More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Shirtaloon
Read between
May 20 - May 23, 2025
“Who is he in there with?” “I have no idea, Mr Cotezee,” Jeff said. “No one came through this way, so they must have portalled in. His wife, maybe?” “Have you ever seen her?” Miles said. “The Adventure Society has been trying to identify her for years.” “No, I’ve just heard his friends talking about her, and he doesn’t like it when they do.”
“Ma’am, I once watched a bronze-rank Jason Asano fight a silver-ranker to a no-score draw. That was two ranks ago, minimum, and before he changed how the world works. If I were a vampire living on top of the land Asano gave his family, I’d be looking into the viability of colonising Mars.”
“If you need someone to build a statue of, Council Leader, then choose Gareth Xandier. He fought that god too, and it’ll look better anyway.” “We did.” “Oh.”
“You should make some tweaks,” Colin suggested, pointing up and down at the body. “You could change that part.” “You just pointed at the whole thing,” Jason said. “I know where I was pointing.”
Shade’s black skimmer was free of colour. Allowing Colin and Gordon to influence the vehicle would add defensive properties, but in Jason’s astral kingdom, the greatest threat was something they could not guard against: a cranky shadow familiar.
“I am not a ruler, Jason. Kings and emperors rule. Caliphs and prime ministers and greater district regional distribution managers. They rule; I am the very concept of ruling. I am not a hegemon but hegemony itself.”
“No,” Clive told Valdis firmly. “Jason is not going back into that thing until we figure out what he did to it.” Clive, somehow, now seemed to be in charge of mirage chamber operations. The staff weren’t precisely sure how that happened, but it had involved stabilising the power distribution and whatever had happened to its mana flow. It also involved scathing responses to any questions deemed insufficiently insightful.
“There is a curse on the world I come from: May you live in interesting times.”
“Whoever is up there,” she announced, “they’re battling the messengers. I don’t know if they’re fighting for us, but they’re fighting, and I won’t let them do it alone. All squads capable of air combat, go full assault. Right now.”
Hiram shook his head. “The why doesn’t matter to folks like us. What matters is children screaming as their parents drag them out of collapsing buildings. Pushing people onto wagons even as they’re taking off. Afraid that, at any second, some big watery tentacle will crash down and kill you all and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. You were just a kid, but you stood up. Put yourself between us and it. Bought us the time to get everyone out and safe. Now look at you, the big-time adventurer. You know, we never got to thank you properly for that.”
“I told you, it’s not about me. Right now, all those people are gathered at the Adventure Society’s VIP dock. And who are they waiting for? It’s not me. People haven’t been talking about me for years, and I was only famous amongst Adventure Society insiders. These people are gathering for Team Biscuit. Adventuring legends and hometown heroes. For you, Humphrey, that’s not a big deal. Everyone expected big things of you. But think about all those people, and who else they’re here to see.” He glanced at Sophie. “People know your story, Sophie. They’ve doubtless mythologised it well outside
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Were you the one who put up that containment dome?” he asked. “Not just me, but yes.” “How did you use magic on that scale when the magic level is so low?” “The containment dome fed off the magic it was containing.” “And you just happened to have a perfectly calibrated ritual designed to do that over such a large area, in these specific conditions, with that specific kind of energy?” “Of course not, but I was already familiar with the energy in question. The rest we figured out as we went.” “Are you saying you improvised a city-scale, off-rank ritual magic off the top of your head?” “Like I
...more
“Then you know me less well than you think. I don’t do what I do for power. That came as a consequence of fighting for the things you dismiss. The price of your power. To you, the lives of innocent people are a cost. To me, they are the entire point. I am not an astral king first, or an original. I’m an adventurer.” He moved closer Jamis, staring up at the much taller man. “And adventurers stand between innocent people and things like you.”
“Team Biscuit withdraws from the Burning Violet guild,” Humphrey told him. “Are you coming, Jason?”
“This is a bad idea, Zara. You should try and stop him from doing this.” “If people could stop Jason Asano from following through on bad ideas, the world would be a different place. I told him how messy this was going to be.” “What did he say?” “Something about a spider and responsibility and his uncle, I think? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Ken oversaw all this. Jason’s dad. After Jason ate all the vampires and rebuilt the city, he let his old man and some architects in the clan redesign the whole place. It’s a mix of eco-brutalism and solar punk, or so I’m told. I don’t know what either of those things are, but being able to fake concrete instead of using the real stuff is better for the environment, apparently. Not sure that matters in the middle of a vampire apocalypse, or why you’d want to fake concrete, but Ken seemed happy.”
“With respect, ma’am,” Higgins said, “protocol says they can’t be declared a non-threat until we’ve done at least basic checks. Make sure they aren’t shape-shifters. Inspect their vehicle. Determine the identity of all members of the group. Human and otherwise.” “You mean Gary?” Taika asked. “He’s cool, bro. Also, he won’t have any legal identity outside of the clan. And I can tell you now that I am a shape-shifter. I can turn into a humongous eagle, which is sweet, plus I’ve got this whole birdman situation going on. In an awesome battle-form way, not a jump-off-a-pier kind of way.” “Taika,
...more
“Did he just BLOT OUT THE GOD DAMN SUN?” “Uh, it looks that way, boss,” Barry said, equally wide-eyed. “How?” “By looking at it, from what I could see.”
“Weight of Sin,” Humphrey echoed. “Sometimes I forget how… evocative your powers can be.” “You can say melodramatic,” Jason told him. “I’ve had a lot of therapy; I know who I am.”
At some point, we must decide what to do with the two of you. This is your chance to influence that decision.” “We’ll be forthcoming,” Jota said. “I can spot opportunity when it steals my ship.”