Showing results by author "J.L. Mullins" in All Categories

Tala, a newly Refined Archon with extraordinary power, grapples with the challenges of immortality, including shedding her mortal mindset and looking toward eternity. In the waning city of Alefast, where potent threats are gathering faster than ever before, Tala begins to fill in the gaps in her knowledge and learn of the potential consequences of her immortality. As she confronts the harsh realities of her existence, she must forge her own path and find meaning in a life that stretches endlessly before her.

Tala had to fight tooth and nail in the Magic Academy to forge a path to power that was her own. She knows it’s her duty to use that power to serve humanity, defending them against the creatures of the untamable wilds. However, she skipped a few steps in her education, like apprenticing to someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Now, Tala has to balance learning as fast as she can with paying off the veritable mountain of debt the Magic Academy dropped on her shoulders for the opportunity; not to mention staying alive.

Through tribulation and hardship, Tala has managed to return to the human lands, her freedom hard won, her self intact. Her family and friends await her, but her time away has left its mark. She has to face new trials—face the new weight that she carries—and somehow find a way though things that she has never faced before. While that isn’t exactly new, she is now no longer alone. Supported once again by those who care for her, she is given the tools and help that she needs to deal with the continued threats on her life and her very soul.

The iron-clad reality of the world relentlessly comes for all. Arcanes, the enemies of humanity, thrive upon power harvested from broken human souls. The City Lords and Major Houses rule with unquestioned power. Tala has been seized, torn away from all that she has ever known. A false history and personality was implanted within her, and only her revolutionary defenses and self-restoration magic have given her a fighting chance at all.

Tala, having witnessed the marvels of the forest cities and the perils lurking in the southern woods, prepares to embark on a treacherous journey back to the plains from Makinaven. Guided by the unwavering support of Terry, Rane, and the enigmatic Mistress Odera, she is honing her skills and preparing for the trials that lie ahead. Ancient defenders of mankind emerge, while hidden perils lurk in the shadows, threatening to unravel everything she thinks she knows about the world.

Tala is finally able to test the edges of her ever growing capacities among a group of peers. Hungry for ascension, she pushes boundaries she once deemed unbreakable, and already Tala has set her sights on advancing further in her power and skills. Yet even as her abilities continue to grow, her first lessons from so long ago still ring true: Magic is expensive.

Tala has returned to her new home, her mission successful, and her money-pouch temporarily refilled. Gold is still an ever present concern, but more pressing hurdles lie before her. Her inscriptions have been renewed and completed, granting her newfound power that she must learn to control, and she has a long list of tasks to complete before she can join the ranks of the powerful Archons.

While Tala is still burdened with an overly large debt, she needs to balance repayment with learning opportunities and surviving the arcanous creatures increasingly focused on her. Additionally, she must explore her newly acquired magical items, investigate a potentially lethal source of consumable power, and get back home with the caravan, trusting her defensive magics to keep her whole. She has found that the world is bigger than she ever imagined, and what she had thought was the peak of power is only the beginning of her journey as a Mage.

Tala, a newly Bound Archon, strives against challenges, new and old, as the world opens up before her; even if her understanding is far from complete. Her responsibilities to her caravan have increased, with the newly added complication of being under the watchful eye of an overseer. Determined to embrace and decipher her newfound power, not to mention chipping away at the debt that propels her forward, she faces a treacherous path to a new city, which has already proven to be more dangerous than her journey to Alefast, and they've only just begun.