Timewaster's Guide Archive

Summary:

Prologue:  Traxix is being tried for grievous crimes against the world and all of humanity (or what that equates to anyway).  Imprisoned in a cell of iron, chained to a bed of iron, Traxix lives in complete solitary until the trial.  His friend, Salem, is to represent him in the trial.  His wife, Chalot, is the primary witness against him and the person who imprisoned him.  He receives a visit from a woman claiming to be his daughter who tells him Salem is the person he should be wary of.  Before she can be questioned further, the woman is forced to flee.  During the trial, instead of testifying of all the crimes and injustices Traxix is sure he has committed, she instead preaches of how great a person he is and how the trial is a farce.  She is struck down almost instantly by a man from Calor.  Traxix, quite upset his wife was just killed, rushes to attack the Calorite.  He is stopped and killed by Salem.  Before he dies, Salem draws on his head with a piece of charcoal.

Karemoth:  Karemoth is a the greatest hunter of the Ziphoa tribe.  During the hunt, a child wonders close by and Karemoth loses a leg below the knee trying to rescue her.  The tribe gives him what equates to three days to prove he can still contribute to the well being of all (gather food in some way).  Unable to prove this, he is slated for death, as his body can be processed to food and the blood for drink.  Angry at such a callous treatment of him, after all the things he's done for the tribe, Karemoth kidnaps the witch girl (read white skinned person) and attempts to take her away to kill her as the tribal laws say they all should have done already.  Before he can kill her, however, the Tribe is attacked by a band of witches who kill man warriors and kidnap the High Chief as well as taking the girl, Anaiah, with them.  The tribe is very upset and, despite the problem of Karemoth attempting to run away, they can no kill him now, as they need him to help hunt the witches if he can.  Once found, the War Chief, amazingly enough, converses with them in Numarian (their language) indicating she has a great deal of experience with the witchborn people.  Negotiations fall apart, however, as there is little the tribe can offer for their chief.  The witches have devils fighting for them, controlled by a group of singing women.  Karemoth and his brother husband plan an attack to kill the choir of women and thus render the devils out of control.  In the confusion they try to rescue High Chief but she insists on getting all of their other numerous prisoners out.  This results in her death.  Despite Karemoth's bitterness at his wife's death, the rescued prisoners, also witches, offer to establish exclusive trade with the Ziphoa tribe.  Karemoth's ability to smith things from Bones is one of their particular reason for this.  Save now that he can bring in food in exchange for his smithing, Karemoth is safe, but still very angry at the witches.  Anaiah is returned to the tribe, as no one knows who her real parents are and she is, in turn, given to Karemoth to raise.  Karemoth, Teravan, and Hammond, the three husbands of the late High Chief, decide to use these new trade arrangements as a means of gathering powerful resources and training warriors in the forbidden magic of the witches.  Their plan is to use the devils, like the witches did, to conquer them and steal their resource rich lands back.  They are going to raise Anaiah up to do just that, as she is the only witchborn they can control to do it.

Interlude (Traxix):  Traxix wakes up in a strange place filled with foggy paths and translucent green fortresses.  Touching the bricks of the fortress causes him to relive other people's experiences.  Very suddenly, he finds out he's as alone as he thought he was.

Jin'Cathul:  Jin is the son of Pai'Asie Del'Nosa and her husband, Talvin.  A tall, lanky, Numarian boy with long white hair (that his parents refuse to cut short) trained as a research scientists (or as close as one gets in a B.C. aged world) as well possessing the strange ability to make purple electrical sparks dance on his fingers.  His best friend Chalinae, is upset because among the other freeborn males, he is the least male-like and sets him up for a challenge to prove he is a "man."  This challenge involves invading a neighboring Houses's garden and stealing a red flower.  Unable to figure out how to do that, Jin is greeted by a strange voice while doing work for his father.  The voice convinces Jin he can do it, and helps him plan how.  Jin leaves to do it too early in the planning stages, however, and does not have everything he needs to succeed.  Captured, Jin is slated for death with Chalinae because she put him up to the task.  His parents are able to have him released from the prison but he is forced to do a great deal of work for the people tried to steal from.  The voice in the Kulutinist Tower also implies that Talvin may not actually be Jin's real father.

Current Chapter:  Jin is shown his punishment and starts work on translating and helping his father with experiments involving a hole in the Shroud.  They are waiting for a nurse to come and check out Jin's injuries.

I hope it is an enjoyable chapter.

I didn't get anything in the email.  No link or whatever.

Hubay, thanks for reading.  You've given me a lot to think about.  But for your own personal information, most of what your wrote tells me I AM actually communicating what I want to about the world, that someone is getting it, and that I'm not as bad as I thought I was.

Now that Jin has been caught doing something incredibly stupid to impress a lady, We move onto the consequences of that problem . . . and more.

One of the fresher things to see in the piece was how the the people seemed like different people with their own ways of handling problems.  I liked that.  The prose are nice and it was a good read.

The stuff about the fox was cute.  I enjoyed it.   Despite having not read much between the first parts and now, I would say things seem far more real than they were back at the beginning.  I don't have much to say beyond that.  You were right, it was one of those "boring parts," but it was honestly the most interesting thing I've read in the story.

The Chapter in which Jin executes his plan and we have a small run in with someone familiar.

Got something for next week, at least.  Tried, but couldn't get it for this week.