Chapter 289 Weekly Discussion - "Void-Shield"

I ended up doing some significant expansion/re-writing of this chapter, and the outcome is a lot more fun.

As always, discussion welcome. :slight_smile:

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What a wonderful end to my night!

I had dinner with good friends, wandered around the riverside with them and then came home, checked my emails and found this chapter.

I’m too tired to look for typos this evening, so I’ll skip my usual pedantry. I didn’t notice any on the first pass, for what it’s worth.

I have no intention of refunding anything. Your writing gives me far too much joy for that. I’m glad you continue to iterate on your schedule to figure out what works best for you.

As for the few, shallow, observations this tired mind can conjure up:

I’m glad she came to the obvious conclusion regarding kinetic energy. The testing was just as robust as I hoped it would be. I appreciate that Legion pointed out when she was being particularly stupid by pointing fireballs at herself. I think she’ll benefit from learning about a certain little equation that, well, equates energy and mass (yes, the old E =MC^2).

I also find it quite amusing that wherever she goes the servants always seem to take pity on her in the nicest way.

Thanks for the chapter Azalea! I will sleep well tonight!

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Inconsistency in the following? "She needed access to a well-stocked library, but she was still too afraid to visit the University, so she switched into Sebastien’s form and showed up unannounced at Dryden Manor instead.

The doorman recognized Sebastien immediately, and though none of the actual Westbay family members were home at the moment…"

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I also noted that she went to Dryden Manor to use the Westbay’s library.. easy fix..

Also a typo dime should be time,

Errata:

By testing increasingly powerful fireballs shot from array → the array or an array

This and accidentally broke the glass itself → This accidentally

attacked the man through his the faceplate of his armor → through the faceplate

When she was refreshed, she looked at the wasted time and made a trip to Liza’s. → I think wasted is unnecessary here.

She’d taken halfway through the front door when she froze, then tripped over the doorstep. → half a step, gone halfway?

Liza lowered her wand and looked Siobhan up and down? → Liza lowered her wand and looked Siobhan up and down. (Replace ? with .)

Siobhan left Liza’s house without mention of the sleep proxy spell being cast. You later mention that it has been, but it’s worth clarifying.

showed up unannounced at Dryden Manor instead → Westbay Manor, it would seem, from the next sentence.

though none of the actual Westbay family members were home at the moment → I’d personally say at that moment in order to emphasise the past tense over the present.

up to date at the dime of drawing it → time

What a difference it makes to read when awake! I noticed none of this last night as I greedily consumed the chapter :joy:

I love that Siobhan spends time practicing all kinds of magic alone. She’s really made for that mage tower life, locked away, researching spells and arcane concepts in order to more efficiently bend the world to her Will.

I hope she’s practicing light refinement in both her forms - her female form needs more exercise, from what we’ve seen.

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She makes an observation that she can’t sense through her shadow nearly as well while it’s configured as the void shield.. I wonder if she would be able to cast her shadow normally for sensory augmentation and then seperately using another of her wills cast a void shield when needed, a body can cast multiple shadows… depending on the number of distinct light sources, she currently has three wills so three shadows? If needed of course.

I love the “Bug” and the magical video recorder/ IPOD.

The miniature books are also very cool and I expect and hope she will be copying everything coming past her, But is it safe for her to copy the Myrdon journals without a lock on the mini books?.. or it there a lock/ encryption or some other obfuscation on them that you haven’t mentioned yet?

Excellent chapter… its been awhile since her powers have grown. Thank you

I wonder … it was mentioned something about the the spell/void devouring a Spark (of life?) that would not return ( be retained?).. I need to reread.. but anyway does that mean she can kill simply by “sucking” the life spark/energy out of her opponent?

Now that’s an offensive spell… maybe the payload for a shadow spear :wink:

Ahh here it is

“The void was emptiness, and once it devoured something with the spark of life, that spark would never escape again. However, the spell wasn’t actually just absorbing the energy or causing it to disappear like some small avatar of entropy. It was a conduit of sorts, and the power was going to Legion”…

Ok that’s got lot of potential… can she take things from others.. like power, abilities, thaums?

I may have misread or misunderstood it..

Could she absorb energy directly from a beast core just by touching it with her void shield tendrils, could she de-power spell arrays or enchantments the same way?

Lots of very Kool possibilities :ok_hand:

Thanks Azalea

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She could likely refine patterns of “inefficiency” to better allow certain wavelengths of light to be sensed. In a similar sense she could allow routes of ibflected kinetic drain to help redirect physical objects. She could likely even combine the principles to help her “hear” better through her shadow intaking and redirecting vibrations. Good for sensing in the dark and through ground and liquids like as not.

She could likely also redirect sapped heat to be used as energy in her own spell arrays using her other fork of Will. So she could be quite good at disrupting others spells and turning that same power against them. Made even better possibly by using that draw to increase inefficiency of others spell attempts helping also drain those with larger reserves and possibly inducing backlash, though there is some risk of potential aberrants.

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No public spell casting rooms for her! You ever wonder what it’s like to show up to class and S. is never seen casting but has all these cool tricks? Where does she learn it all? Did she just make it up just now?

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It is widely known that geniuses do not practice, brilliance merely oozes out of them, like slime from a snail.

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