Fortunately, thanks to the time she had spent listening to liturgies at the shrines, Laewyn was familiar with the spirits of the woodlands. Unfortunately, as Celaena contorted in her sleep and muttered fevered words in the tongue of sylvan creatures, Laewyn had no other experience of them, and so breathed out in relief as Iolas finished explaining what was happening.
“You had ...
2025-04-03 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLaewyn was fully dressed when Saphienne and Iolas entered Celaena’s study, sitting by the window in a clean set of clothes identical to those she had worn the day before; she flushed as she exchanged polite greetings with them. Celaena hovered near the entrance as she blushed with her, and she promptly excused herself from the room, murmuring that she would fetch them all te...
2025-04-01 12:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostOnce the demonstration had concluded, and the doused braziers had been returned inside with the other implements, Almon instructed the three apprentices to sit on the grass and take notes while he lectured them at length on the discipline of Abjuration. But before he began, he informed them that they would not be covering all the principles that governed its practice, just as they had...
2025-03-27 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostRain poured down across the Eastern Vale, flowing down the sloped centre of the grove and on through the elaborate, winding channels that led to the western river. Saphienne always liked the rain, and when she was little she hadn’t cared whether she was soaked through from walking in it, much to the amusement of others. Now in her teens, she pulled up the thick hood of her outer...
2025-03-25 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne and Celaena found Iolas waiting for them outside the bakery, still plucking flowers from his robes as he leant next to the wide window. Saphienne settled next to him while Celaena went inside.
They said nothing for a time; the grove was quiet, still yet hours away from the afternoon rush when most elves socialised and collected their provisions. The only other people on the ...
2025-03-20 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostAlways quick to think of others, Iolas sprang toward Celaena the moment she collapsed within the gravel circle — though not swiftly enough to break her fall. He took her hand in his own and squeezed as he studied her sweating face. “Celaena? Can you hear me?”
The wizard loomed over them both in his blue robes, his voice given weight by the yellow spell aglow around his...
2025-03-18 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe horror that Saphienne and Iolas felt as they watched the spirit leave the circle was joined by terror, both apprentices swiftly backing away from the creature now inhabiting Celaena. That something terrible had happened to their friend was immediately apparent: she moved with stilted clumsiness, as though her legs were new to her, yet carried herself with a relaxed ease that the elf had never...
2025-03-13 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne could be forgiven for thinking that all her lessons in magic would take the form of gentle demonstration followed by intellectual discussion. After all, while he had emphasised the wonder and awe in spellcasting, Almon had stressed that magic was an exercise in careful thinking and observation. Nor was she alone in that expectation; Iolas and Celaena both found their studies academically...
2025-03-11 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThere are months when nothing makes sense, and moments when everything at last comes together — when all the puzzling pieces that were scattered along the path suddenly click into place. Saphienne had one such moment when she arrived before Celaena’s house, gazing beyond a gate in a low wall that surrounded a hill which steeply climbed through terraced gardens overgrown with budding flo...
2025-03-06 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostIn retrospect, Saphienne realised she had made an assumption: she had counted on the fact that Peacock would be able to read her notes. She realised her oversight while walking with Iolas to their second day of lessons, but said nothing to him, preferring instead to practice small talk about the weather; she didn’t want to give him any further reason to think less of her.
As th...
2025-03-04 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I suppose the solstice festival feels long ago to you, given your age. You don’t remember, then?”
Brought back to the present as Gaeleath spoke, Saphienne stepped forward, as though she were carefully examining the trio of unfinished sculptures, reaching out to touch the sandstone with one hand while she wiped her eyes with the other — keeping her back to the sculptor. She tilted...
2025-02-27 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThere had been a puppet show for the children. Saphienne would remember that, nearly five years later.
She had been nine years old, golden haired now summer had arrived, wearing her usual sundress — while all the other children wore clothes reserved for special occasions. In her unfolding memory she was sat at the back of the audience in the tented pavilion, beside Kyla...
2025-02-25 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the tea was finished, and the wind stirred restlessly through the bushes, the apprentices stood and exchanged farewells. Celaena hugged Iolas and then Saphienne before she took their empty cups, and she departed to the teahouse with a promise to see them next morning.
Iolas walked with Saphienne toward her house, lengthening his stride to keep up with her as she floated ...
2025-02-20 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAlthough Saphienne knew the layout of the village well, she had seldom spent time in public spaces other than the library. Her mother disliked going out unless she had to, and children under the age of fourteen were not able to request provisions, not without a responsible adult to deliver the request on their behalf. Library books were different, owing to the fact that they were borrowed an...
2025-02-18 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSpare a thought for Celaena and Iolas as they sat with Saphienne in the parlour of their master. Although both were older than her – Celaena turned sixteen, Iolas still seventeen – and had prepared for longer to secure their start as Almon’s apprentices, even from that very first day of lessons, they knew Saphienne was ahead of them.
No matter that they were both ...
2025-02-13 13:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
Have you ever finished doing something, only to figure out how to do it better, just a little too late? That was me, a week after I launched TEWWBAD: I suddenly realised a simple and profound improvement I could make to my writing.
Going by the Royal Road stats, people were enjoying the story. But, according to those...
2025-02-12 20:39:54 +0000 UTC View PostWalking through the village while under a magic spell was quite unlike anything Saphienne had experienced before. She had never tried wine – despite the many bottles her mother kept under the stairs, she had never once been interested – and didn’t really know how it felt to be drunk; but the accounts of drunkenness she had read came back to her as she made her way toward the li...
2025-02-11 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne, Celaena, and Iolas were all very excited for their first practical lesson in magic, and when their master stood to begin, the three apprentices straightened up where they sat cross-legged on the floor before him. Yet all of them were teenagers, and all felt it very important not to show too much enthusiasm before Almon — lest they appear childish.
Each attempted ...
2025-02-06 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostTo ensure she wouldn’t arrive last, on her first day of lessons Saphienne set out for the wizard’s abode even earlier, still yawning as she made her way through the outskirts of the village. Her lingering tiredness vanished the instant she came within sight of the towering tree — seeing another girl in apprentice’s robes, reaching for the door.
“Celaena!”
Celaen...
2025-02-04 05:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostSee Saphienne as she was becoming, the forthright young girl, fourteen years old. Her hair was once more brown as the earth, and she was still pale — though even these features had begun to lose their resemblance to those of the quiet child she once was, her hair thicker, gloss beginning on her skin. Her eyes were still green, but their childlike openness and passivity had been replac...
2025-02-04 05:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostUpon noticing Faylar waiting in the grove, Saphienne shut the door to her family home slowly, curious about why he was just standing there. He had obviously seen her come outside from where he was waiting, but he had said nothing, pretending instead that he was preoccupied by the morning clouds drifting overhead. A gust of wind ruffled his short hair, the breeze sending ripples a...
2025-02-04 05:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe man who emerged from Saphienne’s family home was dressed against the cold, wearing a long, padded coat that was split at the front and back, the woollen scarf around his neck wound very tightly. He carried a saddle over his shoulder as he ducked through the doorway, and the braided tail of his long, white hair whipped back as he straightened up — to see Saphienne standing with ...
2025-02-04 05:05:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn her countless hours in the village library, Saphienne had read that elves possessed much better eyesight and hearing than many other creatures, and that most of the shorter-lived peoples considered their senses miraculous. She found the thought that someone would be so easily impressed quite amusing, though imagining how much duller the world must seem to them made her sad.
Howe...
2025-02-04 05:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostBy now you have a faint inkling of the woman Saphienne would become, and the people who shaped her as she grew. Two of the five moments that defined her have been described, and we crossed out of her early childhood some time ago.
So too the hour that you were to listen has elapsed. Tell me: does the hoard still command your attention? Would you care to fill your pockets now? Or wo...
2025-01-28 15:14:28 +0000 UTC View PostOn the night of her first confrontation with the wizard Almon, Saphienne was physically tired, having spent the day working with stone. And yet, as she walked back through the outskirts of the village, she felt wide awake, her thoughts thrumming in her mind like a stringed instrument that had been plucked for the first time. All the snowy world around her was hushed in anticipation, ready ...
2025-01-28 15:14:20 +0000 UTC View PostThere was no reaction from the other elves when the illusory glade of flowers and floating stars dissolved away, not immediately, their silence made starker by the wintery clearing to which they had returned.
Almon found his voice first. “Must you dispute everything, child?”
The wizard was livid; his face had flushed dark red, and he threw up his suspended arm in i...
2025-01-28 15:14:14 +0000 UTC View PostOn the day of Saphienne’s twelfth birthday she had risen with the dawn, bathing herself while her mother still slept. As the first light of day shone through the windows of her family home she brushed out and tied back her then brown hair, put on freshly cleaned clothes, and made herself a simple breakfast of wholegrain breads and mulberries. She thought about eating the strawberrie...
2025-01-28 15:14:07 +0000 UTC View PostMonths before Saphienne stood in the parlour and answered the wizard, she had been examined for apprenticeship by another accomplished artist.
Gaeleath had arrived at her family home early in the morning, to be met by her mother, who brought the sculptor inside and called up the stairs for Saphienne. Descending toward them, Saphienne heard a casual offer of wine despite the early hour,...
2025-01-28 15:14:00 +0000 UTC View Post“What in the world? Another interruption?”
The wizard had remained seated in his chair when the door flew open under Saphienne’s knock, though the three elves that stood before him had jumped, surprise written on their faces.
Almon maintained his cool, sitting back. “I told you, girl, another time. You are far too young to begin–”
Saphienne stro...
2025-01-28 15:13:50 +0000 UTC View PostWith all the options Saphienne had before her, even Filaurel thought it strange when the young elf chose tailoring as her next art. The girl had an extremely keen mind, and while there was a certain creativity involved in designing clothes, the work was far from intellectually demanding. And as for personal interests, she had never shown particular care in how she dressed herself… nor ha...
2025-01-28 15:13:22 +0000 UTC View Post