Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part III. I hope you can forgive me for not providing a chapter last week. I am thankful that I don’t require planes for transportation. They’re so loud, slow and confining. Anyway—back to business now. Astaroth directed the driver of her car to take them to Market Street to placate her…
Author: EAB
EAB writes all manner of things.
Musical Interlude #1: Inspiration
Nadiel wanted me to send out a whole spray of apologies. As she is posing as a fifteen-year-old Nephil girl, she has discovered the many obligations accompanying that assignment during the third week of November. She promises to provide another chapter in the tale of Astaroth’s Wager next Tuesday, at sunrise local time, per usual,…
Astaroth’s Wager, Part III
Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part II. Allow me to clarify before I proceed: as I mentioned before, there are three different kinds of human hybrids. There are Epiklasmons, the feeble Nekudaimon-human hybrids; Anathemas, the children of Apokomistai and humans; and Nephilim, the children of angels and humans. Full humans have no innate means available to…
Astaroth’s Wager, Part II
Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part I. Svipul was used to being an adjudicator in Astaroth and Sitri’s wagers. She weighed in, “Astaroth—a task like the one you propose could take a lifetime. Give him at least forty-eight hours to accomplish it.” Sitri felt that he had nothing to lose and everything to gain with Astaroth’s…
Astaroth’s Wager, Part I
The reason humans are such easy prey for all demons is that humans have a wicked disadvantage: language. Language is indeed their greatest asset in every other respect. Through language, humans were able to synthesize and communicate ideas, and everything else that has defined them as the dominant species on this planet came after that….
Orders, Part VI and Conclusion
Back to Orders, Part V. Jiang Xuande didn’t have much time to prepare for the attack that Astaroth had in mind for him, but he did have fair warning that she was coming. She had made an unsuccessful attempt to recall Makeri to her service, and Makeri writhed from the excruciating efforts, issuing a profound…
Orders, Part V
Back to Orders, Part IV. The effort to summon Makeri almost bled Jiang Xuande to death. Makeri reported rather reluctantly to the magician and gave him an insouciant and bored greeting. Makeri hadn’t anticipated that Jiang Xuande had built a trap for him, and Jiang Xuande bound Makeri’s metaphysical essence to the peasant girl, making…
Orders, Part IV
Back to Orders, Part III. Ninalla’s energy had been diminished by the act of childbirth. Possessing the dead Zhou threatened to sap what little energy she had left, and she was painfully aware that she to find a new host at the soonest to replenish her own lifeforce inside a new body. The only body…
Orders, Part III
Back to Orders, Part II. As you’d expect, Jiang Xuande’s skill at magics improved significantly after he joined forces with Ninalla. In fact, his skill as an alchemist and an astronomer spread throughout the land, and so it was no surprise that Duke Xiao invited him to join his royal court in 361 BC. If…