Firefly update + new chapter teaser · 7:44pm May 27th, 2022
The latest Changeling chapter has 6100 words written, and I consider it likely that I’ll have a completed draft by tomorrow night, running around 9000 words long. I’m doing my best to take DB’s Changeling lore and run with it, with perspectives from all those seen before, and the highlight of the chapter will be a quick confrontation between Queen Lepidoptes herself and Talaeus mage Optio Camilea Aeylyn at battle’s end. I’m trying to expand on her skillset by answering a question regarding whether or not Gryphon mages can actually teleport like unicorns or (as seen in Feathered Heart), the Ibex. I give her one genuine badass moment, and the Queen in turn.
I have a three-day weekend coming up. Best guess for a release day is Monday or Tuesday night. And after that? More Firefly, as we show General Rock Biter’s attempt to slip the latest Imperial trap, which you’ll get some hints of in this coming Changeling chapter.
Before release, however, there is one more thing I’ll have to do. I have to go back into the earlier Changeling chapters and retcon them to match the new timeline. Lyco’s training and crossing of the Celestial straits to Equis will now happen much quicker, but he’ll still get all his training through a method that will become important later in Feathered Hearts. What do I mean? You’ll just have to wait and see, but suffice it to say for now, the Changelings will be appearing in that story, and sooner rather than later.
A teaser? Sure. The following snippet is told through the eyes of Optio Camilea Aeylyn, Talaeus mage and blade magic prodigy:
Gryphon Empire - Mosclaw
Tunnels beneath East District
September 6th, 1139 Common Era (Year 33 in the reign of Empress Palemecia)
0320 hours
The previous five minutes had been a literal whirlwind of battle, and mayhap I can be excused for not recalling all of it nor really wishing to.
I had flown, blown, sliced and cast my way through at least two decades worth of Changeling soldiers, which included what I later learned were their more heavily armored regular soldiers, which seemed roughly the equivalent of Talons with the additional ability to shapeshift into more powerful forms to good effect, and their elite Raven-like assassins who struck suddenly from the shadows to cut us down one or two at a time before melting back into the tunnels, all but daring us to chase them. But we had learned by then not to, as they were trying to isolate us for attack by more of their brethren.
Or worse, lead us into another rigged corridor where some evil spell or projectile trap could be triggered. ‘Twas certain the Ravens were normally quite good at detecting such things, but their existing assortment of sensory items given them by the Office of Owls were simply not keyed to detect changeling magic.
Methinks we’d lost fully forty percent of our two-century sized incursion force by then, with particularly heavy casualties among the lead Ravens, who, though certainly well-trained in breach tactics and corridor combat, found such advantages negated by our still mostly unfamiliar foe. As the casualty reports continued to come in, at least when we broke through their magical interference on their scrying networks, methinks I wondered why this operation had been rushed so badly when our forces were still so unprepared.
Reports of failures were constant, from the modified flight goggles that were supposed to allow us to identify a disguised changeling proved almost completely ineffective whilst the mages I had painstakingly trained were variously falling to ambushes or simply being overwhelmed by a barrage of magical bolts their drones could fire when not stealthed. Though I knew not how their arsenal or power compared to Equestrian unicorns then, it boded ill, I thought, if we couldn’t best them.
But for all our losses, we were also slowly gaining the upper hand on our adversary despite how well-prepared they were for us. Slowly, our tactics crystallized to pin down a blocking force from one direction whilst trying to flank them from another whilst their assassins and tunnel traps were at least slowed by filling each corridor with wind-aided blasts of fire or razorwind from my blade.
Finally properly organized and prepared for the foe we faced, we began to drive them deeper into their hive with our remaining forces, leaving a succession of broken defensive lines around chokepoints in our wake strewn the bodies of their armored soldiers and the occasional assassin when resistance stiffened again.
As we had already passed what looked like an abandoned and rather ornate throne room—which we had not entered for certainty that it was trapped and would probably kill us gruesomely if we entered it without a great deal of magical preparation, we did not have time for—I ordered the mingled force of Ravens and mages I had gathered to me to hold fast while I penetrated what appeared to be the final defensive line as our remaining foe fell back.
“Your desire to risk yourself in order to protect your force does you great credit, but we know not what is ahead, and you should not face the unknown without backup,” Vimal told me, to which my glare hardened and beak clenched.
“We have already lost nearly two turmas of soldiers, Centurion. Nogryphon else is dying because we stumbled onto any more traps we were not ready for or those assassin drones we could not sense or counter,” I told him in a tone that brooked no argument.
“You are acting out of emotion, and not out of military need. On that basis, I could order you to stop, Optio,” he pointed out, the use of my rank telling me he was not happy with me.
“I would rather you didn’t,” I replied tersely, “because I do not wish to be accused later of disobeying a direct order of my superior.”
Vimal stared at me and shook his head. “For one so young, methinks you’re as stubborn as any old crow,” my combat mentor replied without any humor. “So be it. I know better than to keep you from something you have your mind set on. And since you do not wish me by your side, I will hold the cordon and await your signal. But do try not to get yourself killed. Certain gryphons have grown rather fond of you and treasure every feather of your form.”
This is probably going to get fleshed out more when all is said and done, but you should get the idea. There will be three perspectives in this new chapter—the same three as the previous Changeling chapter, as seems appropriate. Lycovenado will not be one of them, as his reemergence in just about Equestria deserves his own chapter. He will be heard from, however. Quite literally, in the case of Queen Lepidoptes.
Text to speech for the win. Great teaser.
I'm looking forward to the next chapter.