§ I’m not the original Mireia, My Lady.  My real name is Nan Ankenda Edihaz. My friends called me ‘Daz’. I was older than this, but the years are different here, so I’m not sure by how much. At my age, mothers already have children attending school, so… perhaps around thirty in Huadean years? I had no children though. The …

§ Vampire Command and Vampire Charm have ironic origins. The intentions of the higher Immortals (to the extent that anyone from the Mortal Realm or the Fundamental Realm can understand the intentions of higher Immortals) was the protection of mortal individuals from the dangers that Immortals in their midst could pose. The reasoning (again, see previous disclaimer) goes like this: …

§ Vaguely, I drifted in a universe of darkness, aware but unaware that something was off. I had been in a state like this once before, but I didn’t recognize it at the time, because I didn’t recognize anything at all. It began to hurt. Once I knew pain, I knew something was very wrong. But as I realized something …

§ Clouds of thick Darkness mana and miasma poured in on me from every direction, above, below and all around me, carried within a matrix of billowing Demonic mana. It appeared like a weird black foam, emerging from nowhere, confining me before I could escape. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I instantly poured the extra Earth I had …

§ From the air, I had a much better view of the tactical situation. Tobir the Reladorian archmage and Matthias the sage had set up a magic shield together to protect the carriage and horses, while the other four Reladorians had set up a similar defense for the second carriage. Just before I rose back into the air after dropping …

§ For Ged, Rod and myself, or rather my predecessor, the first Tiana, the central tenet of our education had been the security of the Kingdom. No matter what happened to any individual person, no matter how dear they were, the Kingdom and its people came first. Although I know it is probably not the case in all other kingdoms, …

This is an author’s note, not a chapter, so it isn’t locked. As always, it’s ‘Chapter CD’ as in Roman Numeral Four Hundred. The real Chapter 400 will post immediately after this item. Whether or not there is likely to be a ‘Chapter D’ (Five Hundred), is not clear to me yet, but I suspect not. Difficulties with life really …

§ Aunt Elianora’s unusually young look was due to an undercover assignment. Apparently, she regularly drops her forty-something facade, using her natural appearance as a disguise, as backwards as that sounds. She arrived as part of the emergency response to the devastation from the raid in the role of a Royal Army nurse. Physicians and nurses don’t have the same …

§ After introducing Dilorè to Mother’s kelpie at the mill pond where she lives and  learning from Carson how to operate the front gate for myself, I changed into my armor. Genette shook her head in silent disapproval the entire time I was arming myself. The two-piece swimsuit exists in this country, but my armor would be on the daring …

§ Dinner was hell. It was actually a tour-de-force of the estate chef’s finest, truly befitting a royal guest. The chef had shaved an aged ham made from golden bristle boar, the signature luxury meat of the local hill country of Western Atianus, in beautiful thin slices, serving them as an appetizer beside potatoes fried in duck fat, following that …