thelegendoflithra

[thelegendoflithra]

Announcement – Intermission

Greetings, readers!

I hope you’ve been enjoying the story so far. Once again, I find myself exceeding my previous ambitions by a significant margin – an adventure in crafting an epic, perhaps, although it is equally possible I also need to practice my brevity a bit more. This point represents the approximate middle of this story, according to my outline, but it’s already longer than my previous…

[thelegendoflithra]

Burn

I made my way to the stairs, practically dragging the dazed dynamancer. She was heavier than she looked, especially with that armor. The Drakar warrior had apparently assumed command of the Crossbred, setting them to various tasks – Avians working in teams to drift Marinians down to the water and seize a ship, Lycans to help clear a path, Ursings to help carry the wounded. I was more than happy…

[thelegendoflithra]

Crash

There was a thunderclap, a rush of wind, and the sound of glass, followed by a profound silence.

Holding Essedri tighter to make sure we were still in the land of the living, I cracked open an eye to see Candidius had been replaced by a young woman in gleaming green and gold armor, teeth bared and eyes blazing – wisps of light swirling about her with an almost tangible glamor.

Trinisa?

Tearing my…

[thelegendoflithra]

Knife's Edge

Knife’s Edge

I was forced to my knees, the pain bringing a bit of clarity with it, and I looked up to see the head priest gazing down at me, clad in his mantle of cold moonlight, his vaguely-seen visage pale and twisted like the statues in the hall, features uncanny in the unnatural illumination. Inhuman, almost.

One thing I didn’t have any trouble seeing was the mirror-bright blade of Sa’Lithra hovering mere…

[thelegendoflithra]

Condemnation

The Sunspire Cathedral was an entirely different place at night.

As the guards dragged me through multiple corridors and several flights of stairs,  plain practicality gradually gave way to the elaborate ornamentation I had come to expect – carved friezes creeping around the edges of one level, blooming into full reliefs of religious scenes on the next, and then finally bearing fruit on the main…

[thelegendoflithra]

Shackles

“So let’s say Oresida is waiting over here, and the Avians have blankets…”

I made the changes, rearranging a dead beetle and two pieces of lint with a string between them.

“That gives the Marinians a chance to strike. Then, when the next pair arrive, we douse the lights, with the Lycans flanking from either side…”

Two slivers of fingernail pounced on their hapless prey, two buttons blinded by…

[thelegendoflithra]

Extraction

“But bring me that one,” she added, crooking a finger at me. “I think it’s well past time we had a little chat – person to person.”

The intent behind her choice of words was clear: driving wedges into the gap that already existed between us. I didn’t like what that implied.

But what choice did I have? I could endure a few minutes of Luceal if it meant sparing the Lycans from the ministrations of…

[thelegendoflithra]

Hellhold

The Hellhold, as it turned out, was not as awful as the name implied, at least as far as the accommodations were concerned.

The cells comprised only a handful of the many underground chambers beneath the expansive grounds of Nyemo’s Cathedral Alassai – the Sunspire. We had only seen the surface for a moment before we were escorted beneath, but the parts I had witnessed were equal parts impressive…

[thelegendoflithra]

Bonus Content – Abandoned Openings

Bonus Content – Abandoned Openings

Lithra V is a book that has been in the works for quite a while. As you might have noticed, the seeds of this conflict were sown during the second book, and I have been repeatedly writing and rewriting the outline over the course of several years.

As part of this process, I have attempted to start this story several times, taking different tacks. Eventually, I was struck with the inspiration to…

[thelegendoflithra]

Depths and Despair

How long has it been? The question has no meaning. Time is trapped here as surely as I am – whirling about madly but going nowhere. And yet I know the strength is fading from me, the endless circle of seconds wearing me away like a blade against the grindstone. That’s where father is, sharpening his axe so we can cut wood for the winter. That’s why he can’t hear me. 

But I can’t wait until…

[thelegendoflithra]

Holiday Special – Cholak's Lullaby

Holiday Special – Cholak’s Lullaby

Written by an unknown author (believed to be an Avian) not long after the death of Cholak, this classic lullaby has soothed generations of Crossbred to sleep. While many changes and additions have come and gone over the centuries, the original lyrics still prove the most popular, and have persisted with little alteration to the present day. Each verse is written in reference a different race,…

[thelegendoflithra]

Loss and Leverage

The manor didn’t seem like a place meant to be seen in moonlight. These were summer ruins, built from stones made to bask in sunlight, covered with greenery that should be buzzing with bees and hummingbirds. A warm, sleepy sort of place, where I could doze off easy as blinking.

Not so under the silver half-light, with the breeze roving restless through the courtyard. I was too tired to sleep, and…

[thelegendoflithra]

Appraisal at Apparíse

Finally. 

I brought Flicker to a halt – swaying a bit as we stopped – and looked around me, making sure I hadn’t been followed.

The existence of Apparíse Manor wasn’t a secret, but the fact that it was currently serving as headquarters to the Crossbred Resistance was. Minnus had given me detailed directions, and I was glad I’d made the effort to memorize them. The manor was tucked away in an…

[thelegendoflithra]

Rendezvous

Nyemo. The hectic Chiarian port at the heart of the Lake of Pearls.

I had only been here briefly, once before, and that years ago, but it was surprising how many memories came flooding back as I stole through the back streets. This was where we’d come after the Church’s execution of the Crossbred, where I had run from river gangs with a young delinquent before we ended up jointly bringing the boy…

[thelegendoflithra]

Fishing

“So,” Howler said the next morning, crouching down in front of us. “The Bramblepack is part of the Allfolk’s Alliance, but people have been pushing back against the Church for a long time, and we help where we can.”

Essedri nodded, but as she clearly knew this already, she was paying more attention to her breakfast. We’d woken up to find the Lycans cooking a rabbit they had caught, and were now…

[thelegendoflithra]

Spark

Two hands came up in the same instant. Two voices cried out, overlapping. Two bolts of incandescent lightning burst into existence.

He was faster – ever so slightly faster – and ten times, a hundred times more powerful; so far as I was concerned, he might as well have been Celthis reborn, his powers insurmountably superior in every way.

Well, every way but one. He could put as much power into the…

[thelegendoflithra]

Wayfinding

The Chariot… the Lyre… Serri’s Lantern… and Eitra’s Eye glittering brightly in the north, of course, the undeviating axis of the heavens. I had always felt a strange sort of yearning while staring at the stars, as if the constellations were calling me to some distant horizon…

But as always, I had other tasks to tend to.

With a sigh, I directed my attention earthward once more, concluding my…