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The Inheritance: The Rest of Chapter 7

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I crouched on a narrow stone ledge protruding above a vast cavern. Bear lay next to me gnawing on a stalker femur.

Long veins of luminescent crystal split the ceiling here and there and slid up the walls, glowing like overpowered lamps, diluting the darkness to a gentle twilight. My talent told me it was Fos stone, a breach mineral that shone like a flashlight. The biggest Fos stone I had seen until now was about the size of my fist.

 Two hundred and sixty-two feet below us, at the bottom of the cavern, enormous lianas climbed the stone wall, bearing giant flowers. Each blossom, shaped like a twisted cornucopia, sported a funnel at least ten feet across and fifteen feet deep, fringed by thick, persimmon-colored petals that glowed weakly with coral and yellow. It was as if a garden-variety trumpet vine had been thrown into the chasm and mutated out of control into a monstrous version of itself.

Strange beings moved along the cavern floor, clad in diaphanous pale robes. Their torsos seemed almost humanoid, but there was something oddly insectoid about their movements. They strode between the flowers, carrying long staves and pushing carts.

As I watched, one of them stopped at the opposite wall far below and tugged on the long green tendrils dripping from a large blossom. A spider the size of a small car slid from the flower. It was white and translucent, as if made of frosted glass.

The being checked it over, prodding it with a staff topped with a large chunk of colored glass or maybe a huge jewel. My talent couldn’t identify it from this distance. The spider waited like a docile pet. 

The being dipped a slender appendage into their cart, pulled out a glowing fuzzy sphere that looked like a giant dandelion, and tossed it to the spider. The monster arachnid caught it and slipped back into its flower.

The spider herder moved on to the next blossom.

It was surreal. I’d been watching them for about two hours and my mind still refused to come to terms with it. There were hundreds of flowers down there, and most of them held spiders. The herders had been clearly doing this for a long time – their movements were measured and routine, and they had made paths in the faintly glowing lichens sheathing the bottom of the cavern.

I was watching an alien civilization tend to its livestock.

“Do you know what this is, Bear? This is animal husbandry.”

Bear didn’t seem impressed.

If I had to herd spiders, this would certainly be a good place. From this angle, the cavern looked almost like a canyon, relatively narrow with steep, mostly sheer walls. They had a water source – the narrow ribbon of a shallow stream twisted along the cavern’s floor. I couldn’t see any other entrances, although there had to be some, probably far to the left, behind the cavern’s bend. If stalkers or other predators somehow invaded, they would be easy to bottleneck. It was an ideal, sheltered location except for one thing.

Another spider herder emerged from behind the bend on the left. My ledge ended only a few feet away on that side so I couldn’t quite see where they came from. This one was pushing a larger cart.

“Here we go,” I murmured to the Bear.

She flicked her ear.

The spider herder paused. Above them, about forty feet off the ground, a large blossom glowed with gold instead of red. The being raised their staff and leaped at the wall, clearing ten feet in a single jump. The spider herder climbed up the vine, shockingly fast, reached the flower, and thrust the staff into the blossom.

I glanced to the right. Across the cavern, a fissure split the wall near the ceiling, a crack in the solid stone about eight feet tall and five feet across at its widest.

Nothing moved. The fissure remained dark.

The spider herder swirled the staff as if scraping the pancake batter out of a bowl.

The fissure stayed still.

The spider herder pulled his staff out. Three dense clumps of spider silk hung suspended from the staff, glowing softly with cream-colored light. They were about the size of a beach ball.

A segmented body squeezed out of the fissure and dove, three pairs of translucent wings snapping open in flight. A wasp-like insect the size of a kayak zipped through the air, glinting with blue and yellow like a blue sapphire wrapped in gold filigree.

Bear jumped up and growled.

The spider herder saw the wasp and scrambled down, but not quickly enough. The giant insect divebombed across the cavern, hooked one of the spider eggs with its segmented legs, tearing it from the bundle, and shot up, buzzing along the wall into a U-turn. A moment and it squeezed back into the fissure, taking its prize with it.

The spider herder stared after it for a long moment, climbed down, and deposited the two remaining egg sacks into their cart.

I had seen a similar scenario play out hours ago, when I first found the cavern. I had backtracked since then, exploring as many of the tunnels around it as I could. All of them either dead-ended or led to a narrow, bottomless chasm that ran parallel to this cave. I returned to the ledge a while ago and have been sitting here since, observing and deciding how to proceed.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. The anchor was still straight ahead and to the left of me, radiating discomfort. I opened my eyes. I was looking right at the bend of the cavern.

If we wanted to get to the anchor, we would have to pass through this underground canyon. There was no way around it. Backtracking wasn’t an option. We were truly lost at this point.

Unfortunately, I had a feeling that the spider herders wouldn’t welcome our intrusion into their territory. 

Another wasp squeezed out of the gap and dove down, aiming for the cart. The spider herder let out a loud clicking sound. A green spider the size of a donkey raced around the bend of the cavern and leaped into the air, knocking the wasp into the wall. The insect and the arachnid tumbled down through the vines and rolled onto the floor. The wasp jabbed at the spider with a stinger the size of a sword, but the spider clung to it and sank its fangs into the wasp’s neck. The insect’s head fell to the ground.

The spider herder made another clicking noise. The green spider abandoned the wasp and scuttled over to the cart. The herder pulled out a glowing yellow globe and tossed it to the spider. The arachnid caught it and ran back around the bend.

“Look, Bear, your cousin from another dimension got a treat.”

Bear tilted her head.

The spider herder leveled their stave at the wasp’s body. A moment passed. A bolt of orange lightning tore out of the gem and struck the carcass. The insect sizzled and broke into dust.

The activation time was a bit long. The wasps would have no trouble evading, considering the delay it took to fire, but once the beam hit, the results were devastating.

If Bear and I strolled down there, assuming we somehow got down off the ledge, trying to make our way past the herders would be impossible. Between the green spiders and that orange lightning, we wouldn’t get through, not without some serious injuries.

I glanced at the fissure. There was a wasp nest behind it. Spiders were excellent wall climbers. Theoretically, the spider herders could mount a full assault against it, but there were three problems with that.

First, the fissure wasn’t wide enough. The wasps were long and narrow, and they folded their wings to get through. The white spiders would never fit. The green ones could try to squeeze in there, but they would have to enter one at a time, and the wasps would swarm them. 

Second, the wasps could take flight if they detected the assault and simply wait it out. The spiders couldn’t sit by that wasp nest indefinitely, and waiting by it exposed them to the aerial assault.

And third, the entirety of the wall around the nest was sheathed in mauve flowers. Toward the top, where my ledge met the fissure, the wall wasn’t strictly sheer. It broke down into a series of outcroppings, and the mauve flowers clung to the rocks like some deadly African violets. There was no way to approach the nest without going through them.

When one of the white spiders popped out of the highest flower, I had a chance to scan it. They were not immune to the pollen. It would short-circuit their nervous system. The spider herders and the wasps were at a standoff.

When I first stumbled onto the cavern, I got another vision. A group of three spider herders, their veils shifting in the wind of an alien world with a mass of giant spiders behind them; someone with human arms offering a carved wooden box to them; the leading spider herder accepting it; the spiders parting; and a single word spoken: Bekh-razz. A gift for the safe passage.

I would have to offer a gift to cross.

The spiders couldn’t get to the nest, but I could. The ledge I was on curved along the wall all the way to the nest. It was barely seven feet wide near the entrance to the hive. I wouldn’t have a lot of room to work with.

I got up and walked along the ledge toward the fissure.  

Bear dropped her bone and trotted after me. I halted by the first clump of mauve blossoms and flexed.

They glowed with pale lilac. I split the glow into individual layers of light blue and pink. The blue told me they were still mildly toxic to both me and Bear, but nothing our regeneration wouldn’t take care of, and the faint pink let me know that if properly processed, the plant could be used as contact analgesic. Made sense. That’s why we didn’t notice the effect pollen had on us until it was too late.

The wasps displayed hive behavior. I didn’t need a vision to clear that up for me.  It was obvious from their patterns. That meant that the moment I attacked the nest, every wasp would fight to the death to kill me. I had no idea how large that nest was. Or how many giant wasps waited inside. I had to be very sure, because once I started, there was no stopping. Earth wasps were vindictive, and it was safer to assume these would be, too. Even if I ran away, they would chase me through the caves and there was no passage narrow enough to lose them anywhere around this cave.

The nest rumbled.

I dropped to the ground. “Down.”

Bear hugged the ledge with me.

“Good girl,” I whispered.

A large wasp squeezed through the gap and took off, vanishing around the bend. 

I wonder how they know when the eggs are harvested? Do the eggs emit a pulse or something…

A hoarse shriek echoed through the cavern. That was new.

The wasp zipped back toward the nest, carrying another silk-wrapped spider egg in its claws. The egg glowed with coral pink. I flexed, focusing on it, but the wasp was too fast. Half a blink, and it squeezed into the nest.

I’d seen them steal three eggs besides this one, and nobody screamed the first three times. Also, the rest of the eggs glowed with cream, not pink. There was something special about this egg.

This was my best chance. I had to act now or find a different way.

I flicked my wrist, elongating the cuff into a sharp, two-foot blade shaped like a machete. Bear let out a soft, excited whine.

“Shhh.”

I padded through the flowers, my dog trailing me.

This was a foolish plan.

Ten yards to the nest.

Five.

Three.

Something rumbled within the fissure.

I cleared the distance between me and the gap in a single jump.

A wasp thrust out of the gap. I swung the blade and lopped its head off. The blue and yellow body crashed down, and I grabbed it with my left hand, yanked it out of the fissure, and sent it flying to the ground far below.

Bear broke into barks. There goes our element of surprise.

The entire nest buzzed like a tornado spinning into life. Another wasp shot through the fissure, and I cleaved it in half, my sword cutting through the segmented thorax like it was butter.

#

“Sir?”

Elias’ eyes snapped open. Leo hovered in his view.  Elias sat up.

“We found Jackson,” the XO said.

#

Two wasps tried to squeeze through the gap at the same time and got stuck one on top of the other. I twisted the sword into a spike, skewered the top one, because it was closer and let its dead weight push the second wasp down. It struggled, pinned to the ground, and I hacked at it. 

The buzzing was deafening now.  The walls of the fissure vibrated as the enraged hive mobilized for an all-out assault. Next to me Bear barked her head off, flinging spit into the air. She wasn’t just a dog, she was a guild K9, trained to alert when the breach monsters came near. The monsters were here, and she was alerting everyone.

I grabbed the body of the top wasp, pulled it out of the fissure, and hurled it over the edge.

#

“He’s been detained by the authorities in Japan.”

It took Elias a moment to process that tidbit. “On what pretext?”

“They claim he entered a luxury restaurant, ordered a high-quality cut of Wagyu beef, washed it down with Yamazaki Single Malt 55-Year-Old Whisky, which retails for 400K a bottle, and walked out without paying.”

“They’re saying he dined and dashed?”

Leo smiled. Technically, it was a smile, but it looked more like a predator baring his teeth.

#

Bodies clogged the fissure, drenched in hemolymph. I stabbed and hacked into the pile up, yanking chunks of the insects out.

Seven wasps.

Eight.

Twelve.

#

“Jackson? The vegetarian who drinks one beer a year and only under duress?”

“Yes, sir. Our Jackson.”

Elias hid a growl. It was a retaliation for Yosuke.

Two years ago, a star Void Ronin, a top tier Talent, had a falling out with the largest guild in Japan and quit. They blacklisted him. No other guild in the country would hire him. The idea was that the pressure of unemployment would force him to crawl back home. Yosuke called their bluff. Cold Chaos welcomed him into the fold eighteen months ago. He was enroute to Elmwood now from another gate and was due to arrive tomorrow.

Publicly, Hikari no Ryu said nothing. Privately, the guild wielded a lot of power in Japan, and they were pissed. Elias thought that they reached an understanding regarding this matter. Apparently, he was mistaken. It didn’t matter. Elias had never regretted the decision, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“Have they made any demands?” he asked.

“No. Most likely they will hold him and wait for us to come to them.”

Guild politics were convoluted and cutthroat. It didn’t matter which continent. Elias had dealt with worse nonsense stateside plenty of times. But there was an unspoken rule all guilds followed – healers were exempt from all of the political bullshit. They were off limits. You didn’t poach them, you didn’t threaten them, and you didn’t retaliate against them. They chose who they worked for, and if you got a good one, you did everything you could to keep them.

Someone in Japan had just crossed a very dangerous line.

“How would you like to proceed?” Leo asked.

“I’ll make some calls.”

#

The nest lay silent.

Bear was still barking.

“Quiet.”

The shepherd clamped her mouth shut. I listened for the buzzing.

Nothing.

“Stay, Bear. Stay. Stay!”

Bear sat down.

I’d killed twelve smaller wasps, probably workers, and five larger wasps, probably guards. Back home wasp colonies had a queen. She was usually larger than the workers and the guards, and if that held true here, she was trapped within the nest.

I slipped into the fissure, moving slowly and quietly. It was about ten feet deep. Beyond that, the passage widened into another cave chamber steeped in gloom and dappled with pools of pale light coming from above. I flexed. One hundred and twelve yards to the other wall. A lot of open space, and the floor was unnaturally clear. The wasps must’ve removed all of the debris that originally littered the chamber. Once I exited the fissure, I would be exposed.

A step.

Another.

A whisper of something large shifting its weight on the right, just outside the passageway.  I had expected the wasp to strike from above, but it sounded like it was on the ground instead.

I stopped, poised on my toes. My fingers trembled. Fear filled me. I was overflowing with it.

Another faint whisper. The wasp was waiting just feet away, ready to ambush me the moment I entered. I had to rely on speed.

I darted into the nest, angling to the left. A shadow fell over me and I dove forward, rolled, and came back to my feet.

A massive wasp bore down on me. It was as big as a bus, riding on six huge, segmented legs, each armed with two chitin claws the size of sickles.

Crap.

The wasp charged me. It wasn’t flying. It ran across the floor, straight at me, swiping at me with its terrible claws. I darted back and forth like a terrified rabbit.

Right, left, left, too many fucking legs, right…

The wasp swiped at me like a hockey player armed with deadly scythes. It was trying to skewer me and drag me to its terrible mouth where two sets of sharp mandibles would shred the flesh off my bones and rip me apart.

The world shrank to the stone floor of the cavern, the pools of light, and the horrible creature behind me. All my instincts screamed in panic. I had to run away. I had to run from this thing back through the fissure, but I couldn’t find it. The walls were a dizzying whirlwind.

 I was out of breath. I was disoriented. I couldn’t even think long enough to come up with a plan. All I could do was run for my life. Running wouldn’t work for too much longer. I would die here, in this nest.  

Something dark and shaggy shot out of the wall. Before my brain processed what it was, Bear charged at the wasp.

“No! Bear, no!”

The German Shepherd clamped her jaws on one of the wasp’s middle legs. The insect shook it and flung Bear off.

“No!”

One of the wasp’s legs sliced like a scythe. I saw it coming. I had stopped running because of Bear and now it was too late. I jerked back, but not fast enough. The blow swept me off my feet. I rolled across the floor, pain smashing into my side. The wasp reared above me. Its front leg came down like a hammer. One of the two claws pierced my right thigh, scraping the bone.

Bear leaped out from the side and bit the leg impaling me. The wasp queen didn’t even notice. The other claw clamped on my other leg. The ragged chitin sank into my flesh. I felt myself being lifted, up to where the horrible mandibles clicked.

No.

I sliced at the wasp leg pinning me. My sword cut through chitin like it was a twig. The wasp recoiled. I yanked the severed stump out of my thigh and rolled to my feet.

Fuck this shit. Why the hell was I running?

Bear snarled next to me.

The wasp swiped at me with its uninjured front leg. It was huge and fast, but I was faster. I leaned out of the way. The leg carved through the spot where I had been. The wasp swiped again, and I stepped back again, just out of reach.

Strike, dodge. Strike, dodge. It couldn’t touch me.

I flexed, stretching time like a rubber band, forcing my senses into overdrive. The uninjured front leg struck at me, slow like molasses. I cut it, dashed under the wasp, severing the other legs with quick strikes as I sprinted past, and emerged behind the monster insect. A second and it was over. The world restarted, and the queen crashed to the floor, the stumps of her legs jerking in wild spasms.

Bear howled.

I took a running start and jumped. My leap carried me through the air, and I landed on the queen’s fat abdomen and dashed toward her head.

The queen’s huge wings stirred. It was trying to fly.

I slipped on the narrow waist connecting the abdomen and thorax, caught myself, leaped onto the thorax, and scrambled onto her neck.

The wings hummed and blurred like the blades of a helicopter. A gust of wind buffeted me.

I drove my sword into the queen’s neck. It sank through, and I ripped it to the side, carving through the exoskeleton. The queen’s head drooped, and I chopped at the thin filament connecting it to the body.

The head crashed down.

The wings kept going. The headless body rose in the air, carrying me with it. I clung to it. The wasp corpse climbed twenty feet up…

The wings slowed.

The body fell slowly, careened, and landed in a heap. I jumped, rolled to break my fall, and came up in a crouch.

The queen was dead.

#

Elias put away his phone.

“Nice.” Leo grinned.

“They wanted a fight. We gave them a fight.”

All they had to do now was wait.

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Comments

    • I had to google Ronin.
      A Samurai without a Master.
      But a star Void Ronin?
      What does this mean? Is this a special Talent?
      And what was in the pink egg?
      And I Hope, Ada is Not hurt to much and I was afraid because Bear was hurt, to.
      Another Time waiting for monday.😬
      Very chalant. 😉

        • What’s this word you keep speaking of Mod R?

          You know the majority of the Horde doesn’t know that word. 😀

          • You keep using that word.
            I do not think that it means what you think that it means.

        • Do we have an estimate on the number of chapters? 10? 20?
          My heart is still racing from the fight.

      • Also, I am pretty sure we were reassured early on, in the comments to one of the early chapters, that Bear makes it okay. I’ve been holding on to that thought a time or two when things get scary!

  8. Wow, I’ve never been this close to first before! Thanks for another part of The Inheritance!!

  9. the art is always beautiful….. and goes with the story……
    I hope it will get into the books.

    Thanks for the chapter IA

    Happy Friday

  14. Wow! Everything happens at once, so exciting!
    Love this installment, can’t w*it for the next.

  22. Wow, this chapter was a huge gift!!! so long and interesting. Thank you! I can’t wait for the full book! Have an awesome weekend!

  23. Go Bear! Maybe the Wasp Queen sends out fear pheromones? And Bear snapped Ada out of it?

    Also I am glad that Jackson was not hurt or turned to the Dark Side. Waiting to see the Cold Chaos revenge.

    • My speculation is they simply told the top Hikari no Ryu healer what was going on. The healers can enforce their own Switzerland neutrality by refusing to work until the “error” is corrected. But we’ll see. 🙂

      • I just thought that she was scared because she was previously a civilian and a WASP THE SIZE OF A BUS WITH SCYTHES FOR LEGS WAS CHASING HER DOWN OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING ON.

        *Cough*

        Yeah, so, anyway, I thought her reaction was pretty normal tbh.

        • Ha! This reply by Hannah made me laugh

          Gonna be hard to wait for Monday

          Does she find the spider egg? Did the wasp eat it or is it for wasp babies or some other reason for taking it?!

          And if she makes friendly with the ant people does that mean they might keep the anchor intact and come back?

      • I think you have the solution with the most finesse. Sick their own healer on them. I theorize that healers are like Hugh D’Ambray, where the healing is practically a compulsion. I think this because of the plug and play aspect to the talents.
        I think a void Robin opens holes in spacetime. I’m leaning towards vacuum sucking void. Monster summoning is too close to the original problem.

    • I had the same thought about the fear, although attributing it to magic, more than pheromones. I think I like pheromones more…

  24. So we know where Jackson is at least. When will we get the book again? I’m trying to have p*tience here, but the more I read, the harder it gets. 😭 In case it isn’t clear, I’m loving this story!!

    • So glad you’re loving it! The Inheritance will be released this summer 🙂 but we don’t yet have an official pub date!

  28. Whoa, what a rest of chapter 7. I felt like saying “and now back at the ranch” for each section.

    So now we know where Jackson is…oh boy.

    Ada and Bear the dynamic duo! 😀

    Thank you!

    To be continued Monday.

    • Yes Ada is amazing. She has certainly changed from reciting benefits to keep going in the beginning to superwoman now. It’s great

      • I’m amazed at her abilities with the cuff. At first it was a scary thing. Now she is changing the shape of it as she is fighting to fit what she needs.

  32. Omg!! That was so much fun!! I’m saying those words again, “I can’t wait until Monday comes!” Thank you!

  33. love this – switching back to Elias so we don’t have to wait for him, hope they get going soon! And who or what are these “people” herding the spiders? Are they going to be happy she killed the wasp queen?

    • Yes. The whole reason to do this is to “gift” something to those people. Cleaning out the icky wasps’ nest is the gift. Then they willlet her pass.

      • I think Ada’s trying to retrieve the special glowy ball that the wasps just took. Since the someone cried out when it was taken and it looks different, Ada suspects it will b a good gift. That and her killing the wasps will show her as tough-don’t mess w her and bringing a gift.

        It did seem like the Queen wasp did something to induce fear.

        I hope Ada and Bear are not hurt too badly!

        • +1 — that’s what I thought— that the pink egg would be a gift and evidence that she had taken care of the wasps for them.

          And I agree about the induced fear. Her concern for Bear broke it.

      • yeah that is what Ada thinks and hopes, and i do too – but sometimes relationships between specie are more complex then that, especially in fantasy 😉

        They could worship the wasp or something …but yes i agree that most likely her gift will be accepted.
        Then next question are these “people” guarding the anchor, and if so are they doing so in every gate, is the killing of them a dirty secrete of the Gilde? But I can’t see Elias in that and he is part of the teams that go for the anchor, right … oh so many possibilities …

  36. What a wonderful rest of the chapter. Thank you, Ilona and Gordon. Hope recovery is going well.

  38. We need a new term for Ada, something on a par with magnificent bastion of vampire awesomeness.

    • I cannot WAIT until the strike team encounters the aggressive, feral creature Ada has become. And Bear, the stalker-eating guard dog. Like, Bear now treats stalkers like they’re kibble.

      All chalant over here, though. Tooootally chalant. I’m not drumming my fingers together in front of my face like an evil mastermind, calculating the earliest possible date we might be able to get our hands on the finished book. Not at all.

      • I don’t really feel like she regressed into a feral creature 🙂. The agression is needed for survival, but my read of her character development is coming into her own power, realising her limits are much wider than she thought.

        • Seriously. What was her alternative? Ada is taking care of business. Nothing feral about it.

        • Just using her words, agreed, agreed. I don’t think she’s regressed at all. I think she started with the right material and she’s becoming bada##.

        • Maybe half-feral. In a good way!
          Like Roman says in Sanctuary:
          “Active duty in the line of fire made people mean, lean, and half-feral, like starved wolves.”

          • This was good quote that ties together how I feel about it – I’m excited to see her meet the strike team because a) it will mean she is closer to going home to her kids b) I think she will show them how powerful kick ass she is and that did need her to go a little mean/lean/half-feral. I’m just really excited for her kids to get their mom back.

        • She is doing what a mom needs to do to get back to her kids. There is nothing more fierce.

  42. That was unexpected 🙂 Wasp Queen and alien civilization. I hope that when an anchor is destroyed, only the entrance to the gate is closed and the beings inside aren’t harmed. Alas, it’s Friday and I’m to tired to think about how the different worlds/dimensions could be connected..

  44. Wow wow wow!

    Thank you! Yay to Ada for killing that nest of wasps. Can’t wait to find out what Elias did.

  45. Wow. What a chapter. I love this story. H.A. Has an imagination that’s incomparable. I’m so glad that you are writers. You are both gifts to all readers. Now I’m going back to read it again:-). Thank you.

  48. Perfect way to break up my morning between Payroll and the rest of my day! Wild ride indeed! Thanks IA

  50. Wowzer!! Fantastic chapter!! 📚

    Also – gaaah!! – can’t stand wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets!! Bees are different – food and flower pollinators, extremely essential! 🐝

    • There are plenty of flowers, including some early fruit blossoms like pears, that are pollinated by wasps and hornets (yellow jackets being one kind of hornet). Wasps and hornets also kill a lot of pest insects, thereby protecting fruit and vegetable crops. They do tend to be more aggressive than bees in general, which brings them into more frequent conflict with humans, but they are no less essential than bees.

      That said, the hornets currently building a nest on my cellar entrance will be evicted in a terminal fashion. There are plenty of more distant spots for representatives of their species to build, and they’re not endangered in this area.

  51. I have nothing to say but – weeeeeee! This roller coaster is fun! Thank you – and have a great weekend!

  53. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! All so freaking good. I’m excited to see what the next steps for them both are!

  55. But will Ada find the pink egg?

    the assault team never had a chance, did they?

    When the anchor is destroyed and the breach collapses, are these herders toast?

    Poor Jackson. Not Disney Resort at all. Nobody touches the medic!

    thank you for the whole chapter. hope you have a great weekend.

    • No, I think the anchor just connects the two worlds. The previous owner of the gem are probably someone who got stuck in the breach.

      • she was probably fighting those 4 armed beings and they all got caught in the breach. she had to kill them all or they might “taint” (feels like corrupted Inn Keeper with that flowing shroud reference ;))the new world aka Ada’s earth.

  56. This feels a bit stupid. Not targeting healers is not just something agreed on. That makes it sounds like they are powerless but useful so everybody agrees to spare them from the politics. But in truth it’s kind of the opposite, especially for Jackson. They have too much political weight and everybody should have more sense than to mess with them.
    Just based in his previous description just how many guilds owe him a favor? And how many would act any way in hopes to earn a favor for the future? And he is an S rank healer. That implies that the people who owe him can be S rank, too. Just one of them decides to make an example if this guild and it will end them.

    • I read it like healers save lives, so let’s not jerk them around with political maneuvers-ask if you need their services. Let’s not put any barriers in their way to saving those lives.

      Thx – love the back and forth between the situations!

      Have terrific weekends everyone!

      • I think that the Japanese guild saw an opportunity and acted impulsively, and local police do what they say. It is essentially a petty action, and may have been set up before the emergency. At this point Japan will lose massive face if this gets out. Someone will be forced to resign to soak the blame.
        Other possibilities, contact the Japanese embassy, who can’t afford a no trust reputation with the international community.
        The void Ronin has probably also written up all the incriminating things he observed.

    • The Guilds all pull enormous power, but clearly when egos are hurt, impulsivity still breeds stupid moves! Can’t wait for Elias to Hmm at them 😀

      • No! Not the Hmmmm! Anything but that! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤔🤔🤔🤨🤨🤨🧐🧐🧐😁😂😂😂

        • Oh, I think we’re past Hmmm. Elias is calling in the big guns. Could b he’s calling a bunch of other healers who will all refuse services to that guild, and/or he’s informing the many high powered ppl who owe Jackson favors(which was previously mentioned). Or possibly calling all the guilds that operate in Japan since clearly the government is ‘helping’. If no healers and no other guilds will operate in Japan, that will b a problem for them.

  58. I keep refreshing throughout the week at random times!!!! 🙃 😅 I am so hooked!!
    Thank you@@@

  59. “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
    An excellent snippet including all our favorite characters. And No warning that it is the Last one for the blog.
    Thank you, thank you. 😃

    • No, it’s not the last one 🙂 . Ilona hasn’t said anything about that.

  60. More wonderful creatures and beings and tension and all the good stuff I love about your writing, thank you!

    Question
    How big is an American bus? I automatically think of a British bus, being British, and a double deck at that, so about 30′ long, 8′ wide, 14′ high. I’m guessing HA aren’t thinking of a double deck bus? Sorry for being a pest.

    • Here is what Google has to say: American buses, particularly city transit and school buses, typically range from 35 to 40 feet long 🙂

      • Buses vary in size even in North America depending on their type and purpose. Some of the newer transit buses are long enough that they have an accordion section in the middle to make it easier for them to navigate around street corners.

        Basically, Ada is fighting a wasp the size of the Tyrannasaurus Rex inJurassic Park.

  61. 75 comments in. Not the earliest, but better than I used to manage. I’m glad it’s another Ada installment. I had feared we would be back to Elias.

    • I like Elias moments but cannot WAIT until we’re with him in the breach. This is SO GOOD.

    • I love the Elias segments! Having the contrast between human interpersonal intrigue and the lonely alien adventure heightens both for me.

  62. So many things happening!
    awesomeness in pure form.
    I really liked the 2x POV, it advances both stories beautifully
    I want to whole thing now!!!!
    lol, what patience??!!

  63. I am allergic to wasps and was smiling all the way through! Go Ada. Thank you Ilona and Gordon for a lovely mid work day break.

  64. This is going to be the BEST book!!! I LOVE the moment she realized, “oh wait, I got a bad@ss upgrade and can stomp this heifer”lol

    • This may have been Ada’s snapping moment, like Bear’s earlier when Bear was basically like, eff it, if I’m going down I’m taking this thing down with me. Aggression upgrade: UNLOCKED.

  66. WOW -next week’s installments are going to be fantastic. Both of you are wonderful writers. Have a great weekend

  68. Okay, first and foremost ..excellent! wow is all I can say ..how our heroes have changed.

    Next, the Graphic is chef’s kiss. Those pale spider legs coming out of the flower are both beautiful and terrifying.

    Third and last,
    That last line was directed to the BDH wasn’t it? That dreaded four letter word.

    Thanks, thanks, thanks!

  69. To quote an earlier comment “Weeeeeeee”. So much fun!

    Love the new hair and publicity picture. I hope Gordon’s arm is healing well. Thank you for the fun!

    • For some reason, all this talk of Gordon’s arm made me think it would be in the author photo, so I was mildly surprised it wasn’t prominently on display.

  70. Ooooh, could this be another Easter(spider) egg? Maybe where anansi pearls come from?

    I also loved the dual POV, made me go “squeee”! Is it weird to be turned on by a seriously competent man flexing his administrative muscles? Asking for a friend.

    • But the description of the spiders here (white & green), don’t sound the same as the Anansi spiders in Innkeeper.

      • I ctrl+F for anansi pearls just to see if someone was in the same tinfoil boat as me! Yay I found you! and thank you to someone for checking that the descriptions don’t add up – to which I say, who cares?? Maybe the spiders turn out different when hatched in earth atmosphere vs home planet atmosphere. Or maybe the worker bee spiders from the pearls were always going to be different from the mom + other functional spiders here. Tinfoil boat (tinfoil hats just don’t support multiple wearers) people don’t need more than a looooooooose thread to hang themselves with 🙂

        • I am so happy to crew this ship with you!! The HMS Facts-be-damned has a long and glorious future ahead of it!!

    • That is a terrific thought! Wouldn’t it be great to have the tie-in with Innkeeper? Someone mentioned earlier that the four-armed fighters might also be related to the tainted innkeepers. So much to love about the story. Also Thank You to HA for this exciting installment.

    • had to google to see if that is Inn Keeper too – i think a re-read of all things Innkeeper is coming up…

  71. Great installment!! I didn’t want it to end. I loved the juxtaposition of the two POV characters, too.

    Thank you, House Andrews!

  75. Love this chapter and that we got both POVs in this chapter. I love both Elias and Ada (and I will ship them for forever. #Elada? #Adias? #Elida? Probably not Elida lol, too close to elide.).

    Also, “your cousin from another dimension got a treat” has me rolling with laughter.

  76. The story is so nice and completely unexpected, I love it! Thank you for another great chapter!

  77. what do we think happens to the world inside the gate when an anchor gets destroyed? Will the spider herders die because the anchor collapses the world or does an anchor just collapse the gate entrance?

    • I’m thinking- why is it called an anchor? It makes me think it anchors areas from two different worlds together. Like overlapping the corners of two pieces of paper and then stapling them together. It creates a sort of shared area. Maybe that’s why there’s a delay before it has fully rooted to the second place(Earth, in this case). If you destroy the anchor, then the connection fails. I wonder if there’s an energy release when the anchor is destroyed? I think it was 12-36 hrs until the Earth gate closes, so maybe that’s less sudden and more like the 2 sheets of paper sliding apart.

      • I hope that the anchor is not their gate to the other side. So destroying it traps the beings from the other world in the breach.

  78. OhmyGOODNESS the dual POV? CLASSIC. So good. I read so fast!

    I wonder how grumpy our healer is at being detained. And just where Elias is going with the guild interpolitics…

    I can’t wait for Monday! Squee!

  79. Thank you so much! I am really enjoying this serialization, and it gets my adrenaline going with the build up and the excitement. I’m looking forward to having the entire thing in my greedy hands!

    • Yes!! Same here. It also made me wonder about the spider-silk robe Dina gave Maude. Is this where that silk was harvested from?

      Another great installment, really enjoying this!!

  81. I’m always amazed at how I love everything IA creates. The quality of writing is always there and it has totally spoiled me. I find myself holding other authors to their standards, and most of them disappoint. This story just keeps getting better and better, another new IA world to love!!

  82. Sister from another mister.
    Brother from another mother.
    Now cousin from another dimension 😂 Classic 😄
    Love the new author pic, by the way! New hairstyle rocks, Ilona!💕

  83. If she can find what/where the wasps put the pink/red ‘egg’ and return it to the spider herders, she can get a free passage through… 🙂

  84. incredible chapter, thank you for this masterpiece.
    Loved both fights going on in parallel, both Ada and Elias are strategic thinkers and it was great to see both work toward their goal.
    although Ada got the hard part with the wasp nest. I wonder how the queen was able to throw her off her game. And how she’ll interact with the herders now that she removed the nest. Were those the same beings from the paintings on the cave walls a few chapters back? Will have to reread, just recall the description as familiar. That will ease the way to Monday where we might see how Elias did on the political fight side of things…..
    Happy weekend, love the Inheritance.

  85. OMG, I can’t even process the wasps. Terrifying. I can’t wait to see what Elias set in motion. Such a great story!

    • There isn’t an official date or preorder link yet, but watch this space, it’s coming soon! 🤩

      • I will do the pre-order before I even read the post when the link is available.

    • Good one! I hadn’t thought of that, tho I did wonder about the cave paintings depicting Nuan Cee’s relatives 🤔

      • Oh, I really like this idea! I’m trying to remember what Dina said about the Lees’ home world, but I’m too lazy to go look it up right now.

  90. Oh man, what a way to ratchet up tension, switching back and forth like that. Nice. My adrenaline is still going.

  91. Thanks for the chapter. I read it this morning but I can’t concentrate. My brain is mush… I will do a reread before monday or on monday ^^

  93. so exciting! awesome fight scene. could those beings possibly be the Tachi from innkeeper since we saw the lees?

  95. Ack! Warning! Cliffhanger in progress!

    What a reason to wish that Monday would come sooner, rather than later.

  96. I was refreshing like every second. Only to realise its Thursday 😂 And today I am late to the party. Story of my life 😂 Still love it.

  97. Hmm. I was surprised at herding spiders, until I realized that silk growers do so on earth, just with much smaller spiders.

  98. I neeeed an art book once everything is completed. I’m not sure how many others are interested but I am so down.

    Also, this part of the chapter is *chefs kiss* with the switch between POVs. I love the short bits of Elias’ perspective intertwined.

  100. Wait, are these the same spiders whose silk went into the robe that Maud has? The one that Dina gave her? If so, damn, crossovers are SUBTLE!

    • The BDH facts be darned team power at work here! Doesn’t matter if they say there’s no cross-over, by golly we’ll make it into an IA omniverse! Love it and fully support your thinking! I can totally see the portals being linked to places where the inn can link too! 😁

        • I found Ilona’s comment about Easter eggs which reads: “Who? What lees? I do not know what you’re talking about it. There are no Easter eggs in this novella… 😈”, from the comment section under chapter 6, part 3, posted at 9:44 am. This reads as playful to me, so I am nearly certain that there are, in fact, Easter eggs in this story.

  101. Oh wow! Heart in throat moments for sure with this installment! Sooo good!
    I also was thinking of the Anansi pearls with the spiders – great BDH minds think alike!

  102. oh wow! I love the back and forth
    between the Ada and Elias scenes. Can’t wait until Monday!!

  104. Oh My, that was intense
    I’m petrified of spiders and allergic to wasp stings.
    Sooooo pleased everyone made it 😃

    Thank you for another chapter and have a great weekend

  105. Oh my gosh, Ada!! Yaaaaaaaaasssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Thanks you two! That was wonderful!

  107. I’m so grateful for the engrossing installment today because I had another dental appointment and needed it.

    You gave us a lot to think about. I can’t wait to see how Ada’s gift is received.

    Bear has to go home with Ada at the end.

  109. Wonderful as always! Really enjoying it and looking forward to the final book. And the next one in the series. 😉😁 (Yes Mod R, I know it’s “supposed” to be a stand-alone, but it’s too good for just 1 and I’m trying to positively manifest a series! 😄)

    Thank you! 🤗

  110. Dopamine fix – check
    Adrenaline rush – check
    Relatable female character badassery increase – check
    Dual POV awesomeness – check
    Thank you House Andrews for catapulting me into the weekend with a flourish with yet another rendition of your magnificent writing skills!

    Special Shoutout to Horde members identifying plausible crossovers!

    Sending peace, health and safety to everyone!

    • I feel like the BDH may embrace a variety of definitions of plausible (eg: Team Facts B Damned.) That’s OK, we just need to maximize our fluffiness! OK, y’all, FLUFF…relax…FLUFF…relax…MAXIMUM FLUFFINESS, u can do it! (Panting) Good job everyone! Let’s rest a bit. Take it at your own pace, drink plenty of fluids. We don’t want to lose anyone to overfluffing or fluff-exhaustion.

  111. Okay, excellent storytelling as usual but I admit to confusion regarding Adaline ‘s talents. When did the bleeping with time occur? It seems way out of spec with what she has shown to date although it’s an awesome one to have acquired. Hoping Gordon is doing well and the new do is very attractive.

  117. Very interesting that in this alien world the scale of humans and bugs is turned on its head. I get heebie jeebies over spiders the size of my hand and wasps, which would fit in my hand. So yeah this chapter was like a horror story for me. She ran because of the heebie jeebie factor and then overcame it.

  118. I love the way this was constructed. A very real, physical contest vs the relatively calm, political maneuvering. The contrasting feel brought the two struggles into the same space somehow. and the last line just brought it all together. I laughed at that!

    Unfortunately, no matter how many times I read the story, nothing new appears until the prescribed days. Where’s a Tardis or Delorian when you need one?

  119. Yup, yes I am totally addicted. I just stop whatever I am doing when the latest installment posts. Love that IA makes Bear smart and the best doggo ever, but she is still a dog, falling back on her training, barking her head off, alerting the nest. Not strategically brilliant, but totally believable.
    Ok did anyone else notice:
    1. The gift being offered for safe passage? That does sound like a Dina/Innkeeper overlap (thinking of the gift of water to the other world caravan leaders and
    2. Is the anchor sentient? Did anyone else pick up that Ada can “feel” it ..”radiating discomfort.” Huh, make friends with the nice anchor instead of destroying it…? Maybe I am totally off here. Also bet the pink spider ball is royalty or something special.

    • Oh wow, your remark re sentience of the anchor made me totally think “what if the anchors are really a warped version of the Inns from Innkeeper, that it’s a being trying to connect to different realities the way an Inn does?”

      Now, normally I’m really not a member of Team Facts Be Dmnd but this definitely sparked my inner conspiracy theorist 😉

      (Doesn’t hold up though, if you take into account that there are so many portals, presumably also at the same time, whereas an Inn takes a lot of time to make a single connection.)

      • I think you have a valid point. The petroglyphs gives us the Innkeeper universe link. The multiple sentient species imply that there is some sort of network. Corruption is a universal concept. We don’t know enough to understand the shape of things yet, but we do know that in the author verse stable dimensional warps in space are a thing, and temporary portals are a thing, and population moving planetary gates are a thing if you are willing to destroy the planet in the process.
        The cave systems have an assortment of ecosystems, so possibly the breaches are actual bridges made from different world chunks across space time.

        My question of the moment is whether the monsters that come out of the breach look like they all come from the same world.

        • I guess we’ll have to w*it and be p*tient to find out how wildly off the mark we are with our wild speculation 😉

  125. Wheeeeeeeee!!!

    When the chapter ended I muttered so loudly I had to explain myself to my coworkers… unfortunately theyre not fantasy fans, so I can’t recruit them for the BDH…

    “Fear filled me. I was overflowing with it.” > I wholeheartedly agree with those who believe the queen emitted some kind of fear pheromone or something.

    “Fuck this shit. Why the hell was I running?” > Baahaahaa Go Ada!!! Recognize yourself as the strong badass you are!

    I’m leaving this chapter with a happy contented smile. Still can’t w*it for Monday though!

    • All those careful, conservative life habits out the window, bye! Maybe she’ll take her paid leave, hunt down the ex and chop up his boat, while explaining to all his new friends what a selfish bastard he is.

  126. Wow! This story just gets better. Ada’s evolution is masterful. The duo POV stop me in my tracts. Great chapter! Thank you!

  127. So I’ve been on a blog hiatus and come back to find seven awesome chapters on a Friday which means I have to wait until Monday to read another installment. The positive is I had seven chapters to read all at once. The negative is that now? I have to wait until everyone else to read the rest. lol. Thank you both for this awesome story. I can’t wait til Monday (who says that??- me!!!)
    Also a question I’ve always wanted to ask why does someone always ask first and what does that mean? Is it the first post? Do you get something for being the first to post? Just curious…

    • Yes, it’s getting the first comment under a blog post 🙂 . It’s just a game, you don’t win anything except the glory of being first when so many are refreshing hehe.

  128. I get off work and get here as soon as I could start the computer.

    I see the lovely orange flower, and then realize something’s off about the stamen sticking out of it. They look like… skeletal fingers… or… spider legs…

    I read the story. *twitch twiwtch* Yeah, I hate being right. Spiders. HUGE DAMN SPIDERS. Wait, there’s spider-eating wasps too?
    *twitchtwiwtc* Thank you for that trip into my nightmares.

    Great chapter! 🙂

  129. Nature geek is loving the spider v. wasp ecosystem. I always root for the spiders myself! Even if no anansi pearls are involved. Especially, in fact – IRL it’s grimmer for the spiders. Glad no actual spiders were harmed in the making of this chapter!

  130. I avoid movies or books that are dark, scary (zombies, killer dolls, etc) and violence. Let’s just say that I scream watching the original Scooby Doo cartoons. It sucks but I realize that I would be that stupid character who hears something and..
    opens the door. Or freeze in a zombie or vampire world…. I have to say that from the beginning of reading The Inheritance, my heart was pounding and hand covering my mouth. Ugh! I just did it again while reading today’s release. But I’m hooked! I’m constantly thinking about it.

  131. didnt Dina use spiders that grew from flowers …. more Innkeeper world crossover???

  132. She seeded her front lawn with ‘pearls’ that ‘grew’ spiders that attacked the mercenary group that was hunting her (the bird man like species)…

  134. So safe passage to the anchor or closer to the anchor may have been achieve, and perhaps even some ‘guidance’ on getting there? A guide, oooh.

  136. I hope the spideherds value the return of the pink egg so much that they provide Ada an escort as she goes further in.

  137. Wow. Definitely a roller coaster, but in a good way. Loved the switching between POVs. Glad they found Jackson, but maybe by the time they’re geared up Ada will have rescued herself and Bear.

  138. Thank you, now Ada and Bear come bearing Gifts! I will try very hard not to be chalant until Monday.

  139. Phew! Action-packed Friday! I really enjoyed jumping back and forth between Ada and Elias. Good dog, Bear!

  140. Really enjoying each snippet. The urge to preorder is very strong. Must keep reminding myself : p*tience grasshopper. However, when the day comes that Mod R says we can preorder, this grasshopper will sprint to Amazon. Thanks again for sharing the story with us along the way. Have a good weekend.

  141. Holy smokes! Wasps are the devil to kill, and I’m wondering what that pink egg is. Thank you for a fabulous story. Loving the retribution coming to different ones (hopefully). The suspense as to what she’s becoming is exquisite. Bear is the best.

  142. So are these maybe the spiders that Dina trades Nuan Cee honey for in their fight against the Dakaha or are these the spiders that make the silk used in Dinas innkeeper robe? I will give you money if we can read it all now. I should have held out longer before starting. This is torture.

  143. Love, love, love this story. Just consumed it from beginning through Chpt. 7 in one binge. So Good.

  144. Enjoyed the dual POV. It feels like things are accelerating as we move into the home stretch and the two narratives start to converge.
    Jackson’s disappearance, the delay on Elias’ breach dive, is being resolved, and Ada is gaining a path to the anchor. They’re both removing obstacles, not knowing that what they are closing in on is each other. Love it!

    Also really appreciating Ada’s evolution from debilitating fear to desperate self-defence against a giant silverfish to battling stalkers to besting the queen wasp in her own nest. Instead of a sudden 180 degree transformation from noncombatant we get deliberate growth leading to: “ uck this shit. Why the hell was I running?”
    Thank you!

  145. I’m a little confused when Ada is describing the scene. When she mentions the color things are does she mean the color her power sees that means various things? Or just that that is the color her normal eyes see? Or is she starting to just use her powers routinely so she doesn’t always need to make an extra effort, and just flexes instinctively?

    • She usually prefaces things by “I flexed” when she activates her Talent vision, and describes layers and more in-depth colour meaning 🙂

  146. Thank you thank you House Andrews for this roller coaster of a story. The serial makes my Saturday & Tuesday breakfasts special, even with all the cliffhangers!!!!

  147. ohhhh Elias and Ada

    nice to see what is happening in ‘same time’

    thanks for another wonderful bit

  148. Ada’s turning point-“Fuck this shit. Why the hell was I running?”. I suspect Ada and Bear will exit the gate before Elias et al is fully mobilized, and then woe be unto London and Melissa.

    • I think that her plan is to get to the anchor and wait for the new team, because she can’t find the way out on her own.
      I have gotten the impression that any kind of sentience is very rare and inevitably hostile. There is no hint that communication has ever been possible in the breaches.
      I am also wondering about getting the mining done. This breach has epic levels of minerals. they must be planning a big mining team to at least get all the adamantite. There are a lot of death benefits to pay.
      Going over the eventual mining will probably not fit in the story, but I look forward to a paragraph or two about the guild protocols for this.

  150. HA is so brilliant. The juxtaposition of Ada in an intense battle, and Bear saving her from whatever fear pheromone the queen was giving… meanwhile Elias is having a “phone battle” and you just know it was juicy as can be and extremely polite but devastating. Hope we get the transcript later 😉

    • I know right?! I was watching The Art of Negotiation recently, KDrama about a Merger and Acquisitions manager – you’d think it’d be a total snoozefest reading a description like that but no, it is totally cutthroat and suspenseful, all he does is talk to people and you’re still on the edge of your seat 😂

  152. Thank you, I love this story. I appreciate everything you write as truly brings me Joy. The wait between chapters feels like a punishment. I’m so anxious for the next episode

  154. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ House Andrews is fan-bloody-tastic!!!!!

  155. Thank you for the pun too. She’s in a fissure on the side of a cliff… a literal cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.

  156. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

  158. When are they going into the breach? It’s been a while. I am glad they found Jackson. I am thinking Elias called some healers and told them what happened in Japan so now the Japanese guild might find it extremely difficult to get a healer and the Japanese government as well. It’s cute how Bear has munchies all the time now and feasting on stalker meat.

    My question is : are these all from some same world or is there multiple worlds in the breach. So many extreme fauna and flora.

  161. I love the BDH so much!
    Ilona: There are no Easter Eggs.
    BDH: Foxes, you say? The Lees!
    Ilona: No Easter Eggs.
    BDH: Robes? You mean like..Corrupted ah-hal!
    Ilona: No. Eas..
    BDH: Tachi? Anansi Pearls? Spider silk?
    Visions of IA inventions dance in our heads. We cannot help ourselves 🙂

    • Ilona specifically said there were no Easter eggs in the story. Fine — the Easter Bunny will NOT be making an appearance. We, the BDH, understand and accept that COMPLETELY.

      But Easter is unlikely to be a holiday celebrated by any of the alien races in the wider Innkeeper universe, so none of the beings mentioned in the earlier speculations probably even know what an Easter egg was….

      Release the BDH Team Facts Be Damned!

  162. I wonder about Ada’s kids. Will they simply wait in safety or will they have a bigger role?

  163. Are the spider herders the Tachi? and are the spiders Fonarii silk spiders? (now that we saw murals of the Lees, I am on the lookout for other species from the Innkeeper series).
    It does not matter if they are not, I am so excited anyway 😀

  164. Holy cow!! Great installment. Who needs coffee when there are excerpts like this?! I’m so wired that I won’t even bother with the other half of my only cup of coffee for the day (yes, I’m a lightweight). I so love IA’s writing, and I also love reading all the comments from the BDH. A terrific start to the day!

  171. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 loved! Very helpful with my staying awake with baby who was supposed to be sleeping for another 2-3 hours!

  173. Damn. I might just have to stop here and wait for the whole thing to be published. I’m so chalant my heart cant take the suspense!!!!

  175. I think the artist you chose does a good job of matching the art to what I perceive to be the craggy, ruggedness feel of the story. AND I really, really like their style. Will the art be included in the releases of the story (print and ecopy)? And does the artist also get commission on book sales or is it usually a one-time-only payment once the art is commissioned?

  176. Wonderous! I look forward to buying the book….the audio book…then the graphic audio dramatized audio book!

  177. Dual POV post, love it! Waiting until Monday, attempting patience loading…… so slow loading 🙃.

  178. Loving this!

    Spider herders, giant wasps, kick-butt Ada and Bear, Elias TCB, what a hoot!

  179. What extraordinary authors you are!!! So many thanks for all the wonderful stories. One question: both of Ada’s legs were injured, one had a cut that hit the bones, but immediately afterwards she is running and jumping. Is this regeneration in triple time, or is it possible to do this with enough adrenaline and superpowers?

  180. Thank you for this installment. Made an incredibly crappy Friday bearable. Got bad news.

  181. Great story. And I enjoy the art work.I figure the confusion under attack by the queen wasp was due to an effect of the lavender flowers they waded through to get to the fissure.

  182. Love the Juxtaposition between Ada and Elias. Worried about that wasp leg in her leg… Can’t wait til Monday!!! (and what who did Elias talk to to get Jackson free?)

  185. One of my favorite things about HA is their sense of parity. This chapter shows us that Team Ada-Bear is kicking ass on their own. They are driven, intelligent, and their developing relationship is wholly engrossing. The love and loyalty between them is beautiful.

    Meanwhile, the plot pieces with Elias give credit to his character as well. He is not swooping in like some moron without the facts, a proper team, etc. Yes, he thinks everyone is likely dead, but he is assessing the situation like a good leader, protecting his people from rash decisions but acting with a huge sense of urgency.

    Mirroring the characters’ reactions to the roadblocks that each encounter is masterful, allowing us to weave connections between them and world build in an interesting way. Thank you for sharing your art with us each week, it is a true joy and a gift!

  186. Things are moving fast now, love the fight scene , more power to the guilds arm too and Jackson is back in the fold quickly, thanks.

  189. I looked at the art work again. That’s a spider going into or coming out of the flower! So clever! And I’m going to have to to wait to see how things turn out. Like always, but this time it will require more patience. Uggh! When House Andrews turns up the tension and anticipation, it’s hard not to whine about the wait. I signed up for this when I started reading the weekly blog, but . . . It’s so exciting! Hurry up and get here, Friday!

  191. Me encanta el punto de vista dual.
    Estos mostruos me recuerdan a otros que son convocados de un portal en otra de sus series, no recuerdo cual, solo un tigre con tentaculos. Teoria loca,¿ podria ser este reino del que son convocados?

  193. What I want to know is why the bug people don’t seem to feel the draw to the anchor. All things answered in their own time!

    A spider dropped onto me while I was reading through the comments, very spooky!

    To follow up on the potential veracity of the facts from Team Facts Be Damned:

    Tachi- are described as “vaguely humanlike” (page 82, Sweep of the Blade). This is the only relevant descriptor from that passage because the only information we get from Ada is that her creatures are “humanoid”, “oddly insectoid”, and have a “slender appendage”. On pages 87 and 88 of Sweep of the Blade, the tachi are described as making clicking noises that are described as chuckling or sounds of approval, so they can “click” to human ears like Ada’s creatures do. The most conclusive fact here is that Ada does not know if these are tachi or not.

    Anansi pearls- during the end battle in Clean Sweep, Dina describes the pearls as pulsating before they hatch (page 214). Her spiders are the size of a fist, with backs that glow electric green. They inject lethal poison that liquifies their victims. A full “clutch” is 32 pearls (page 188) and a clutch refers to the protective silk coating around egg sacs. We know that these eggs will make a cart heavy, but I believe that is all the description we have on that. On page 215, Dina describes the spiders let loose by the pearls as the Anansi’s children. Perhaps the spiders Ada is seeing are the Anansi. It would make sense that Dina’s fist-sized creatures, called “children”, would be the smaller version of the big car-sized or donkey-sized spiders that Ada sees. Also there is evidence of the lees in conjunction with the appearance of these spiders.

    silk robe (Fonarii?)- Ada’s spider herders appear to be feeding the spiders and collecting their egg sacs, which are wrapped in silk and glow. This could mean that they are collecting the spider silk from the egg sacs, or this is a collect eggs like from captive snakes kind of situation (they collect the eggs to care for them independently of the parent). Given that this cavern contains hundreds of spiders, I think it is more likely that between collecting spider silk for robes and collecting apparently rare Anansi pearls, the spider herders are primarily husbanding the spiders for silk purposes. Or maybe both, but the pink eggs are rare anansi pearls and the cream are regular reproductive eggs.

    • Which came first, Anansi the African spider/trickster god, or a spider species from a different dimension called Anansi? Was there an anomalous breach way back in Earth history, or is Anansi an Earth-centric name for the species? Inquiring minds wonder.

  195. Zdając się na technologię i wujka Google dziękuję w swoim ojczystym języku 🙂 To jest kapitalne . Z każdym udostępnionym fragmentem wsiąkam coraz mocniej w tę historię i przy ostatnim zdaniu już czekam na c.d.n. Jesteście Najlepsi 🙂

  197. I cannot wait for the full book to come out! This story is such an adrenaline rush!

  198. I could not check Friday’s blog post until just now, and can I just say HOLY COW, what a great post! I can hardly wait until Monday….hey, that’s tomorrow!!!!!!! 🥰💕💕💕

    Thanks HA for writing such amazing stories with awesome world building and such complex and interesting characters…you certainly go above and beyond every time you provide the BDH with such treasures!

    (And thank you Mod R for being the best Mod EVER and the ever beloved ‘den-mother’ of the BDH!)

  199. Now, Ilona has not said anything about this being the last post, so

    I am hopeful that she has written herself into a tight spot and Gordon will say something useful, like we can always add a few more chapters….

    I seem to recall when he announced she did not have too much yarn but just needed more shelves and storage.

    For my part, I want lots of Ada. I am not sure if she is going to show up with Maud and Dina, or if there is a crossover with another series. I personally think that Arabella Baylor would be a good candidate for leading teams into the breach!

  200. Is it true? Breaking news from Facebook…. Two additional chapters????

  201. Oooooh! I can’t wait for the next installment! The excitement factor is ramping up, and I’m loving it.

  202. Well, my observation is lacking.
    I was just studying the artist drawing of the flowers and noticed the eggs for the first time.

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