Chapter Twenty-Four has been posted

Chapter 24 is up.

As I said two posts back, I’m no longer waiting for specific days or times — when enough money comes in, the chapter goes up, which is why I’m posting this before midnight.

I have $65 toward Chapter Twenty-Five. Another $935 will complete the novel. The first draft is entirely written.

And speaking of first drafts, you’ll notice there’s a note in this chapter about that; that obviously won’t be in the final draft.

I don’t think it comes up in this chapter, but there’s also a correction that’s been made to the manuscript but not the chapters I’d already posted — the Empire of Vond has eighteen provinces, not seventeen. I’d miscounted because I was working from a list of the countries Semma annexed, and it didn’t include Semma itself. D’oh.

Thanks!

14 thoughts on “Chapter Twenty-Four has been posted

  1. See? Now THAT is why I just didn’t see the book ending that soon. I knew there was still a crescendo building. The climax wasn’t all the traipsing about and avoiding assassins. It was the trip to Vond/Lumeth. It just HAD to be for the book to make sense and to end properly.

    I didn’t figure on this chapter progressing so far so fast, however. I thought there would be more discussions, possibly some arguments amongst the major players, etc. I keep underestimating the sway of the Wizard’s Guild, I suppose.

    I had begun to wonder why Lawrence was suddenly so willing to divulge so much detail regarding the nature of the World and the various magics, and now I think I understand.

    I only wish I had a grand to burn. I’d buy up the rest if I could afford it.

  2. So the Gods created the Guild, huh.

    Are there any God members of the guild? Or are the gods simply what’s on the top of the guild? It would fit with what we know…

  3. Gods and Demons, Chaos and Order, Wizards and Sorcerers. Wow. Awesome chapter. And all that in just one conversation. You’d think a wild chase through the city with an invisible assassin who craves honey would be enough for me, but I suppose I would rather learn more about Ethshar and it’s origins. Thanks, Lawrence.

    Any chance we’ll get some cameos from other books in this one? I don’t think we’ve had any yet, right? Not even any Spriggans for cryin’ out loud. They must’ve done a good job of getting rid of them after the last book. 😉

  4. You have the times wrong; this is shortly before spriggans reached Ethshar of the Spices.

    As for characters from other books, Ithinia and Ildirin were both in Night of Madness, and Lar was in The Unwilling Warlord, but those aren’t cameos.

    Teneria, from The Blood of A Dragon, made a brief appearance several chapters back.

    There’s a cameo or two coming up, someone who’s in The Spell of the Black Dagger and someone who’s had small roles in a couple of places. And a couple I prefer not to mention yet, come to think of it.

  5. I hope you don’t believe everything a wizard tells you.

    Also, the Gods weren’t supposed to understand wizardry, so they couldn’t have used it. Looks like wizards are adding their magic to the history of the world.

    a force the sorcerers call gaja

    Interesting, that pushes sorcery towards being tech-like magic instead of tech in a magical world.

    Unless gaja is their word for Joule or something (or the sorcerors are just messing with the wizards’ heads)

  6. And the Wizards’ Guild has been guarding them for as long as the Guild has existed

    A thought occurs to me, I wonder if the wizard’s guild was originally formed to protect the towers. Perhaps, one of the first few wizards was trying to destroy them.

    The guild’s purpose is stated to be to maintain the status quo and prevent any major world changing magic from being deployed and that is sorta an extension of the role of protecting the towers.

  7. This is shaping up nicely. It’s also nice to see the explication of your world’s cosmology, Lawrence. I like the “look over the edge of the world” thing. But did Vond see the land under him at the time he went over? I don’t think so.

  8. It could even be one of the key causes of the war. That the sorcerers of the northen empire wanted access to the towers, but the wizards of Old Ethshar didn’t want them to.

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