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The Apostate Saint: Chapter 18 – The Art of the Deal

Andrew Michael Miller1 Comment

"Easy now, you know I'm good for it. You wouldn't doubt a friend of the Son, now would you?" ART, after pulling his tunic sloppily over his sweaty, sticky upper half, reached down to the ground to pick up his belt that was discarded prior to this present acting out of his prurient interests. The whore lying next to him was far better looking than Art could afford in regular times, but this was no regular time, for Namer's sake. The fact that Art had the option to run away at all if things got out of hand was a great anomaly for Art's life. Up until the present circumstances, he had been living in alleyways, forced to beg or steal just to make it another day because of the debilitating handicap of missing both of his legs. But that was the old Art. This Art had gotten better.

The Apostate Saint: Chapter 17 – The Deadlock

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"Regardless of all of that, the fact remains that we now look like complete fools, utterly unprepared for disaster that could be just around the corner. We must do better to understand the dangers that lie in wait, or we have no one to blame, save ourselves, for the inevitable downfall of our institution." Senator Hector Salinator had gotten bolder ever since he first campaigned for the office of Senate Consul, the seat which he lost to Kaius Tegula who was now serving his second consecutive year in said role. Ever the opportunistic politician, he found the chaos of the Stranger's arrival to be the ideal opening to up his combative rhetoric against Kaius, who he undoubtedly considered his rival. VALORICUS CABALLARIUS, on the other hand, saw disunity in the Senate during great societal upheaval as a larger threat than the cult of personality. The Senate had a way of dealing with charismatic men; it did not have a protocol to follow to deal with a lame legislature and constant in-fighting in times of crisis - aside from the sparsely-used tool of electing a dictator.

The Apostate Saint: Chapter 16 – Into the Abyss

Andrew Michael Miller1 Comment

"Help!" shouted Alaric, seeing Fridok's body bounce off the walls of the crevasse that neither of the two had seen before starting their ill-fated race. The sound of the wet but solid impact of Fridok against the hard cave floor echoed upward and reverberated throughout Alaric's head like a sudden fortepiano bar in an otherwise soft, gleeful melody. He felt the absence of that sound even louder than the sound itself. To Alaric, there was little chance that Fridok was alive after a fall like that, but he hoped that perhaps the impacts against the sides were enough to mitigate the damage of his friend's descent. There was only one way to find out.

The Apostate Saint: Chapter 15 – A Dark Place

Andrew Michael Miller1 Comment

The world outside the City was far different than Fridok had imagined it would be. Rather than the demonic badlands he expected, he found the wilds to be something of considerable beauty. He had lived his whole life contained within the white walls, and none but the rich and the guards were permitted to view over the walls. Now he could see for himself what the ruling class had selfishly kept from him for all these years, and it made Fridok hate them even more than he already had up until this point. The fact that the Senate consul had pulled such a stunt right after the Son had spoken his benediction made Fridok all the more certain that change must come at any cost. To Fridok, the Son was destined to be the bringer of change that the City, and he, so desperately needed.

The Apostate Saint: Chapter 14 – The Leader of the People

Andrew Michael Miller2 Comments

"Last chance to give this madness up and go off to live a simple life as a singer in a tavern somewhere." Geilamir's nerves were apparent in his remarks to Alaric, a clear indicator that he was himself having second thoughts about the whole thing and projecting that upon him. All of this came about at such a maddening rate, it was only natural for them to experience cognitive whiplash. Just a week prior, Alaric's biggest problems were finding time to dedicate to his artistic interests and maintaining a rigorous training schedule while also studying the law so that he could one day succeed his father in the Senate.