08/27/2025 Snippet, BRAVING THE MALSTORM.

I want to get this chapter polished up and done today and then I can work on other things for the rest of the month. The next chapter is where we get our final party member, too. That’s going to be fun.

…

There’s a trick to waking up suddenly because you realize that something’s wrong, and it’s one that all successful Adventurers have. The trick is to be the sort of person who can do that. If you can’t, you should probably find a different line of work. So when Zeke ghosted into the compartment I was already uncurling off the bed, and I could smell the others waking up, too.

We gathered around the table, speaking low but not whispering. Whispers travel. “Train’s slowing down,” observed Tabetha (I figured we were at that stage of familiarity now).

Zeke nodded. “They got a runner in from up the track with a warning,” he said. “The conductor woke me up and told me the kid was babbling about trouble in Brigham City. Magic trouble.”

Roger raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t realize the Danites put agents in the trains.” Which got Zeke blinking in his own surprise.

“What?” Zeke said. “No. Well, sure, we do sometimes, but Ted’s my cousin from my second maternal grandmother’s brother. So of course he’s going to wake me up to let me know.”

“Of course,” I agreed, and then Melissa chuckled for some reason. Elves have weird senses of humor, sometimes.

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