This project got abandoned pretty quickly, I really meant to post my chapter two, but I lost the file for it twice and then just gave up. two years later, and now I really don't know how I'd recover this one.

  That said, I don't think I need to. I've started writing up something new in my free time, and I thought it'd be fun to give it a try again. It's a systemless progression fantasy, and I'll be posting it on here sometime in the next few weeks, when my preparatory backlog is ready. I hope you'll give it a try when it's out. This chapter will be updated with a redirect when it's available.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  See y'all soon, hopefully with something legit this time.

  Swirling, flowing essence roiled like a sea far above and removed from the world below it. Six great absence-holes ran through it, and it did not hurt because there was nothing to hurt. But it ached. It knew what it should be, what it was not, and it longed to be whole. First it tried to pull from the world, but the world began to weaken, and it knew that would not do. It cast itself upward, outward, seeking other realms in great tendrils. It would know what it needed when it found it. First it needed to search. A flash of Blue within the nearest world set it seeking. The patch it needed was within. It just needed to seize it.

  ***

  Rafferty did not like being on the run. The king had put people watching his and his relative’s estates a few days before the official announcement that he was to be executed. He’d been planning for the announcement for the past week, and yet still, he hadn’t anticipated the people’s response. The losses in North Anglis had cost him much of their goodwill. Still, he had friends in the capital willing to keep him hidden.

  It worked for the first day. They came knocking the second, and that was where he tore his jacket. It was silk, and likely worth more than himself at this point. He had to leave out of a back window, narrowly escaping the kingsguard who’d come knocking. He lost his pocket watch somewhere between the first and second safehouse. It had been a gift from his father, now to some urchin on the street. Finding himself disgusted at the thought, Rafferty turned back for the thing, damning himself with his sentimentality.

  He did manage to find the watch. It was in the middle of a market, one that had earlier been empty. Now, the market was opening and he was having a profound realization. He would not be able to get this watch without being caught. So he chose to face the king with his father beside him. Things went dark at some point, trying to fight his way out.

  When he came to, his head was throbbing, and he was kneeling. His ankle throbbed in time with his head, those pose intentionally straining his old limp. A crowd roared around him. “TRAITOR” “COWARD” “YOU KILLED MY DAD” They yelled, mixed with “OFF WITH HIS HEAD” and “KILL HIM ALREADY.”

  The king looked down on Rafferty. Literally, as he towered above the kneeling man, sword in hand. With a booming voice, he silenced the crowd.

  “You see before you a charlatan and coward. The liar who led your fathers, your brothers, your sons to their death. Know him by his name, for it is the last time it shall be spoken in these lands. House Valentin shall rule no more within the kingdom of Alcardia, and their name shall go unspoken lest you desire to join them. Rafferty Valentin, know you have not just killed yourself, but your family and all who aided and followed you.” The king monologued to his audience, motioning to Rafferty and hefting his blade up to rest on one shoulder. A butterfly flapped its way into Rafferty’s sight, landing on the sword’s tip for only a moment before fluttering to him.

  “Make peace with your gods, o’ ‘Mystic Marshal.’ I hope they do not take you kindly.” And then the blade was falling, and pain bit his neck, numbing everything else. The butterfly was a gorgeous deep blue, and rather large. Or… It had landed on his nose. Rafferty smiled despite his circumstances. Everything faded to the blackest blue.

  ***

  The Blue flashed again, more hurried. Mana watched it, waiting. The longing to be whole never changed, and yet to have a hope so close left it pulling more than usual. The Blue flashed again. Four wings beating. Flying closer and closer to the edges of its realm. It was time. It had never been whole before but it will be. The patch will fill some of the longing. Mana felt a tug as the winged thing landed atop its feelers, those that had infiltrated the edges of the plane.

  It devoured the thing eagerly, pulling it into the flow and shoving it to the hole that Mana knew to be Blue. It filled it perfectly, and the longing eased. Water was freed from its effort. Something precipitated out, falling to the land below. Mana’s attention had long returned to finding relief.