Furious Scribe

22. Basil - Soiree Preparations

Chapter 22

Soiree Preparations

“I can’t believe he won,” I said to my reflection, “and with a Mythic up for ante. A Mythic.” The mirror I was looking into was gilded in gold – part of the Colosseum’s furnished rooms for competitors – and the cravat around my neck hung in two forgotten halves. ...

21. Hull - Fortune's Little Tricks

Chapter 21

Fortune’s Little Tricks

“Thank the Twins,” Basil huffed as we arrived at platform 4. “You haven’t missed it. Get up there.”

I wiped the sweat from my brow, tried to slow my breath, and went for the stairs. My courage failed and I turned back to the bo...

20. Basil - Time to Trade

Chapter 20

Time to Trade

Help this ill-mannered urchin? Ridiculous. Preposterous. I couldn’t believe he had the gall to ask after how callously he had treated me during our previous interaction.

“I don’t make the same mistake twice,” I told him coldly. I lacked experience when it came to being m...

19. Basil - Defensive Positions

Chapter 19

Defensive Positions

When I reached Esmi and Warrick, I gave my fiancee a nod of greeting, a full inch deeper than was necessary between us. “It is surely through the kindness of Fortune that I’m blessed to see you again so soon, Esmi. How did you fare in your recent match?” I didn’t know what I had ...

18. Hull - The Refiner's Fire

Chapter 18

The Refiner’s Fire

I followed the black-robed Tender, an unfamiliar feeling bubbling inside of me. It was part anxiety, part fear, and part suspicion… but it was mostly hope. He’d said something about elevating me, and I was pretty sure he meant upgrading my Hammer card. I’d heard people talking abo...

17. Hull - Tender

Chapter 17

Tender

I was on my third plate of food when someone sat down next to me. I tensed and put one arm down wide around my plate while the other hand kept shoveling the well-sauced chunks of pork and rice into my face. If some asshole tried to take my food they were going to get a fork in the forearm. Some small...

16. Basil - Winning Isn't Everything

Chapter 16

Winning Isn’t Everything

I almost cried out in physical pain to see one of my Headsman cards destroyed, barely registering the other two I lost as they vanished alongside the first, a Carrion Condor and my other Protection Spell.

“Three damage to Basil of Hintal. This leaves him with only twelve r...

15. Hull - The Losers' Bracket

Chapter 15

The Losers’ Bracket

Lily Whoever-She-Was waited for me on platform 9, perfectly poised and stern as a shopkeep. She wasn’t as richly dressed as that earnest weirdo Basil, but her people obviously had some money.  Her dress was a deep green wool that cinched up under the bodice, and a collared shirt...

14. Basil - The Trouble With Winning

PRE-CHAPTER NOTE: Chapters 11 and 12 have been slightly changed to reflect a minor retcon. The Dueling Dome now also allows duelists to focus in to see a card aura that can tell them how many cards their opponent has remaining in their Mind Home.

Chapter 14

The Trouble with Winning

Other duels around me...

13. Hull - In or Out

Chapter 13

In or Out

I hurried through the tunnel leading under the Coliseum stands, my eyes fixed on the light ahead like it would save me. My right hand kept reaching up to clutch my heart without me meaning to. It didn’t make sense; my spell lived in my Mind Home, not my heart, and covering my chest wouldn’t pr...

12. Basil - Dreams

Chapter 12

Dreams

As it often did, having my Condor in play let me breathe a touch easier. Not just because my Assassin dying would now serve a larger purpose but because the Condor had a wonderful healthpool for defense. I cared about that fact deeply at the moment, because I still couldn’t attack the filthy duelis...

11. Hull- No Such Thing as Fair

Chapter 11

No Such Thing as Fair

I frantically scanned the long page that the bored functionary had pressed into my hand and tried to ignore the odd flapping of the page he’d pinned to the back of my shirt. It had an oversized “27” painted on it, which I could only assume was my competition number. The list of r...

10. Basil - Today's the Day

Chapter 10

Today’s the Day

By the time I joined my family for an early breakfast I had slept perhaps an hour in total, a few snatches here and there when my eyes could no longer focus on the crabbed script of the Fire card textbook, and none of it by choice.

As usual, my parents and brothers were preoccupied w...

9. Hull - Rock and a Card Place

Chapter 9

Rock and a Card Place

My running feet took me back toward the Merchant District, where I could see a smear of greasy smoke rising over the rooftops. Not there. They’ll have the fire brigade and the city watch crawling all over. I darted left on Pasero, a narr...

8. Hull - Jokes Should Be Funny

Chapter 8

Jokes Should Be Funny

My feet started burning the second I crossed the threshold. I bit down on my tongue and threw myself forward. I knew right where the card was supposed to be. Every step forward felt like holes being burned straight up through to my foot bones, and it was getting harder and harder to hol...

7. Hull - A Bad Idea

Chapter 7

A Bad Idea

Life on the streets had not made me good at complex planning. My usual way of solving things was to hit them and take their money, but barging back into the tailor’s card shop would just get me beaten and thrown in jail. I’d heard bad stories about street boys going into the cells under the pa...

6. Basil - Cards by Candlelight

Chapter 6

Cards by Candlelight

After collecting my wayward Headsman – who had ended up in the pantry of all places – I spent the rest of the evening pondering the Water cards my family had and whether or not I should reconfigure my deck list. The grimoire was part of my mother’s dowry, but she rarely su...

5. Hull - Precious

Chapter 5

Precious

Skop kept a tight hand on my elbow all the way to Hook Street. His grip was hard and he wasn’t shy about using it. My fingers were tingling, but any time I tried to jerk away, he pinched even tighter and yanked me back like a rich man’s pet wyvern on a leash. He kept up a steady mutter of threat...

4. Basil - To Be Entertained

Chapter 4

To Be Entertained

True to form Randel decided to race me, and it was a boon from Fortune that he chose to; I wished to reach Esmi with all possible haste and I didn’t have a clue which drawing room or courtyard my other brother Gale had chosen to receive her in. It turned out to be the Blue Flower Room in ...

3. Basil - Fighting the Future

Chapter 3

Fighting the Future

“If you can’t beat me, you have no hope in the Rising Stars Tournament, Basil. It’s a fact, my boy, simple as sunshine.”

I had expected Tipfin to say as much in our final day of practice duels, but still, the words stung. If the old duelist had thought me capable, h...

2. Hull - Big Man

Chapter 2

Big Man

It wasn’t until I had already started sprinting toward them that I caught a good glimpse of their faces, and that was almost enough to stop me in my tracks. The fat fellow on the right was Skop, and the taller, stronger one was actually a massive freak of a woman named Harker. They were two of Tico...

1. Hull - An Empty Heart

Chapter 1

An Empty Heart

The old man was dying, and I wasn’t going to budge until he kicked it. Seeing folks crawl off to hack out their last was common enough here in the Lows, but I’d never spied one that had a pint-sized Earth troll to carry them like this fellow did. It was positioned squarely under one of his...

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