Stellar

After some delay, the fourth chapter of Lucid Truth has arrived.

Thank you so much! Spirit of Fire was a labour of love and, frankly, something of a personal marvel of engineering when it comes to storytelling. Your reaction is what I am for, that confluence of amazement and appreciation! So, I am supremely glad you are enjoying it, and I hope the remaining story, and ending, does not disappoint. Also: the sub-genres are new! My book being tagged as 'dragon fantasy' is extremely recent, so you would certainly be forgiven for that!

With a life that is almost painfully normal and unremarkable, 16 year old Torsten has no reason to believe in anything out of the ordinary. Then, a series of cryptic events throws him beyond the boring familiarity that he knows, into the mystery and magic of reality unmasked.

Tested it on both desktop and mobile, and the lag seems to be gone. Fantastic.

No, I don't. Considering that this happens on my desktop and through my mobile also, which use different providers, I doubt that's the issue. Thanks for the update! I'm honestly not holding my breath, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if you can nail this one down, haha.

Iskandar's role will matter for the war happening on Earth's surface, but that's about all I can say about him. The Herald is very difficult to permanently destroy! There will need to be a solution to this problem that is more ... inescapable ... than Mira's highly prolific ability to cut enemies into tiny shreds.

To be clear, the Herald's augury was 'wrong' because it was unable to predict and account for the narrow and specific variables represented by quantum-focused participants like Kirak and Kelor, which was the point of Yugan's monologue to Shay in this chapter. Everything else it foresaw was essentially accurate, but that one factor was blinding and unpredictable, and the only thing able to be leveraged against it. Thankfully, this was successfully managed. As for the rest of what you've said, I have two thoughts on the matter. The first is that: yes, the Mishith have manipulated humanity in a broad sense, and the human protagonists specifically. However, any offence at such positioning belies a very amplified view of humanity's self-importance, and is particular to us because we are human. To them, we were (emphasis on 'were') one of a large multitude of primitive sentient species who had potential application in the celestial war taking place. Our collective feelings on being used in this way are less important than actually achieving a lasting victory -- would you care if a lab rat was aware enough to get angry that you were using it in an experiment that was intended to save the human race? I doubt it. Side note: the five personalities of Sulin, Dagen, Kirak, Kelor, and Mesot, are more empathetic and sympathetic than most Mishith would typically be, because of their direct personal involvement and having to literally live in human bodies. Their species are not saints, and have examples of ethical mistakes in their history -- one such mistake will even come up in the future plot -- but to regard their behaviour as more morally questionable than our own would be hypocritical in the extreme. We've done worse to apparently lesser forms of life and not batted an eyelid out of concern. The extent to which this matters is extremely relative and it's worth remembering that the alternative is the destruction of reality, so ... from that view, I wouldn't have too many problems being manipulated. Second: the protagonists are absolutely able to make choices, and it's because of those choices that events have gone the way they have. Rashid was the most accurate describing this in Veil of Shadow chapter 19 when he said: "Because he(Dagen) is trying to get a very specific outcome. If he told Shay too much or too little, we might do the wrong thing at the wrong time, and it could all fail. He(Dagen) is just leading us from place to place in the right sequence so we have the best possible chance of winning." The agency of the human characters and their individualistic ability is probably the most important racial aspect present, and the theme of making impactful decisions that have consequences is heavily embedded into the narratives of multiple points-of-view. The concepts of 'fate' and 'destiny' exist here as branching scientifically deduced possibilities emerging from an extremely detailed predictive analysis that understands everything as probability, but one must not forget that the architect -- Dagen -- is less an actual puppet master than just an usher. There remains a strong undercurrent that ... he is not completely sure if what he's doing will actually work. Nothing is preordained, and those in the plot saying so have their own reasons for making those claims. In any case, thanks for elaborating and explaining yourself.

Doesn't seem to be any notable change, I don't think?

Title says it all. This has been happening for quite a while now, and it never used to be an issue, but has become one for me. So far as I can tell, the issue seems to be in the 'Activity' tab, when the profile in question reaches the point where it has to load the preview of the most recent chapter posted. Chapter comments, status updates -- those are fine. The preview itself though, loads like fucking treacle -- and it's the entire chapter. Seriously, it seems like the page is parsing the entire chapter very very slowly (it's just text, so WHY is it taking so long to do this?!), then once it is finished loading, only the first THREE LINES are actually displayed in the preview. Seriously, the third chapter of Lucid Truth includes not even the first paragraph of about 6000 words in the preview, so honestly this is really weird to me. This never used to be the case. Not on my mobile, nor on my desktop, and I have upgraded my cellphone since this started to be an issue maybe a month or two ago, and the problem has nevertheless persisted. See this status update for more personalised bitching on the topic. Myr, your understanding and engagement is appreciated as always. I am actually surprised that nobody else has (apparently?) experienced this and reported it, so perhaps it is some very localised and specific problem, but it sure doesn't seem like it.

Hey Mike, thanks for commenting. I've seen your reactions and I'm glad you're enjoying Shay's tale and all that it encompasses. It's a joy to know my work is so enjoyed and anticipated. I hope I will not disappoint you.

Considering the 'Dagenith and "fate" aspect of the story' is inextricably linked to Shay's own journey in the previous book -- something I'm sure you do enjoy -- this statement makes very little sense to me. This is because those two disparate pieces of the plot are now irrevocably combined and aren't in any way happening independently; they are occurring concurrently and at the same location. Mira's adventure starts about a fifth of the way through the chapter, but everything before that contains both human and Mishith characters, because of course it does. Basically, if you consider an entire pillar of the plot (and the lore behind them, which is the reason everything in this trilogy is happening) to be disconnecting you and a weakness, then I would question why you're reading this type of sci-fi at all. I'm not sure what to tell you, except ... you're going to be disappointed seeing a lot of that same 'weakness' in what's to come, because they are baked into the core of this novel. Great that you enjoy Mira though, at least my effort on that wasn't for naught.

In the wake of Kerensky's jump to Mars, the consolidated defences of the Third and Fourth fleet were barely holding, even with the balance of power beginning to approach something closer to parity. Lugor's rapid response had formed the primary bulwark in the absence of the First's authority, and all of the assets formerly under Beaumont's command had been subsumed into his fleet. Although the situation had pulled back from near disaster, it still wasn't at a status quo of fixed positions an

Due to some reader confusion in the comments of the second chapter, I'm going to offer a little clarity. The uncertainty in question was centred on the specifics of how, in the early phases of Hidden Sunlight and Veil of Shadow, the five alien personalities ended up in their new host human bodies some 200 millennia after they originally died. I responded in those comments with an explanation, but it's probably worth repeating my explanation in this thread as additional extra canon. None of what I'm going to describe is spoiler at this point, but there will be information that fills gaps, that I haven't explicitly stated before. Some of this might end up being brought up in future Lucid Truth chapters, but none of it is truly critical, and it won't be story-breaking to know it. So, if you want to have that little bit extra, feel free to have a look in the spoiler tags below: To quote myself from my own response to those chapter comments:

Lucid Truth #3!

No worries about the names! There's a lot going on, so it's easy to get wires crossed. You're not the first to experience this uncertainty and confusion over the early days of how the five alien personalities ended up in their new host bodies some 200 millennia after they originally died. So, I'm going to set this straight -- for you, and the others that were wondering in the above comments -- @Goodie and @xleroc if you don't mind me tagging you. Also @rewski84 and @Philippe if you are at all interested. Ultimately, anybody else that reads the comments and sees this one is welcome to my abridged behind-the-scenes. None of what I'm going to describe is real spoiler at this point. It is just filling in the gaps, but there will be fresh information that I haven't explicitly stated anywhere else. This might end up being discussed in the text proper of a future Lucid Truth chapter, but as of right now you can consider it a little extra Word of God about what happened in the past. I'll put it in spoiler tags, so you don't have to read it if you don't want ... but here it is: So, that is canonically what happened. Some of this detail has been refined since I originally wrote Hidden Sunlight, but most of this matches what I originally imagined. There were always luminous ghosts hidden on Lucere, though I don't think the audience ever quite realised how much of that journey was arranged to happen just so. Consider yourselves enlightened.

You are too kind! I merely want to provide the accuracy and justification that might have been missed. I am not published anywhere other than GA, so you can all claim to have my full attention as an author! On the physical development of the pair: well, I haven't said anywhere they won't ever age again past their current physical status, but I suppose it's enough to say here that they are something of a pink elephant and their situation won't be repeated because any rules regarding aqumi immortality and humans is codified AFTER the scope of Lucid Truth's story. What I *CAN* say about them is they will be legendarily famous in the future, and one of the descriptors of their famous personalities centres around being 'unaging sixteen year olds' -- so you have some idea how much further they went. Just a little bit ... but not far. The curious thing about this is that both of them are completely comfortable in the bodies they have, and basically unbothered by being stuck that way. Shay's mind is his most crucial thing, and Mira is a purely physical creature in any sense. I wouldn't judge anyone for wanting to hero worship either of them as teenagers, nor also for wanting to choose a more overtly adult option. You can love Konstantin too, but you can love any of them At any rate, welcome back! Glad to have you reading.

Now there are two of them! Cue the Star Wars memes. Mira has his twin sister and the pair of them are free to wreck havoc. What's not to love? 😍 Thanks for reading!

Thank you, friend! If there's anything that stood out to you be sure to let me know. Appreciate the love!

Awww, I'm glad. If there's anything in particular you enjoyed, please let me know! Thanks for reading!

My answer to this is to point to the introductory sequence of the first chapter. Dagen tells Sulin where he (Shay) and his three companions (the ones who will manifest as Mira, Elia, and Nyx) will die, but later re-inhabit new skins as humans -- on Lucere. The marrying of essence into the body is achieved when a particular infusion of aqumi kickstarts the process; for Shay when he underwent the treatment. That awoke Sulin and bound the aqumi field to him. Their 'spirit' entities exist within the planetary field, so they can become (permanently) embodied literally anywhere that the physical conditions manifest on the planet. Shay himself did it to Mira -- and might I add, who isn't to say the main reason this sharpeling found him was because it IS Mira? That some part of him was like Kelor and tried to seek escape from the situation by finding Shay who could heal him? Dagen's reawakening was remotely bound to Sulin's, so when the older brother was triggered, so was he, within Yugan on Dagen's Grace -- hence Yugan's story in the second book. And Elia and Nyx were triggered by the big explosion in the sky that Shay caused -- hence their story in the second book too But yes, those four were waiting in the planetary field for the right human hosts to arrive. It wasn't coincidence, there was a bit of subtle manipulation involved. Shay and the others were all choices that had been engineered by Dagen to take advantage of events. If there is any confusion, you can consider what I've just said to be additional canon. So thinking of it as a series of fantastic coincidences is how it appears from the outside, but otherwise you might see it as a string of well-arranged temporal conditions. Well, perhaps. Who's to say?

Second chapter up.

What appeared above Dagen's Grace was not something I had personally witnessed before, but the moment I laid eyes on it, I knew exactly what it was. The Herald of Truth. Though the Apostles with it were too small to directly see, the size of the escorted monster was large enough that in orbit it would barely fit behind the palm of my outstretched hand. It's ... enormous. "What in the fuck is that?" Ayize's exclamation came from behind me, muted through a rebreather, a precaut

Thanks for commenting. The flashback provides a recap of the final part of the Tale of Sundering, outlining Dagen's knowledge of the upcoming last stand at Lucere, the splitting of their race to hide it, and his long-term plans to influence humanity in the distant future. Most of this information is alluded to in Veil of Shadow but here it's sharpened from vague legendary description to concrete detail. The information about the xenomorph fleet was left behind in orbit of Callisto, Jupiter's moon, in the middle of the second book. Definitely use the previous work as a reference if you must, because there will be times when specific things are represented that need the prior basis to make sense. Can't make it to the end of a trilogy in any other way, unfortunately. I'm glad you enjoyed. More will certainly be coming as soon as my beta readers are done with it.

The admiral knew what he was doing, and boy did it pay off! Thank you for commenting. It's my pleasure to give you more of it. I hope I don't sound like a parrot at this point with the "like/subscribe" spiel, but please do consider following if you'd like to be kept up to date! Again, I appreciate you reading!

Thanks for your support! Just want to echo that if you're enjoying the chapters, don't forget to like them, and to follow/subscribe to the story if you want to be informed of further updates Thanks again for reading.