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Alternate Ending (1)
publish date:
2026-05-27 00:53:12
Latest chapter
Foundling 8 Secrets
Poe and the Magister were relaxing in the Magister’s room. A fire roared, and sparks flew from sizzling sap popping in the heat, the scent of pine and honeycomb pervading the room. A road table was between them on which rested two earthenware chalices, cup stained and aged by years of use, filled with mulled wine warmed by iron spikes resting in the flame. The Magister liked it so, the scent of pine and honeycomb. “He seems to be acclimating himself fairly well,” the Magister said into the gap of silence that did not want to be filled and for which the Magister found some bit of regret even as he spoke. But the conversation needed to be had, and things needed to be said. To distract himself, he reached forward to pull one of the spikes from the flame and quench it in his cup which hissed and steamed in protest. Poe pulled a draw on his pipe to swell the lungs and fire the chest and brain from the rush to the head and exhaled a vaporous plume tha
Foundling 7 Vital Essence
That took some getting used, but before long he was able to impel himself through the water and Kim had to step back a little more briskly.They both laughed and beamed at his accomplishment until Kim abruptly relinquished his hands. Hunter floundered, smacking and clawing at the water. As his head dipped below the surface, he went to plant his feet where normally would been lake bottom . . . and nothing. Panicking, gulping air and then water, he felt Kim’s hands close on his wrists like a vice. Pulling him headfirst, she yanked him from the water. “Relax,” she soothingly said. “You can still stand up.” She demonstrated by tapping her instep to the bottom of his foot which followed hers to the lake bottom.He had not noticed where the water had been waist high, it was now chest high.“It’s when you fight it that it takes you under,” she said when he calmed. “Don’t fight it. Use your own motion to ride the water’s surface.”She took to sliding him, curving him into spins, creating sha
Foundling 6 Swimming Lessons
Not having been presaged by any scent or sound, rounding a bend in the corridor Hunter was little prepared for the vista presented stepping from the cave’s antechamber onto a plateau which sloped away to a lake, steam rising from its surface, and a valley beyond dense with trees. A breeze rushed up the slope, bringing scents from the green valley, the rising steam. Meeting the towering cliff face, the wind swirled before continue its climb up and over.A pang of longing seized Hunter, a doubt which he quickly suppressed. Once unconstrained by any beast or manner, he was now bound by shackles real and hidden and, he was coming to realize, some he had no inkling of.The silence that had ensued upon their arrival was broken by the scampering of feet and whoops of excitement. A trail of clothes was left behind in the dash to be the first to the lake.Hunter did not run with them, measuring his stride beside reminiscences of absent Tete. To share this with his brother . . . would be a th
Foundling 5 Leslie and Marcus Discourse on the Utility of a Sword
"In the hands of a skilled individual, a blade does not have to kill," Marcus said. "Using a tool meant to kill, as one to disable, limits the purpose of its function and in so doing makes the wielder vulnerable," “Why do you always take up cause against me,” Marcus said.“No one else agrees with me?” Leslie asked, sweeping the others with her gaze, with a notable pause as she passed Kim’s eye. Kim looked at Hunter sympathetically as they stepped into the crowd. “Fun has been robbed from us.” “That’s unjust,” usually quiet Tick, enjoined. “This is no fun. Let merriment enjoin. Put aside this tiresome discoursing.” “Yes, put it aside. It’s tiresome,” Tick said. “This is something with which I can agree.”"The merit of a tool is in what it was designed for,” Leslie continued, not relinquishing the point. “A blade is a weapon of war: designed to kill.”“There is no dispute in that,” Marcus conceded.“Some
Foundling Simmering Regard
By their reckoning it had been over a fortnight since his arrival, and Hunter was still gripped with fascination for everything around him. There was so much he needed to learn, to understand. At times, he felt overwhelmed, anxious—emotions new to him.He sat in the hall with Giesel and the others finishing their meal. There were still the gazes that studied and those that turned away. It was not hard to know what many of them were thinking. It was in their regard, their manner. Others were less easy to know. They masked well their true feelings, and since he could not keene he could not know true. Even now he could feel eyes upon him: something new, something different. Hunter rose with Giesel and his other with which he shared a room. Kim and another girl were making their way toward them. "How are things?” She asked Hunter. He did not know how to respond because he did not know. “It takes some time to absorb.”
Foundling 3 Lessons
“Ki informs and permeates all. It is the Source from which all things arise and all thins return. Magi, manipulate ki with their own vital essence,” Master Lilly was a stern, gray-haired woman, a matron and mother to seven. She had outlived three of her children and two husbands. The third she was working on.“Through ki we are able to manipulate adamant and ephemera, substance and aether. There is also body, but here we do not concern ourselves in this class with disciplining unruly flesh. Here we will learn the employment of aether and substance—adamant and ephemera.“Can any tell what is meant when I speak of ephemera?”“That which is pliable, subject not to mass or shape, but volume and density,” said a small golden-haired girl in a soft, high-pitched voice.“Give me examples.”“Water and air.”“Do you know of anyone who can shape air, Michelle?”There was no response and Master Lilly’s lips stretched into a thin smile.“Can anyone else give me an answer?”Tick ventured a reply.
Foundling 4 Prisoner
Hunter sat on a cold stone bench in the corner of a cold stone room. Small, ill lit, barred by the locked, thick bolt in the heavy, banded oaken door with a Mage standing duty just beyond that. He was still chained but had better learned to manage the weight of the dangling shackles now attached to
Foundling Capture (2)
He smelled them before he came upon them. Clustered, marbled scents packed together. He could parse some scents from the herd but not all. Hunter used his remaining ki to give the mirage substance and texture as he had before and sent it forth like a bird on wing. Only this bird’s wings grew and sw
Foundling 26 Friends (3)
Not resisting, Hunter was moved deeper into the water father away from his friends and a little to the left of hers until the water was up to his chest. From one step to the nest his head went from the surface to falling beneath the warm dark of the lake where nothing could be seen. Water filled hi
Foundling 26 Friends (1)
“Hey, wake up.” He heard the words through the fog of sleep but did not want to wake up. Sleep was far more comfort than the lonely, isolated wakefulness he saw stretched before him. But he could not run or evade the truth, so, reluctantly, he rolled to his back and opened his eyes to a
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