*There will be a link at the bottom for a bookfunnel version of “our story so far”. Note the story so far is unedited, and there will be timing and spelling discrepancies as well as I might have slipped into the wrong person a couple of times. Also some chapters are glossed over and will be more fleshed out in the finished book. Also, I’m starting to believe this is the book that never ends… Yes, I know where it’s going, but the detail keeps expanding. WD hopefully tomorrow. (It’s more getting to sit down than anything, as I have six rose bushes to bury. Okay, plant, but bury is funnier. They know what they did.)
Of Kings And Bakers And Star Empires
Eerlen:
Eerlen Troz woke up hurting. For that moment, on waking, he was shocked at how much it hurt to breathe, to think, to…
And then he realized what hurt was his semi-conscious check of the ruby and his link to it.
His unlamented predecessor in the role of Archmagician, the never-sufficiently-Maker-Cursed Lahem Drahy, had said it was a good idea to check you had the ruby on waking up, because that meant you were still alive.
Apparently of all the things that Eerlen had learned from Drahy, and of everything he’d tried to forget, he remembered that one particular piece of advice at the bone-deep level that he did it while half asleep. And power-burned. And in Yanda.
Stopping reaching his power for the ruby stopped the overall pain, except for a line from his hand to his chest. And that didn’t hurt as badly as he expected. He opened his eyes, staring at the strange ceiling of Yanda. He had the slightly blurry vision and the feel of an ache behind the eyes that were typical of power-burn. Or a hangover. And he’d had worse of each.
The ceiling held. There were no screams from anywhere in the shelter.
His hand went up and touched the ruby. It was with him, so he was alive. He felt for the child’s power pattern within himself. The child was alive. For a moment, on wakening, he’d thought it was done, that this one too had joined the list of his dead half-siblings. But the child was alive.
Which left Lendir snoring softly by his side. And—
“Shit.” He sat up. Lendir sat up at the same time, looking at him with wide, shocked eyes.
“I left two third circles alone after a major healing,” Eerlen said. “You know what they’re like.” Third circles, after a major healing, for reasons having to do with opening their own pattern to do the healing, as well as possibly an inherent formation of pattern, were as likely as not to get in a to-the-death-duel or an unadvisable sexual exploit. Two of them was just asking for trouble. Particularly when the two were a King and a territorial ruler.
Eerlen looked around for his clothes, but Lendir’s hand shot out of the blankets, and grabbed at his arm. It was warm, but strong. Lendir’s voice was slurred by sleep, but clear enough as he said, “’s fine. I took care of it.”
“You… took care?”
“I told Brund to stay behind and help our guest clean. It’s not fair to make him clean after he fed us and all. Law of hospitality.”
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