiago on the forehead five hundred thousand times,” Ofelia said.

Tiago splashed water at her. “Be normal, Ofelia.”

She hissed like a feline. “You be normal.”

“We drank her blood,” Tiago said. “Fastest and least weird way to catch it.”

Seth shook his hair out. “That’s the least weird way?”

“Sure it is,” Tiago said. “Compared to the alternatives. Not about to drink my mother’s spit.”

“That’s so interesting,” mused Ofelia. “Blood being less weird than spit. You’re right, but it’s interesting. Anyway, now I taste lies. That’s my Darkness. Capital D. It’s what you call the power you get when you’re unlit. And our mother’s heads come off.”

“What does Tiago do?” Seth asked.

“Tiago has a complex about his Darkness,” Ofelia said. “Tiago doesn’t like to talk about his Darkness.”

“I don’t have a complex,” Tiago said. “I can swap minds with birds.”

“He thinks it’s prissy,” Ofelia said.

“I think certain birds are prissy.” Tiago held up a finger. “Which is true.”

“And sometimes when he comes back to his body the bird’s made him piss himself,” Ofelia said.

“Sometimes you piss yourself when a truth-tasting knocks you unconscious.”

“That’s not true. You’d have cackled about it so much if it was true.”

“I’ve been sparing your feelings.”

“You’ve both pissed yourselves more than I can count,” Annalise said.

“When we were babies, she means,” Tiago clarified. “This isn’t a pissing-yourself kind of family. So don’t go about as if you have permission.”

“I’ll do my best to hold it in,” Seth said. “No promises when we meet that seraph, though.”

This won a chuckle from Tiago.

EDIT: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...able-unlit
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2392999/

[Mamorien]

Another day, another brace. (Fun Headless Over Heels fact, FSVO "fun": Duke said on the Discord that the name of that particular United Territories coin comes from an avian collective noun, honoring the days when a major medium of barter was the hexis contained in still-live animals.)

Tiago edged a map of West Plainland and its criss-crossing iron arteries aside, and found Polecat’s cutlass beneath it. “This is you?”

“Yep.”

Tiago pulled the sheathed cutlass out and handed it to him, handle-first. “In an actual fight, we’re gonna just hand you a gun or a spear and keep you back.”

“I love that.” Seth cinched the braided buckskin belt around his waist and felt the weight settle on his hip. “Great idea.”

“But you can carry that chopper there into a lot more spaces than you can bring a spear, so you might as well know how to use the thing.” Tiago swung his sword up to his shoulder. “Now, you’re a little guy—”

Prey-Type Face

“We’re the same height.”

“I’m physically sixteen and you’re a little guy—don’t interrupt, by the way—and you’ve got a blade fit for drunken stormshippers and a prey-type face.”

“A what-type, now?”

“So if you draw blades with someone, don’t look brave and don’t act tough. Look afraid. They’ll underestimate you. And the best way to win a sword fight is very quickly.”

“Look afraid to swordfight?” Seth wiped his bangs from his face. “I’ll do my best.”

“A lot of what you’ll learn, keep under your hat until you’ve got your range and your opportunity just right. Don’t wanna stance up and spin a moulinet when someone thinks you’re about to go at them like you’re chopping steaks.”

“A moulinet being?”

Tiago’s sword flickered in a balletic figure-eight across his body and then snapped back to its position. His face registered no effort.

“Oh,” Seth said.

“It’s mostly for peacocking and getting your wrist up to snuff. You’ll get there.” Tiago held up a hand as Seth went to draw his blade. “Don’t draw. We’re not using it yet. Just wear it around wherever you can; get used to the weight and the feeling.”

“That’s lesson one?”

“That’s lesson one-half. Pass me the broom, Feeli.”

A lacquer-handled broom shunted from the carriage’s roof and plopped into the dirt.

“Good pass, Feeli.” Tiago picked up the broom and tapped it against a carriage wheel, dislodging a cloud of dust. He held it out in front of him, headfirst, and dropped into a lithe combat stance, off-hand held behind his back.

“Mirror me,” he said.

Seth did so, and felt like a wading duck.

“Foot’s too far out.” Tiago indicated it with the head of the broom. “Straight under your knee. Good. Now what we’re—”

Tiago took a sudden lunge forward and the broom shoved hard into Seth’s midsection.

Seth stumbled backward a pace and wiped hastily at the streak of pale dust that Tiago had marked his borrowed shirt with. “Ouch. Bastard.”

“Not a bastard, il Gutierre. Dad’s a dead drunkard, but he had a ring.” Tiago took a slower step forward and rested the broom head against Seth’s chest. “So what we’re gonna do is this. Without crossing your feet or dropping out of stance, keep the head of this broom right where it is. Just barely touching you. Don’t let it get too far away, and don’t let me—”

He took another sudden flickering step. Seth staggered back this time and the broom danced with him upon his sternum.

“Good.” Tiago returned to stillness. “But don’t cross those feet.”

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/173313...-type-face
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2385004...r/2394942/