Stellar

Both 17 and 18 are up -- two halves of one whole! Enjoy.

I have no set plans beyond the immediate completion of Spirit of Fire. There is not even a guarantee that the next thing I write will be the final part of Aspects of Dawn either, because there is more than one possibility following the current book. So, if you are holding out to somehow be involved with the trilogy end, please do not consider it a sure bet at this point for my next work, because it isn't -- not right now. Beta work is a longer term commitment as far as I'm concerned. It's inconsistent timing-wise, but I'm kinda looking for someone who at least somewhat fits the description in the original post and will be available into the future. Obviously, you would get earlier access to my new chapters than most, though you'd need to be helping me in some meaningful way. If you think this might be something you can do, then please message me.

I appreciate your compliment on the quality of what I'm doing. It is nice to see that it is being enjoyed. However ... I will be honest about that second line: my work is both time consuming and difficult to create at best; I produce fiction that is complex and full of layers. I don't earn money from it and although I produce a mountain of notes and plan as much as I can, there isn't always the time, energy, or inspiration to get things quickly done. Still, I love my writing and I put a lot of myself into it, so to receive commentary about the time taken when I have put my mind through the wringer to give the audience a chapter of the quality required ... is disheartening, to put it mildly. To summarise: I try to be as fast as I can, but I'm often not. If this is an inconvenience, people are free to wait until the book is done in its entirety to read it without interruptions. Otherwise, I don't feel as if I should be apologising for any reasons other than my own self-imposed ones.

Thank you for your confidence, though the purpose of a beta for me is about providing perspective to what I'm writing as much as the technical aspects. What I mean when I say this is: I can be too invested in my own work to recognise things that are problematic and having someone to provide an intelligent counterweight to how I'm writing and what I'm saying, can be very helpful. I'm willing to consider anyone who might be a fit. Check out the forum posts I linked in the chapter footnote if you haven't already, and if you think you might be a good addition, send me a message.

Two? Well, it may be a little more complex than just two. There is a connection between everything you're reading -- of course there is! -- but the basics remain: what, how, and why? As for the dragon's name, you'll just have to read on in order to find out, as it will take a chapter or four until it's revealed. Re: wyverns versus dragons. I like both, and the biological design of a wyvern makes more sense in purely non-fantasy scientific terms; evolution phases out redundancies, so why have front legs AND wings, when the wings would naturally adapt over time to do both? There is an awful lot about dragons that is borderline or actually impossible -- everything from how their breath works, to their weight and ability to fly when considering ultra-massive creatures, and so forth. However, fantasy is fantasy, and evolutionary problems, along with certain scientific principles that cause issues, can be explained under the guise of 'it's magic!' -- and I am a purist in that my instinct is to make the physical design a lizard that has sprouted wings, not a bat. Additionally, the ability of having 'hands' for object manipulation and combat broadens possibilities. So, while I love the wyvern in all its fabled joy -- Smaug was the best part of The Hobbit film series -- I had to go with the traditionalist version of the dragon.

There will be some detail to follow, and more descriptions when warranted about physical progression, though this information is largely situational -- and the reason for this is quite spoilery, so I'll say no more. The voice? Well, that's a major plot point of its own that I really shouldn't touch.

What I was looking at was not meant to be there. Everything I knew told me it shouldn't, couldn't, and didn't exist. It was a thing that lived solely in the imaginations of dreamers; a mythic symbol decorating history, appearing on coats of arms, flitting across the pages of fiction and through the big and small screens of movie, television and video games. Now, here it was, born in front of me, alive and present. Real. A dragon hatchling. Stunned beyond further reaction,

Everyone in this world has a story. No two are exactly the same. Life is full of struggle and triumph, anger and joy, fear and love. Each experience, each circumstance, is the product of a million little things that are as unique as the individual living them. These were wise words from my grandfather to me, when I was a little boy. He used to tell me I would be famous one day. Successful and accomplished, the world would be at my feet. You've got the right mind and the right heart,

Some biology lore for my Spirit of Fire readers. I'd recommend not touching this until probably at least chapter 17, for safety's sake, though there is nothing super spoiler-y in here anyhow. In either case, you've been warned.

It took all the effort he had to rise enough to sit, his hand touching the perforated skin, trembling on the slickened surface. What magic he could summon flowed through his fingertips into the wound, the agitated energies of his draconic spirit fitfully attempting to draw the riven tissue and torn membranes together. He could feel it, not just as he was, but in the dormancy of his true form. The ruin of Kaia's blade was worse than anything a human could do to him, and the small innocuous le

Bumping this topic, because it has become relevant again. Unfortunately, one of my betas has been ignoring me for several months despite best efforts to get a response, so I'm seeking a replacement. The job description is the same as in the original post, with the exception that it will be for Spirit of Fire and future works instead of Veil of Shadow, since that's long been completed. EDIT: I wish to add that the above novel is nearing completion (and currently has a *very* long chapter needing beta work), so there won't be too much work for it before it's done. This is as much about helping with the next book I write as it is about the current one.

Why are you so convinced Mikom will die? Tbh, the humans are far squishier and easier to kill, not the Mishith. Glad you enjoyed it. When Spirit of Fire is completed, this is a possibility for what I do next, though it won't be the only possibility.

Hmm, are you expecting Ygzardîl to appear for round two? Interesting!

Something 'needs to be done'? I have no idea what you're implying, exactly, but consider that every recurring character aside from the protagonist has a reason for existing in the plot. You may find that wanting someone to 'vanish' simply because you don't like them, would in actuality be game-ending.

Hmm, 'bad choices'. I don't know that I'd describe Torsten's decision-making as being bad. He's in a tricky position with incomplete information being forced to act by supernatural creatures that could kill him as easily as look at him. Knowing the 'right' way to react to these things is hardly intuitive, specially with no way of knowing the longer term consequences. I do have to wonder -- at this point in the story -- why you think he's weak, when this very chapter he stood up to both Theo and then not longer after that, Araziah. Also, why exactly he'd want to make Araziah his boyfriend when he literally just killed Theo right in front of him.

Devastated is probably a good description to use for how Torsten feels -- and also Lucy, to a lesser extent. Araziah, though, is angry. Not through any fondness for Sebby, but because of what Sebby means to Torsten. There's a lot to be angry over and to direct his ire at, and for Araziah this is both a tactical disadvantage (the most capable allied player is removed from the battlefield) and a reason to rage (causing hurt to someone he cares about).

Part of the problem with a godawful amount of narrative slush is corralling it into a meaningful anything. This chapter was a headache, in authoring terms, because there wasn't a clean way to bring together several plot strands that didn't involve excessive dialogue and characters sitting around talking exposition at one another. As it was, the more character-focused romantic carryon involving Torsten in the first couple of scenes and the accompanying meeting was easy enough to produce, but felt so much like weightless drivel that consumed too many words and produced comparatively little that furthered the story. Contrast this to the latter stretch (flying to Overmountain and after) which was almost unreservedly 'things happening in a concrete sense' and delivered much more punch for its speed, and the timing of the entire thing comes across as quite wonky. Curious bit of information here: I was considering making this cliffhanger utterly horrible, and not including the final scene with Sebby. This would have left y'all believing he was actually dead -- a trope I am certainly no stranger to (Hidden Sunlight fans take note) -- and wondering why this author could be so abruptly cruel. Well, cruel, maybe, but everything is definitely not always how it seems.

Nero certainly seems to think she found it -- though nobody else is any the wiser at that particular point. Strange indeed! Ygzardîl has been hibernating in the Overmountain facility for some time and seems to have gone quite bananas long ago. Do you think that the possible proximity of the Fear and the Spirit of Fire's influence might have made any difference to the earth dragon's state of mind? Madness begets madness, or so they say. Poor Sebby is in some trouble, though I caution to add that his wound is much worse than what Araziah received the previous day. It wasn't a shallower cut or a glancing slice of tissue, and there is no quick alcoholic remedy and personal care on hand. He has been properly stabbed -- blade fully into the body to the hilt -- and is losing a lot of blood to the injury. In simple terms, he is bleeding out. If there isn't a solution coming in the immediate future, he will certainly die for real. So! Your postulations about who will end with whom might have to wait until the situation is more certain -- a love triangle exists until one point is removed. Until then, the triumvirate will continue, and the competition inherent also. Lastly ... Torsten does indeed hold all four pieces that Triskeleth inferred he must. At least something is going right for him and his companions. His sole advantage is that the Conclave still has no idea what his position is, and so he must combine the reagents before the point of her death, and complete his preparations -- but that's far away yet ... isn't it?

And now 16!

Blank. For the first few seconds, my mind was completely blank. Then reality set in. The couch beneath me, his shoulder against mine, his hand on my cheek, his hair brushing my neck, his lips sliding on mine. We're ... kissing. There was no more rational thought after that, just the tang of Kentucky caramel, the mesmerising slip of skin, and my anxiety evaporating away into the joy of our unexpected kiss. We separated a dozen seconds later, though hardly at all; his face

Hi David, thanks for commenting! Sasuga indeed! I try to fulfill expectations of a varied and fascinating world, though such efforts are not always fully appreciated. In this case, however, I am glad. Torsten's heart could go more than one way, it is true. As usual, I would play the devil's advocate and say that it could be one, it could be the other, or indeed, as you postulate, it could even be both -- in that instance I believe the correct relationship term is polyamory, though I have heard of many variations on the theme. With regard to this, poor Theo was a catalyst and a red herring for what would come after him, and how the situation and entanglement plays out between the three individuals will be a central pillar of the narrative moving forward. Indeed, I don't kill major characters for no purpose, and my love of Chekov's Gun can ensure that whatever minutiae you see happening will have a point to it. The book is entering the final quarter or so of the plot, so you picked it up at a point where it's mostly done. Rest assured, I am trying to get this thing produced in a reasonable time-frame! Hopefully the next chapter will be finished soon.

Thank you for reading! If you were to read my other work on GA (to be specific, the sci-fi Aspects of Dawn series), you would find a similar complexity of background lore. While the mythological context exists prior to me writing the prose -- that is to say: the world design is there before I begin the books -- a lot of little detail morphs and evolves during the course of the narrative's construction. The important plot milestones will still ultimately occur as I intend them, but many things get added or changed on the fly or redesigned during edits because I think (or feel) that something needs to be done differently. Many random things about the book so far -- most of them quite inconsequential, but some relatively major -- are deviations from what I'd originally envisaged, some in rather unexpected ways. Likely I will leave some trivia in the forum about this sort of thing after the book's conclusion is posted to give you some idea.

There's a lot of physical happening, no mistake. Terry's research was important! You can bet your ass the Grey Prince isn't done here, either! He's got a second reason to want revenge now.

To be fair, I think that same dragon also has the audacity to think that Torsten should top a dragon. Sebby wants it. It's unfortunate that you feel them to be 'incestuous'. I understand it has echoes of a family relationship, but more complex romantic situations can grow out of such things. Probably the most pertinent thing here is how Torsten himself feels about it.

His main drive is to kill anything that comes close. Cuteness is a matter of opinion and perspective.