Mod R would like to remind you that the cheesecake procedures have been set out in Chapter 5 if you are going to obsess need a refresher.
Also:
I don’t really need to explain the FU involved in putting the healer whom your rival is desperately expecting onto a flight using the slowest route possible because you want to make things harder for them. I don’t, right? We all get it. I hope.
I raised my head from the body of a lake dragon and listened. Next to me, Bear stopped chewing. Her ears twitched.
Something was stalking us through the tunnels.
We left the spider herders behind three days ago. I still didn’t have a watch, but I’d needed to rest three times. The last time we bedded down, Bear started barking halfway through. She’d bark, I’d wake up, we’d both peer into the darkness, and then she would settle down and we would go back to sleep. I thought it was some monster making circles around us, but it didn’t feel like that anymore. It felt like something was deliberately hunting us, something smart and patient. Our hunter stayed just out of range. Sometimes I would feel a flicker of a presence, and then it would be gone.
I pushed hard after resting, going through the tunnels and caverns at top speed. I thought we’d lost them. Apparently not.
Bear went back to munching on lake dragon steak. The wasp queen was a watershed moment for me. Until that point, I viewed myself as prey. I tried to avoid fights, and I assumed that everything we met was stronger than me.
I was still cautious, but reality had finally set in. I was faster and stronger than a lot of things in this breach, and my injuries healed within hours. I no longer went around. I cut through. And when something managed to get too close, my monster dog tore it to pieces. Bear grew another two inches and reached 99 pounds. The scaredy-cat shepherd who hid behind me when we started was long gone. Now when Bear sighted an enemy, she held herself like an apex predator. When she sensed a fight coming, her tail wagged and her bright eyes seemed to say, “Oh boy, I wonder if this one is yummy.”
Perhaps sensing a change, the stalkers gave us a wide berth. We killed an oversized serpent the size of a power pole, a handful of the silverfish bugs, some tentacled thing which I couldn’t identify, and now a lake dragon who tried to ambush us on the shore of a deep pond. This one was smaller than the first, but it still made us work for the win. We paused to rest, heal, and eat, and now our unseen tracker caught up.
I shifted the bag on my back. Before I left, the spider herders gifted me a backpack made of spider webs. It was weightless and damn near indestructible. Right now it contained a section of one of the ropes I made, my helmet and Bear’s leash and harness. I had no idea why I kept that stuff around. The rope could prove useful, but the harness didn’t fit Bear anymore and the helmet mostly got in the way now. I saw better without its light. My eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness. I was pretty sure I’d passed the human threshold of night vision days ago.
I cut a paper-thin slice from the lake dragon’s flank and chewed it.
“Bear, either this dragon tastes like chicken or I’m losing my mind.”
Bear ripped into her slab of meat.
“Compared to the stalkers, it’s downright delicious.”
The more casually we acted, the closer the hunter would get. I took another bite. Come on over, it’s just me and my puppy having a picnic. Join us, won’t you? We are harmless, I swear.
I chewed and waited.
Nothing.
Hard to look harmless when you are snacking on a monster the size of a moving truck and leaving a trail of bodies in your wake.
I leaned back against the rock. “I’m happy, Bear. My stomach is full, I drank some water, I got to rest, and neither one of us is hurt.”
The shepherd glanced at me.
“When you are young, you think that happiness is made of big triumphant moments. Getting your driver’s license. Graduating. Getting accepted into a college of your choice. Your wedding day – that’s a big one. But when you get older, you realize that those are the moments you remember, but they are so rare. If you want to be happy, you look for joy in small things. A cup of favorite coffee. A good book. Vegging out on the couch after a long, hard day at work. Some people might say those are moments when you are content, not happy. But I will take what I can get, and right now this is a moment.”
Bear grinned at me.
“When we get out and I get back to my kids, now that will be a huge moment. You will like them, Bear. They will like you, too, because you are the best girl ever.”
I would walk out of this gate no matter what it cost me. Even if I was no longer the same Ada who had entered. And when we did exit, Bear would be coming home with me. I would pry her away from the guild no matter what it took. After all, I was sadrin now. I would think of something.
Sadrin. The word turned over in my mind. One of my coworkers back at the agency had a crystal cube on her desk with dichroic film paper inside of it. When she turned it, the color would change. The same section of the cube could look blue or red or yellow depending on the position and the light. Sadrin was like that.
I was Sadrin. I am Sadrin.
There was a world of meaning in that world, but I couldn’t decode it. It felt at once weighty and ephemeral, something I should know, something I already knew, something I had to discover… It was breaking my brain in the same way the lectures on quantum physics I attended as part of the DDC training. The electron was both a particle and wave, light was a quantum field, and I was sadrin.
It was the same strange feeling when I spoke to the spider herders. I knew what I said and I was understood, and yet, I didn’t speak their language. It was more like I formed an intent to communicate gratitude and something in my mind put it into the appropriate sounds.
Technically, that was how speech worked in general. We formed intent to speak, and our body produced the sound, but when I spoke English, that process was instant. With the spider herders, I felt that neural connection happen in slow motion. It was disconcerting.
What did that woman put into my head?
Bear trotted to the pond, drank, and ran over to me. It was time to go.
We trekked across the cavern to another tunnel. I closed my eyes for a moment, checking the position of the anchor. Yep, still straight ahead. It was very close now and it had gotten more distracting. I’d compared it to a psychic splinter before; that splinter had become infected. It wedged itself in my consciousness and throbbed.
The anchor was usually well protected. I had leveled up, figuratively speaking, but I wasn’t sure I could take whatever guarded it. A part of me wanted to try. Wanted something to be there, something I could cut down. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to punish whoever created the breach in the first place by killing their prized bioweapon or if I wanted to prove something to myself because deep down, I was still scared. Dwelling on it wouldn’t do me any good. The anchor was our destination. We would get to it.
Maybe I would get some answers there.
The tunnel ended and Bear and I walked onto another stone bridge. An oval cavern stretched out on both sides of us, not very large but deep, about one hundred feet across and twice that down. The narrow stone bridge spanned it just off center. On the other side, another tunnel waited.
We kept walking, sticking to the center of the path. We were about halfway across when I caught a glint of something below.
“Rest.”
Bear lay down. We were working on new commands. So far, she got rest, up, and back. That last one was especially useful in a fight. I had no idea how hard it was to train a dog, but cute puppy videos on Instagram taught me that it required repetition. Command, compliance, reward, rinse and repeat. It took Bear only five repetitions to learn a command, and once she learned it, it stuck. I was sure it wasn’t normal, but nothing had been since I walked into this breach. Normal had packed its bags and left the building.
I knelt and carefully leaned over the edge to look down.
Bodies sprawled below. Human bodies in the familiar indigo of Cold Chaos.
I went cold.
They lay strewn around the bottom of the cave like Noah’s action figures thrown onto the bed. Some were missing limbs, some had been cut in half. It looked familiar. I had seen this at the mining site. This controlled carnage. One slice, one death.
I forced myself to focus on the corpses. They were too far to fully analyze, but I noticed that when I measured distances with my Talent, it gave me a moment of enhanced distance vision. The body directly under me was lying on its back. I flexed, and for a split second my talent grasped its face.
Malcolm. This was the original assault team.
Something flashed by Malcolm’s body. I concentrated on it. The cheesecake stone.
My heart hammered in my chest. As soon as London made it out, the gate coordinator would have gone into the breach and activated the cheesecake, the signal stone, twin to the one that was now blinking below me. Even if London died, the mining team would have failed the check-in on the hour, which would lead to the same outcome – the cheesecake would be activated, triggering a response in the stone carried by the assault team.
At that point, the assault team would have turned around and marched back to the gate. They never made it, which meant they were either already dead by the time the cheesecake started flashing, or they were enroute back to the gate when they died.
The gate was less than two hours away. Had to be.
If I could get down there, I could walk out of the breach in two hours. Bear and I would be out of this nightmare. We could go home.
I scrambled from the edge and sat, trying to get a grip. I had to calm down.
Could we get down there? Was it physically possible?
I crawled back to the edge and looked down again, measuring the distance with my talent for the second time. Two hundred and eleven feet. The rope in my backpack was only fifty feet long, whatever the spider herders helped me cut from the length I used to rappel down the cliff.
Nowhere near long enough.
I could jump pretty far now, and a drop of thirty feet wasn’t out of the question. But that and my rope still only gave me eighty. I would need one hundred and twenty-seven feet. At least.
I surveyed the walls. Sheer. No way to climb down. Even if I somehow strapped Bear to myself, we wouldn’t make it.
I felt like screaming. We were so close. Damn it.
So fucking close.
I looked below again, surveying the bodies, the floor, the walls…
I had to let it go. There was no way down. We couldn’t afford to sit here wasting time and energy obsessing over it.
I felt the weight of someone’s stare. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose.
I concentrated. The hidden watcher was across the cavern, perpendicular to the bridge.
Slowly I reached into my backpack, pulled out my hard hat, slid the selector on the light to maximum beam, and jerked the helmet up.
Across from us a face with two shining eyes peered at me through the gap in the far wall. My Talent grasped an outline of a long humanoid head. A blink and it jerked out of sight, behind the stone.
The light on the helmet sputtered and died.
“And now we know we haven’t lost it, Bear.”
Something was following us. Not just something. Someone. And they glowed bright red.
Red meant value. Our hunter offered something useful, something that, judging by the intensity of the color, we desperately needed.
I set the useless helmet on the bridge and got up. The anchor was still pulsing on the edge of my awareness.
“If we find the anchor, maybe we can find a way down.”
Bear wagged her tail.
“Come on, Bearkins.”
I started forward and Bear chased after me.
First?
Certified 😀
First?
An extremely honourable second 🙂
First First First?
first?
First?
Top ten?
Third?
Thank you
So close!
Yeah its Monday!
1?
Yay Monday!!!
Thank you!! Happy Monday
Once again I excitedly read instead of remembering to go straight to the comments!!! 😂😩
Since I now think the comments don’t always show up when you first, very excitedly, open the instalment, I will not waste time in diving right in and commenting after.
(Also I have resigned myself to never being first)
You need to refresh to have the comments load 🙂 . Submitting your own comment automatically refreshes the page, so you will see everything that came in whilst you were writing it.
👍👍and thx.
What reward do you get if you are first? lol, the rest of the book?
Eternal (one instalment) glory. It’s just a game 🙂
I wait like a shark circling the blog on release days, hitting the refresh button continually and still others are first…
thank you for the tasty morsel!
I got first once. I wear it like a badge of honor, knowing that it may never happen again! 🤣🤣🤣 The stars rarely align in such auspicious ways twice in a life time 😜.
I can so relate. Today for me was a total fluke. I just happened to log on shortly before the installment was posted. I have no expectations that it will ever happen again. 🤣
Yay! I live this series
first?
The closest I will likely ever get to first 😂
yes yes yes yes. No longer prey. yes yes yes yes!
Likewise!
Yay, awesome! Thanks for this ongoing treat! ❤️❤️❤️ I always want more more more, lol. Until Friday!
Also, thank you ModR for the reminder/link back to the cheesecake – I had totally forgotten about that. ☺️
+1
I love how Ada and Bear are so bad@ss now! This is such a gift, I want it to keep going but I want to know how it ends…Thank you HA!
Wow just Wow so much to process. Thank you and happy Monday.
Nice, is this day six, maybe seven?
Somewhere around there, yes 🙂
ohhhh, I hope that they meet soon
Please please please make this a series!!! Love Bear and Ada!
awesome I love Mondays!!
thank you 😃
“Normal had packed its bags and left the building.”
this needs to be a quote somewhere on something! so relatable on so many levels.
loved the installation! can’t w*it for the book 📖
It totally is and absolutely needs to be on something. In the meantime, I wrote it down on a sticky.
+1
Also +1
I loved that chapter! I can’t wait for what happens next! Why is Friday so far away!!! I did spend some time pondering how Bear was going to manage to exist on regular dog food outside of the gate.
Nice.
Ada realized that she is truly strong and may have a predatory drive.
Is the being reading red on her senses going to be a friend a foe or more of an observer?
“Red meant value. Our hunter offered something useful, something that, judging by the intensity of the color, we desperately needed.”
All we know so far is that the hunter is someone they need, we’ll have to read on and see what guise that relationship will take 🙂
So now part of our paranoid…er, usual BDH thinking about Malcolm is done. He IS dead. Sorry to say this about anyone but good riddance?
Also big, smart dog = the bestest sidekick.
Final thought: might stalker not be a bad guy? If they have something Ada needs, could it be information?
Ok. That wasn’t my final thought.
So if Ada left the spiderkin 3 days ago and ModR said maybe she was 4 days in during one of the last episodes, has Ada been inside for over a week???
Shoot. Nevermind. The answer has been given by ModR, above.
(Sorry but comments are coming fast and furious and things are answered/written while one is typing. Thx ModR for being so on the ball. Do you even sleep on Instalment Days?)
I gave the disclaimer that I haven’t yet mapped out the timeline 🙂 , but general strokes, she should be 6/7 days in at this point.
@Mz
I too wondered briefly if the assault team members were all dead or if some had been captured. The gray robes seemed to be a take no prisoners type though, so while I thought Ada carrying out a rescue would be cool… It seemed unlikely.
I think the stalker might be either one of the Sadrin’s people, either tracking the jewel in Ada or the bracer… or, a member of the civilization near the anchor.
I do think they have information/ knowledge that Ada needs either about being Sadrin or the anchor…or, something else.
I keep thinking back to the Sadrin’s look of sadness and mourning. Yes, it could have been about the end of her life, but I wondered if she was either protecting someone else…or if she felt she’d failed to protect someone else.
I can’t wait to find out.
Good thinking. I like it.
I like this theory!
Interesting thoughts. Some valuable information may be the scope of the Sadrin powers and possible responsibilities in this breach.
So good! Thank you very much!
oh … 3 days!! … so Elias and team are in the breach by now?
They will be tracking the Cheesecake too … we are getting close to them meeting 🙂
and the being is “valuable” to her, to mankind. The colours where there before the inheritance but what gives the talents and decides if something is “valuable” …
wondering the same thing!
hadn’t thought about the cheesecake being traceable.
i think the hunter will help them close the breach on both sides.
I am delighted and honored to be among the first 20,
(Or 30, by the time I finish this).
I love Bear!
… aaaaahhh top 40. Oh well.
Bear is still awesome!
Thank you so much for another terrific installment! I love that Ada is realizing that she is a force to be reckoned with, and is acting accordingly, and that Bear is matching her development!
The “rescue” team will not be prepared for our duo!
I get a sneaky feeling that Ada & Bear will end up rescuing the rescue team. She and Bear have come a looonge way in just one short week. From counting employee benefits to boost her courage to looking forward to fighting at the anchor.
They are truly a force to be reckoned with. London and company are going to have a unhappy reckoning
to survive, no, thrive
water dragon sashimi
bravery most huge
Water dragon sashimi makes me think of the Morean drake sashimi from Sweep in Peace 🙂
I applaud your haiku!
+1 Nice Haiku
Bless you both. Allergy season😂😂
Yes, I know it’s a poem
This story is really good. Now we’ve got a humanoid stalking Ada and Bear and I am feeling anxious for them, I admit. Friday is too far away! Nope, no chalantness here. Thank you!
Me too!
Thanks
At this rate, Ada will be more alien than human by the time she meets up with the rescue team. Elias might attack first and ask questions later. Honestly, I don’t see much scope to ship them, considering we’re into chapter 9 and they have yet to meet (don’t hate me). On the other hand, that humanoid high-value stalker may be just what the romance overlords ordered. 🙂
Also, is this going to be a full novel? I thought it was supposed to be a short one, but how can this wind down in a few chapters when the good stuff is just getting better?
We know that there will be “more than 4, but less than 10” instalments left on the blog, plus extra content/epilogue in the final published form. And that a couple of weeks ago Ilona convinced Gordon to add two more scenes to the initial outline. 🙂
Look at me not saying anything, not suggesting an answer, not divulging a shred 😀
Series….series….series
For me, at this point in the story i care so much less about a Ship Setting Sail and so much more about her being a badass MF. Happy ending to this 1st story (cuz i will never believe this won’t be turned into a series) is Ada getting home to her kids and introducing them to the their new giant dog friend! The sailing ship can happen later!
@Tasha
😂🤣😂, ship setting sail…okay, I agree.
I think we all want more of this family reunion.
Such a weird predicament to be in… I fully want this story to continue… but, I can’t wait to find how this storyline is wrapped up.
There isn’t time for anything meaningful with Elias or anyone else at the moment, so I am all for a slow burn developed in book two…that doesn’t have to be the center of the story.
Very smoothly said Mod R! Brava!!
Ahhhhh this is amazing news!!! We are getting to the climax and I find myself eagerly anticipating each single morsel of a chapter!
#BestestGirlBearkins
Smooth, Mod R. Smooth. 😀
According to Horde and Arabella math (snicker) we have 14 (actually 13) more readings to go. 😀
I mean, if not Arabella math, then what math??? 13 seems reasonable…. 😆😂😉
Aaahhhh I love the undivulged convincing!
Hey! No need to sink the ship.
I’m not so sure she is changing that much on the outside. Maybe some but I think most changes are on the inside.
+1
as much as I would like to join the #factsbedamned team. . .
DDC employees and guild members can’t date and the guild can’t hire an assessor.
and while Ada’s Inheritance has dramatically expanded and added to her Talent, she still has that very prized and necessary skill.
Can you imagine the fuss the other guilds would make if Cold Chaos were able to hire Ada?
And even if that happened, while single Guild members can date, Elias would be Ada’s boss and that power dynamic mixed with romance is ICK.
I love Elias and I would love Ada to get her HEA so I don’t want to sink the ship but I can’t ignore the giant icebergs in the way.
Ada could be an independent contractor 😉
@Emily,
I agree with your assessment on the complications…and while I am not a full-fledge member of factsbed*amned… I am still with the ship. 🤣
I do think that Ada will be of more value to the DDC and they will not want to let her go. They will also block her joining any guild. The only path I currently see is..
1) Ada receives a new rank at the DDC…whether this is a recognition of her as Sadrin..or a top-tier damage dealer/Assessor.
2) This new rank still can’t join a guild,but has no fraternization rules.
3) Ada’s new role is separate from Assessors, so while still working for the DDC … it deals more with the assault team, than the mining team. Not saying she there to fight, more so.. new discoveries, diplomacy, first contacts, etc.
Elias, also could leave the guild/CC. 👀 Though, his “no exit ramps” comment makes that unlikely and him the perfect candidate for Ada.
Either way.. I don’t see Ada leaving the DDC…or, joining the guild/ CC.
Though, I love a good loophole. Assessors can’t join a guild and guilds can’t hire their own private assessors. Can an Assessor own their own company or consult for the guilds/DDC?
I’m really worried “they” will want to experiment on her to figure out how to make other top tier talents. I’m stressed about her future. I’m hoping she has some way to cloak her abilities, but there’s no cloaking Bear and her new size.
And yeah, I can’t figure out how it’s all going to wind down in just a few more chapters either. I feel like we’re getting deeper and deeper into this deeply satisfying story.
While I share your concern about Ada and Bear’s future and potential government oversight, testing etc. I do hold out hope. I still they will likely try to replicate. That’s a given.
But, this world has had to adapt to changes to their reality fairly quickly. It’s only been 10 yrs since the breaches have been in effect. In that time span, Talents have appeared, guilds have formed, and the government has outsourced to the guilds.
So, hopefully, acceptance for the changes to Ada and Bear will not been long coming. The DDC has been monitoring the health of all their employees working the breaches, so while they may get more scrutiny, hopefully it won’t been too extended or invasive.
Listen Megan…😂
If there is shipping, Elias and Ada it must be…okay, maybe not..but…still.
Given the Roger story.. Elias was confirmed for me as Ada’s partner in Chapter 7 when he talks about no exit ramps and he wouldn’t have taken it had one appeared.
So, I’m ever hopeful…just not for this part of their story. 👀👀
As to your first statement… I don’t think so. I wonder how much of Ada’s new talents are an unlocking of her existing Talent. She is able to fight, move faster,and her reflexes have been become better…these are all things combat talents have. She just has more knowledge and is able to apply it….and regeneration. I think she is still fully human and likely doesn’t have any discernable changes…outside of the regeneration.
oh, this was fabulous. Just what I was hoping for. I wish I could order and devour the whole book right now!
“I set the useless helmet on the bridge and got up. . .”
don’t leave the helmet! . . .unless it helps Elias find a way to the anchor.
did the 4 gray beings in the mining site that killed the guild members match the description of her stalker??? for a moment there I wonder if it was Elias or his team.
must go back for a re-read.
I wish I could find a way to match up Ada time with Elias time. the subtle hints are beyond me.
Agreed Emily, the helmet is the only bowl-shaped thing Ada has. Gotta keep it…unless it can be left as a breadcrumb for someone to find later.
I was thinking the same thing about the helmet being a breadcrumb. When I first read about the helmet light burning out I thought maybe she’d throw it down to where the assault team’s bodies are laying.
That would be a fine puzzle for Elias’s team and maybe the helmet would be missed on the high bridge.
Keeps getting better and better, I’m on the edge of my seat!
Thank you!!
(And thank you for the cheesecake refresher link!)
you have no idea how badly i need friday to come soon! ada and bear have been on my mind A LOT
First?
Love it! I usually cone back abd read it twice.
Yay! Awesome Ada and Bear.
I also now hear Nora Achrati/Sofyan (from Graphic Audio) as Ada’s voice in my head.
The thing from this installment that stuck with me was that Ada wasn’t sure she could take whoever guarded the anchor. Guarded implies that the breaches aren’t naturally occurring but that some intelligence is opening them and then trying to keep them open. If that’s true, then does that mean someone’s been coming out if the breaches that the government and guilds don’t know about?
On Monday and Friday, my waking thought is always about that day’s installment. Thank you! Can’t wait for the preorder button to appear.
Note to self- MUST REFRESH PAGE FIRST
Can’t w*it til Friday
Must be chalant -sooo hard
So so good. Thank you. I love it
Wonderful. I was caught up in wondering how they could ever find Ana if they had to track her.
Now my question is why is the hunter after her, it isn’t for food. So what does it have that she needs? What does she have that it needs?
Nothing seems to have eaten the bodies, but they were clearing as they went along, so that isn’t too weird.
Lastly I offer up the utterly gratuitous image of the Void Ronin taking London apart for his cowardice in the face of duty.
I assume that Japan went all samurai on their gate philosophy, because it works and it is cool. Focus on duty and self-sacrifice. All that means that London is utterly contemptible. He is a coward lacking in loyalty and sense of duty.
Pondering what caused Yosuo to leave everything behind, I offer the suggestion that the reason is family. Since his brother is number two, number one might be his father. Legacy is for the older son.
Combining rock star status in the public eye with second son placeholder status had to chafe. Yosuo had the whole world to chose from and he chose Cold Chaos, so we can assume their rules and ideals match his own.
I love how Ada has totally adopted bear into her family. She gave her a full family dog name. And just how big does that dog plan to get. Clearly the usual large dog health problems no longer apply. Too big and agility suffers, and do i recall correctly that she originally recalled Bear weighting something like 76 pounds, before the cave. She could realistically triple her original weight.
if they took Bear away from Ada, the dog would just break out and go back to her. They are clearly a pack now.
I wonder, is the creature friend or foe? Ada is certainly leaning into her abilities. Thank you for the newest installment!
I read a comment where someone thought this story would make a good movie. Well every movie needs a theme song! I was out running errands and had an oldies station on the radio. I was thinking about Ada and Bear when a song started playing. It turned out to be Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves by Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox. I chuckled. How appropriate! When I made it home I found the official music video online and watched it. It was fun and thought provoking. Check it out if interested. It cemented the thought that this would be a great theme song for the story. Ada and Bear are doing it for themselves. As the song lyrics say “they are ringing their own bell”! No reliance on anyone else, no shipping needed. And what a formidable team they make!
Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox? Clearly a must-watch. I will be checking that out later.
I’m getting concerned that when Ada gets out and the government realizes what happened, they are going to try and start using her as their super soldier… subject her to a bazillion tests, send her into all the breaches, try to figure out how to reproduce what happened to her, etc. I hope she can protect herself and her family from all the people who will want to use her for their own gain.
There’s also the possibility that after what happened to her – being abandoned for dead, stuck in the breach for a week plus, and attacked by all kinds of weird aliens (never mind that she handled it all like a superhero), Ada could decide to quit and demand back/hazard pay. That would at least let her date Elias.
I think she will have some reluctance about returning to the breaches… but I think that she will become Sadrin.
She will gain some new understanding of the situation humanity finds themselves in…or, answer a call for Sadrins to address concerns within the breach.
So, a new role either within the DDC or independent of them…and a clear path to Elias. 😂
Thank you for the new snippet.
Bear and Ada bonded for life. The Guild will just have to deal with losing Bear.
Now we know that Malcolm and company are dead. I wonder if it was the humanoid creature that is stalking Ada and Bear that killed Malcolm and the rest of the team? Hmmm…something to think about between now and Friday. 😀
To be continued…with cheesecake.
Reading each snippet is joy! Thanks so much for the joy.
Okay hear me out… this could be like Kinsmen! Ada’s story would be like Fated Blades, and (fingers crossed) we could have a novelette collection like Kinsmen Universe with 3 short stories! I know I’m not the only one who’s not ready to leave this world behind in less-than-ten installments
Thank you for this gift on a Monday.
SO SO wonderful!! Thank you so much.
I’m loving this series! Thank you so much. Can you tell me if this is going to be like a short story, novella, or a full blown book? Also, I have already shipped Ada and Elias, so will it be okay to say this is a romance? Or romance adjacent 🤭
It will be a book either way 🙂, it will be published in all the usual formats. House Andrews have said that the length will be around 50k words, which is longer than Magic Tides.
As for genre, it is LitRPG action-adventure, not a romance 🙂. The two protagonists need to interact before there can be romance – they have yet to meet. We will have to wait and see if there will be romance elements.
This story is so great! My heart pounds with the drama and suspense of it all. Ada is amazing and so is Bear, love these two characters.
There are no asterisks in the Comment section!
The helmets not useless. It makes a good dog water bowl. But if Ada dropped it onto the corpses below, then somebody might find it on their way to the beacon…leading to more drama.
…I’m just saying.
Also, I love this story, world, and characters and am having some difficult remaining p*tient between installments.
also does that helmet have her name on or in it? because if the team came through on the bridge and I’d the helmet as hers but no body below well thats proof she is alive or was alive very recently
Fabulous!
Yaaassss
Thank you!
I love this world! Thank you!!
What is with the absolute obsession for being the first 10 commentors? Is there a contest I dont know about?
It’s just a game that people enjoy 🙂. No one has to take part of they don’t wish and there are no prizes.
There are tens of thousands of people reading, hundreds of comments and a fun race to get there ahead of everyone 🙂
Tens of thousands? The horde is mighty, but THAT mighty?
Well, the home page does state there are 40,000 subscribers, so ‘tens of thousands’ sounds about right.
yes, not all of us comment but we are here
Or is it artistic license?
I had leveled up, figuratively speaking,
Figuratively speaking until she sees a stat screen after destroying the anchor. I wonder how the “leveling” works. Based on Bear it’s “what you it is what you are”
No stats screens and points system in The Inheritance 🙂
Just a few thoughts:
I wonder if Malcolm and assault team were slayed before the attackers made it to the cave with the miners.
Even though Ada is an assessor, she is now something more. Does this mean she can ONLY work as an assessor for the government? She’s definitely leveled up into something additional, on a different track, so can she work as something else in the breach like on an assault team?
How are the kids?
The assault team gave the 1-hour check in and sent their scout out to meet with the miner team. This means they were alive 1 hour into the breach.
The miner team entered the gate at that point and were dead before their first hour in the breach was up. As soon as they missed their 1-hour check in (or London made it out), the Assault team were called back. They didn’t respond, which means they died in the same hour as the Mining team 🙂
I personally think that Ada will have a new role and potentially her own “assault team.” Though, why any assault team members would leave the guild and join the DDC is a mystery…so, I’d say she would work more with the guilds assault teams. Not as an fighter, but for learning more about these civilizations, breaches, anchor, etc…and diplomacy. Assessors are there to find things to mine and while her new talents will make her better at that, I think the role is too small for her now.
If I wanted to go further into my wildest of wild speculation closet… I would guess…
Ada, as Sadrin, can sense which breaches would be important for her to enter. Either she will have an ability that would allow her to access the breaches without going through the gate coordinators/guilds/DDC… so, that she could become independent….or, she will be allowed to pick her assignments.
But, I can’t wait to find out what actually happens and how the story unfolds.
the shrouded beings might be advance crew of whoever was trying to breach “Earth.” The beings meet the assault team lead by Malcolm and they just destroyed the assault team in one pass.
The Sandrin caught up with the beings just as they reach Ada & the mining group.
And now time for a re-read 🙂
Love this chapter as always. And the section about happiness is exactly on point. Thank you!!
I’m really starting to wonder who would come out on top if Ada and Elias (I think that’s his name, and I’m not going back to double-check, LOL) got into a fight. Strength-wise, the jewel given to Ada by predecessor-Sedrin seems to give her equal or greater ability, but Elias probably has more combat experience…
…look, I ship them, but I don’t see their first meeting as anything other than an accidental fight, and I’m so ready to see that.
Enemies to lovers is a time-honoured trope, is all I’m saying 😉😉😉
I suspect Elias is levelheaded enough to avoid jumping into a needless fight.
THANK YOU!
I stay in the shadows observing where the conversation goes, but really?!
Elias of the Hmm? Our boy? I don’t see it.
I really enjoyed this segment. Friday is soooo far away. I love the developments between Ada and Bear…and Ada’s new revelations.
I can’t wait to find out who the new stalker is. I think it is either someone connected to the previous Sadrin or a member of a new civilization.
I still don’t have enough info about the anchors, but I wonder if whoever is placing them and any nearby civilization are one and the same. I currently think, not.
So, either someone has come looking for the Sadrin and is tracking Ada, someone was with the Sadrin, that she was trying to protect…or, a member of a new civilization is watching Ada trying to determine if she is friend or foe.
I think Ada has some more leveling up that she is going to be doing and this new person is key. Whether that is by unlocking more of her inheritance, formally inducting her into the Sadrins, or gifting her with new knowledge about the anchor/enemy…or, some new hardware.
Ada and Bear’s understanding of each other has really developed. We see more of this in Ada’s comments about Bear learning new commands. I wonder if the key to this in her explanation about the intention used for communicating with the the Sindrin? So, when communicating to Bear, her intentions come across to Bear more than just the words. This would explain Bear’s complete devotion to Ada. Ada’s intention to keep Bear safe and get her out has been very clear.
Ada and Bear took a really long route to get back to about 2-3 hrs from where they started. This is good and bad. Good because that means a meetup should be soon possible. Bad because for all of my impatience, I am not ready to leave this world.
I am totally on board with the shipping of Ada and Elias,but it seems unlikely they will do more than meet and have a couple interactions. I will hold out hope for book 2 and a slow burn romance.
I hope we get to witness the reunion of Ada and her kids…and them meeting Bear.
Last two random thought, the Assessors should band together and go on strike. Everyone is profiting from their talent, but them. They should be just as entitled to a bonus for what they find within the breach as anyone else. The best way to change that particular rule and not allowing them to join a guild is to refuse to work for them period.
I think in this case, CC will likely seek to pay some type of restitution to the families and Ada…but I can see the DDC trying to take it as a fine.
Ada’s time stretching ability. I don’t know if I posted this thought elsewhere…but…I wonder if Ada’s time stretching ability is new? She has never seemed surprised by it, not even when she first willed “the moment to stretch out like a rubber band.” I wonder if this is an ability she has always had that has just increased. Maybe, she never recognized that in those moments while it feels like things are moving slower, she is moving/processing faster.
She seems to know that she is able to move faster now, so I wonder if it’s two separate things or an enhancement to her previous talent?
Answers…I want’em all.
I believe the “time stretching” ability is something anyone can have in real life. I can’t call it up, but I’ve been in situations (an auto accident as one I remember most vividly) where the opposing car “slowed” just before impact, the impact itself was in slow motion, and the aftermath, glass flying and tinkling to the ground ramping back up to normal speed as the accident concluded.
What will happen when Ada gets out of the breach? How will this affect her life and her job? I don’t think I have seen anyone mention this, but I wonder if her responsibility as Sadrin will change all of that. What if she comes out the other side and through the process she realizes she is some kind of liaison between species? I would not be surprised if Ada is going to make her own rules about what she does after the breach, and what she chooses to do is pursue this “Sadrin” occupation/purpose/goal in life/reason for existing/core of being (Chapter 8, parts 1 and 2). Maybe she will be an assessor in name only, but her actual job will be exploring this new Talent of hers.
Ada doing as Ada wishes, of course, leaves clear waters for our beloved ship! However, the only thing I need is for Ada to get home to her babies! An HEA would be nice, but doesn’t feel essential.
Before this section, I thought about Ada’s color-coded vision as reflecting the inherent value of the object, for example, all gold is going to light up as important, with the color reflecting the quality or purity of the gold. A being lighting up as an intense red, though, can’t reflect an inherent value because not every being of that kind is going to be as useful as this one. There are too many variables: useful to whom? for how long? Meanwhile, most gold is going to be the same amount of useful. So this section makes me think that there is some kind of precognition involved in Ada’s ability. The question now is whether the precog was always a part of Ada’s Talent or is it new with the Sadrin gift?
There is a lot of discussion higher-up in the comments about Ada’s Sadrin implications as she leaves the breach 🙂
I was reading this and thinking along the same lines!
And, not only how will this impact Ada but how will this change how Breaches are handled?
Before Ada we knew that the breaches had precious material to strip but now they also have the potential to offer enhancements to ‘man and beast’. How will this change how the government wants to interact with the breaches? Will they instead begin to try to create super soldiers (and more ‘super dogs’)?
I’m really trying to keep my spoilery comments to the blogs, but it makes it a bit harder for these convos.
I just posted something similar about Ada’s new potential role. I do think a new role will be warranted for her and or a new level of independence for her to operate as Sadrin…which of course would solve the major roadblock to shipping going on. 😂
I’m with you on her reconnecting with her children. I so hope we get to witness Ada reuniting with them and telling her daughter she kept her promise. I’m hoping for book 2 because I am loving this world and Ada/Bear…and, I think that there is a lot of potential here to expand the characters, the world..and adventures to be had. I hope for her and Elias in another book, but if not…okay.
I dont think I quite agree with your assessment of her Talent’s color-coded vision…or, at least not fully.
I don’t think we know the depth of what an Assessors talent is other than Ada saying she could assess the world around her organic and inorganic.
Ada is a best Assessor in her region, but we don’t know if she was a Top tier talent before. We’ve seen her vastly expand her talent inside of the breach. I think part of that is largely the “jewel” and part her will. Elias stated he’d increased his talents based on will. Assessors are not normally within the breaches long and aren’t often, to our knowledge in positions/conditions like Ada is now.
I think the Assessor is looking for things that are of value inside the breaches, so that is what their talents primarily focus on. Until she was alone in the breach, she likely wasn’t focusing her talents on beings.
We did she her focus her talent on the Sindrin. None of them to our knowledge lit up red for her. I think her talent recognized this person as Sadrin or as able to provide something she needs… I don’t know if it would have to be specific to that beings entire species or to this individual.
I personally think it is either someone the Sadrin was protecting or some who came looking for the Sadrin after sensing her death…or, to assess a new Sadrin.
I think her talent is trying to tell her they are not an enemy per se. Maybe, someone that can help her…or someone that Sadrin needs to help. Given that useful bit, I think useful to Ada. I’m still holding out for Ada to receive a full “uniform” so to speak… Armor, helmet, second bracer. We’ve seen how great the bracer is…what would the helmet do with her talent. Would it allow her to navigate more smoothly? Pinpoint the gateway and the anchor quickly as well as civilizations nearby? So, many possibilities.
This could still be that precognition you referenced and if so yepee. Not sure if it would be new or not… but, it would be helpful and she couldn’t be any worse at it than Malcolm.
I love your response, and “she couldn’t be any worse at it than Malcolm” is the best thing I’ve heard all day! 😂
i love this. thank you!
Thank you, I live for Monday!!
“If you want to be happy, you look for joy in small things. A cup of favorite coffee. A good book. Vegging out on the couch after a long, hard day at work. Some people might say those are moments when you are content, not happy. But I will take what I can get, and right now this is a moment.”
You got me, HA. You got me. 💛
+1
Friend or foe?
Monday is now worthwhile! Thank you!!!
Thank you! That was so good on so many levels!
“Normal had packed its bags and left the building.”
“If you want to be happy, you look for joy in small things.”
“You will like them, Bear. They will like you, too, because you are the best girl ever.”
P.S. I got First once and it made my day as my usual order is: read post, read comments, post comment.
Ok, ok. I slowly start believing that Malcolm might actually be dead. 😉
Otherwise: Impressive leveling up; snacking on dragons now…
And a stalker with big eyes having something precious… sounds like Gollum!. 😉
There’s no need to jump to conclusions 😀
I so needed this today, following a fruitless lunchtime trip to the state DMV, which will necessitate an in-person trip to the MVA in my previous state of residence. And as soon as I got home from the DMV, a call from a DME company about a Medicare/physician’s office snafu with my prescription paperwork, which will necessitate more intervention from me. All this well past my lunchtime. Adulting doesn’t necessarily get easier as you get older. I’m glad Ada is leveling up, because she’s going to need it. Thank you so much for this much-appreciated respite.
Augh!! The DMV and health insurance in one day! Ice tea and a nap, stat!! Sending strength!!
Thank you House Andrews for continuing to share this story with us!
Today’s introspective/self-aware Ada was a pleasure to meet.
Sending peace, health and safety to all!
Ahhh!! Monday morning goodness!! Thank you for the chapter – so excited for this book!! 📚📚📚
thank you 😊
Mod R the Cheesecake reminder to revisit Chapter 5 was timely.
I’m loving this story.
Ahhh, great Monday morning read! Thanks!
Love reading about Bear and Ada’s relationship. A woman and her dog… Reminds me of my first dog as an adult, a shepherd/collie mix. He was an amazing dog, very smart and independent.
Looking forward to when they reach the anchor!
I forgot the schedule so this is a wonderful surprise
Of course they couldn’t make it easy! Poor healer😩
How is “Sadrin” pronounced? Sah-drin, Say-drin, Say-dreen etc?
So good
Thank you HA for another amazing installment! Each one gets better and better, and more and more satisfying.
I love that Ada sees herself as not-prey. Witnessing Ada come into her own has been a much needed reminder for me to keep stepping into my gifts and stop shying away. That I need to unapologetically keep carving my path. I will definitely be re-reading certain chapters of this novel over and over again once it’s published.
Thank you. 🙏💜
Thank you Monday!
I suspect the stalker is one of the Blue Lady’s people, and Ada will end up gifting the brain jewel plus the metal weapon to her/it before leaving the breach. Sadrins are needed in the breach worlds.
What that leaves in Ada for talents will be up to HA but Bear remains awesome!!
Loving this story.
W×iting (not) chalantly and definitely (hair raised) fuzzy.
I briefly wondered if the stalker could be the Sadrin’s daughter and if the Ada would be used to pass along the inheritance/gift, but I hope not.
I think that Ada will become or will be accepted as Sadrin. I think that regardless of what Ada eventually learns about the anchor/breaches…they are here to stay in some form.
If there is a way discovered to stop all breaches from opening, I think those benefiting from mining them would protest.
If they did shut them down, the enemy would just attempt a new strategy of invasion…and are probably already working on one.
I think other civilizations have been exposed to humans in some way, possibly not all good.
So, I think a Sadrin is likely needed.
I’m viewing it as a calling, not a people. One who “stands in the gap,” protects others, highest levels of diplomacy, etc.
Thank you made my Monday!
Lots of “first” comments today…it’s a little old but to each their own.