You are a heartlands mantis nymph training to become a Vesperbane, a warrior-scholar granted magic. That’s the hope, and it’d let you escape this dinky farm-town plonked at edge of the heartlands, where the Ambrosia Woods breathes down its thorax. Unless — until — you you get noticed and sponsored, you’re stuck out here, peerless and overqualified for your tutors. Frustration and impatience come easy.
One day, alone, you hear a scream from the depths of those cursed woods. It’s a mantid’s scream, and heartlands mantids don’t live in the ambrosia.
Contents
- Arc 1 (~20900 words + ~1400 words of apocrypha)
- Interlude Arc: Marka (~86100 words + ~2500 words of apocrypha)
- Arc 2 (~28500 words)
- Interlude Arc?
- Part B1 (~8200 words
Some changes or retcons have been made. See errata.