Tomorrow is the release of Talyn: Unyielding! I’ll have another post going up then, but for now, that’s the major piece of information for you. Link follows.

Talyn: Unyielding on Amazon.com

I’ve been continuing to relax and vacation. I might start a project this coming week, but we’ll see what happens. Next week, plus into a bit of the following, I’ll be hosting a friend from out of state, so I don’t expect much to happen. I hope you’re looking forward to the book!

And, here’s a teaser, the Prologue and Chapter 1!

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Prologue

Edimar frowned as he walked down the street of Attan’s Hold, considering his morning.

There were few things that Edimar feared anymore. Armies of goblins? Most of them were less than level three hundred, which made them fodder. Dragons? Most of them took one look at him and went the other way. Oh, he wasn’t invincible by any means, but he was approaching the upper end of what the Mountains of Mist or Emberhome could throw at him. If he wanted to keep progressing, he’d have to move somewhere which could challenge him, and that would be… problematic. Especially after Emma had broken down crying.

“I don’t know what to do,” Edimar admitted at last, nodding to Yalten, who was setting out fresh bread. The Level 550 Mountain Human Divine Baker gave a wave in return, but despite the incredible smell, Edimar didn’t find himself tempted to buy anything. Not today.

“Neither do I,” Sifari said, letting out a soft sigh as she shook her head. His wife looked surprisingly pensive, considering her usual confidence. “If we want to level, we need to face stronger opponents. Yet if we move to where we can face anything that powerful, Emma’s progress will stagnate. She may be able to level more quickly due to her surroundings, but she will not be able to gain practical experience. I see only two options at present.”

“What would those be?” Edimar asked, stepping aside so that a thunderhoof-drawn skysled could pass, its bed so heavily laden with goods that it couldn’t hover more than four feet off the ground. Given the spatial enchantments on the sled, he had to wonder whose delivery it was, though the thought passed after a moment.

“One is unpalatable and has two variants. Either we stop improving, and move somewhere that she can learn properly, or we find the challenges we require and bring her with us regardless. I don’t like it, but it’s an option,” Sifari said precisely, her nose wrinkling. Edimar’s face twisted as though he’d bitten into something foul, as he didn’t like either option. Part of the reason he and Sifari got along so well was their shared ambition… but he also loved their daughter, and stomping on her potential was unthinkable.

“You’re right, I don’t like it. The other?” Edimar asked.

“We send her to a friend or relative in a lower-level region, and let them mentor her,” Sifari said simply.

Edimar had to force himself not to say anything as frustration swelled inside him. Losing the chance to mentor his own daughter? That was almost as bad as letting her stagnate or stopping his own progression. It was unthinkable. Still, he kept his anger under control.

“You aren’t wrong. I wish you were, but you aren’t,” Edimar said, taking a deep breath, then let it out again. “I’ll have to think about it. I don’t think any of my friends or family have mentorship skills. You?”

“Possibly, but not necessarily ones who could help her. Most of the skills of that sort I’m aware of are more specialized, and not appropriate for her chosen path,” Sifari admitted, letting out a sigh. “I’ll send some letters tonight and make inquiries.”

“Agreed. I’ll do the same,” Edimar said, pushing open the door of the Mercenary Guild for Sifari.

The interior of the guild hadn’t changed in the last few days, its cleaning enchantments doing wonders for its appearance. Soft carpeting deadened sounds, while the walls were made of red-hued stone that was strong enough to double as fortress walls. Unfortunately, they’d been required to do that a few times over the years.

Edimar mostly ignored the tables, nodding to a few of his acquaintances who were around, and headed over toward the guild desk. Taltan Sor was sitting behind it, a tall, burly Level 632 Adamant Lithicar who’d served at the guild for as long as Edimar been in Attan’s Hold.

“Hello, Taltan. We’re here to turn in some of the items we gathered over the last few days and see if there are any new requests for high-end items from the mountains,” Edimar said, reaching into his belt pouch to start pulling out the items that they’d gathered.

“Hello, Rage, Crimson Rain. Certainly, I can take care of that for you,” Taltan said politely, nodding to them as he finished his work, then set it aside to examine what they’d presented, “There are currently only two requests which meet your usual preferences. There is a request for five undamaged roc eggs, and another for ten claws from storm drakes that are at least level five hundred and fifty.”

It was all Edimar could do to resist scowling. The storm drakes wouldn’t be a problem, they weren’t much of a threat to either of them, but undamaged roc eggs? Refraining from damaging them would hamper him significantly, and he was tempted to decline then and there. He resisted the urge, though.

“The eggs would be hard, but I’m pretty sure that we can get the claws. How soon do they want them?” Edimar asked, rubbing his chin.

“As soon as possible. However, I should inform you that if you deliver the day after tomorrow, I will not be present to receive the delivery. My assistant, Lara, will be taking over my duties as Guild Secretary,” Taltan said, jotting down notes about the various bundles of herbs and chunks of ore that they’d delivered.

Edimar blinked in surprise, since he hadn’t expected that response.

“Are you moving to a higher-level region?” Sifari asked quickly, her back straightening. “I thought you weren’t interested in leaving Attan’s Hold.”

“You are partially correct. I’m not interested in moving to a higher-level region. However, an old acquaintance of mine reached out to me yesterday, informing me that things in my hometown have changed significantly,” Taltan said. Pausing, he considered them for a moment with his odd amethyst eyes before asking. “Have you heard of Castra?”

Edimar pondered, then snapped his fingers after a few moments of thought.

“Castra … that’s the city with the training dungeon, right?” Edimar said. He’d heard of it, of course, mostly because of its proximity to a few areas that he’d considered for leveling a hundred and fifty levels or so ago. The mention of it puzzled him, but he continued. “The one where people can level up to three-fifty or so, with each floor being appropriate for a ten-level range? It also has some demiplane sections for other environments, if I remember right.”

“That sounds right. It’s a fair distance to our east. I thought about going there when I was lower level, but the cap was too low for my preferences,” Sifari added, nodding slowly. She seemed more interested, and it only took Edimar a moment to realize why. That area could be ideal for Emma, assuming they could find a mentor for her that they trusted.

“That is correct. However, what you may not be aware of is that the dungeon in Castra has one hundred floors, and thus should be able to allow steady leveling all the way to level one thousand. The problem is that for centuries, no one has been able to get past the thirty-fifth floor. The gates were simply impossible to bypass,” Taltan said, smiling slightly. “As of yesterday, that has changed. A group opened the thirty-sixth floor, and according to the message I received, divinations indicate that the way is opened all the way to the seventieth floor, which is appropriate for those of level seven hundred. At my friend’s request, I am transferring to Castra to assist with the subsequent changes. They will need a higher-level secretary on-hand, and it will be good to go home.”

Edimar opened his mouth to reply, then stopped, his mind still processing what Taltan had said. He blinked, then looked at Sifari incredulously, disbelief at the gift the gods had dropped into their hands warring with his excitement.

“Are you certain?” Sifari demanded eagerly, not even looking at Edimar, her red eyes practically shining. “Is it really able to accommodate people of our level?”

Taltan just smiled and shrugged. “If you do not believe me, you can always wait for word to spread through official channels. I do know that you would have to work your way down to appropriately leveled floors, however, and the dungeon is not forgiving of those who attempt to break its rules.”

“I suppose we could wait,” Edimar murmured thoughtfully, reaching up and tapping his chin. “Still… it sounds like you may have solved one of our worries. Thank you, Taltan. We’ll have to look into this.”

The lithicar looked a little surprised for a moment, then smiled. “If I assisted you, then you are most welcome. Now, about these quests…”

Edimar set aside the new information and focused on the present. He could worry about moving to a different city later. He wanted more information first, but it’d be completely worth it if it meant that Emma didn’t cry again.

Chapter 1

“Gently… gently…” Eldrikrax muttered to herself, carefully lowering a paw toward the granite outcropping. She felt her paw touch the surface… then sank into it slightly, and she cursed. “Gods-cursed fragile trash!”

She snatched her paw away and glowered at the impression in the stone. It was at least an inch deep, and the worst part was that it was the best she’d managed so far, with each of her attempts sitting right in front of her, almost as if they were taunting her.

Eldri had thought that she was being careful the first time. She’d left an impression of her paw two feet deep in the stone before she’d realized what was happening, and the force had caused part of the stone to melt and compact into a glass-like surface at the bottom of the impression. It was pretty but worthless, as well as being a record of her failure to control her strength. The only reason Eldri didn’t annihilate it entirely was to use it to remind herself of how easily she could have killed Talyn. Not that doing so would be hard, but she didn’t want to kill the succubus. Loathe as Eldri was to admit it to others, she cared about Talyn.

Each of her dozen attempts had improved, the impressions shallower and shallower, but if Eldri tried again, she was liable to destroy the entire mountain peak. That would draw rather more attention than Eldri wanted. She didn’t have the best temper, and she was especially not used to failing. It was an affront to her pride, and she snorted, accidentally proving the point when a section of stone simply eroded under the blast of air. It was time to stop for the moment, before she did something she regretted.

“I need to inflict this misery on the others…” Eldri muttered, glowering at the outcropping again, then turned her attention to an unmarred cliff face nearby.

With a thought she manipulated her void magic, and a whisper-thin section of stone behind a large slab of granite evaporated. The stone parted around her claws like it was water, the stone cracking and popping as it separated, but another thought erased the sounds before they could spread. Then, with hardly any effort at all, she hefted the five-foot thick, thirty by thirty chunk of granite into the air and allowed the dungeon’s insistent tugging to yank her back to the ninety-ninth floor.

The instant she arrived, Eldri took a deep breath, drawing in the dense, comfortable magic that permeated the floor. The upper floors, and the surface, always were too thin for her comfort, but it didn’t actually hurt her. It was just uncomfortable. The next moment she had to hastily create a void field around the granite slab to prevent the magic from permeating it. It wouldn’t be useful for the stone to grow stronger when she intended to watch the others fumble about like she had.

“It’ll serve them right,” Eldri murmured, smiling to herself as she flexed her power and teleported to Danu’s domain.

She appeared in the middle of the artificial city Danu had built to find the Creation Guardian was in the middle of carving a creature that Eldri vaguely recognized from some of Talyn’s descriptions. It was multiple wheel-shaped rings within rings, with eyes all over. Danu looked over at Eldri, then at the rock slab, her brow furrowing.

“Eldrikrax. What… is that?” Danu asked, sounding moderately perplexed.

“It’s stone from one of the other areas of the dungeon, from close to the entrance. It’s one of the hardest stones there,” Eldri replied, offering it to the other guardian. She carefully kept her frustration to herself. “I believed that it could help us learn to control our strength.”

“Interesting. Let me see—” Danu’s words cut off as she touched a corner of the slab, and the corner simply vanished. A drop of molten stone hit the ground with a crack like thunder before her words could even reach Eldri’s ears.

She looked at the stone, then at the ground. Eldri barely resisted the urge to grin victoriously.

“This could be a problem,” Danu said calmly, dusting her hands off.

***

Old Sanders whistled to himself as he hiked along the ridgeline, keeping an eye out for anything which seemed promising. The nice thing about being an Inevitable Prospector was that the longer he was searching for a patch of ore, the more potent his senses grew, at least until he found a vein he was willing to mine. Then it’d reset, but that was fine with him. He didn’t do this for the money, he did it for the challenge and the experience.

Today, something was itching at his senses, something he couldn’t quite place. It was obnoxious, but over the years he’d learned not to push things. So he looked back and forth idly as he ambled along, his pick slung over his shoulder… then stopped as he caught sight of something odd lower on the mountainside. He saw a perfectly flat surface, which was almost unheard of in the Rocks. It was enough to rouse his curiosity, so he glanced around until he found a route down to the area. Adjusting his grip, he made his way down… then stopped, blinking in shock at what he found.

An enormous section of the cliffside had been torn away, with the back of the section a perfectly smooth surface, almost like the work of an earth mage. The section was about two paces deep, and ten across, with mostly jagged fracture lines around the edges. Mostly, because there were spots where what looked like enormous talons had driven through the rock to rip the stone out of the cliff face. The shimmer made it look like the stone had liquified when the claws had punched through it, too.

Even more daunting were the paw-prints driven into the stone. Not just the ones that were in a row, no. Old Sanders looked at the mountainside, picking out the places where a truly enormous creature had stood, its claws and paws pressing into the stone and giving a basic idea of just how big it was. He couldn’t imagine how a creature almost as long as the ridge was tall could have gone unnoticed, but that’s what appeared to have happened.

All of which meant that the row of a dozen paw prints driven into the stone, prints he could have comfortably laid lengthwise inside of twice over, struck Old Sanders as a warning, even if his Danger Sense wasn’t acting up.

“G’day, Elder, and thank you for the warning. I’ll be on my way,” the old dracoling said aloud, and turned to walk away, leaving the scene behind without a second thought. When he found a large deposit of gold along his new path, well… Old Sanders just smiled and decided that he’d have to make a larger donation to the gods than normal.