Chapter 5 is alive!
Chapter Five: A Kriga’al Emperor.
OK, my friends, this is it: this is as far as this road goes, for now. The fifth chapter of AEFTE is now live on Literotica, and with this installment we’re caught up to the farthest point I’ve written. Chapter 6 is in progress (about 3800 words, so far), and I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll be releasing 6 through 9 as they’re finished, or wait until they’re all done and then put them up one after the other like I’ve done the first five. I’m inclined toward the second option, as I really want to bring you my best work. Holding the chapters until they’re done enables me to root out plot holes and conflicting information. Of course, if you sign up for my email list, you’ll be the first to know. either way, when new chapters are coming.
Now it’s time to catch up with Raothan after the blackout, and Niquel after her drama outside Ptyverias’s apartments. No spoilers here, but we will start to get a peek into our hero’s past, and spend a little time with another major character.
Check out an excerpt below, or skip right to Literotica and read Chapter Five now. And please do comment on Lit! I respond in the comments section about every five comments or so. Love to hear from you!
An Emperor for the Eclipse, Chapter 5, Excerpt:
They passed through a sunny courtyard with a square fountain at its center. A number of indolent-looking hangers-on were sitting around it on benches, doing what appeared to be nothing of use. Their heads turned as a group as he and Ellestia moved down one of the bordering colonnades, but not in his direction.
From the other side of the courtyard, the Blyd Kriga’al general came strolling toward them, thumbs hooked into her belt as though nothing important at all were happening today.
“Your Grace,” the general greeted him as she fell into step. “Seneschal.”
“General,” the older woman acknowledged her.
“Headed to the feast?”
“We are,” said the seneschal, never breaking her glide.
“Makes three of us,” Ayzhus said. “I’m happy to show His Grace to the hall. Assuming you have other things that need your attention.” It was less an offer and more of a command, and Raothan wondered just what the pecking order was in the palace between the seneschal and the councilors.
“Of course, General,” Ellestia said with her unflappable neutrality. “I have matters to see to in preparation for the Release Rite. The sooner they are taken care of, the better. Your Grace.” She swept a small bow to him as the only warning for her departure and disappeared down another hallway in a swirl of fabric.
“So,” said the general, taking up the seneschal’s glide with more of a swagger, “Your Grace.” Her tone had an intentional needling quality to it and, as much as Raothan was trying to take this impossible day in stride, it made him lose the top layer of his composure.
“Cut the shit, General,” he said. “I’m about as much anyone’s ‘grace’ as I was two weeks ago on my farm.”
“Shall I call Your Grace by some other name?” she asked, a knowing mischief coming into her voice. “Hast Kriga’al, perhaps?”
His feet stopped working. Ayzhus went on for a few more steps before turning back to him, grin in full bloom.
He closed his eyes for a moment and gave a weary shake of his head.
“Fuck me.”
Of course. She saw the tattoo. The brotherhood always knows its own.
“Oh ho! Haven’t heard that one in a while. You Elvigra have the greatest curses.”
“Yeah, well,” he started walking again, grumbling, “there’s more where that came from.”
