The stench of decomposition started as a faint whiff of cloying odor. It drifted from the warren of passages and tunnels. The farther we walked, the stronger it became.
Jovo waved his hand in front of his nose.
I nodded. It stank.
We kept moving. This part of the breach resembled the inside of a sponge: short roundish chambers connected by a myriad of shorter tunnels, endlessly intersecting. My senses told me we were getting closer and closer to the anchor. It had to be less than a mile away.
This area should have been filled with monsters. The closer to the anchor, the higher the density of creatures. That was a hard and fast rule that had been proven over and over again in the last ten years. This distribution was exactly why the miners stuck to the sites in close proximity to the gates.
The Sponge was deserted. And the stench kept getting thicker.
Nothing in this breach went the way it was supposed to. I wanted answers.
Another hundred yards.
The odor was almost unbearable now.
Our tunnel turned and opened. An enormous cavern unrolled in front of us, its ceiling three hundred feet high and studded with glowing crystals. A narrow river wound its way through the cavern’s floor.
Monster corpses littered the ground.
Huge, spiked, armored, grotesque, they sprawled along the banks. There had to be hundreds of them. The scale of the slaughter was horrifying. My mind refused to accept it.
This was too much for any being to kill alone. Had a bomb gone off here? But nothing except the monsters was damaged. The walls weren’t scorched, there was no crater, and flowers still bloomed along the banks.
Jovo clamped his hand over his nose and pulled on my sleeve. I glanced down at him. He pointed into the cavern.
I looked in the direction he indicated and flexed. A complex metal device sat in the center of the cavern, opened almost like a flower with concentric ridges forming petals.
Jovo let go of his nose and opened the fingers of both hands raising his arms. “Boom!”
Someone had deployed a literal weapon of mass destruction, but instead of destruction, it was just death. Mass death on an unprecedented scale.
I concentrated on the bodies. They didn’t look native to the breach. Too large, too many of them, and all were clearly nasty in a fight. The mechanism of the breaches was becoming a little clearer. Whoever built them took a section of an actual ecosystem, wedged it between our worlds, and then dumped a large number of predators into it. I had no idea how they transported them in or kept them from immediately killing each other, but it was clear that the monsters were plonked here and then expected to spread through the caves. There was probably enough wildlife for them to survive for the next couple of weeks, but by the time the gate burst, they would be ravenous.
It made no sense for whoever built the breach to stuff it with monsters and then nuke them. This felt like the work of a third party. There were the creators of the breach, us, and then there was the alien woman and the gress.
“Gress?” I asked Jovo.
He shrugged. He didn’t know.
It had to be the gress. If the alien woman entered the breach and the gress were pursuing her for some reason, clearing the monsters would make that pursuit much easier. The gress must’ve killed them shortly after the breach was created, if not right away, because the creatures didn’t even have a chance to spread.
But why did the woman enter? Was she escaping? Was she supposed to do something here?
I pointed at the cavern and made a walking motion with my fingers. “Dangerous?”
Jovo took an exaggerated sniff and shook his head.
The anchor lay on the other side of the cavern, through one of the passages puncturing the opposite wall. I took a breath, gagged, and started forward.
#
Jovo squeezed his marble. A gathering of lees appeared, most of them white furred and green eyed. “Sai. Phff!”
He had started this halfway into the monster slaughter, probably out of sheer self-preservation against the horror and the stench. Apparently, the lees existed in large family groups, and there were a lot of them. They greatly varied in fur color, markings, and eye color. A lot of the clans must have been wealthy, because the lees wore jewelry and elaborately decorated sashes, aprons, and kilts. There had to be some pattern to clothes, but I couldn’t decipher it. Perhaps it was regional.
The one thing Jovo made absolutely clear was that Clan Kiar was far superior to all others. We’d left the monster mass graveyard behind ten minutes ago, and he was still going.
I was still struggling with the odor. It seemed to stick to us, coating our clothes, skin, and hair. I should’ve gotten used to it by now, but it kept bothered me. My hearing and eyesight had gotten better. My olfactory sense probably got an upgrade as well, and right now it felt like a mixed blessing.
Bear sneezed next to me. She hadn’t even tried to investigate the bodies. All of that stench must have been hell on her sensitive nose.
Another squeeze of the marble. A new clan, this one with white, grey, and blue fur colors and turquoise and gold eyes.
“Nuan. Blah.”
“Blah?”
Jovo squeezed the marble, projecting an image of a plump blue pillow and made a squishing motion. “Nuan. Phah!”
Clearly, Clan Nuan was soft like a cushion.
I humored him. “Kiar not phah?”
Jovo pulled his knives out and spun through the tunnel in front of us, slashing left and right. “Kiar!”
Bear barked.
“He is exciting, isn’t he?”
Bear was the smartest girl ever, because any other dog would’ve chased him by now.
Jovo paused, posing on one foot.
I nodded solemnly, acknowledging the warrior badassery of Clan Kiar.
Jovo flipped backwards, slicing with his weapons, pirouetted to the end of the tunnel, and stopped, dropping into a crouch.
Uh oh.
Bear and I closed in. The tunnel opened into a large space, about a hundred and fifty feet wide and about seventy-five feet deep. Multiple openings gaped on the sides, probably leading back to the Sponge. Straight ahead a thick wall rose, with a rectangular doorway dead center.
Jovo hissed.
I flexed on the doorway. Beyond it lay a large room. I glimpsed an identical doorway at the other end. Between them a short pillar rose from the floor. It was rectangular and cut from a single block of black stone that seemed to swallow the light around it. White glyphs shone on its sides, carved into the cosmic blackness, and then painted over with an even glow. My eyes told me that the pillar was only three and a half feet tall, but in my mind it loomed, an enormous obelisk, a towering monolith brimming with malevolent power.
We had found the anchor.
The vision of the giant anchor filled my brain. The urge to dash across the open space and into that room gripped me. The anchor was an abomination. I had to crush it.
The pillar throbbed, sending pulses of concentrated power through me. I gritted my teeth.
Get out of my head.
Bear licked my hand.
The connection broke. I reeled, suddenly free. That destructive urge hadn’t come from the gem. No, that was something born of my humanity.
I petted Bear’s head and forced myself to focus. Something hung above the anchor. Something foreign that didn’t belong in that room.
I risked another flex and scanned the object. A knapsack, suspended by a familiar metal-plastic cord. I glanced at Jovo. He was laser-locked on it, his body rigid, compressed like a tightly coiled spring.
This was a trap. The Sponge was a labyrinth. Our hunter didn’t want to chase us through it. He wanted us in that room. That was where the last fight would be.
There might have been a way to go around the anchor chamber, but it would take a long time to find it and I didn’t want to look for it. I wanted answers. And I wanted this to be over. Every instinct I had assured me that the way to the gate lay through that room.
A faint whisper of a movement made me spin. A dark form appeared behind us, at the entrance of the tunnel. Darkness pulsed and the form fluttered away like a piece of fabric jerked out of sight, leaving a bone barrier dial hanging in its place. The gress had blocked our escape. It was trying to trap us in the tunnel.
I dashed forward, to the opening that led to the anchor room, pulling my stolen dial out of the pack. Jovo tried to rush past me, and I shoved him back, thrust the dial where the passageway met the wider chamber, and activated it. My barrier pulsed with darkness and settled at the mouth of the tunnel, blocking the exit to the anchor room.
Even if the gress showed up now, he wouldn’t be able to place another barrier on top of this one. The forcefield had a 26-foot limit, and it had to reach something solid to activate. Since I blocked the tunnel, the gress’ only option would be to set his barrier in the outer chamber, but that space was too wide.
Either the gress wanted to trap us in this small tunnel so he could wait until we ran out of water or food and died, or he wanted to panic us and force us to the anchor. Impulsively charging into the anchor chamber, with Jovo keyed up so high he was practically bouncing off the walls, would be suicide. We needed to be calm and calculating if we had any chance of winning. My barrier bought us temporary safety and time.
Jovo thrust himself in front of me, his face furious, and stabbed his finger at the anchor.
“I know,” I told him. “We will go.”
He pointed at the anchor again. I pointed at him and waved my arms frantically, then moved my hands down slowly, spreading them. “Calm down.”
Jovo trembled.
“It’s a trap.” I clamped my hands together, imitating a bear trap closing.
Jovo bounced up and down, slashing with his knives.
“Kiar Jovo!” I went straight to the mom voice. “Calm down.”
He blinked, stunned for a second, spun around, and started pacing from one side of the tunnel to the other. Score one for the universal parent voice.
I sat down on the stone floor. The anchor chamber was right in front of me with the dial hanging there in the empty air like some bone spider. The gress was nowhere to be seen. He was biding his time. Sooner or later, we would have to leave the tunnel.
If I ever hoped to see my children again, I had to be smart. I had to find out as much about the gress as I could.
“Jovo.”
The lees turned to me, his eyes hot.
“Gress.” I imitated him squeezing the marble.
Jovo pulled the marble out, put it in front of me, and squeezed it. The image of the gress pair spilled out. I focused on it and tried to relax.
I was never successful with meditation. As soon as I closed my eyes and let my mind off its leash, my thoughts ran in all directions, floating from one topic to another. I would start with something mundane like Noah needing a new pair of glasses, and move on to the car needing gas, then the oil change, then the calendar, then the upcoming meetings, and so it usually devolved into a mess that left me more stressed than when I started it.
This time had to be different. I sensed the power hidden deep inside me. So far it showed me flashes of visions, little fragments, and hints, but it contained so much more. I hadn’t even scratched the surface. It knew about the gress. I felt it when it showed me how to open the dial. I had to convince it to let me in. There had to be something there, some information about their weakness. Something that we could use.
Jovo lowered himself on the floor to the left of me. He leaned forward and placed his hands in front of him, like a cat sitting. The lees took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Bear padded over and lowered herself, curling around me, her big body bracing mine.
I closed my eyes and flexed. This time I wasn’t focused on anything. I wasn’t measuring distance or trying to determine the properties of an object. I simply entered the state of flexing. My talent splayed out of me like flames of a bonfire. I let it flail.
My time was almost never my own. I loved my children with all my heart, but they made constant demands on my time. They required attention, especially when they wanted to be ignored. Work generated cycles of mind-numbing reports, physical fitness tests, and short, intense bursts of pressure when entering the breaches. The carousel of household bills went round and round, from the expected utilities to the inconvenient emergencies of broken appliances and annual repairs. Everything had to be done. Everything had to be taken care of. My life was so busy, at times it felt like I dissolved into it. I was getting older and older, time was flying by, and I was powerless to stop it. Millions of moments and all of them taken.
But now my life was empty. There were no children in this breach, no tasks, no bills. There were no stalkers, dragons, or gress in this tunnel. There was only my dog, the alien creature I rescued, and me. My body. My senses. My thoughts. This moment was mine. I owned it.
Slowly, carefully, the invisible glow of my talent subsided, until it radiated from within me like soft heat from a low fire. My power stabilized and I let myself sink into it.
First?
Certified 🙂
nice! Mom voice for the win! Thanks for the full chapter.
Top 10?
So all Ada needed to do to get time to herself was get locked in an alien cave system full of monsters?
Jealous? 🤣
I’m I’m in the top 10?
hehehehe
Who does clan Nuan think they are??? Those softies, they had to rely on an alpha werewolf to protect their interests….
Amazing!
yay top 10
first? first time ever commenting here?
Yayy!
Yeah! Break time
First?
second?
YAY! thank you!
Not first, but maybe top 10?
Loving this story!
I am so stupid. I read that he was a lees, he is described as a lees, but I did not catch that he is, in fact, a lees.
Maybe Ada will exit through an Inn!
Not first! Now to read the installment…
I am proud to be so close to “Certified”. (A good feeling. Als,it as good as when I used to get the Fairy Stamp on my hand in Gr. 1.)
“Almost”. Jeezeloueeze
first?
Yesss, Happiness!
Thanks for the post.
I so relate to Ada. 100%. Any attempt to meditate disintegrates into the 1,000 items on the to do or interruptions from the kids.
Can’t wait until Friday for answers!
Same! Its oddly comforting that mom voice and mom brain spirals are experienced by others
Omg, house Andrews, how much more?!?
The last blog post they said 7 more installments, unless they put some sections together. So, now 6 (or maybe less), plus the finale in the purchased version. July 28th..
Now comments:
The Dance of Destruction will start soon. Looks like Ada got there first.
I presume Elias and his party will get into the cave through one of the tunnels or whatever without a dial. Maybe get there while Ada and Jovo and Bear are fighting. Will he and his people need to move in and help? Or will AJB take care of everything themselves?
Friday is soooo far away.
Oh wow. He clearly mentioned clans Nuan and Sai. He’s from Dina’s earth?
Thank you for another great installment!
Jovo is an alien in the IC world 😉
I’m getting a weird feeling that this is tying into innkeeper. We have a guy in innkeeper that clearly wants to expose/ kill/eliminate adhals, inns, and innkeepers. He’s clearly able to transport large areas of other planets ie Earth to other nasty dimensions, what not the nasties here? We’ve got a Lees (multiple clans) connection, other scary monster connections, and people who are able to gain “magical powers” in these areas – see Dina’s mom when she moved into an Inn. Swords/speed seem to be main ways of killing – do I sense the vampires coming through the new doorway in Gurturde Hunt? We already know a disaster is coming, Dina’s brother hinted it. Is this a prequal/post Inn book?
Food for thought. And it clearly isn’t Oreos
don’t follow 100% but ok… did Dina’s parents and their Inn disapear into a breach?
the options…
We also have the enemies of the one who gave Ada the gem. They seem like they could be a lot like the corrupted innkeepers to me.
Here’s a theory for you. The force that’s trying to destroy the Inns wants to get rid of the treaty. So they created the breaches in order to yank Earth into the greater galaxy. The Innkeeper council, the Arbitrators, and the various alien races that want to keep their neutral intergalactic Atlanta Airport and affiliated hotels are searching for the breach makers. And somehow an Inn will get involved.
This was so good!! What a way to start my week back to work!!
Thanks.
Yep, mom voice works on any normal children & childless young adults. Well, mostly…
If the situation justifies it, probably.
Looking forward to whatever is revealed to her. Also what is that blue orb now? A separate something / unlockable memories plus evolving abilities?
Thank you for the parts! It will be interesting to see what her meditation results in.
Meditation? What is this meditation you talk of – is it similar to challant?
These snippets are such a nice start to the week 🙂 thanks
Jovo had best check his next cup of tea very carefully after that dis to clan Nuan. Phah? *snort* (Tips vial into teapot)
If Nuan is soft, what does that make his clan? Cause we know that Nuan isn’t exactly fluffy puppies in the greater scheme of things.
I read it as Jovo’s disdain for Clan Nuan’s methods. They’re not up-front warriors. They don’t fight physically. He either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that they are formidably skilled with poisons- and he may not yet have an appreciation for how much a savvy business move can ruin someone else’s day. Jovo strikes me as young/adolescent. I don’t think he does much strategic thinking- his elders/clan leaders may well have more respect for Nuan (and Sai- another trade clan).
Thank you so much for this! Really loving the story and the worlds it’s creating! 🤗
+1
The reason I can continue to read and wait is that we were assured that Bear does not die. Otherwise, this is a bit too intense for me to read and have to wait days until a new chapter.
I can hardly wait until the book comes out so I can read without waiting.
Bear does not die 🙂. The InBearatance would never betray us!
Nuan. Phah! Kiar. Warrior! 😂😂. A little rivalry between clans. Thank you, made me smile.
The power of the Mom voice is a force across all species lol
oooooh Friday will be a spectrum upload of knowledge 💖
Nuan a cushy? lol
Looking forward to the incoming fight scenes.
I want it to be Friday now!!!
Will there be “ripper-cushions” for the dismissal of Nuan’s deadly poisoning skills? 🤔 🤨 😤😡 😁
🤣💕
I immediately thought of poison. 🍯☠️☣️😂
Clan Nuan counts on being underestimated….
Loved it! Thank you!!!
Will buy the book today if it becomes available. Please oh please
I’m so enjoying this story! Thank you for a great start to the week!
So the breaches are manufactured. Interesting. Does this mean monsters only spew out into Earth? Or are other worlds similarly infected? If it’s just Earth then the attack is personal and possibly home grown. Unless of course it’s a bona fide invasion. The old “we like your planet and we want to keep it thank you very much” motive. Are the gress responsible or hired muscle, planetary assassins? Did the original bearer of the jewel start off as human and has she been fighting all the breaches from the inside? Hunting the gress? Is that Ada’s inheritance?
So many questions and three weeks to go before we get any answers
Easter egg of 2001 Space Odyssey with the alien monolith pillar vision?
Love it! Thank you for this gift
Mom voice for the win!
Such a great start to Monday . . . which I know have to return to and do actual things. Pffft.
Haha, I wondered what was up with the blue pillow before I started reading. Like what, are they doing Restoration Hardware ads on their site? Turns out, that’s not a pillow, that’s Nuan Cee! :-):-)
This installment feels so satisfying!
Lees shade, heh!
Interesting! If all the monsters are dead, there is no need to destroy the anchor…
It took being in a blocked tunnel, away from all distractions to get to her zen place…all it took for me was to open the blog post and start reading.
Thank you, team Andrews, for yet another journey into your worlds.
Thanks for the update ^^
I haven’t read yet, the fluffy pillow icon fills me with dread. I will be back after reading to comment on if the dread was justified.
Ha! Ha ha! Oh the Nuan clan. No need for dread.
How is a soft pillow dreadful? Is there a fluffyphobia I need to know of for the trigger warnings? 🫣
Beware the dreaded pillow fight! 😂
Blue pillow trigger warning!
Hmmm The Rippercushions pillow is blue…..
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Beware the pillow (feather or polyester)!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤪
I love this story! I can’t wait for the full novel to come out. I’m also curiously awaiting how much it will tie in to the Innkeeper universe. “Clan Nuan. Blah!” Nuan Cee would be offended 😂
This was great, than you, House Andrews!
On the one hand I can’t wait for Cold Chaos to show up, but then I actually want Ada to not need them except to guide her home. She deserves to defeat the enemy on her own (with a little backup from Bear and Jovo, of course) after all she’s been through.
I like to call my Mom voice, the “voice of command”. Sometimes accompanied by the “evil eye”. I loved this chapter!
Yes, The Mom Voice is often replaced by The Mom Look in my house too! Both my daughter and my hubby know I mean business when I use both! 😂
Thank you!
thank you!
You have no idea how much I needed this today. I was crying my eyes out and really desperate. You saved the day 💞
May I ask? What time zone are you posting in? I log on at 8 EST but never see it logged.
It’s not the exact same time every day 🙂. Generally, between 9 and 11 am Central Time.
It is 10:00 our time…they are in Texas.
If we are, as we seem to be, operating in the Innkeeper Universe, then whoever created the breaches is clearly in violation of the Intergalactic Treaty that designated Earth as neutral territory. Will an Arbitrator show up next?
Or an ad hal?
Amazing….I am trying very hard to be p*tient, but it’s soooooo hard!!!! 😂This serial is just so exciting (and in the beginning I wasn’t even sure I would like it. Silly me…it is a IA story after all, I should have known I’d love it!)
On a side note, have the gress never met a mom who is trying to get back to and protect her kids? Silly, silly gress….they don’t stand a chance! Go Ada!!!!!
I laughed at Jovo’s different clan reactions. Clan Nuan a blue cushion? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Well, they did have to get a bodyguard to help them on Nexus.
Onward to Friday!
Yes thanks
If this is Dina’s Earth, are the breaches a way around the treaty?
I once used my mom voice at work when everyone was talking loudly while I was on a call. I, of course, apologized after my call to a lot of laughter. But they never did it again!!
Thanks HA—totally invested here.
I wasn’t prepared for the end. Where is part 2? I need a sign post as I go by.
(Thank you for the lovely long chapter).
Thank you!
Wonderful, thank you!
Clan Nuan… LOL
Love the tie into the Inn Keeper world.
Oooh, Ada is learning to control her power… I love to see it!
Also, Nuan phah! love it.
Nuan, soft like cushion! *chef’s kiss*
Thanks for the story.
That “cushion” is a pincushion. And all the pointy bits are poisoned!
Okay, I’m trying to see if the picture in my head is the picture Ilona drew. Sometimes a single sentence will totally change that picture or reorient my POV to across the scene from where I was at. I went back and had to STUDY what was written, trying to bring the picture into focus. What was confusing me was what direction they were approaching the anchor from. Up until today, I thought they were approaching it from the same direction as the assault team, but on a different route. What today’s installment did was spin things around 180 degrees. Ada saw the assault team so I saw her and Jovo apparently approaching the anchor from the same direction. What happened today seems to indicate that either the assault team’s path or Ada’s has put them approaching the anchor from two different directions. Okay, got it. The anchor room is a trap. Not sure if it’s a trap specifically for Ada, or the anchor assault team, or both. The gress has trapped Ada and Jovo from backtracking with his force field barrier, to force them to enter the trap. Presumably he is on his way around the anchor room to pin them in and prevent Ada from heading back to the breach. Okay, got it. The picture is in focus, I’m looking at it right side up (finally) and unfortunately, everything else is out of frame. The next picture will be Friday. I propose that this episode be considered a cliffhanger. I have a sneaky suspicion that my long awaited wish for an Elias POV will be answered this Friday. Be careful what you wish for. What? Wait, no, not now! Too late. Elias is next. Not only is it about time for a look at what he’s doing, but that’s how Ilona rolls. torture time for the BDH while we wait with baited breath to see if Ada will fall from the cliff, or save herself from a fatal fall. The suspense is killing me.
I’m still sitting in the daycare parking lot. This is my stolen moment of morning meditation.
I have so many questions about the *gestures wildly* everything! Thank you for another fun installment.
Love this installment!
So Glad I was wrong (referring to my comment made under the last chapter, today 7/7/25)! I didn’t see this upload at the time and so thought there was no upload, and I continue to feel a great concern about the flood and the authors. I continue to note nothing personal has been uploaded about the flood. I Hope all their family and friends are ok. I can’t imagine such disasters. If I missed any upload of a personal nature, let me know please.
OK. After more thinking:
Could the cloaks on the Gress and the cloaks on the corrupted Ad-hals be the same? Some kind of parasitic phage but an evil, thinking one? So once it grabs a hold, it does corrupt you and uses you powers to advance its agenda: taking over new worlds? So it invented the Anchors, using its various corrupted entities, and it keeps spreading?
Through the Sebastian North guy, it pulled Dinah’s parents’Inn into that weird world that Dina and Sean needed the Barsa Barsas to get too. Then it attempted to corrupt the Inn and it was winning 7ntil Dina saved it.
Ooooo. Team Facts Be Damned wins again!
Arghgh. I know grammar and spelling. Sometimes I type too fast and the dumb AI or predictive txt Monster changes my words and when I re-read it, it seems like I never went to school. Drives me 🥜 🥜
I know, right? It’s one thing when my fat finger hits b, n, or m instead of the space bar, but that autocorrect fixing my mistake is even more maddening. What was wrong with spell check? Underline a word it thinks you stupidly misspelled, and let YOU decide that you are, or are not, an idiot. I DO like predictive AI, I like to keep it in the corner of my eye, and use it to save me from typing out the whole word I’ve started. Or use it to keep spelling errors from being committed.
I don’t think that the corrupted Ad Hals are intent upon taking over new worlds. I think that their intent is on destroying the Inns and the the system the Inns are designed to protect.
thank you 😊
I know, I know, exciting full chapter…at this point in the story I REALLY NEED MORE!! Sob, I will w**t chalantly with hard earned … p*tience. (double sob). ps: thank you so much, really loving the story.
Thank you!
Oh, this just gets better and better! Looking forward to when we have the whole thing.
Sooo… Jovo isn’tinto poisoning, he likes slashing and cutting better? I believe Clan Sai was mentioned in Sweep of the Heart as rivals of Clan Nuan. I wasn’t so sure, that the breaches were manufactured, I thought it was some kind of spontaneous manifestation. The spider herders seemed to be native to their cave. So maybe… only the gate is manufactured, not the whole breach? This mass killing site was… dreadful. Even with monsters, it’s sad…
Thank you for this great chapter!
This is what House Andrews put in to explain it- “The mechanism of the breaches was becoming a little clearer. Whoever built them took a section of an actual ecosystem, wedged it between our worlds, and then dumped a large number of predators into it. I had no idea how they transported them in or kept them from immediately killing each other, but it was clear that the monsters were plonked here and then expected to spread through the caves. There was probably enough wildlife for them to survive for the next couple of weeks, but by the time the gate burst, they would be ravenous.” So some unknown group, maybe the grey cloak wearing evil folks (some speculate in comments above that they are corrupted Innkeepers or evil cloaks make them the same as corrupted Innkeepers) are linking the worlds via these reality chunks and then essentially setting starving monsters loose on Earth to… weaken it? or distract from attacks on Inns (if same world as Innkeeper/same reality)? Who knows…all will be revealed by the end of July (hopefully!) 🙂
Yeah, that is what Ada thought. I’m just wondering, if she is right 🙂 The spider herders – in my opinion, but I may be wrong – don’t fit into this.
Getting better and better!! Thank you!
Klan Nuan , jakże znajomo 🙂 Z okazji krótkiego urlopu odświeżę sobie cała historię Diny i jednocześnie powiązań klanowych Lees 🙂 To zdanie typowej matki — Mój czas nie należał do mnie — jakie prawdziwe …Dziękuję szaleńczo za kolejny fragment 🙂
I am loving this.
Nuan soft. Phah. The temerity. I am so telling on him.
And then there will be ripper cushions — soft, plump blue ripper cushions…
Cookie would not be happy with this analysis! Love this, thanks!
Oh – Clan Nuan. Blah.
I feel like my whole leese knowledge was just assaulted 😂😂😂😂
Mind over matter dear Jovo 🤷♀️
OMG OMG OMG! Amazing! TYVM!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for another detailed engrossing emotional chapter! Universal Mom Voice for The Win! So wonderful that Ada realizes that all the answers are already within her and that calming clearing and turning inward will reveal all that she is seeking…. Go Ada!
Sending peace, health and safety to all!
Great! Love it!
Thank you!
So. Good.
Great episode!
This weekend I traveled for a family friend’s funeral. As I was getting ready to leave for the trip home this episode was posted. I tried to read it while getting ready to get on the road but kept getting interrupted and couldn’t finish before leaving. It is now about 4 hours later and I am at my first rest stop. 😂 First thing I did was pull the blog up so I could finish reading this installment.
House Andrews for the driving win. I just finished a relisten of Diamond Fire and have moved onto Sapphire Flames. Roughly 5 more driving hours to go.
Looking forward to being home for Friday’s installment.
While I was waiting for this installment, a thought had occurred to me. One of Elias’ tasks is to recover all of the bodies from the mining team and (presumably) the assault team. That’s a lot of bodies. That’s 28 people. Anyone that’s tried to pick up another person knows that lifting another person is HARD. And we’re talking about 28 dead bodies. They don’t call it dead weight for nothing. Sure, it’s probably bodies AND/OR body parts , but they still need to be collected, put in the appropriately labeled “body bags” and transported back to the breach. The miners use carts to move their tools and support equipment into the breach, so that is probably how they’re planning to move the bodies. But as we’ve seen, in Ada’s case anyway, is that the terrain, the farther you go into the breach, is not so transport friendly. It doesn’t say if the carts are self propelled, or need to be pulled, or guided by a team member, so there’s another potential complications as well.
“Bear was the smartest girl ever, because any other dog would’ve chased him by now.”
Made me Smile!
I didn’t want to go back to look for it (I’m waiting for right before the last installment to re-read from start to finish) but am I remembering correctly that the locations that exist within the breach are not necessarily all caves or environments that are as limited as caves? Somewhere in the initial chapters, Ada? Elias? Ilona? says/describes that there are also environments that appear to be outdoors in another world. I’m nearing 70, and I’ve heard that as you get older memory is one of the first thing that goes. I really can’t remember the second thing.
Each breach was unique. Open air biomes required larger groups. Cave biomes called for a smaller force with higher individual firepower. Some people didn’t do well in dark enclosed spaces. Others couldn’t swim or had trouble with heights. The assault team reshuffled its roster based on their findings.
It’s in Chapter 5 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/the-inheritance-chapter-5-part-1/
This is so excellent! Fresh and new, but with lovely touches of familiarity…lees clans Nuan and Sai. I can hardly wait for the resolution and yet I want the story to go on and on and on! Thank you, HA!
I can tell you already that I will want more interaction between Ada and Elias, though. There aren’t enough chapters left for that to be more than a glimmer of excitement. Here’s my vote for book 2, although if I have to pick between this and Hugh 2, Hugh 2 would win.
Can hardly wait to preorder! I already preordered Maggie 1. Inheritance (1, I hope) here I come!
Oh yeah…the mom voice! The mom voice said with the full name! I can still get my adult son with that one!
Ahhhh… the only good thing about Mondays! Thank you!
I saw the pillow and thought, oh someone gets to take a nap!?
Also I teared up a little at Ada’s description of her mom brain spiraling thoughts.
I think I need a nap 😂😂
If this is the Innkeeper universe – and it certainly seems like it is with the mention of the Nuan clan – does that mean big changes for Innkeeper?
Does Sean go into the breaches with the remaining Alphas to close them in Texas? Seems like something he’d be drawn to do. Defend his world from the alien portal.